YALE UNIVERSITY LIBRARY THE LIFE AND LETTERS OF JOHN FISKE IN TWO VOLUMES VOLUME II ^^^^^^W^yv^ <^iA^\JV. THE LIFE AND LETTERS OF JOHN FISKE BY JOHN SPENCER CLARK WITH ILLUSTRATIONS VOLUME II Disce ut semper victurus, vive ut eras moriturus BOSTON AND NEW YORK HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY (Cbs Bibetiiiiie jSre?'^ CamBriboe 1917 COPYRIGHT, 1917, BY ABBY M. FISKE ALL RIGHTS RESERVED Published December 1Q17 TO ABBY MORGAN FISKE THE WIFE OF JOHN FISKE AND THE INSPIRER OF MUCH THAT IS FINEST IN HIS WRITINGS THIS WORK IS DEDICATED CONTENTS XX. Publication of "Cosmic Philosophy" — Crisis in Philosophic Thought — Advances in Science — New Demands on Philosophy — Spencer pro pounds THE Doctrine of Evolution — Fiske's Interpretation of the Doctrine — Makes an Im portant Contribution to it — Adds Four Impor tant Corollaries (1874) i XXI. Effect of the Discussion upon the Mind of Fiske — Leads to Great Composure of Thought in View ing Human Life in its Sociological, Political, and Religious Aspects — How the "Cosmic Philos ophy" was received — Hostile Criticisms — Let ters FROM Spencer and Darwin (1874) .... 49 XXII. Growing Reputation — Resumes Work in Har vard Library — Reconstruction of Library Building — Practical Problems — Catalogue of Sumner's Library — Highly Complimented — Out of Place in the Library — American History a Subject for Exposition — Consults Friends — Re signs from Harvard Library (1874-1879) ... 62 XXIII. Death of Fiske's Grandmother — Domestic Life — Death of Mrs. Martha Brooks — New Home, 22 Berkeley Street, Cambridge — Musical Prac tice — Visit of Professor and Mrs. Huxley — Petersham in Winter — Mr. and Mrs. Stoughton at St. Petersburg — Death of Two Friends — Two Notable Essays (1874-1879) 74 XXIV. Begins his Historic Work — Gives Six Lectures on American History in Old South Church, Bos ton — Marked Success — To repeat Lectures in London — Greetings on reaching London — Great Success with his Lectures — Notable So cial Courtesies — Excursions with Spencer and vii Contents Holt — Plans Course of Lectures for Royal Institution — Gives a Notable Punch Party — Elected Overseer at Harvard College (1879) . 105 XXV. First Lecture Programme — Personal Appear ance — Lecture Campaign in Maine — Syllabus for Lectures at Royal Institution — Lectures during Season of i 879-1 880 — Invitation from Royal Institution — Prepares his Lectores — Sails with Mrs. Fiske for England — Letter to Rev. E. B. Willson giving an Account of this Remarkable Journey — Returned Home July 27, 1880 (1879-1880) J, XXVI . Domestic Life in Petersham — Controversy with Dr. William James — Essays — Lecturing Ex periences—Visits St. Louis, Mh-waukee, In dianapolis, Cornell University — Received with Great Interest — Special Historical Lec tures AT Old South Church — Prepares Three Articles on Great Britain for Cyclopaedia of Political Science — Short History of American People dawning in his Mind —Agrees to Pre pare a Short History for Harper and Brothers (1880-1881) igo XXVII. Death of Edwin W. Stoughton — The Stough ton Home in New York — Captain John Erics son AND the Gold Model of the Monitor — Gen eral Sheridan and his Historic Flag — Death of Darwin — Spencer's Visit to America — Vis its Fiske — Spencer's Personality — Visits the Home and the Grave of Emerson — The Spen cer Dinner in New York (1882) . . . .228 XXVIII. Fourth Visit to London — Falls ill and con sults Spencer's Doctor — Walks about Dick ens's London — At his Old Quarters, 67 Great Russell Street — Facilities at British Museum — Courtesies by Sime, Huxley, and Spencer — Severe Illness at Trubner's — Dines with Ral ston at Billingsgate Fish Market — Sails for Home — Resumes Work on his History — Har- viii Contents VARD College and the Degree of LL.D. for Gov ernor Butler — Publication of "Excursions of an Evolutionist" (1883-1884) 266 XXIX. The Two Concord Addresses — "The Destiny of Man" — "The Idea of God" (1884-1885) . . 307 XXX. Publication of Lectures on American Political Ideas — Scope of Fiske's History greatly En larged — Public Interest in his Lectures Great Help in their Composition — A Lecture Campaign — Lectures on Critical Period — Mil itary Campaigns of Civil War — Physical Breakdown — Assistant Editor of Appleton's Cyclopedia of Biography (1885-1886) . . . 337 XXXI. Historic Reflections — Various Lectures — Visits Pacific Coast — Wonderful Ride across THE Plains and over the Mountains — Colum bia River — Impressions of Oregon — Lectures AT Portland — Ride to San Francisco — Gen eral Joseph E. Johnston — Yosemite and Mari posa Grove — Salt Lake City — Impressions of Pacific Coast Visit (1887) 354 XXXII. Conception of Nationality of United States greatly Enlarged — Importance of Aboriginal America — Various Lectures and Addresses — Correspondence with Horace Howard Furness — Bacon and Shakespeare Folly — James Mar tineau — Memorial to the Victims of the Bos ton Massacre — Publication of Volume on Critical Period — Perplexities over his Great Task — Relieved by his Publishers (1887-1888) 378 XXXIII. New Conditions and their Effect — Activities OF A Threefold Nature — Publication of "The American Revolution" and "The Beginnings OF New England" — Letters from Freeman — "Civil Government in the United States" — Composition of "The Discovery of America" — Salient Features of the Work — Its Publi cation and Reception (1889-1891) . . . .399 ix Contents XXXIV. Life of Youmans — Centennial of the Dis covery OF the Columbia River — Celebration at Astoria — Visit to Alaska — Celebration of Four Hundredth Anniversary of the Discovery OF America — Critical Articles on Freeman and Parkman as Historians — Honors from Univer sity OF Pennsylvania and from Harvard — School History of the United States — Mes sage from Tennyson (i 892-1 894) .... 438 XXXV. Resumes Work on Historic Scheme — Compre hensive Nature of Scheme — Philosophic Unity underlying it — Sequential Order of its Parts — Civil War Lectures — Reflections on United States History — Fiske's Tribute to Parkman applied to Himself (1895) 455 XXXVI. Incidental Literary Work: "A Century of Science and Other Essays" — "Essays, His torical AND Literary" — "The Story of a New England Town" — Philosophico-Religious Es says — Emerson, Fiske, Spencer, Darwin (1895- 1900) 469 XXXVII. Lectures at Lowell Institute — Preparing New Home on Brattle Street — Planning Details of United States Section of his His toric Scheme — To take Part in the King Alfred Celebration at Winchester, England — Outline of Proposed Address — Trip to Gloucester for Fresh Sea Air — Death at Gloucester — Burial at Petersham (1901) . . 484 INDEX 507 ILLUSTRATIONS John Fiske Photogravure Frontispiece From a photograph taken in i8g7 "Professor John Fiske flies the Evolution Kite in America" 56 From a cartoon in the New York Daily Graphic for September 12, 1874 Gore Hall, Harvard University Library .... 64 James W. Brooks 76 22 Berkeley Street 80 John Knowles Paine 84 Sketch by Huxley in the Petersham Guest-Book, August, 1876 90 The Library at 22 Berkeley Street 94 Facsimile of Cranch's Sonnets "In a Library" . . 96 Mrs. Fiske in 1880 172 York Minster 184 The Four Sons of John Fiske 246 90 Brattle Street 266 The Brooks House, Petersham 308 The birthplace of Mrs. John Fiske, the daughter of Aaron Broolcs, Jr., an eminent lawyer and one of the leading citizens of Petersham, Massachusetts. For three generations the town of Petersham owed much of its prosperity to members of the Brooks family, who were extensive landowners and public- spirited men. Approximately two thousand acres of the estate of the late James W. Brooks now constitute the outdoor laboratory of the Harvard School of Forestry. The illustration shows the horaestead in its latter-day dress. View from the Rear Piazza of the Brooks House . 308 The Apple-Tree mentioned in the Dedication to "The Idea of God" 334 Maud Fiske (Mrs. Grover Flint) 406 Ethel Fiske (Mrs. Otis D. Fisk) 406 The Library at 90 Brattle Street 486 The John Fiske Monument, Petersham 506 The illustrations for this book ivere selected under the supervision of Mrs. John Fiske THE LIFE AND LETTERS OF JOHN FISKE VOLUME II THE LIFE AND LETTERS OF JOHN FISKE CHAPTER XX THE PUBLICATION OF " COSMIC PHILOSOPHY" — ADVANCES IN SCIENCE — NEW DEMANDS ON PHIL OSOPHY — HERBERT SPENCER PROPOUNDS THE DOCTRINE OF EVOLUTION — FISKE* S INTERPRETA TION OF THE DOCTRINE — MAKES AN IMPORTANT CONTRIBUTION TO THE DOCTRINE — ADDS FOUR IM PORTANT COROLLARIES TO SPENCER's ARGUMENT 1874 Fiske's home-coming to Cambridge and the greet ing of his children were cheering to his heart. Again united with his family, his joy was unconfined; and in this moment of gratulation the incidents of his memorable journey were quite obliterated from his mind. But he was soon at his work in the Harvard Library. In September a duplicate set of the plates of his work was received from England by his Ameri can publishers, James R. Osgood & Co., and in Octo ber the work was published simultaneously in the United States and in England under the title of "Outlines of Cosmic Philosophy, based on the Doc trine of Evolution, with Criticisms of the Positive Philosophy." John Fiske The work bore the following felicitous and alto gether appropriate dedication: — to GEORGE LITCH ROBERTS, M.A. IN REMEMBRANCE OF THE golden days WHEN, WITH GENEROUS AIMS IN COMMON, WE STUDIED philosophy TOGETHER, AND IN CONSECRATION OF THE LIFE-LONG FRIENDSHIP which has BEEN AN UNFAILING SOURCE OF JOY AND STRENGTH TO US BOTH, I DEDICATE THIS BOOK. It should be said that the book made no claim to be the presentation of a system of philosophy devised by Fiske: rather it was presented as an ap- I preciation or an interpretation of the philosophic j system outlined and partially worked out by Her- i bert Spencer, to which Fiske had made some impor- ! tant contributions in the way of showing the rela- i tionship of Spencer's system to other systems, as well as in strengthening its applications to man's social well-being and his religious faith. In other words, the work was a fuller presentation of the social and religious implications of the doctrine of Evolution, than had hitherto been made. A philosophic work, produced under such auspices as we have seen attending this, must perforce trav erse, in the light of the scientific advances of the middle period of the nineteenth century, the three fundamental problems of all philosophy: the Cosmic Universe, its origin, sustentation, and meaning; Man, his origin, his possession of intellectual, moral, and religious consciousness and his destiny; and the 2 "Cosmic Philosophy" Published Inscrutable Power that lies back of, or is enshrouded in, the phenomena of the physical cosmos and of human life as their ultimate cause or reality — prob lems of three distinct yet interrelated orders of co existences, which it has been the aim of philosophic thinkers of all ages to bring into order and unity: into harmony, within the compass of the human mind. And now the question arises, What were the dis tinguishing points regarding these three funda mental problems in the philosophic system offered by Spencer, and which were given an appreciative interpretation by Fiske in his " Cosmic Philosophy." Before attempting a definite answer to this ques tion, it is essential that we get clearly before us the nature of the philosophic crisis that then existed by reason of the impinging upon the system of theo- logico-philosophic thought which then prevailed, of three lines of cosmic truth relating to the phys ical universe, to the organic life of the terrestrial world, and to psychologic and sociologic man which had been established through science; together with the results of a century of profound and reverent critical study of the Bible as a Divine revelation to man. Speaking broadly, it can be said that down to the middle period of the last century. Christian theol ogy formed largely the intellectual framework or background for pretty much all the philosophico- religious thinking throughout Christendom, on the 3 John Fiske three fundamental problems of philosophy, notwith standing the various sects, or creeds, or churches into which believers in the Christian religion were divided. Christian theology, in its distinctly orthodox, dog matic form, we had under consideration when deal ing with Fiske's change of religious views in 1859. A reexamination of this theologic scheme,^ for the purpose of abstracting its philosophic content, shows that it claimed to give a definite and positive answer to the three fundamental problems of phil osophy, in a series of related Divine truths trans cending experiential knowledge: truths which had been divinely revealed to man by the Creator of the universe and of man, and which must be ac cepted as ultimate answers to all questions of phil osophy. Such being its claims, we have first to ask what of the truth of this theologico-philosophic system itself — its origin and verification? *"--^" Candor compels the admission that it had its origin and development into a related and appar ently consistent body of thought under conditions of intellectual, moral, and spiritual culture widely different from what prevailed during the nineteenth century. In fact, the statement will not be ques tioned that all its affirmations regarding the per sonality of a Divine Creator, the origin of the cosmic universe and its sustentation, as well as in regard » See ante, vol. i, p. 109. 4 A Philosophic Crisis to man, his origin, his endowment with rational con sciousness, his fall, his redemption, and his destiny, were all formulated when the human mind was obsessed by beliefs in supernatural agencies and occurrences; and long before anything like a criti cal or scientific observation or study of cosmic phe nomena or of human life existed. And if we inquire more particularly, and limit our inquiries to modern times, we see, during the fifteenth century, the emergence of this theologico- philosophic system from a long period of Euro pean ignorance and superstition, with its positive, dogmatic affirmations regarding God, the cosmic universe, and man, substantially as they existed in the orthodox theologic creeds of half a century ago. Pursuing our inquiries still further, we find that during the intervening centuries this system has been constantly on the defensive against the steady advances of science ^- man's rational inquiry into the nature of his cosmic environiiient and of his own existence — and that it has been enabled to maintain itself against these advances only by slight concessions here and there; and on vital points ap pealing to implicit faith in its unverified dogmas as against reason in science; affirming, with ever- increasing emphasis, that ultimate truth regarding the cosmic universe and man was to be found in its divinely revealed message from God the Creator, rather than in man's experiential cosmic knowledge. 5 John Fiske And this controversy remained substantially of this import down to the middle period of the last century, when the advances in the astronomical, the physical, the biological, and the sociological sciences, with their positive verifications, not only upset some of the fundamental dogmas of theology, but also yielded immensely enlarged conceptions of the cosmic universe and man's place in it, as well as nobler conceptions of the Divine Creator, the Source and Sustainer of all things, than were given by theology. Let us consider the presentation of ultimate truths regarding the cosmic universe, man with his rational mind and the inscrutable Power that lies back of all cosmic phenomena as Source and Sustainer, by the two respective sides to this controversy. And first, as to the cosmic universe as presented by theology. Here its creation, structure, duration in time, and method of sustentation were all pre sented in the most positive manner. It was fiatis- tically created in a few days by a jjersonal Creator and within a period of time comparatively recent.^ In structure it was given a geocentric character; ' Cowper in his poem The Task, naively reflected, in the following lines, the theologico-philosophic view of creation and its date, as well as the general contempt for geologic science: — "Some drill and bore The solid earth, and from the strata there Extract a register, by which we learn That He who made it and revealed its date To Moses, was mistaken in its age." I have before me a recent Oxford edition of the Bible specially 6 Advances in Science that is, the earth was made the centre of all things and around it the sun, the moon, and the stars were made to revolve as tributary thereto. And then all the activities, the ever-changing phenom ena of this circumscribed geocentric universe were presented as the direct personal acts of its Creator and as evidences of His persistent watchful care over it. In truth, the daily sustentation of this fiat- istically created universe was presented as without established principles of order and of law, and as dependent upon the personal superintendence and good- will of its Creator. If, now, we turn to the series of related cosmic truths revealed by science, we have the verified evidence of the existence of a cosmic universe widely different in character from that presented by theology. In the first place, there was revealed the existence of a distinctly knowable solar sys tem, heliocentric, insteadof geocentric, in structure, and in which the earth held a very subordinate place. Then, beyond this solar system, extending through space inconceivable in its vastness, there was revealed the existence of millions upon millions of giant stars, great blazing suns, many larger than our own sun, and each presumably the centre of a solar system like that to which our earth belongs; together with the fact that our solar system, as well prepared for Sunday-School teachers, in which the date of the crea tion of the earth and heaven and man is given as 4004 years before Christ. John Fiske as these millions of blazing suns, had existed for a period of time inconceivable in its duration. And further, there was revealed a still more sublime truth: the fact that these millions of blazing suns with their attendant planets were "all interrelated, were ever in motion through space, ever in a proc ess of development from a simpler to a more com plex or higher form of phenomenal existence; and that in all their movements and transformations they were held in order and unity by the operation of immutable cosmic law. And thus, in the middle period of the last cen tury, there stood revealed through science a uni verse which, in its structure, its duration, its mode of sustentation, presented to the human mind vir tually a nfew heavens and a new earth — a universe of variety, order, and unity so far transcending in vastness and sublimity the crude, childish universe of theology as to leave no comparison between them.^ And then, as to man. Theology affirmed that * One has only to survey the steady development of the astro nomic, the geologic, the physical, the chemical sciences from the period of Copernicus and Galileo in the sixteenth century, when the stellar universe was opened to man's experiential inquiry, down to the middle period of the last century, to note the steady progress of the human mind in bringing the physical phenomena of the cosmic universe into order and unity under the operation of immutable law. And three great discoveries stand out conspicuously in this pro gressive development of cosmic knowledge. First, the discovery by Newton, in 1685, of the law of gravitation; the cosmic truth that every particle of matter in the universe attracts every other particle, with a force proportionate directly to their masses, and inversely to their distances apart. Second, the discovery by Lavoisier, in 1789, of 8 Theology and Science man — the human race — originated with Adam and Eve, two human beings who were fiatistically created by the Divine Creator, contemporaneously with the creation of the geocentric universe, some six thousand years ago; and that in their creation they were endowed with full intellectual, moral, and spiritual consciousness. It also affirmed that the Divine Creator prepared for them a garden wherein to dwell, and in which He revealed Him self to them and conversed with them ; that in this garden He planted a certain tree, the fruit whereof He forbade them to eat. Theology further affirmed as Divine truth that Adam and Eve disobeyed this command, and did eat of the fruit of this tree; whereupon the Divine Creator was very wroth ; and He changed, debased, their natures, and expelled them from the garden, and condemned them and their posterity to an earthly life of toil, sin, sorrow, the indestructibility of matter; the cosmic truth that while the mat ter composing the material universe is ever in a process of change or transformation, no atom is ever lost or destroyed. Third, the dis covery, in the period between 1840 and i860, by a group of German and English physicists, of the conservation of energy; the cosmic truth that the amount of energy in the cosmic universe is a fixed quantity, which is never increased or dirainished; that this energy is convertible into various forms of force, which forces are convertible into one another, and that in these transformations there is no loss or increase of the primal energy itself. Thus it was seen that the cosmic universe was composed of two limited and indestructible ele ments, raatter and energy, and that these two elements were inter related in a persistent process of cosmic development. It is upon the irarautable character of these three discoveries in cosmic phenomena that the physical and cheraical sciences, with their constant additions to the enlargeraent and ennoblement of human life, have their impregnable foundation. John Fiske suffering, and death; and to a still greater punish ment in an eternal life beyond. Thus, as Divine truth, theology affirmed the fall of man: that through the primal disobedience of Adam and Eve did want and sin and suffering and a fearful eternal doom befall the human race. As against this terrible punishment for inherited sin, theology brought a partial relief: it affirmed that the Divine Creator, in His great mercy for man, had provided a means of escape through a scheme of atonement or redemption by the sacrifice of His son, Jesus Christ; which sacrifice had been carried out, and which served as a perfect release from condemnation for the original sin of Adam and Eve to all who would accept it: that is, to all who would accept Christ as their Saviour and Redeemer, and would follow his teachings in their conduct to wards the Divine Creator and towards their brother men. The details of this scheme of atonement we have already seen.^ As a means of relief to man it came as complementary to the affirmation of his fall and his condemnation. How powerfully these two affirmations — man's fall and Christ's atoning sac rifice — have affected the human mind for the past nineteen centuries is reflected in the arts, the sciences, the institutions, the religions, and the philosophies of Christendom. Christian literature abounds with able and ingenious expositions, de- * See ante, vol. i, p. 91. 10 Theology and Science fences, and attempts to verify this vital humanistic portion of Christian theology; and although these efforts have fared badly in the court of reason, as against the cosmic truths regarding man verified by science, they could not be thoroughly discred ited until some other and more rational manner for the causal origin of man and his endowment with intellectual, moral, and spiritual conscious ness had been established. If, now, regarding the origin of man with his rational mind, we turn to the revelations of science down to the middle period of the last century, we find a very different story from that told by theol ogy. As we acquaint ourselves with the researches of the palseontologic, biologic, psychologic, and sociologic sciences, we see the accumulation of a vast body of harmonious evidence, all affirming the development through vast expanses of time of man's physical organism from an animal ancestry;^ while in regard to his rational mind, the evidence was equally clear that it had been developed out of the egoistic and nascent socialistic feelings or pro pensities of his animal progenitors ; and that in the struggle for existence against environing conditions during the progress from brute to primitive man, these inherited animal feelings or propensities had been developed into psychical powers of a more or less rational, and with a tinge of moral, character. From primitive man to civilized man, the develop ment of intellectual, moral, and spiritual conscious- II John Fiske ness, pari passu with the development of the human physical organism through contact with environing cosmic conditions, was clearly shown by archseologic remains, by historic records, and by contemporary anthropologic researches.^ Thus civilized man, with his physiologic, his psychologic, and his sociologic characteristics all In harmony, stood revealed as possessing a rightful heritage in the new heavens and the new earth of science, their fitting inhabitant. More important still, in the court of reason, he was forever freed from the awful doom of theology, and given a pro- gressive development in intellectual, moral, and spiritual consciousness, the full import of which the human mind could not conceive, much less measure. I And now, as to the Ultimate Cause, the Power 1 back of all cosmic phenomena and of human con- \ sciousness, which must be posited as a causal basis » These wide and varied researches culminated in 1859 in the pro found discovery by Charles Darwin of the cosmic truth that by a ¦^^ process of natural selection — that is, through the interrelated work- ' ing of the cosmic elements during vast periods of time — there had been differentiated and developed from some simple form of life the infinite variety of organic life with which the terrestrial world had been filled; and it was seen that this cosmic truth applied to the origin and development of man as well as to all other forms of life. In fact, the great antiquity of primitive man was distinctly affirmed by palseontologic and palaeolithic discoveries. Also, the geolc^c, the biologic, the psychologic sciences all affirmed that, as compared with the animals immediately below him in the organic scale, primitive man was identical with them in the physical processes of his on gin, in his embryonic development, in his mode of nutrition before and after birth; while in his adult state he exhibited a marvellous likeness to them in his physical organization, as weU as in his psychi cal powers. 12 Theology and Science for rational thinking on these profound questions. Here, theology, basing its affirmations wholly on the Bible as comprising a body of divinely revealed truth, positively affirmed the existence of a Divine Creator, to whom was given distinctly human char acteristics or limitations. He was presented as the prototype of man — man being created in His image and His manner of creating the universe and man was after man's ways of willing and doing things. And then. His work was so imperfect in its nature as to need His constant personal supervision, with much mending or adjusting to keep it in order. In short, the God of Christian theology was presented as a distinctly anthropomorphic Being; and the work of His hand — the geocentric universe and fallen man — reflected, in its limitations, its want of order, unity, and harmony, His anthropomorphic character. On the other hand, science, or organized human experience, confessing the subjective origin and con ditioned development of the human mind, frankly admitted its impotence to affirm anything positive '• transcending experience. It saw in the phenomena of the cosmic universe — " Boundless inward toward the atom, Boundless outward toward the stars," — the exhibition of Infinite intelligence, wisdom, and power, the ultimate sources and nature of which it could not comprehend. It saw, in the phenomena of mind, ranging through the whole animal kingdom 13 ^ John Fiske and finding its culmination in man's arts, sciences, institutions, conduct, and ideals, a vast display of consciousness the ultimate source and nature of which were alike incomprehensible. And of these two orders of phenomena it could only affirm that they appeared to be persistent, to be harmoniously interrelated, and to be forever developing into more complex and higher forms of phenomenal manifes tation, in conformity to immutable cosmic law. In the presence of this vast, orderly display of per sistent, interrelated physical and psychical phenom- mena, science could only reverently postulate, as Source and Sustainer of it all, an Infinite Eternal Power from which all things proceed: an Omnis cient, Omnipresent, Omnipotent Reality, transcend ing, in the nature of its existence, the comprehen sion of the conditioned, finite, human mind. And one point more. Contemporaneously with the establishment through science of the funda mental cosmic truths we have been considering, there came the result of a century of reverent in quiry into the truth of the theologic affirmation that the Bible was a special Divine revelation from the Divine Creator to man, and hence that it was the embodiment of ultimate truth regarding the cosmic universe and man; and as such transcended all other knowledge — all knowledge derived from experience. In this inquiry the various books of the Bible were subjected to the ripest critical learning of the 14 Biblical Criticism time: as to their authorship ajid dates of com position; the accuracy of their texts and transla tions; their mythical and philological characteristics and relationships; their cosmological, biological, and physical affirmations; their diversities and their uni ties, and how they had been preserved, selected, and collated so as to form a body of ultimate Divine truth. This was, of course, subjecting the Bible to the same kind of impartial criticism that was given to the sacred books of all other religions as well as to all the literary remains of antiquity. Much con trariety of opinion was brought forth on various points by the inquiry. The rational conclusion de rived from it was adverse to the affirmations of the ology. This conclusion was to the effect that the Bible was no special revelation from the Divine Creator to man; rather, that it was simply a collec tion of sociologlco-rellglous literature which re flected with great clearness the life of a primitive, tribal people, surrounded by powerful and more cultured enemies from whom they learned much; a people, ignorant and superstitious, yet gifted with an exceptional degree of ethical and religious feeling, who, in their struggles against their physical and their political environments through an indefinite period of time, slowly advanced along a normal line of intellectual, moral, and spiritual develop ment, which had its culmination in the ethical and religious teachings of Christ and his apostles. In 15 John Fiske short, that the Bible was but one among several collections of sacred writings, all encrusted with error and superstition, and all attesting to the in herence In the human mind of ethical and religious ideas which had their development in conformity to environing physical and political conditions.^ With this invalidation of the theologic dogma that the Bible was a special Divine revelation, and, as such, was the basis of all ultimate truth, the theologic dogmas of the existence of a personal, an thropomorphic God, of His method of creating and sustaining a geocentric universe, of His creation of man and man's fall, condemnation, and redemp tion, were all left without any verifiable founda tion — were, in fact, also invalidated. And thus, in the middle period of the last century, there came a profound crisis in human thinking; a crisis wherein, on the one side, it appeared that the claims of theology for the ultimate truth of its * As evidence on this point we have only to refer to the memorable contests that followed the publication, in i860, of "Essays and Reviews," a work written by seven distinguished English church men, holding influential positions in the English universities and pub lic schools; and the publication in 1862 of a work by Bishop Colenso on " The Pentateuch and the Book of Joshua critically examined." Both these works were written in a reverent spirit, smd were very moderate in their claims for a rational interpretation of the Bible in the Hght of raodern knowledge. Both were ^^olently attacked by the theologians as undermining all religious truth. The wide discussion that followed brought under review the whole question of dogma vs. the verified cosmic truths of science, and revealed the inherent weakness of theology in claiming for the Bible a special Divine in spiration and for its affirmations, regarding the cosmic universe and man, ultimate truths transcending all other knowledge. 16 New Demands on Philosophy fundamental dogmas were without verifiable foun dations. While on the other side there was presented a series of cosmic truths fully verified in human experience — truths which yielded conceptions of the cosmic universe, its origin, its vastness, its sus tentation ; of man, his origin, his conscious endow ment, his destiny, as well as of the Infinite Eternal Power from whom all things proceed — far nobler than was presented by Christian theology, or any philosophy based on that theology. Hence, in i860, following the publication of Dar win's " Origin of Species," there came a demand for a new philosophy, one which should recognize the verified truths of modern science as transcend ing the affirmations of dogmatic theology; which should endeavor to bring the ever-developing phys ical phenomena of the cosmic universe Into har mony with the ever-developing psychical phenom ena of conscious mind ; and which should present both orders of phenomena as interrelated and as reflecting, in their interrelatedness, the existence of an underlying Reality or Ground as the Source from which all things proceed — in short, a phil osophy which should present as its fundamental truth an objective Divine Reality, which in the form of its existence transcends the comprehension of the subjective human mind. To Herbert Spencer this demand for a philosophy of the cosmic universe based upon the verified rev elations of science — a philosophy which should 17 John Fiske bring the whole universe with man's place in it into order and unity with its source and sustaining power — made a strong appeal. Spencer possessed an unsurpassed knowledge of the acquisitions of science, and he weis one of the profoundest thinkers of his time. Then, too, he was singularly independent in his thought. He would not accept any important proposition without due verification. His fundamental conception of the cosmic universe was that of a unity held in order by immutable law. Much brooding over cosmic phenomena had led him to question the universal belief that these phenomena were special creations. At the same time there was generated in his mind the conviction that the cosmic universe in all its parts was the outcome of a process of development, and that this process was still going on. Notwithstanding that science was daily bringing forth facts discrediting the theory of special crea tions and confirming the theory of development, ' Spencer was baffled in applying the theory to the phenomena of organic life. In this department of science — biology — the theory of special creations was thoroughly entrenched with the support of phil osophy and religion. While Spencer had collected a mass of evidence tending to support the theory of development throughout the organic world, he was yet without a natural vera causa which would answer for a positive scientific explanation of the origin of the infinite varieties of species in the floral and i8 The Doctrine of Evolution faunal kingdoms and their geographical distribu tion. He was mulling over this profound subject < in 1859, when Darwin brought forth his immortal work on "The Origin of Species by Natural Selec- i tion." This work gave Spencer just the help he needed to round out his theory of development, or of Evolution, to the whole of cosmic phenomena. How Influential Darwin's work was in bringing Spencer's evolutionary thought to focus we cannot say. We know that he welcomed Darwin's views as most significant and as giving him important data for the application of his theory of Evolution to the organic world; and that four months after the publication of the "Origin of Species" — March, i860 — Spencer announced his purpose of engaging in the preparation of a system of philosophy based on the doctrine of Evolution, the scope and aim of which he set forth with much detail. This announcement was publicly welcomed by over fifty of the leading scientists and philosophic thinkers of Great Britain, among whom were John Stuart Mill, George Grote, Charles Darwin, Charles Kingsley, Thomas Huxley, Sir Charles Lyell, Sir J. D. Hooker, G. H. Lewes, John Tyndall, W. B. Carpenter, Augustus De Morgan, J. D. Morell, R. W. Mackay, David Masson, Alexander Bain, Thomas Graham, Sir John Herschel. Thus we are brought directly to the consideration of Spencer's doctrine of Evolution which has had such a mighty influence upon all subsequent think- 19 John Fiske ing, and to the interpretation of which, in its bear ing upon the spiritual well-being of man, Fiske gave the better portion of his life. And now, what were the distinctive character istics of Spencer's projected philosophic undertak ing so significantly encouraged by representatives of the highest scientific and philosophic thought of the time? Briefly summarized, its chief points were as follows: — I. An Infinite Unknowable. Spencer postulated the existence of an Infinite Unknowable Power as the Source and Sustainer of all things, the nature and form of whose existence transcends the comprehension of the human mind. ' The existence of^ such an Infinite Power he found an Inexpugnable dictum of consciousness, without which there could be no causal basis for rational thinking, for the human mind cannot rest its fun damentals of thought upon a negation. II, The cosmic universe a revelation qf an Infinite Unknowable Power. Spencer accepted the cosmic universe, with its multiform phenomena — including man with his rational mind — as a positive revelation of an In finite Power from whom all things proceed, a revela tion which it Is the highest duty of man reverentially to study in the light of his experiential knowledge and his rational consciousness. The greater man's knowledge of the nature, unity, and relativity of cosmic phenomena, pari passu the higher his con ception of the Infinite Power, the Source and Sus- 20 The Doctrine of Evolution tainer of the cosmic universe, as well as his concep tion of the meaning and purpose of human life. III. The knowledge of the cosmic universe that had heen established through science. Through the investigations of science the phe- mena of the cosmic universe had been mapped out into five divisions of phenomenal manifestations more or less interrelated: — I. Astronomy: the phenomena of the stellar and planetary systems. 2. Geology: the phenomena of the terrestrial world. 3. Biology: the phenomena of living organisms. 4. Psychology : the phenomena of adjusting organic life to environing conditions. 5. Sociology : the phenomena arising from so cial aggregation. Scientific analyses of the varied phenomena of these five divisions revealed certain cosmic truths as well as some profound mysteries : that notwithstand ing the infinite variety of forms in which these phe nomenal manifestations appear, they all had their base In, and were conditioned by, matter and mo tion; that through the constant redistribution and integration of matter and motion they were ever in a process of transformation into more complex forms of phenomenal manifestations, many of which are wholly inexplicable. It was also revealed that matter was indestructible; that motion was contin uous; and that the intrinsic natures of both were unknown; while there was brought to light a truth of still greater significance: that matter and motion 21 John Fiske in all their redistributions and integratiois were conditioned by an underlying unknown force or energy which eternally persists throughout the cos mos, and is never increased or diminished. Thus Spencer found that the human mind, in its searchings of the phenomena of the cosmic uni verse for their ultimate reality, was brought face to face with several insoluble mysteries for which it could find no solution whatsoever: a condition of things which confirmed the inexpugnable dictum of rational consciousness, that the cosmic universe was In its totality and its sustentation a revelation of an order of Being transcending the comprehen sion of the human mind. IV. The truths of the cosmic universe yielded hy science implied the existence of a further truth of great importance to man. From his wide survey of cosmic phenomena^ as presented by science, Spencer felt that man was far from possessing all that is to be known of the mani festations of the Infinite Unknowable in the phe nomena of the cosmic universe. He saw that man's present knowledge of these phenomena was greatly limited — was principally confined to them in their disparateness. But in his mind there was shaping the Idea that the cosmic universe was a related unity, and that these five divisions of its phenom ena were its components. Hence he was feeling his way to the logical conclusion, that underlying all the varied phenomena of these components there must be some common dynamic principle which was holding them all In order and unity as a con sistently rounded whole, while each was undergo- 22 The Doctrine of Evolution ing a ceaseless change or development. The dis covery of this principle appeared to Spencer as the highest quest of scientific research, and its es tablishment could not fail to throw much needed light upon the problems which exist in the relations between inorganic and organic phenomena, as well as In the relations between organic phenomena and psychical phenomena. In short, in Spencer's mind, to have positive knowledge of a cosmic principle underlying all cosmic phenomena, and which uni fies them into a cosmic universe as an interrelated whole, would not only add Immensely to man's knowledge of the cosmic universe and his own place in it, but would also greatly heighten his concep tion of the Infinite Unknowable Power, the Source and Sustainer of it all. V. Spencer propounded a law of universal cosmic evolution which he set out to verify in the five divisions of cosmic phenomena. In the widest survey of cosmic phenomena as revealed by analytic science, Spencer found two knowable factors common to them all, and with out which none of the phenomena of the cosmos as we know them could exist: these were matter and motion. Having found, further, "that absolute rest and permanence do not exist within the cosmic universe, that every object, no less than the aggre gate of all objects, undergoes from instant to Instant some alteration of state, that gradually or quickly it is receiving motion or losing motion, while some or all of its parts are simultaneously changing their relations to one another," he was led to the conclu sion that the principle he was seeking, a prlncl- 23 John Fiske pie which would express the truth regarding these universal, ever-changing phenomenal activities and relations, must be found in the continuous redis tribution and integration of matter and motion. Accordingly Spencer hypothesized the existence of a dynamic law of cosmic evolution answering to these conditions, and this law he formulated in the following very abstract terms: — "Evolution is an integration of matter and con comitant dissipation of motion during which the matter passes from a relatively indefinite, incoher ent homogeneity to a relatively definite, coherent heterogeneity, and during which the retained mo tion undergoes a parallel transformation." It was to the task of seeking a verification of this abstract law in the concrete sciences of biology, psychology, and sociology that Spencer gave him self in i860, in the announcement above referred to. This is not the place to discuss Spencer and his philosophy. We are too near him to appreciate the full significance of his life-work. His conception of the cosmic universe as a unity, with its phenomena ever in a process of development or transformation into more complex or higher forms of phenome nal existences, — the whole a manifestation of an Infinite Unknowable Power whose form of exist ence transcended the comprehension of the human mind, — was too sublime a conception to be read ily grasped by the mind untrained in science. While his hypothesis of a law of Evolution, whereby all the 24 Spencer's Work Completed varied phenomena of the cosmic universe were held in order and unity while undergoing their ceaseless transformations, was so opposed to the universally accepted doctrine of special Divine creations as to be regarded, even in some scientific quarters, as the height of speculative absurdity. Nevertheless, as he proceeded in the development of his thought through his analyses of the phenomena of the or ganic sciences, it became evident that a thinker of no ordinary capacity had come ; a thinker who was finding the sources of truth not so much In the Bibles and dogmas of primitive peoples, as in the reverent study of the cosmic universe with man's place in it, in the light of modern knowledge. Spencer lived to see the completion of his great undertaking substantially as planned. It. was com pleted in 1896.^ In the psychological and sociolog ical sciences particularly the Influence of Spencer's Evolutionary thought has been immense. Whether his formula of the law of Evolution is complete, whether or not it expresses all the truths involved, particularly in regard to psychical phenomena, may be open to question; but that there Is a law of Evo lution at the bottom of things, a law which holds the varied phenomena of the cosmic universe in order and unity, while ever in a process of devel- * See the congratulatory letter sent to Spencer on the com pletion of his philosophy and asking him to sit for his portrait, signed by over eighty of the most distinguished scientists and thinkers of Great Britain. (David Duncan, LL.D., Life and Letters qf Herbert Spencer, p. 383.) 25 John Fiske opment into higher forms of manifestation, is no longer questioned by cultivated minds. And the whole tendency of modern science is towards the rev elation of further truth in this direction. Indeed, science is every day affirming, with ever-increasing emphasis, that the cosmos cannot be at war with itself. The day for belief in special creations has gone by; and that Herbert Spencer was the first to grasp a clear comprehension of the existence of an Evolutionary law universal throughout the cosmos, and that he gave the greater portion of his life to seeking its verification and to pointing out its significance in the interpretation of psychological and sociological phenomena, constitute his title to honor, and give him place among the few great thinkers of all time.^ From this survey of the rise of the great Evolu tionary movement in philosophy during the middle period of the last century, a survey which seemed necessary in order to get a clear conception of the seething condition of philosophic thought in the intellectual environment which surrounded Fiske during the years of his early manhood, and which, 1 It can be said that during the past hcdf-century the deepest. discussions in science, philosophy, religion, ethics, and sociology have centred around the twin propositions of cosmic unity and cos mic evolution, first coherently presented by Spencer in 1860-62. We are by no means at the end of these discussions — indeed, we are in' the midst of them to-day. And this fact is clerly apparent; that the acceptance of these twin propositions as fundamental cosmic truths is entering in very widely as a condition precedent to any rational study of cosmic phenomena in its inorganic, its organic, or its psychical divisions. 26 Broadening of His Thought as we have seen, profoundly affected his developing thought on the fundamental problems of philosophy, we return to our narrative: the consideration of the essential points in his "Cosmic Philosophy," his contribution to the great discussion then fully under way. First, however, let us note the direct connection of events in the life of Fiske between the issuing by Spencer of his programme of his philosophic undertaking in i860 and the publication by Fiske of his "Cosmic Philosophy" in 1874. It was Fiske's falling-in by chance with a copy of Spencer's programme in the Old Corner Book- Store of Ticknor & Fields, in Boston, in June, i860, that roused his interest in Spencer and the latter's great undertaking. How deeply Fiske was stirred, we have already seen in his letters of this period to his friend Roberts and to his mother.^ We have also seen how his interest, flowing from the strong Impulse thus started, deepened as Spencer went on unfolding his theory of Cosmic Evolution; how the acceptance of this theory broadened Fiske's thought In every direction; how, as an undergraduate, he was threatened with expulsion from Harvard College if found disseminating his Evolutionary views — misnamed Positivism — among the students; how he opened an interesting correspondence with Spen cer; how, a few years later, under a new administra tion at Harvard, he was called by President Eliot I Cf. ante, pp. 138, 139. 27 John Fiske to expound the theory of Evolution under the aus pices of the college; how in response to this call he delivered in Holden Chapel two memorable courses of lectures setting forth the fundamental principles of this theory with their philosophic implications; finally, we have seen him five months in London, revising these lectures for publication, the while in conference with Spencer, Darwin, Huxley ,Tyndall, Clifford, Lockyer, Lewes, and other leaders In the rapidly developing scientific thought of the time. Thus we have the history of the development of Fiske's "Cosmic Philosophy." While treating of Evolution, it was itself a productof Evolution. That it was based on Spencer's theory of Evolution as then outlined in his various essays and in his " First Principles," and partially elaborated in his "Biol ogy" and in his "Psychology," is without ques tion. The high esteem in which Fiske held Spencer, and the significance that he attached to Spencer's ideas, are indicated by the following extract taken from the chapter-in which he defines the law of Evolution: — " In an essay published thirteen years ago, youth ful enthusiasm led me to speak of Mr. Spencer's labours as comparable to those of NeAwton both in scope and importance. More mature reflection has confirmed this view, and suggests a further com parison between the mental qualities of the two thinkers; resembling each other as they do, alike in the audacity of speculation which propounds far-reaching hypotheses, and in the scientific so- 28 Interpreter of Evolution berness which patiently verifies them; while the astonishing mathematical genius peculiar to the one is paralleled by the equally unique power of psy chologic analysis displayed by the other. As in grandeur of conception and relative thoroughness of elaboration, so also in the vastness of its conse quences — in the extent of the revolution which it is destined to effect in men's modes of thinking, and in their views of the universe — Mr. Spencer's dis covery is on a par with Newton's. Indeed, by the time this treatise is concluded, we may perhaps see reasons for regarding it as in the latter respect, the superior of the two." But the work was far more than a re-presenta tion of Spencer's argument. In the development of his system Spencer had paid but little attention to preceding systems of philosophy. While in its comprehensiveness and its unity it transcended other systems, the light we have regarding its pro duction shows that it came from a wholly inde pendent line of investigation, accompanied with an indifference to the thought of others without a parallel in the history of philosophical thinking. Being based largely on the revelations of science, it was alleged by superficial critics to be but an offshoot from the philosophic vagaries of Auguste Comte; while by theologians it was regarded as the embodiment of atheistico-materialistic ideas, inasmuch as it did not recognize, as a sufficient Source and Sustainer of all things, the anthropo morphic God of Christian theology. Further than 29 John Fiske this, it was under the condemnation of the idealistic thinkers, to whom the positive revelations of sci ence as to the reality of the cosmic universe were of less significance than the results of unverified ontological speculation. Fiske set out with the very definite purpose, not only of presenting in clear light the funda mental points in Spencer's philosophy, but also of . showing Spencer's independence of, and opposition to, Comte; his emphatic repudiation of all atheis tico-materialistic ideas; and how in opposition to theologians and idealists he had presented the cos mic universe as an ever-developing, unified reality governed by immutable law, the knowable raani festation of an Infinite Power transcending, in the nature of His existence, the comprehension of the human mind. This portion of his task accora plished, Fiske went on to consider, in certain corol laries, what must be the influence of this Evolution ary philosophy upon the intellectual, moral, and \ spiritual development of the future. It should not be overlooked here that in his ex position of the evolution of humanity, Fiske raade an important contribution to the general Evolution doctrine, by pointing out the significance of the part played by infancy in the progress from brute to man. He was the first to call attention to infancy as a prime factor in bridging the great gulf which, on a superficial view, seemed to divide humanity irrevocably from the brute world ; and Spencer, as 30 An Important Contribution we have seen, gave a ready acknowledgment of the importance of the contribution. ^ His corollaries were four in number and they carried the Evolutionary argument into the higher realms of human thinking. They may be stated thus: — I. Theism; or the nature of Deity. II. Matter and spirit; or materialism vs. spirit ualism. III. Religion as affected by the doctrine of Evolu tion. IV. The philosophic implications of the doctrine of Evolution. The reverent spirit in which Fiske entered upon this phase of the discussion is indicated by the following passage from the Prophet Isaiah which prefaced this portion of his work : — " For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts." Only a brief exposition can here be given of the Evolutionary argument as developed in these corol laries. It has had great weight in shaping subse quent thought; and it underlies in one form or an other pretty much all current philosophic thinking. We will consider these corollaries in their order, and first: — ' Cf. ante, vol. i, p. 471 ; also Cosmic Philosophy, vol. 11, p. 360. ^ 31 John Fiske Theism; or the nature of Deity. Fiske regarded the problem of theism as the central or fundamen tal one in philosophy, inasmuch as the conclusions reached regarding the Ultimate Cause of all phe nomena must vitally affect the conclusions regard ing all other problems. Now, the doctrine of Evolution, as presented by Spencer and accepted by Fiske, distinctly affirmed the existence of Deity — of an Infinite Power of which the cosmic universe, with its multiform phe nomena ever in a process of transformation in con formity to immutable law, is a positive manifesta tion. The doctrine further affirmed that, owing to > the subjective, conditioned nature of the huraan mind, it was limited in knowledge to its experience with cosmic phenomena, and could never rise to a knowledge of what transcends phenomena — in other words, to a positive knowledge of the Infinite Power from which all things proceed. Fiske found this conception of Deity vigorously opposed by an anthropomorphic conception which affirmed a knowable, personal God who was en- -, dowed with human characteristics; and who, in creating and sustaining the cosmic universe, worked after man's ways of willing and doing things. The question before him for exposition, therefore, was not as to the existence of an Infinite Power, the Source and Sustainer of all things, for the exist ence of this Power was granted. But it became an inquiry which took this alternative form: Is this 32 The Nature of Deity Infinite Power a limited, personal God possessed of a quasi-human consciousness, from whose quasi- human volitions have originated the laws of the cosmic universe, and to whose quasi-human con trivances are due the manifold harmonies ob served In the universe? Or, Is this Infinite Power a Being, transcending in the nature of His existence the comprehension of the human mind, and of j whom the phenomena of the cosmic universe con stitute a knowable revelation? Fiske discussed the issue at much length under the titles of "Anthropomorphic Theism" and "Cosmic Theism." The discussion was carried on in fine philosophic temper and is marked by several passages of rare beauty of literary form: indeed. In his presentation of the higher truths involved in his theme, his style of setting forth the truth be comes truly grand. After a wide survey of the bases of anthropo morphic theism on the one hand, and an analysis of the positive truths derived from cosmic phe nomena in behalf of cosmic theism on the other hand, he reached a conclusion in favor of the latter, "^ a conclusion he formulated in the following terms : " There exists a Power, to which no limit in time or space is conceivable, of which all phenomena, as pre sented in consciousness, are manifestations, hut which we can know only through these manifestations.'^ Thus, from a wide survey of our knowledge of cosmic phenomena, Fiske came to the conclusion 33 John Fiske that the theistic implications of the doctrine of Evolution yielded far higher and purer conceptions of Deity than obtains in any other philosophic or religious system of thought. As between anthropo morphic theism and cosmic theism, he stated the issue in the following form: — " Theologically phrased, the question is whether the creature is to be taken as a measure of the Creator. Scientifically phrased, the question Is whether the highest form of Being as yet suggested to one petty race of creatures by Its ephemeral ex perience of what is going on in one tiny corner of the universe, is necessarily to be taken as the equiv alent of that absolutely highest form of Being In which all the possibilities of existence are alike comprehended." Matter and spirit. Fiske approached the consid eration of these twin subjects by passing in review the arguments of the materialist thinkers who main tain that psychical phenomena are but products of antecedent physical phenomena. From this in quiry he reached the following as the conclusions of science : — "The most that psychology, working with the aid of physiology, has thus far achieved, has been to show that within the limits of our experience, there is invariable concomitance between psychical phenomena and the phenomena of nervous action; and this, as we have seen, is but the elaborate ana lytic statement of a plain truth, which is asserted alike by philosophers of every school, and by the 34 Matter and Spirit common-sense of every human being, — namely, that from birth until death there is no manifestation .' of Mind except In association with Body. But be yond this it is quite clear that objective psychology <. can never go. . . . The latest results of scientific In quiry, whether in the region of objective psychology or in that of molecular physics, leave the gulf be- ^ tween mind and matter quite as wide as It was ' judged to be in the time of Descartes. It still re- ' mains as true as then, that between that of which the differential attribute is Thought and that of which the differential attribute is Extension, there can be nothing like identity or similarity." How, then, from the viewpoint of Evolution is the great gulf between physical and psychical phe nomena, between matter and mind, to be bridged so as to yield a unified cosmic universe? Spencer's discussion of this vital point has been ^ vigorously attacked, and it must be admitted that regarding It he has left himself in doubt. It Is true that in many places in his writings he strongly emphasizes the distinction and incompatibility be- ' tween the two, orders of phenomena; yet. In the last edition of his "First Principles," published in 1900, in Section 71, on the "Transformation of ^ Forces," he reviews the whole question and closes the discussion thus : — "Though the facts oblige us to say that physical and psychical actions are correlated, and In a cer- ' tain indirect way- quantitatively correlated so as to suggest transformation, yet how the material 35 John Fiske affects the mental and how the mental affects the material are mysteries which it is impossible to fathom. But they are not profounder mysteries than the transformation of the physical forces into one another. They are not more completely beyond our comprehension than the natures of mind and matter. They have simply the same insolubility as all other ultimate questions. We can learn noth ing more than that here is one of the uniformities in the order of phenomena." In 1876 Professor Harald Hoffding, of Copen hagen, called Spencer's attention to certain incon sistencies in his treatment of the metamorphosis which holds between the physical and mental forces ^ In his "First Principles" and in his "Psychology." Spencer acknowledged the inconsistencies, and then attempted an elaborate explanation of how the metamorphosis might take place — an explanation which Professor Hoffding admits he did not find "quite clear." 1 Fiske's procedure on coming to this vital point was quite different. He saw very clearly the anti- ; thetical natures of the two orders of phenomena and . their harmonious parallelism or union In the hu man organism, and that this union did not involve any interchange of their intrinsic properties: that the psychical phenomena, while concomitant with physical phenomena, and in many respects condi tioned by the latter, always remained entirely dis- * David Duncan, LL.D., Life and Letters of Herbert Spencer, p. 178. 36 Matter and Spirit tinct from the latter. He also found that science had no explanation for this harmonious interplay between these two antithetical orders of phenom ena; at best it could only suggest the possibility that in some unknown way psychical phenomena might be potential In physical phenomena. Fiske, however, was not content to leave the, question In this nebulous state. Here was a vast volume of psychical phenomena with its culmina tion In the human mind, without any kinship, without any causative principle back of it in the cosmic universe. He felt that there must be some rational explanation of this apparent disharmony in the phenomena of the cosmic universe. Accord ingly, he resolutely pushed his thought to the out ermost verge of admissible speculation, In an in quiry into the nature of that Inscrutable existence j of which the universe of phenomena is the multi form expression, and found that its intimate essence might conceivably be identifiable with the intimate essence of what we know as mind; thus giving to psychical phenomena a causal basis In the cosmic universe coextensive with physical phenomena, as well as an order of development through conscious feeling, with its culmination in rational mind ; which < give to its phenomena a qualitative character widely different from, as well as far superior to, physical phe nomena. And so, from his consideration of matter and spirit as manifested in physical and psychical 37 John Fiske phenomena, Fiske was led to the conclusion that upon no imaginable hypothesis of Evolution could mind be regarded as a product of matter, and that the existence of psychical energy distinct from phys ical energy implies as its antecedent source some thing quasi- psychical In the constitution of things; in other words, that there exists : — ' ' A form of Being which can neither be assimilated to humanity, nor to any lower type of existence. We have no alternative, therefore, but to regard it as higher than humanity 'even as the heavens are higher than the earth.' The time is surely coming when the slowness of men In accepting such a con clusion will be marvelled at, and when the very in adequacy of human language to express Divinity will be regarded as a reason for deeper faith and more solemn adoration." In the years to come, we are to see Fiske inter preting the highest phases of psychical phenomena in the light of the doctrine of Evolution based upon the conception of an Infinite quasi-psychical Power from whom all things proceed. Religion as affected by the doctrine of Evolution. In his exposition of "Cosmic Philosophy based on the Doctrine of Evolution," Fiske could not let pass the consideration of its effect upon religion: that is, upon man's religious faith and conduct. Naturally this question arose : Does the enlargement of the conception of Deity, as implied In cosmic theism, involve any lowering of character in the 38 Religion and Evolution elements of religious faith ; or any radical alteration of the fundamental principles of ethical conduct in which religion viewed practically consists? In other words, what concerns us to know is, whether the substitution of scientific for theologic symbols involves any lowering of values in the grand equa- - tion between religious beliefs and ethical conduct. Fiske asserts that no such change Is Involved In the substitution : that cosmic theism Implies higher religious and ethical ideals than were given by theology. And he maintained, in a chapter entitled "Religion as Adjustment," that although the Evo lutionist might and does throw overboard much of the semi-barbaric mythology in which Christianity has been symbolized, he nevertheless holds firmly , to the religious and ethical elements for which Christianity is chiefly valued even by those who retain all its mythological features. As against the allegation that cosmic theism with its Unknowable Deity gave no tangible basis <' for religious faith he says: — "At this stage of our exposition. It is enough to suggest the fallaciousness of such argumentation, without characterizing it In detail. It Is enough to remind the reader that Deity Is unknowable just \, in so far as it is not manifested to consciousness through the phenomenal world, — knowable just in so far as it is thus manifested; unknowable In so far as infinite and absolute, — knowable in the order of Its phenomenal manifestations ; knowable, in a symbolic way, as the Power which is disclosed 39 John Fiske in every throb of the mighty rhythmic life of the universe; knowable as the eternal source of a moral law which is Implicated with each action of our lives, and in obedience to which lies our only guar anty of the happiness which is incorruptible, and which neither Inevitable misfortune, nor unmerited obloquy can take away. Thus, though we may not by searching find out God, though we may not compass infinitude or attain to absolute knowl edge, we may at least know all that it concerns us to know as intelligent and responsible beings. They who seek to know more than this, to transcend the conditions under which alone is knowledge possible, are, in Goethe's profound language, as wise as little children who, when they have looked into a mirror, turn it around to see what is behind it." As to the ethical bearings of the new doctrine, Fiske was no less emphatic in claiming for it the highest ideals of righteous conduct. He says: — "The seeking after righteousness is characteristic 'of the modern follower of science quite as much as it was characteristic of the mediseval saint; save that while the latter symbolized his yearning as a desire to become like his highest concrete concep tion of human excellence, ideally embodied in Christ, the former no longer employs any such anthropo- "morphic symbol, but formulates his feeling in scien tific phrase as the persistent desire to live rightly or In entire conformity to the requirements of nature — as Goethe expresses It : — '"Im Ganzen, Guten, Wahren, resolut zu leben.'" In the doctrine of Evolution, therefore, Fiske found the theistic and ethical elements characteristic of all 40 Philosophic Implications religions not only blended, but also given a rational origin, and a vastly more rational interpretation than obtains in any particular religious system. The philosophic implications of the Doctrine of Evolution. And now, having given an outline sketch of a system of Cosmic Philosophy based on the affirmation of the existence of an Infinite Power transcending the comprehension of the human mind as the Source and Sustainer of all things, and of whom the cosmic universe is an ever-developing manifestation, Fiske, in closing, turned to the con sideration of what must be the critical attitude of this order of philosophic thinking upon past and present religious beliefs and social institutions. In other words, whether the critical temper of this , evolutionary form of philosophic thinking tends to wards the subversion, or towards the conservation and further development of that complex aggregate of beliefs and ordinances which make up civiliza tion : the social order amid which we live. In entering upon this phase of the discussion, he drew attention to the philosophic contrasts that naturally flow from what he termed the "statical" (^ and the "dynamical " habits of thinking. A statical view of things he defined as one which Is adjusted solely or chiefly to relations existing in the imme diate environment of the thinker. He says: — "The fundamental doctrine of the philosophy which is determined by this statical habit of in terpreting phenomena is the Doctrine of Creation. 41 John Fiske The world is supposed to have been suddenly brought Into existence at some assignable epoch, since which time it has remained substantially un altered. Existing races of sentient creatures are held to have been created by a miraculous fiat in accordance with sundry types which, as representing unchangeable Ideas in the Divine Mind, can never be altered by physical circumstances. The social institutions also, amid which the particular statical theory originates are either referred back to the foundation of the world, as is the case in early and barbaric mythologies ; or else, as is the case with modern uneducated Christians, they are supposed to have been introduced by miracle at a definite era of history. In similar wise the existing order of things is legitimately to endure until abruptly terminated by the direct intervention of an extra-cosmic Power endowed with the anthropomorphic attributes of cherishing intentions and of acting out its good pleasure. . . . Likewise the social Institutions and the religious beliefs now existing by express divine sanction, must remain essentially unaltered under penalty of divine wrath as manifested in the In fliction upon society of the evils of atheism and an archy. Hence, as the Doctrine of Creation is itself held to be one of these divinely sanctioned reli gious beliefs, the scientific tendency to supersede this doctrine by the conception of God as mani fested not in spasmodic acts of miracle, but In the orderly evolution of things, is stigmatized as an atheistical tendency, and the upholders of the new view are naturally enough accredited with a desire to subvert the foundations of religion and of good conduct." 42 Philosophic Implications In opposition to this statical or fixed way of view ing things, an order of thought inherited from a primitive period of culture, Fiske placed what he termed a higher, a dynamical viewpoint, one fur nished by looking at the cosmic universe as a unity, with all its multiform phenomena ever in a process of development, In a definite and irreversible order of sequence, and all, the manifestation of an Infin ite Power transcending the comprehension of the human mind. That this dynamical or evolutionary way of viewing things should not have been acquired, save by two or three prescient minds, previous to the last century, was not surprising to Fiske, Inasmuch as not until the middle period of the last century was scientific knowledge of the interrelatedness of cosmic forces sufficiently developed to yield a con ception of the existence of a persistent energy which held the phenomena of the whole universe in sub jection to immutable law. With the establishment^ of the conservation of energy, however, as an ulti mate cosmic truth, — with its necessary corollary, that all existing phenomena are the direct products ^ of preceding phenomena, — a new era was opened in human thinking. It became evident that the whole statical theory of special creations, with their permanence of character, — especially as applied to human history, — was Invalidated, and must In evitably be swept away by advancing knowledge of cosmic phenomena; which, with every advance, 43 John Fiske confirmed with ever-increasing emphasis the truth of the dynamical or evolutionary theory of things. Thus, to Fiske's mind, this evolutionary theory of the origin of things. In its universality and its im mutability as revealed by science, appeared as a process whereby the existence of Deity was ever being unveiled to the human mind. The acceptance of this evolutionary view of things, Fiske believed would in the future, with the spread of scientific knowledge, become comraon among men, leading to higher ideals of ethical conduct on the one hand, and to purer and nobler conceptions of Deity on the other hand. Thus would there always be a place for religion: for the inculca tion of the ethical principles in conduct which make for the fulness of life here and now, and for the direction of men's thoughts reverently to that forra of existence which. In the nature of things, raust transcend cosmic existence — of which cosmic ex istence is but an adumbration. This evolutionary way of viewing things, more over, tended to the utmost catholicity of thought, to the evident tolerance of opposing opinions on the subject of politics, religion, science, or philosophy. According to the doctrine of Evolution every theory regarding fundamental questions of thought or conduct was the result of antecedent causes, was the outgrowth of preexisting conditions, and was to be set aside or superseded only by the sub stitution of something better: that is, something 44 Cosmic Philosophy and Religion better adapted to the conditions. Hence, believing that all institutions and orders of thought stood each for some phase of psychical development, some truth in the evolution of civilized humanity, Fiske would not have Cosmic Philosophy assume an iconoclastic attitude towards any established institution or order of thought; rather, that its atti tude should be one of rational toleration, accom panied by well-directed efforts clearly to set forth the conceptions of ultimate truths embodied in this philosophy, — truths having a direct bearing upon the well-being of mankind, — leaving these truths to make their way in the minds and in the conduct of men. Thus, in Fiske's mind Cosmic Philosophy was emphatically divorced from all forms of athe ism on the one hand, and from all forms of Jacobin ism or anarchy on the other hand. ^ Animated with this broad spirit of toleration, Fiske took much pains, in closing, to set forth the attitude of Cosmic Philosophy towards the Chris tian religion. In the two fundamental theorems underlying both Christianity and Cosmic Philoso phy, — their theistic and their ethical theorems, — '^ he found much in common. In their ethical codes, particularly, he found the ethical principles en joined by each for the conduct or fulness of life identical in character, although expressed by dif ferent verbal symbols; while in their theistic af firmations, the difference between them consisted / mainly in their presentation of the character of 45 John Fiske Deity: Christianity presenting Deity asof a limited, knowable, anthropomorphic character — a charac ter born of ancient mythology; while Cosmic Philos ophy presented Deity as a form of Being transcend ing the comprehension of the human mind, and knowable only through the manifestations of its existence in cosmic phenomena. Regarding this dif ference between the two In their theistic theorems. Cosmic Philosophy could affirm that as science ex tended the boundaries of positive knowledge of the cosmic universe and man's place in it, pari passu was the conception of Deity presented by Chris tianity ever in a process of purification, whereby its anthropomorphic character was being sloughed off, and whereby the conception itself was being trans formed into the recognition of a form of Being transcending all materiality. Thus, with the progress of scientific knowledge, Fiske believed, would the theistic theorems of the two orders of thought be brought into complete har mony, through the recognition by each as ultiraate truth the existence of a form of Being not measur able by human standards; and to which all cosmic phenomena, including man with his rational mind, are relative. In this union science will ever have Its vocation in describing phenomena in their in- ter-relatedness, their coexistences, their sequences; while religion will ever have its place in Interpreting these phenomena in their order, their unity, their persistence, as relative to, and as adumbrations of, 46 Cosmic Philosophy and Religion the unknown Reality or Infinite Power which tran scends them all. / Fiske closed his work with the following tolerant and reverent line of thought : — "The iconoclast, who has the welfare of man kind nearest his heart, will probably blame us as too conservative, — as lacking in robust and whole some aggressiveness. And he will perhaps find fault with us for respecting prejudices which he thinks ought to be shocked. Our reply must be that it is not by wounding prejudices that the cause of truth is most efficiently served. Men do not give up their false or inadequate beliefs by hearing them scoffed at or harshly criticised : they give them up only when they have been taught truths with which the false or inadequate beliefs are incompatible. The object of the scientific philosopher, therefore, will be to or ganize science and extend the boundaries of knowl edge. ... It is not for us, creatures of a day that we are, and seeing but a little way Into a limited portion of nature, to say dictatorially, before patient examination, that we will not have this or that doc trine as part of our philosophic creed. We must feel our way as best we can, gather with unremitting toil what facts lie within our reach, and gratefully accept such conclusions as can honestly and by due process of Inference and verification be obtained for our guidance. We are not the autocrats, but the servants and interpreters of Nature; and we must interpret her as she is, — not as we would like her to be. That harmony which we hope eventually to see established between our knowledge and our as pirations, is not to be realized by the timidity which 47 John Fiske shrinks from logically following out either of two apparently conflicting lines of thought — as in the question of matter and spirit — but by the fearlessness which pushes each to its inevitable conclusion. Only when this is recognized will the long and mistaken warfare between Science and Religion be exchanged for an intelligent and en during alliance. Only then will the two knights of the fable finally throw down their weapons, on dis covering that the causes for which they have so long been waging battle are in reality one and the sarae eternal cause, — the cause of truth, of goodness and of beauty; ' the glory of God and the relief of man's estate.' " CHAPTER XXI EFFECT OF THE DISCUSSION UPON THE MIND OF FISKE — LEADS TO GREAT COMPOSURE OF THOUGHT IN VIEWING HUMAN LIFE IN ITS SOCIOLOGICAL, POLITICAL, AND RELIGIOUS ASPECTS — HOW THE "COSMIC philosophy" WAS RECEIVED — HOS TILE CRITICISMS — LETTERS FROM SPENCER AND DARWIN 1874 The rounding-out of the doctrine of Evolution into a philosophic system with its transcendental impli cations had a very salutary effect upon the mind of Fiske. By this philosophic generalization the phe nomena of the whole cosmic universe were brought into order and unity as a manifestation of an In finite Unknowable Power which was working out, through a universal dynamic principle underlying all objective and subjective phenomena, a mighty teleological purpose, a purpose more ennobling than anything born of dogmatic theology or ideal istic philosophy. This conclusion brought Fiske great composure of mind as he looked out upon the ever-seething phenomena of human life in its sociological, its political, and its religious aspects. In sociology, viewed in its broad relations, he saw the persistence of a fundamental ethical prin ciple — " the continuous weakening of selfishness <( and the strengthening of sympathy": in other 49 John Fiske words, the "gradual supplanting of egoism by al truism." Politically he saw the ethical principle in sociology slowly but surely making Itself mani fest In the steady growth of remedial legislation, of equity jurisprudence, and in international comity. In religion, amidst all the animosities of antagonis tic beliefs, the bigotry and strife of creeds, he saw a steady growth of toleration, if not progress towards ultimate cooperation in the promulgation of reli gious truth — this religious liberalism arising frora two factors, a higher conception of the Infinite Power, the Source and Sustainer of all things, flow ing from the revelations of science; a clearer con ception of the brotherhood of man, attested as it was by the economical results of ethical relations. Fiske contemplated with great hopefulness the ef fect of the Evolutionary Philosophy upon the Chris tian religion — the religion which he regarded as the highest organized expression yet given of the religious nature of man. This religion, while "sick lied o'er" in his mind with much of man's anthro pomorphic mythology, embodied in its two funda mental doctrines, the Fatherhood of God and the Brotherhood of man, two great interrelated cosmic truths — the existence of righteousness as an active principle in the Infinite Power or Reality back of the cosmos, and its correlative manifestation in the al truistic consciousness of man. He conceded that on these two fundamental theorems a form of existence transcending present known existence might be as- 50 Evolution and Religion serted rationally as a matter of religious faith, as a correlative to present existence. It was Fiske's conclusion from his survey of mod em religious thought that the Christian religion was steadily undergoing a purification through sci entific criticism whereby it would ultimately be stripped of its anthropomorphic and much of its ecclesiastical accretions, and brought down to the simple yet comprehensive formula of its Founder: "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind; and thou shalt love thy neighbour as thy self." Compliance with this injunction he regarded as an essential condition for the enjoyment of the fulness of life. At the same time he found an authority for it higher than that of the " Law and the Prophets," an authority far exceeding that of Christ; he found it a command writ in all the objective phenom ena of the cosmic universe, with its spirit persist ently welling up in the ever- widening consciousness of man. At this period Fiske's mind was full of these great themes, and he talked freely concerning them. As I recall our many conversations regard ing the effect of the doctrine of Evolution on cur rent methods of scientific and religious thinking, there comes back to me the remembrance of his serenely optimistic belief, that as the new doctrine spread, atheism and materialism would be wholly discredited, while Christianity would inevitably 51 John Fiske be metamorphosed into a more rational form of religious faith. With this remembrance there comes also the distinct recollection of a remarkably im pressive close that he gave to a Sunday discourse delivered, I think, before the Free Religious Associa tion, in Boston. He had been speaking — mainly extempore — on Evolution with its philosophic im plications, and he closed substantially as follows: — "If the foregoing presentation of the doctrine of Evolution be accepted, atheism and material ism are forever discredited ; while certain dogmas of the Christian religion, such as a personal triune God, special miraculous creations, the fall of man, and his redemption through Christ, a materialistic Heaven and Hell, the plenary inspiration of the Scriptures, fall away, and become to the philo sophic thinker outgrown symbols of thought, mark ing man's religious progress, through his ever-ad vancing knowledge of cosmic phenomena, frora a grossly anthropomorphic conception of a personal Creator working after man's ways, to the concep tion of the Evolutionary Theist, who, in the pres ence of the profound cosmic mystery that sur rounds him, acknowledges an Infinite and Etemal Power as the Source and Sustainer of it all; and who, however much he may stumble in his saying of it, reverently affirms that the everlasting Source of all cosmic phenomena can be none other than an Infinite Power that makes for righteousness; that finite man cannot by searching find out this Infinite Power, yet should he put his trust in Him, holding fast to the belief that this Infinite Power will not leave him to be confounded at the end." 52 Evolution and Religion The reception given to Fiske's "Outlines of Cos mic Philosophy" marks the seething condition of the philosophico-rellgious mind on the great prob lems of existence forty years ago. A philosophy which presented the cosmic universe as a multiform complex of phenomena. Inconceivable in its vast ness, and ever In a process of orderly development into higher forms of phenomenal manifestation in conformity to immutable law; a philosophy which presented conscious man, with his civilizations, as an evolutionary outcome of this ceaseless cosmic activity; a philosophy which affirmed that this vast cosmic universe must have had an antece dent Cause transcending itself, a Cause which must ever, In the nature of its existence, be beyond the comprehension of the conditioned cosmic mind of man; a philosophy which further affirmed that this Ultimate Cause could be known only as It Is revealed in the ever-developing phenomena of the cosmic universe, was so radically opposed to the metaphysico- theologic and to the atheistico-ma terialistic methods of philosophizing, that its fa vorable consideration could not be expected from critics belonging to either the metaphysical or the atheistical orders of thought. By the metaphysico-theologic critics, the work was summarily condemned in toto. The doctrine of Evolution was alleged by them to be only a fresh form of scientific infidelity, only another attempt to substitute, for the ultimate truths assured by Divine 53 John Fiske revelation, some vague speculations regarding the cosmic universe — Including man, his origin and destiny — derived from man's cosmic experience. The irrational and virulent character of this criti cism was to be expected. Christian thinkers, who, through all their intellectual development, had ac cepted the metaphysical dogmas as the embodi ment of all ultimate truth, could not look upon the new doctrine with any favor. In fact, they could only regard the work as a direct attack upon the very foundations of revealed truth; and the more conclusively its general propositions were sustained, the more emphatically should the whole work be condemned. It should also be noted that the years between 1870 and 1880 comprised the period of an intensely active discussion over the origin of man with his - rational mind which flowed from the publication of Darwin's "Origin of Species" as well as frora a number of palaeontologlcal discoveries which at tested the great antiquity of primitive man with positive simian characteristics. These dlscover- >> les were very impartially set forth by Sir Charles Lyell in his great work on the "Antiquity of Man," and by Darwin in his still more Important work on ^ the "Descent of Man" from an animal ancestry. To these works should be added the results of the researches of a group of scientific sociologists — Sir Henry Sumner Maine, Edward B. Tylor, John F. McLennan, Sir John Lubbock, Lewis H. Morgan, 54 Hostile Criticism and others — into the origins of civilized society, researches by which it was conclusively shown that the occupations, the customs, the institutions of civilized life had all been developed through experi ence out of the life or habits of primitive man. In this discussion the theologians had no positive sci entific verifications whatsoever in support of their dogmatic affirmations of man's special creation and his fall. Consequently, as against a philosophic system which gave to man a verified evolutionary origin through an ascent from an animal ancestry, they could only oppose an appeal to Ignorance and prejudice by claiming a divinely revealed knowl edge of his special creation and his fall, and by ridic ulous presentations of his descent from a monkey. It is not worth while now to give much attention to such criticism. It has already been largely out grown. Two examples of it will suffice. The first is from "The New Englander," one of the leading organs of theologico-philosophic thought In Amer ica. In a strongly condemnatory review of Fiske's "Outlines of Cosmic Philosophy," we find the fol lowing contemptuous characterization of It, which was evidently Intended as a bit of superior sarcasm, but which Is in reality an attempted burlesque of some of the profoundest tmths of the cosmic universe: — " In the continuous redistribution of matter and motion there has at last been evolved, by integra tion of the homogeneous, the American apostle of the 55 John Fiske truth hitherto hidden from the eyes of men. A se ries of states of consciousness (plus a something), resident in Cambridge, has worked over a certain amount of sunshine, and has communicated it to other possibly existing series of states of conscious ness in the shape of a book entitled 'Outlines of Cosmic Philosophy.'" The second example is from "The Congrega tionalist," the organ of the American Congrega tionalists. Under the title of "Great is Dynarais, and John Fiske is its Prophet," this joumal gave a sneering sort of summary of some of the points in Fiske's work. The general tone of the article is in dicated by the closing paragraph: — " It is to be regretted that Mr. Fiske cannot elim inate from his writings the anthropomorphisra of abuse and sneers and contempt for theologians and penny-a-liners and all others who do not worship ' this Wondrous Dynamis.' His criticism of Dr. Buchner is not wholly inapplicable to himself — 'a writer whose pages are too often deformed with brutalities of expression for which no atonement is made in the shape of original or valuable thought.' " Rarely has a philosophic work been issued so free from disparaging epithets applied to oppo nents as is Fiske's "Cosmic Philosophy." The next example Is a graphic illustration of the prevailing theologic thought of the time regarding the doctrine of Evolution. The "New York Daily Graphic," in its issue of September 12, 1874, pub- 56 'PROFESSOR JOHN FISKE FLIES THE EVOLUTION KITE IN AMERICA' (Cartoon in the New York Daily Graphic, September 12, 1S74) Hostile Criticism Hshed a full-page cartoon of which the illustration opposite the preceding page is a photographic repro duction.^ ^i -^ There has been a marked advance in the appre ciation of the intellectual, moral, and religious truths involved in the doctrine of Evolution since the time, some forty years ago, when such a car toon as this, wherein Spencer and Darwin are de picted as still enveloped in their simian ancestry, could be regarded by intelligent people as a clever burlesque of a manifest absurdity. But from independent critics in the United States and Great Britain, critics accustomed to philosophic thinking, the work received much con siderate attention as aai important setting-forth of the philosophic implications arising from the recent truths of science, with their bearing upon the reli gious faith, and also upon the political and social well-being of mankind; and the work has had a wide influence in shaping subsequent thought upon philosophic, religious, and social questions. Among the many personal encomiums Fiske re ceived for the work, two were Indeed memorable 1 Fiske was greatly impressed by this cartoon, and he had it framed and gave it a conspicuous place in his library. It remains with his library still. To his friends, who objected to its vulgarity in so degrading Spencer and Darwin, Fiske's ready response was: " Yes, but remember it is a faithful presentation of the attitude of the religious mind generally towards the doctrine of Evolution in 1874-1875. I like to keep this design before me as a sort of theo logical barometer — objections to it show how rapidly the religious mind is moving towards the great truths of Cosmic Evolution." hi John Fiske and should be given a place here: one was from Herbert Spencer, and the other was from Charles Darwin. Spencer wrote as follows: — 38 Queen's Gardens, Bayswater, W. London, II December, 1874. My dear Fiske: — Enclosed I send the only two reviews^ of your work which have appeared — or which I have yet seen. On the whole, they are I think very favor able; containing, indeed, along with their applause, not more in the way of fault-finding than every critic feels bound to utter. I will send you further notices from time to time as I meet with them. As yet, I have myself read but parts of the first volume. I am so continually hindered by multitu dinous distractions and my small reading power proves so inadequate for getting up the matter bearing on my immediate work, that I have an in creasing difficulty in getting any knowledge of the books I receive; even when they concern me very nearly, critically or otherwise. What I have read, however, which has been chiefly in the new parts, has pleased me greatly. I am very glad you have so fully and clearly con trasted a system which constitutes an organon, with a system which constitutes a cosmology. The distinction, deep as it is, Is one which those who are prepossessed by the philosophy of Comte seem to ' Reviews in the London Daily News and in the London Exam iner; the latter written by James Sully, the eminent psychologist. Frederick Pollock, author of a Life of Spinoza and a writer on phil osophic subjects, gave a very appreciative review of the work in the Fortnightly Review. 58 Letter from Spencer have great difficulty in recognizing. Lewes, for ex ample, failed entirely to perceive it, at the time we had a polemic on the matter. Hence, I rejoice that you have brought out the contrast so distinctly. I suppose I shall find matter of much interest to me in the sociological division. But comments on this must stand over till some future letter. The progress of things is amazingly rapid. The public mind is everywhere being ploughed up by all kinds of disturbing forces and prepared for the reception of rational ideas. Indeed, the process of sowing needs to be pushed on actively, lest a crop of weeds should take possession of the soil left vacant after the rooting-up of superstitions. I shall be glad to hear from you: learning how you are after settling down to your work again and what reception your book meets with in the United States. Very sincerely yours, Herbert Spencer. This letter, while exceedingly friendly in charac ter and highly appreciative of Fiske's work, shows Spencer's adroit avoidance of committing himself directly to the spiritual and religious implications of Fiske's Evolutionary argument. We have previ ously had occasion to note a similar avoidance on this point, ^ and we shall have occasion to note another later on. But Darwin's tribute was without any reserva tion whatever; and it was given In such a simple, modest way as to reflect its entire sincerity. Fiske * See ante, vol. i, p. 388. 59 John Fiske found Darwin's judgment of his work alone enough to cheer his mind against all adverse criticism. It was as follows: — Down, December 8, 1874. My dear Sir: — You must allow me to thank you for the very great interest with which I have at last slowly read the whole of your work. I have long wished to know something about the views of the many great raen whose doctrines you give. With the exception of special points, I did not even understand H. Spencer's general doctrine, for his style is too hard work for me. I never in my life read so lucid an expositor (and therefore thinker) as you are; and I think that I understand nearly the whole — per haps less clearly about Cosmic Theism and Causa tion than other parts. It is hopeless to atterapt out of so much to specify what has interested me raost, and probably you would not care to hear. I wish some chemist would attempt to ascertain the result of the cooling of heated gases of the proper kinds in relation to your hypothesis of the origin of living matter. It pleased me to find that here and there I had arrived from my own crude thoughts at some of the same conclusions with you; though I could seldom or never have given my reasons for such con- f elusions. I find that my mind is so fixed by the in- ' ductive method that I cannot appreciate deductive reasoning: I must begin with a good body of facts and not from a principle (in which I always suspect j some fallacy) and then as much deduction as you please. This may be very narrow-minded; but the result is that such parts of H. Spencer as I have read with 60 Letter from Darwin care impress my mind with the idea of his inex haustible wealth of suggestion, but never convince me; and so I find it with some others. I believe the cause to lie in the frequency with which I have found first-formed theories to be erroneous. I thank you for the honourable mention which you make of my works. Parts of the "Descent of Man" must have appeared laughably weak to you ; nevertheless, I have sent you a new edition just published. Thanking you for the profound Interest, and profit, with which I have read your work, I remain, my dear sir. Yours very faithfully, Ch. Darwin. John Fiske, Esq^-, Cambridge, Mass., U.S.A. CHAPTER XXII GROWING REPUTATION — RESUMES WORK IN HAR VARD LIBRARY — RECONSTRUCTION OF LIBRARY BUILDING — PRACTICAL PROBLEMS — CATALOGUE OF SUMNER'S LIBRARY — HIGHLY COMPLIMENTED — OUT OF PLACE IN THE LIBRARY — AMERICAN HISTORY A SUBJECT FOR EXPOSITION — CONSULTS FRIENDS — RESIGNS FROM HARVARD LIBRARY I 874-1 879 Returning to our narrative of the life of Fiske after his return from Europe in June, 1874, we find that the publication of his "Outlines of Cosraic Philosophy" greatly heightened his reputation In the United States as a philosophic thinker, while In England it gave him a recognized position, not only as an expositor of, but also as a contributor to, the doctrine of Evolution. In fact, he was very generally credited not only with having completely cleared the doctrine of all affiliations with the Positive Philos ophy of Comte; but also with having set forth its ethical and religious implications, something which Spencer had not yet done. This at least can be said: that in America, while Spencer was substantially credited with the authorship of the theory of Evolu tion, Fiske was credited with having given an inter pretation to the theory more in consonance with the religious, convictions of the Christian world than Spencer had done — more than Spencer, by the gen- 62 Growing Reputation eral attitude of his thought, seemed inclined to admit. From this time on, therefore, we are to see Fiske credited as being the chief representative in < America of the Evolution doctrine. Ift the years to come we shall see him, as occasions arise, drawing out from the armory of his "Cosmic Philosophy" several philosophic arguments with which to do effective battle for an "Unseen World" transcend ing this world of physical phenomena; for a "Destiny of Man" transcending his finite exist ence; for an "Idea of God" transcending the affirmations of Christian theology, and for "The Everlasting Reality of Religion" as a Divine truth writ in the very consciousness of man himself, and not derived from the religious experience of any particular race or people. After his return from Europe, however, Fiske found himself obliged to give the subject of philoso phy a place of secondary importance in his practi- i cal life. His position in the Harvard Library was no sinecure. He was in full charge, and on his return the subject classification and cataloguing of books and pamphlets was resumed, the supervision of which, together with the oversight of the regular routine work of the library, left him but very little time for philosophic thinking or for literary work of any kind. This fact is clearly apparent. He was never Idle. The nature of his mind involved its constant activity on some theme or other — practi cal or speculative. He was in the library nearly 63 John Fiske seven years, some of the best years of his life for literary production, — and yet he produced dur ing this period only about a dozen magazine arti cles and lectures; and these were written mostly during his vacations. With all his scholarly tendencies and tastes, there was an element in his intellectual make- ap which enabled him to focus his mind upon probleras of practical life with great effectiveness, and the library presented a succession of such probleras. One instance of this nature in his library experi ence is particularly worthy of note. In 1876 the college was reconstructing its library building, — Gore Hall, — and It was of vital importance that the library should be kept in efficient working order while the reconstruction was going on. How this could be done was a problem of a very serious nature. Fiske's statement of the problem and his solution of it are given in a letter to his mother un der date of June 2, 1876: — "Our new Library transept is rising frora the ground. By July ist our old east transept is to be torn down to make way for the new huge transept. Said east transept contains forty thousand volumes which of course must be moved. There Is no room for anything in the body of the building. Some twenty thousand volumes can be accommodated in a room in Boylston Hall ; the other twenty thou sand mUjSt be stored, deuce knows how, in our pres ent building. But now ! these forty thousand voluraes in the transept are among our most valuable books, 64 < Kwoioo Reconstruction of Library which it won't do to risk In Boylston Hall, which is 'Joby Cooke's' chemical building, and by no means fireproof. Therefore twenty thousand other volumes less valuable must go to Boylston Hall, and these more valuable volumes must take their places. So at least dixty thousand volumes have got to be shifted in four weeks. Again, this confusion is to last for more than a year, until our huge new tran sept is ready for occupancy. The public want their books, and we don't want to have a third of the Library useless. But the catalogues indicate the places where the books stand to-day, and to re mark it would be a fearful job. It would take a third of my cataloguing force, and they could n't do it in less than six months. And all this labor would be unprofitably spent, because when the building is finished there will be a general change of plans, and then re-marking will have to be done in earnest. Therefore, the problem is no less than this: to shift sixty thousand volumes in four weeks without impairing the efficiency of the existing numbers, which are to send one to the new place of the book just as readily as to the old place; to keep the whole Library available to the public all the while; and carry only poor books away to Boyl ston Hall, while keeping the valuable ones in the Library building. And all this must be done with out altering a single shelf-mark on the catalogue, or calling off any of my assistants who are cat aloguing. "What do you say to that for a practical prob lem? It has worried me for a good while vaguely, and for a week definitely; and to-day, I have solved the whole thing triumphantly ! It can be done, and 65 John Fiske is to be done. All these books are to be shifted by July 1st without closing the Library, or interfering with the taking-out of books for one day, and without hampering the cataloguers in any way. And besides this, two hundred thousand para phlets are to be moved with like placidity. I feel very grand at this issue of things. By the time I had got the plan three fourths unfolded. President Eliot said, ' Mr. Fiske, I have no more to say; go on, if you please, and carry out the work entirely at your own discretion.' I have plenary power to hire my workmen, and order everything; and am only too willing to be held responsible for a thing I have thought out so completely. Is n't it splendid? I think even outsiders, who don't begin to know what library-work is in all its countless details, will appreciate and admire the entire absence of annoy ance which will characterize this revolution in the Library. I think the professors all look forward with dread to what they think must be a frightful muddle. I am In hopes that not one of 'em will be made to feel there is any muddle at all." And a few days later, June 19, he writes: — "The book-moving goes on with beautiful quiet and regularity. It begins to seem so simple that any jackass might have done it. We have carried about nineteen thousand five hundred volumes over to Boylston Hall, and filled all the shelf-room there, and have moved some fifteen thousand within the Library itself, besides shifting the entire stock of nearly two hundred thousand pamphlets. There has been no disturbance beyond the sound of the carpenters' hammers. Books have been taken 66 Catalogue of Sumner Collection from, and returned to, the migratory divisions without perplexity. By July ist, I think we shall be in equilibrium for the coming year." The shifting of the books was done in less than a month. It was completed June 30, 1876. Another incident connected with his library ex perience and outside his routine labors is worth noting. The Honorable Charles Sumner, at his death in 1874, left the library a collection of about 3750 books, among which were many rare and valuable ones in various languages, together with an exceedingly valuable collection of autographs. A catalogue of this collection was greatly desired, and Fiske, with two of his assistants, undertook the task. It wasone which involved much laborious research on Fiske's part, and the result is another illustration of the facility with which he could bring his wide knowledge into practical service. The bibliographic knowledge shown in this catalogue is so extensive that I sought the opinion of Mr. Charles K. Bolton, the accomplished Librarian of the Boston Athenseum, as to its character. Mr. Bolton reports thus: — "Mr. Fiske's catalogue of the Sumner Collection of books, in the Harvard Library, is a test of leam ing that few librarians are called to meet. It shows his familiarity with early calligraphy, with the art and history of printing, with binding and Illustra tion. It covers also the difficulties involved in cata loguing and annotating rare books, and indirectly 67 John Fiske proves that Mr. Fiske loved the text as well as the dress. The bibliographical notes, by their discrimi nation, variety, and detail, show both erudition and clarity of mind such as we now associate with German scholarship." In a letter of Fiske to his mother describing his library duties, I find a paragraph of a personal na ture which shows his deep filial affection for her, in that he wishes her to share in any honors that carae to him. It is also of interest because of the glimpse it gives us of two distinguished mathematicians. He writes: — "Mousing in the galleries the other day to find some book, I stumbled on old Ben Peirce, in com pany with Dr. Sylvester, the greatest mathema tician in the world, who has just been enticed over from London to the Johns Hopkins University at Baltimore. Old Ben looked beaming, and said: "I want to make you acquainted with Mr. J. F., our Assistant Librarian — one of our greatest philo sophical thinkers. He has a gift of straightening things out, and without any special study of astron omy, has done more for the nebular hypothesis than either you or I could have done.' I generally take such things with equanimity, but this time my cheeks felt a little warm; and such an unexpected remark from an old veteran in science, who does n't usually say much, and on whom I used to look with profound reverence, was rather overwhelming. We had a pleasant little chat. Sylvester is a stout Englishman of about sixty, with rosy cheeks, and long grey hair. The man whose 'Theory of In- 68 Out of Place in the Library variants' is the greatest step taken in mathematics since Lagrange's ' Calculus of Variations,' and who, according to Herbert Spencer, deserves to rank just below Newton and Leibnitz as a mathematician — it seems odd to have him here in the flesh in Cam bridge, and boarding at Miss Upham's! I am sorry to say that his achievements are all Greek to me, and I must take them on trust. I know precious little of post-Newtonian mathematics. If good old Ben had only had some gift of straightening things out (when I was in college) I might have known more." But no one at this time appears to have regarded Fiske's position in the Harvard Library as his proper place, or as his destined field of work at the college. He did not himself so regard it; and in a letter to his mother of July, 1877, he writes that he < hears "it is intended to put me into the History Department next summer when the term expires of the two young instructors who were appointed for a year on Adams's [Professor Henry Adams] resigna tion." And further, on the resignation of Dr. John Langdon Sibley, the nominal Librarian in the summer of 1877, Fiske saw the propriety of the appointment of Justin Winsor, the most eminent librarian in the country, to the position, although the appointment of Mr. Winsor superseded Fiske in the management of the library. From the viewpoint of the rightful fitness of things, notwithstanding Fiske's varied and valu able services in the library whein we consider his 69 ^?J w New Home in Cambridge mother, under date of September i8, 1878, giving her a graphic description of all the rooms, with the furniture, pictures, and ornaments in each. He even included a plan and descriptive sketch of the basement store-closet with its huge refrigerator — a sort of cold-storage plant which he had designed himself, in order to get food supplies for his good- sized family In quantities. His furniture appears to have been made up largely of heirlooms from the Brooks and Fiske family homesteads. The letter in which these particulars are given is, indeed, a delightful letter, one in which are re vealed not only Fiske's keen appreciations of na ture, literature, music, and art, but also, how these appreciations were blended with his domestic tastes and requirements. I regret that limited space re stricts me to but a single extract from this deeply interesting letter. It appears in an addendum to the main letter, and it reveals Fiske's keen appreciation of, and sympathy with, boyhood nature. He writes: — "I should have said, in my description of the house, that the three boys have the room over the guest chamber for a ' raise-the-devil-room.' They raise the d 1 there a good deal, and it saves the rest of the 'hipe.' The furniture consists of a large kitchen table and five or six kitchen chairs, to gether with several tons of rubbish — pails, nails, hooks, tenpins, bits of wood, marbles, mosses, bats, paint-brushes, pots of flour-paste, pebbles — deuce 81 John Fiske knows what not. A museum, too, with sixty or eighty kinds of moths and butterflies; a fine assort ment of birds' eggs, wasps' nests, birds' skulls, postage-stamps, coins, one Indian stone spear head, etc., etc. The walls are rapidly getting cov ered with pictures cut out of newspapers and colored toy-books, etc. It is a jolly room." Of Fiske's happy domestic life the letters bear abundant witness. His children were his unfailing delight, and the individuality of each one is clearly set forth. He takes careful note of their varied men tal development, and he tries to keep In touch with them in their tastes as he sees their minds unfold. He particularly interests himself in their musical tastes and in their love of nature. It was during this period that his fourth son, Herbert Huxley Fiske, was born (August 20, 1877). That this son should be christened with the names of two of Fiske's dearest friends was quite a matter of course. Fiske's musical practice during these years was fairly continuous. We have previously seen that in his periods of intellectual strain he found a great measure of relief and relaxation in music. Usually he took what he called a sort of "musical siesta" after luncheon or dinner. I give some extracts from the letters of 1875: — "As for me, I am trying a whole sonata in three movements (Op. 14, No. 2), one of the loveliest of Beethoven's earlier works, and I think I can master 82 Musical Practice It. Hitherto I have never tried anything but the slow movements of the sonatas. " I have mastered the difficult E Major nocturne of Chopin, that I murdered for you, and can now make It sing. I shall have another hard one to play for you in F major, when you get home — a superb one: and I am just beginning a splendid movement from one of Schubert's sonatas. I find I can tackle things now that I could n't look at a year ago. My work last winter on Beethoven and Chopin has limbered my fingers and improved my fingering." It does not appear that during this period Fiske did anything to speak of in the way of musical com position. His Mass, upon which we saw him so earnestly engaged during his philosophic period, does not appear to have received any attention. In fact, this Mass was never finished : it remained one of the tasks he was always hoping for a fitting op portunity to complete. Musical evenings with his friends Professor John K. Paine and the eminent singer and teacher, George L. Osgood, were frequent, and they were occasions of rare enjoyment. Sometimes these mu sical evenings were made "social occasions" for gathering in his closest friends. Outside his home he appears to have found his chief musical enjoy ment in the Symphony Concerts in Boston. And here is a fine bit of musical criticism I find in one of his letters : — "I have heard Von Biilow again and don't like him so well as Rubinstein or Miss Mehlig. They 83 John Fiske say he never strikes a false note ; but I heard him strike two in the third movement of Beethoven Op. 31, No. 3. But they all do that — his execu tion is wonderfuL" Professor Paine has left us his judgment of Fiske's musical gifts and attainments derived from their long and close intimacy; and the opinion of this most competent of critics is In place -here : — "He [Fiske] was not allowed to take music lessons in his boyhood, yet in spite of this, he taught himself as a young man to play the piano and to sing. Certainly it was a remarkable proof of his genuine talent, that he was able to acquire sufficient skill to play from memory certain sonatas of Beethoven, nocturnes of Chopin, and piano- pieces of Schubert, etc. He played with true ex pression and conception. He also gained a knowl edge of Harmony and Counterpoint by reading text-books. He had a sonorous bass voice of wide compass; and it was a pleasure to hear him sing songs of Schubert and Franz, for he sang thera with feeling and enthusiasm. He showed a deep appre ciation of the music of Bach, Beethoven, Schubert and all the great masters, but did not care much for recent ' Programme' music. In brief, music was his great passion. Next to his love for his family was his love for music and nothing gave him more happi ness. In speaking of a future life he always asso ciated it with music." But it was the summer home in the Brooks homestead at Petersham to which Fiske and the whole family looked forward with the keenest zest 84 JOHN KNOWLES PAINE Visit of the Huxleys all the rest of the year. And every year seemed to bring fresh delights with the increasing years of his children. The letters of this period overflow with charming descriptions of rides, walks, and saunter ings with his children in this enchanting region. He dearly loved to botanize with them. It was at Petersham that he and Mrs. Fiske and James Brooks entertained Professor and Mrs. Huxley during their memorable visit to the United States in the summer of 1876. Huxley had heard so much about the beauties of Petersham from Fiske that as soon as he had decided upon his American trip, he wrote Fiske of his proposed visit and of his determination to observe Fiske In his Petersham "fastness." The letter In which Huxley advises Fiske of his proposed visit Is so characteristic — is so redolent of Huxley's abounding geniality — that I give it entire : — 4 Marlborough Place, London, N.W., April 23, 1876. My dear Fiske : — I have a great mind to tell you that the reason why I did not answer your letter of the ist of January, '75, was that there was a Mister stuck be fore my proper name — which is a liberty I don't permit my friends. Unfortunately any such state ment would be a lie — pressure of things always to be done, and a confounded habit of corresponden- tlal procrastination is at the bottom of it. But as you confess your own sins, I forgive you on condi tion of the abolition of the "Mr." hereafter. 85 John Fiske After a world of deliberation and balancing of possibilities and impossibilities, I have made up my mind that the impossible shall be, and my wife and I embark for the States at the end of July, or be ginning of August, returning the last of September. The wife is terribly torn between me and the chil dren, but I mean to bring her. Many thanks for your most kind offer of hospi tality. Of course we shall loiok you up somehow; but at present all my plans are in nubibus, and I must wait until I get quietly stowed away in Edin burgh, whither I betake myself next week, to de termine what I shalldo. Nothing we should like better than to have a quiet day or two with you in your country fastness. The book of Essays has arrived.^ You have made a deal more of the " Unseen Universe "^ than I could. If I had had time I should have had some fun out of it as gross materialism, I know the writers and there Is not a grain of speculative power in either. My eyes have been wide open for your friend Professor Gurney, but he has as yet not been visi ble above the horizon, and I fear I may be away before he arrives. My wife sends her kindest regards. The elder girls and the two boys are away in the country, but I gave Madge your message and she was greatly set up thereby. Her voice is growing grandly. Ever yours very sincerely, T. H. Huxley. I Fiske's Unseen World and Other Essays, then recently published. == A reference to the Unseen Universe, a work by Professors^ Bal four Stewart and P. G. Tait. It was this work that called out Fiske's essay on the Unseen World. See supra, p. loi. 86 Visit of the Huxleys Fiske wrote expressing his delight, not only that Huxley was coming, but also that Mrs. Huxley was coming with him, and he cordially invited them to visit himself and his family at their summer home in Petersham. To this letter Huxley replied : — Edinburgh, Jutie 27, 1876. My dear Fiske: — Your letter reached me this evening and I sit down to reply just before midnight. Count it unto me for righteousness. We shall arrive just about the time you are leav ing for Petersham, and the greatest pleasure you could give us would be to have us for a few days at that sylvan Dllkooshah, as soon as I have done exploring Marsh's fossils at New Haven, which task will, I suppose, take up more or less of the first week of the seven which I have to dispose of. You know what manner of people we are, and I hope you have reported faithfully of us to Mrs. Fiske as folk who love peace and quietness; and that when we are left to ourselves we live In the plainest of plain ways. We must find our way to Agassiz's at Newport some time before the Associa tion meets. Then we go to Buffalo, and take our time at Niagara. Then South as far as Nashville, and back by way of Baltimore and Philadelphia. But my great desire Is to go my own way quietly and keep out of all sorts of fuss. I am hard worked here, and shall be right glad when the ;27th of July arrives, and we are steaming Westward. Ever yours very sincerely, T. H. Huxley. 87 John Fiske The Huxleys reached New York early in August, and Huxley himself went at once to New Haven, where, under date of August 9, he wrote Fiske as follows : — My dear Fiske: — I have just been reading your last letter, which reached me just as I was in the midst of prepara tions for leaving England, and I do perceive that having failed to obey orders I shall come in for ex communications sundry and strong. But I thought it was of no use to write to you, until I could say something definite about my movements, and there has been no possibility of saying that something till this afternoon. I have left my wife with the Appletons at New York. I believe they are all going gallivanting to Saratoga, while I am here as Marsh's guest, deep in birds with teeth, and reptiles without 'em, to say nothing of other palaeontologlcal wonders which to a confirmed Evolutionist are worth all the joumey across the Atlantic. One way or another I shall not have done here till this day week. Then we go to Agassiz's at New port for two or three days, and for a day take a look at Boston. Anyhow, I do not see why we should not make our way to Petersham on the 20th, if that will suit you. The American Association meets at Buffalo on the 23d, and as I have promised to go there, I must, in decency, show myself by the 24th or thereabouts. Petersham is, I am sorry to say, ignored on all the maps I can get at; but there is such a network of railways somewhere about the spot that I assurae 88 Visit of the Huxleys there is no difficulty in getting thence to Buffalo. But you are by no means to come to Boston to escort us. We shall find our way to you beautifully. Let me have a reply here, written In a placable spirit, just to say if we may come on the 20th. And with all good wishes to Mrs. Fiske and yourself believe me. Ever yours very sincerely, T. H. Huxley. / The examination of Professor Marsh's palaeonto loglcal collection was a notable event in Huxley's life, and one of the direct outcomes of it was a com plete change of view In regard to the genealogy of the horse, and the admission that here for the first time was gathered the indubitable evidence which demonstrated the direct line of descent of an exist ing animal. Huxley's letters show how deeply he was impressed by his study of this collection ; Indeed, so deeply was he impressed that he recast a great part of a lecture on Evolution which he had pre pared foi* delivery in New York. Professor and Mrs. Huxley found their way to Petersham August 21, 1876, and they had a cordial welcome from Mr. and Mrs. Fiske, James Brooks, Miss Martha Brooks, and the Fiske children. Fiske's joy was unconfined. It was a great pleasure to him to take his guests, both lovers of nature, over some of the Petersham places which had come to stand in his mind as types of nature's supreme beauties and have their approval of his aesthetic judgment. It 89 John Fiske was a still greater pleasure to resume with his dear friends, in his own home in America, and with his children, the musical diversions and social ameni ties he had so greatly enjoyed in their charming home with their children in London. And then, in the midst of these delightful surroundings, occasion was found for the exchange of views between Hux ley and Fiske regarding some of the ultimate ques tions of Evolution which had so often engaged their thought in Huxley's cosy library. Of course, Huxley had much to tell of the work of their Evolutionary friends in England since Fiske's visit of three years before; how rapidly the doctrine of Evolution was spreading among the leaders In science; how it was coming to be recog nized as a universal cosmic principle underlying all classes of phenomena; and how the doctrine had been greatly strengthened by Professor Marsh's wonderful palaeontologlcal collection at New Haven. Huxley's abounding humor could not be entirely suppressed by the consideration of even these great themes ; for, as appears in the Petersham guest-book, he left a sketch of what he called a true history of Adam and Eve as suggested by the palaeontologic remains in Professor Marsh's wonderful collection. This sketch is reproduced on the opposite page. The two evenings of the visit were given to free social intercourse between the guests, the Fiske and Brooks families, and a few invited friends. Among the latter was one of Longfellow's daughters and 90 } SKETCH BY HUXLEY IN THE PETERSHAM GUEST-BOOK, AUGUST, 1876 Visit of the Huxleys also one of Hawthome's, together with Professor John K. Paine, the eminent musical composer, and Christopher Cranch, the poet. There was much music and a great amount of jollity on these occa sions. Huxley was In fine spirits and by his exuberant nature, his keen observations, and his genial wit, he captured all hearts. He said that wheti Fiske was In London he had so much to say about the beauties of Petersham that he — Huxley — was inclined to set Fiske down as a romancer. But now that he had himself seen Petersham, he must confess that its charms had not been fully told him. Huxley appeared as the really great man with the engaging personality so graphically set forth by Fiske in his letters from London three years before. This visit of the Huxleys to Petersham was, indeed, a memorable one; and Fiske in a letter, a few days after to his mother, sums it up In one brief sentence: "The Huxleys staid from Monday noon, August 2ist, to Wednesday noon, August 23d, and we had a glorious time, and everybody great and small fell in love with 'em both." And this should be said, that this memorable visit was greatly enhanced to all who shared in its pleasures by the ever-thoughtful consideration of James Brooks, who knew so well how to present the glories of Petersham at their best, and whose estimate of Huxley, both as a scientist and a philo sophic thinker, was from this visit greatly height ened. 91 John Fiske The further extension of the American visit of the Huxleys kept them almost constantly on the move. It embraced a trip to Niagara and to Buffalo, where the American Association for the Advancement of Science was holding its annual meeting, and where they met the leading scientists of America; thence to Nashville, Tennessee, where they visited Huxley's sister — the beloved sister of his boyhood, whom he had not seen for many years; thence to Baltimore, where Huxley delivered the address accompanying the opening of Johns Hop kins University; thence to New York, where he delivered three lectures on Evolution, In which he presented the fresh light thrown upon the new doctrine by Professor Marsh's palaeontologlcal col lection at New Haven. Everywhere he was re ceived with conspicuous honor. In the face of his great learning, his honesty of purpose, and his in spiring personality, theological bigotry was silent. With his engagements all fulfilled, on September 23, 1876, he and Mrs. Huxley sailed from New York for Liverpool, leaving behind them in the minds of their friends nothing but the pleasantest memories. Shortiy after their retum home, Huxley wrote Fiske, telling him that, aside from the visit with Professor Marsh and with his sister, their visit to Petersham was the most delightful of their Ameri can experiences, and that in this opinion Mrs. Huxley fully agreed. 92 Petersham in Winter Petersham had charms for Fiske at all seasons of the year; so much so that at times, when mentally weary, he would make an excursion up there for a day or two, out of season, just for mental relaxa tion. And he has given such a graphic sketch of one of his mid-winter excursions and his entertainment by his good neighbor, Mr. Mudge, — a sketch which shows such a keen appreciation of Nature in her sterner aspects, and also so redolent of his physical enjoyment of plain country life, that it well deserves a place here. Under date of January 21, 1878, he writes his mother thus : — "And what do you suppose I was up to last Saturday! Got up after a stiff week's work feeling very tired and nervous. For the first time I had a cruel sense of what nerves are. While dressing, I said to Abby, ' By Jove ! I '11 go up to Petersham, and breathe in new boyhood and new zest.' Off I went, and found It 22° below zero, and snow over the tops of the fences. Went to good Mr. Mudge's — and such sausages, and squash pies, and cider! Went to the old village church, Sunday morning, and everybody was so surprised and so glad to see me. In the afternoon it being 18° below zero, with a brisk breeze, I muffled up a yard deep in shawls and furs, and took a magnificent sleigh-ride with Mr. Mudge among the pine woods, right over stone walls, across lots, wherever we liked. O what happi ness! Then went down to Mrs. Spooner's (where you sat and held the horse last summer, while I went in and made a call after our Tom Swamp ride), and had such a dear good countrified time. Then home 93 John Fiske to bed fearfully sleepy at 8 o'clock, in a room where my breath froze into icicles on my mustache, with a hot soapstone at my feet. Up at 7 in the morning, after a sweet sleep, to a delicious breakfast of pork steak and apple-sauce. Then over to Athol with Mr. Mudge — a hot soapstone in the sleigh and lots of robes over us ; mercury 12° below zero — and such a lovely ride over that beautiful road. Got back to the Library soon after Monday noon — had an ex perience I shall never forget!" In January, 1878, Mr. and Mrs. Stoughton sailed for Europe, Mr. Stoughton to enter upon his duties as Minister of the United States to Russia. They remained in Russia until May, 1879, when Mr. Stoughton was compelled to resign his position on account of ill health. He died, as we shall see, not long after. While Fiske's letters to his mother were continued during her residence at the Imperial Court at St. Petersburg, nothing of special iraport is revealed In them beyond the record of his library experiences, his limited literary work, and his happy domestic life! Mrs, Stoughton's letters do not ap pear to have called out from him any noteworthy expressions of opinion regarding Russian or Euro pean affairs. One act of his mother's while In St. Petersburg pleased him greatly. Being very skilful with her brush, she made for him a fine copy of the portrait of John Locke, the eminent English phil osopher, — to whom as we have seen Fiske was distantly related, — which is one of the notable 94 THE LIBRARY AT 22 BERKELEY STREET Poem by C. P. Cranch treasures in The Hermitage, the famous Art Gal lery at St. Petersburg. This copy of the portrait has a conspicuous place in the Fiske library at Cambridge. And now we come to an incident in the social life of Fiske which has left an interesting memorial behind it. Among his neighbors in Cambridge was Christopher Pearse Cranch: preacher, painter, and poet. Cranch was a man of fine culture, and was one of the small circle of Transcendentalists who made so much stir in the intellectual life of New England between 1830 and 1850. His many en gaging qualities brought him Into close personal relations with the most eminent literary and artistic persons of his time: particularly with Emerson, Story the sculptor, James Russell Lowell, and George William Curtis. One day in February, 1879, Cranch called upon Fiske at his house, 22 Berkeley Street, Cambridge. Fiske was not at home; and, while waiting in the library for Mrs. Fiske to come down, Cranch's poetic feelings were deeply stirred by the embodi ments of human thought with which he was sur rounded. Two days after, he brought to Fiske the thoughts which came to him while in Fiske's li brary, expressed in the following lines : — In my friend's library I sit alone. Hemmed in by books. The dead and living there. Shrined in a thousand volumes rich and rare, Tower in long rows, with names to me unknown. A dim half-curtained light o'er all is thrown. 95 John Fiske A shadowed Dante looks with stony stare Out from his dusky niche. The very air Seems hushed before some intellectual throne. What ranks of grand philosophers, what choice And gay romancers, what historians sage, What wits, what poets, on those crowded shelves! All dumb forever, till the mind gives voice To each dead letter of each senseless page. And adds a soul they own not of themselves. A miracle — that man should learn to fill These little vessels with his boundless soul; Should through these arbitrary signs control The world, and scatter broadcast at his will His unseen thought, in endless transcript still Fast multiplied o'er lands from pole to pole By magic art; and, as the ages roll, Still fresh as streamlets from the Muses' hill. Yet in these alcoves tranced, the lords of thought Stand bound as by enchantment — signs or words Have none to break the silence. None but they Their mute proud lips unlock, who here have brought The key. Them as their masters they obey. For them they talk and sing like uncaged birds. During this period Fiske lost two personal friends who were very dear to him — Professor John R. Dennett, of Harvard, who died In December, 1874; and Chauncey Wright, who died in September, 1875. Disagreeing with these acute critics and thinkers as he did on many points, Fiske was at one with them in their high literary and philosophical ideals. His tribute to the latter, in his volume, "Darwinism and Other Essays," is a masterpiece of philosophic criticism and character appreciation. His intellectual companionship with these two 96 Literary Work brilliant thinkers had a strong stimulating effect upon his own mind. The record of Fiske's literary productions during this period is a very brief one. When considered in relation to his powers of intellectual production, it yields conclusive evidence that he was sadly out of place In the Harvard Library. During this period of four and a half years, he produced nine essays and four lectures, which, while of a very high order of thought, are yet somewhat circumscribed in their range; and, with two or three exceptions, they ap pear as an overflow from his previous philosophic and historic studies. The principal exception Is his essayon "The Unseen World." Here he advances his philosophic and religious thought to the con sideration of what may lie in the phenomenal Cosmos beyond the apprehension of the finite mind — beyond the reach of science. The following is a list of these essays, with their times and places bf publication : — "Mythology" and "Positivism"; two articles or essays prepared for Johnson's Cyclopaedia. "The Unseen World" ; an essay published in the "Atlantic Monthly" in February and March, 1876; subsequently published in a volume under the same title, with other essays. "A Librarian's Work" ; an account of the routine work in the Harvard Library, an essay published in the "Atlantic Monthly" for October, 1876. "The Triumph of Darwinism"; an essay pub- 97 John Fiske Hshed in the "North American Review" for Jan uary, 1877. "The Races of the Danube" ;^ an essay published in the "Atlantic Monthly" for April, 1877. "A Crumb for the Modern Symposium"; an essay published in the "North American Review" for January, 1878, "Chauncey Wright: a Personal Tribute"; pub lished in the " Radical Review" for February, 1878. "What is Inspiration?" A contribution to a symposium in the "North American Review" for September, 1878. The last six essays were subsequently published in a volume under the title of "Darwinism and Other Essays." The four lectures referred to were on "The Early Aryans: their Myths and their Folk-Lore"; and they were prepared for, and were delivered at, the Peabody Institute, Baltimore, Maryland, in Feb ruary, 1877. The substance of these lectures was subsequently utilized by Fiske in various essays; e.g., "Who are the Aryans?" "What we Learn from Old Aryan Words, " " Koshchei the Deathless, ' ' etc. His work on " Primitive Aryan Culture," con cerning which he wrote Spencer, — a work which was near his heart, — he never was able to complete. Let us note, in passing, that in the invitation for his lectures at the Peabody Institute, it was cour- 1 Fiske writes his mother in January, 1877, that "this essay was written because of your desire to get sorae dear notions on the subject." Two Notable Essays teously intimated to him that it would be well to avoid the subject of Evolution. Two of the foregoing essays, "What is Inspira tion?" and "The Unseen World," are deserving of special consideration here. The former was a con tribution to a symposium in the " North American Review," where, in the definition and exposition of the doctrine of Inspiration, Fiske was associated with the Reverend F. H. Hedge, a Unitarian; the Reverend E. A. Washburn, a Congregationalist; the Reverend Chauncey Giles, a Swedenborgian; the Reverend J. P. Newman,' an Episcopalian; and the Most Reverend J. Gibbons, Archbishop of Baltimore. This symposium may be said to have consisted of two broad divisions — a theological division, wherein the five clerical disputants each presented his views from his particular theological viewpoint; and a philosophic division, wherein Fiske alone presented views from the viewpoint of philo sophic rationalism. This discussion, in which one of the fundamental tenets of Christian theology was involved, can be heartily commended to the earnest seeker of truth, by reason of its complete freedom from sectarian bitterness and intolerance. Fiske's contribution has all the" characteristics of his reverent thought, as well as all the marks of his simple, lucid style. As the whole discussion centred around the dogma of the special Divine inspira tion of the Bible, the last paragraph in Fiske's con tribution reveals his own thought on this point: — 99 John Fiske "A sad incumbrance [a belief in the spedal In spiration of the Bible] it certainly is, to any one who truly loves and reveres the Bible. To make a fetich of the best of books does not, after all, seem to be the most reverent way of treating it. Take away the discredited hypothesis of infallibility, and the errors of statement and crudities of doctrine at once become of no consequence and cease to occupy the attention. It no longer seems worth while to write puerile essays to show that the Elohlst was versed in all the conclusions of modern geology, or that the books of Kings and Chronicles tell the same story. The spiritual import of this wonderful col lection of writings becomes its most prominent aspect; and, freed from the exigencies of a crude philosophy and an inane criticism, the Bible be comes once more the book of mankind." I have referred to the essay, "The Unseen World," as showing a clear development of Fiske's thought beyond the limits of mere experiential knowledge — beyond the realm of science. This essay is, indeed, a remarkable one, and it has never received the attention it deserves. I know of no other article or essay In which the ultimate ques tions of science and religion, and their philosophic interrelatedness, are more distinctly set forth than in this. It marks the culminating period in the development of Fiske's philosophic thought; and hence, hereafter, we are to see him placing an ever- increasing emphasis upon the spiritual aspects of human life. 100 The Unseen World This essay was called forth by the publication of "The Unseen Universe," a work which was the joint production of two eminent physicists. Pro fessors Balfour Stewart and P. G. Tait — a work which, as we have seen, Huxley characterized as "gross materialism"; and in which an attempt was made to establish, in the light of the nebular hy pothesis and the Helmholtz and Thomson vortex- atom theory of matter, the doctrine or theory of man's spiritual immortality as an outcome from pure physical materialism. Fiske reviewed in a masterly way the whole argument; and, while ad mitting that man's physical existence was wholly conditioned by his physical environment, he con tended that his psychical experience or life was not so conditioned. While emphatically denying the proposition that a spiritual existence could in any way be a product of physical phenomena, he ad vanced the Idea that man's immortal spiritual existence might be an unknown evolution of his cosmic psychical experience, freed from its physical environment. He then propounded this question. Can there not be^within the cosmos a spiritual world or a spirit ual form of existence transcending the physical phenomena of the cosmos as we know the latter? He answered this question with the distinct affirma tions of science, that while man's knowledge of cosmic phenomena gives no evidence of the exist ence of psychical or spiritual existence independent IOI John Fiske of physical phenomena, man's knowledge of cosmic phenomena is so very limited that it can be no measure of the possibilities within the cosmos, much less of the resources of the Infinite Unknowable Power which created and sustains it. Such being the affirmations of science, Fiske then propounded this further question. Does the failure to establish within the limits of our cosmic experi ence a form of spiritual life, transcending our physi cal cosmic existence, raise the slightest presumption against the validity of such a form of spiritual exist ence? His answer was most emphatic that it does not; that in a case of such transcendent importance "the entire absence of testimony does not raise a negative presumption except In cases where testi mony is accessible" — in short, that the burden of proof lies on the negative side. With these affirma tions he then enforces his argument for man's spirit ual Immortality with great skill, by presenting the cosmic universe as a vast theatre wherein is dis played a mighty teleological purpose, and one which has a profound meaning for the ever-expanding mind of man. He closes this most significant essay with the following inspiring expression of his own reverent feeling and his sublime faith : — "There could be no better illustration of how we are hemmed in (in this cosmic existence) than the very inadequacy of the words with which we try to discuss this subject. Such words have all gained their meanings from human experience, and hence 102 The Unseen World of necessity carry anthropomorphic implications. But we cannot help this. We must think with the symbols with which experience has furnished us; and when we so think, there does seem to be little that is even intellectually satisfying in the awful picture which science shows us, of giant worlds con centrating out of nebulous vapour, developing with prodigious waste of energy Into theatres of all that is grand and sacred in spiritual endeavour, clashing and exploding again into dead vapour-balls, only to renew the same toilful process without end — a senseless bubble-play of Titan forces, with life, love, and aspiration brought forth* only to be extinguished. The human mind , however ' scientific ' its training, must often recoil from the conclusion that this is all ; and there are moments when one passionately feels that this cannot be all. On warm June mornings. In green country lanes, with sweet pine odours wafted in the breeze which sighs through the branches, and cloud-shadows flitting over far-off blue mountains, while little birds sing their love-songs and golden- haired children weave garlands of wild roses ; ^ or when in the solemn twilight we listen to wondrous harmonies of Beethoven and Chopin that stir the heart like voices from an unseen world; at such ' In a letter from Fiske to his mother of June 19, 1876, he makes reference to this wonderfully beautiful passage in a way which iden tifies it with a personal experience with two of his children in Peters ham on an anniversary of his mother's birthday; and this reference is accompanied by an expression of filial aflfection akin to the occa sion. He writes: — "To-morrow will be your birthday, and the anniversary of the heavenly Sunday morning with Harold and Ethel in Sunset Lane, Petersham, to which I allude on page 56 of The Unseen World, In the language of little Ethel may the 'woad ' never be ' wutty ' for you from this time." 103 John Fiske times one feels that the profoundest answer which science can give to our questioning is but a super ficial answer after all. At these moments, when the world seems fullest of beauty, one feels most strongly that it is but the harbinger of something else — that the ceaseless play of phenomena Is no mere sport of Titans, but an orderly scene, with its reason for existing in '"One f ar-oflf divine event To which the whole creation moves.'" With this declaration of the foundations of his religious faith, we now pass to an entirely new chapter In the life of Fiske. Henceforth we are to see him engaged in presenting and interpreting the facts of American history. While engaged in this great work, we shall see him, as special occasions arise, turning from his particular work in hand to set forth, in essays remarkable for their clearness, beauty, and force, his more mature conceptions of nature, man, and God, as the philosophy of Evolu tion ripened in his mind. CHAPTER XXIV BEGINS HISTORIC WORK — LECTURES AT OLD SOUTH CHURCH — ARRANGES TO REPEAT LECTURES IN LONDON — GREETINGS ON REACHING LONDON — GREAT SUCCESS WITH HIS LECTURES — SOCIAL COURTESIES — MEMORABLE EXCURSIONS AND CONVERSATIONS — PLANS WITH HUXLEY COURSE OF LECTURES FOR ROYAL INSTITUTION — GIVES A PUNCH PARTY — ELECTED OVERSEER AT HAR VARD COLLEGE 1879 The entrance of Fiske upon his career as an Ameri can historian was marked by a brilliant literary and oratorical success. His course of six lectures on "America's Place in History" was opened at the Old South Church in Boston on the loth of March, \ 1879, where he was met by as fine an audience as was ever assembled in Boston, an audience which entirely filled the church, and which greeted him with an unmistakable expression of appreciative good- will. The title of the lecture was "The Era of < Maritime Discovery," and it covered sketches of the voyages of the Northmen; of the attempts to reach India by sea; of Henry the Navigator; and of the voyages of Columbus, Da Gama, Vespucci, Magellan, and Cook. The theme, the place, and the audience were inspiring. 105 John Fiske Fiske was himself in fine form. He was in perfect health, and at the full maturity of his powers. In his personal appearance and bearing he was the personification of a rare combination of physical and intellectual power, with an entire absence of_ egoistic self-consciousness." Feeling a deep interest in the occasion I took a seat where I could observe critically both the speaker and the audience. After rising, Fiske paused a moment to survey his audi ence; and when he had attention at full focus he said, in clear tones, and in a simple, conversational way: "The voyage of Columbus was in many re spects the most important event in human history since the birth of Christ." He then paused a bit. The momentary effect upon the audience — the attempt to grasp its significance — was clearly perceptible. Observe the immense connotative sug gestiveness of this simple sentence. Brief, senten tious as it was, it threw a momentary searchHght over the whole period of Christian history, and was a clear intimation that a master mind had corae to give a philosophic interpretation to the events which had flowed from the memorable voyage of Columbus from the port of Palos on the 3d of , August, 1492. " This bold challenge, as it were, to much historic opinion at once drew every eye intentiy to the speaker. Then, as the story of the Northmen, with their visits to Greenland and Massachusetts, and their failure to make any impression upon the 106 Lectures on American History European mind of their time by their adventures, was briefly sketched, followed by a' luminous sur vey of European civilization from the tenth to the fifteenth centuries, with the contests with the Sara cens, the crusades, and the spirit of romantic adven ture as shown In attempts to reach India by sea — all culminating in the voyages of Columbus and his followers, It was clearly apparent, from the eager, interested faces of the audience, that Fiske's hear ers were yielding themselves without reserve to the wonderful story, the story of a great historic move ment embellished with such historic and philosophi cal side-lights as gave to the movement itself a clear meaning and purpose in the development of hu manity. In fact, it was clearly perceived in this first lecture that American history was to be presented, not as an unrelated historic incident, but rather as a legitimate development out of antecedent history, with immense significance to the future develop ment of man's social and political institutions. Fiske's bearing throughout the lecture was a model of effective simplicity. There was not the slightest indication of conscious oratorical effort. He simply read from his manuscript with distinct enunciation and with perfect ease, and with such modulations of voice as the theme or flow of thought required. Thus anything like a monoto nous tone was avoided. He made no gestures of any kind whatever; in short, his delivery was that of simple, unaffected reading, so free from all self- 107 John Fiske consciousness that his hearers took in the full sig nificance of his thought without the slightest con sideration of his manner of expressing it — the highest effect of eloquence. When the lecture was over, he received such ex pressions of approval from his audience as to re move all doubts as to his ability to interest the American people in the subect of their own history. Writing the next day to his mother with reference to the lecture he says: — "The audience was the very cream of Boston, the enthusiasm prodigious, the success complete. Everybody says I went miles ahead of anything I had ever done before. The people were enthusiastic to a great degree." The second lecture was given March 17, 1879; and, as Fiske gave his mother the same day a graphic account of the circumstances attending its delivery, together with a frank statement of his feelings during its delivery, the following extract from his letter is of psychologic as well as of general interest: — "My second lecture to-day was on the 'Spanish and French Explorers and Colonists in America': the Huguenot colony in Florida, and its horrible destruction by the Spaniards in 1565; Samuel de Champlain and the discovery of the great lakes and the founding of Canada; La Salle and his heroic adventures and the founding of Louisiana and the discovery of the Great West — a splendid and glow ing theme. 108 Marked Success "This was the worst of nasty March days — pelting snow, slush up to your knees, dark as Egypt — a day when ordinarily nothing would have tempted me to leave the house. But the Old South Church was packed full of the very best of Boston, in spite of the weather. I felt every pulse quickened by this fact, and they say I was so elo quent as to seem almost like a new man. The applause was great. I felt the sense of having the people drinking in every word and tone with hushed breath and keen relish. Half unconsciously I deepened and Intensified my voice and began to lose myself in the theme, with which I was greatly fascinated myself. I had a sort of sense that I was fascinating the people and it was delicious beyond expression. They who first engaged me to give this course of lectures are emphatic In their delight. One old white-haired gentleman came up and warmly grasped my hand, and said he must thank me for 'an enchanted hour which he should never forget.' "This thing takes the people, you see: they un derstand and feel it all, as they can't when I lecture on abstract things. The fame of it is going about briskly; and I believe I shall get full houses all over the country. The Centennial has started it, and I have started in at the right time." The subsequent lectures were: "The stmggle between France and England"; "The Thirteen Engllsh'Colonies " ; " Causes of the American Rev olution"; "The Manifest Destiny of the English Race." Public interest in these lectures deepened to the very end. The last one particularly, in the summlng- 109 John Fiske up of the whole argument and in the presentation of the Anglo-American ideas of local self-government combined with federation, as destined to be domi nant factors in the future development of the politi cal organizations of the world, was not only a master piece of historic generalization; it was also a logical application of the doctrine of Evolution to the de veloping interests of humanity. Never before had America's place in universal history been pre sented from such a comprehensive viewpoint, or with such a wealth of historic knowledge combined with philosophic insight. In very truth, these lec tures not only gave a new valuation to American history; they were also a delightful prelude to what was yet to come through Fiske's detailed presenta tion of the leading features of this great historic movement of the nations to the western world. The success of the lectures in Boston weis so com plete that applications for their delivery in other places were numerous; but, as the lecture season in America was fairly over, while the season for lectur ing in London was just on, Fiske was strongly ad- viised to repeat the lectures at once in London if suitable arrangements for their delivery there could be made. An urgent adviser of the London project was Mrs. Mary Hemenway, whose foresight and liberal public spirit had saved the Old South Church from commercial vandalism and had made it a not able centre for instruction in American history and in good citizenship. Mrs. Hemenway had taken an no To Repeat Lectures in London active part in procuring the lectures, and she was so greatly pleased with the outcome that she wanted the course delivered throughout the coun try. To this end, feeling confident that the lectures would be warmly received in England, she urged their delivery there as a substantial aid in stimulat ing a widespread demand for their delivery in the United States; and she was ready to contribute lib erally to the venture. Accordingly, Fiske wrote to his friends Huxley, Moncure Conway, and James Sime, giving them a synopsis of the course and an account of its great success in Boston, and telling them that if a suitable place for the delivery of the course could be had in London, with the probability of a good audience during the coming month of June, he would come over and give the lectures there. He asked them to take counsel together and. If they were in agree ment that the scheme was practicable and wise, simply to cable him "Come." There was no delay. These friends at once took counsel, and they were agreed that a good audi ence could be secured; whereupon Huxley said that one of the theatres or lecture halls of University College could be had for the lectures. This settled the matter, and Fiske therefore had not long to wait beyond the arrival of his letters in London be fore he received a cablegram, "Come," signed by his three friends. Fiske hastily made preparations for a two III John Fiske months' absence, and on the 24th of May, 1879, he set sail for Liverpool in the Cunard steamer Samaria. Fiske was eleven days at sea — the Samaria was then regarded as a good boat — and during this time he wrote a letter of eight letter-sheet pages to Mrs. Fiske, which is such a revealer of his innermost hu man nature, his abounding enjoyment of physical existence, his keen appreciation of the sublime beau ties of the sea, his comradery in adapting him self agreeably to all sorts and conditions of people, and above all his intense affection for his wife and his children, that I wish there was space for the whole letter. But in view of what Is directly before us in the way of his epistolary productions, space can be given to but a few extracts. The haste with which he had prepared himself for his trip had taxed his strength to the utmost, so that when he found himself aboard ship he gave up the first three or four days principally to sleep ing. From this period he came forth wholly re freshed, and we have the following graphic account of his sensible experiences: — "Tell you what, when Hezzy goes in for sleep he can do It up brown! Dr. Means thinks I must have a mighty clear conscience!!! Consequence is I feel exactly like a youthful hart or roe a-scamperIn' over the hills where spices grow, only I hope those hills don't smell like this Araby-blest of a ship. If it was n't for the bilge-water and the machine-oil and 112 Keen Enjoyment ofthe Sea the cooking of the fish, perhaps a ship's odors would n't be so wondrously composite. The ' saloon ' or mess-room, bress de Lor', is, however, tolerably sweet, having large windows each side so we can eat in comfort." And here is a relishing description of a dish for a Sunday dinner: — " These old Englishmen know how to set a liberal table. The Cap'n is a mighty jolly old bird — face as red as a biled lobster and as fat as Mr. Weller senior. To-day he offered us an old English dish, not aristocratic now-a-days, but suthin' like Boston pork-and-beans — -a good Sunday dish. To-wit: ' Corned leg of pork and pease pudding' ! It did n't sound particularly inviting, but when it came on table the sight of it would have whetted the appe tite of even the sourest dyspeptic. It looked like a superb Deerfoot ham of colossal proportions, In the midst of a puree of something awfully savory and good. In short, It was a giant ham just pickled, or corned a little, without any smoking; covered with crumbs and delightfully singed ; and the bed it re posed in was made of dried peas cooked in such manner as much to resemble a mess of baked beans, only far more delicate. The whole thing was crisped over most beautifully; and, garnished with a few herbs it looked like a very poem of a Sunday dish — as indeed it was. You can't imagine how delicious it was; or, rather, I hope you can imagine it after the above pellucid description." And then he could be companionable in various ways: — "3 John Fiske "The first day (Saturday) at dinner, Hezzy took occasion to make a neat little speech a propos of the Queen's birthday and to propose her health — which seemed to please the officers considerably — (the captain, doctor, and three other officers were at the table) and the doctor ordered up an excellent bottle of port and passed it around. At an early stage in the voyage Hezekiah, being known as the author of 'Myths and Mythmakers,' was called on for a fairy-tale and he had togive forth the ' In vincible Pounder,' the ' Useless Waggoner,' the ' Sol dier and the Warlock,' and Lord knows how much other stuff, including ' Old Misery and her Pear- tree.'" Of his keen enjoyment of the sea he writes: — "Yesterday no overcoat at all was needed. To day it has been somewhat colder: — 58° this after noon with gorgeous sunshine and sea of azure sprinkled with diamonds. I don't see how people can call the sea monotonous, I could sit and watch its changing moods forever and be happy, — and it is always changing, always full of life and joy. Even when the black black waves toss up their snowy crests with savage laugh, I feel something within me that responds to the demon in them, and all my veins tingle as the blood flows faster. O, I love the sea!" But supreme over all his shipboard experiences — in fact, permeating them all as a delightful fla vor — are his remembrances of his wife and his children. And he gives expression to his feelings thus : — 114 Welcomed to England Again " Six years ago to-day — Sunday, June i, 1873 — I went to Spy Pond with Tick (Maud) and Bari (Harold) and Lacry (Clarence); and we went out in a boat, but it was too windy to row comfortably and so we adjourned to the grove to swing. Ask them all if they " Mer ember it." Bless their dear lit tle hearts! Papa is awfully homesick to see them already. Don't you be slow in sending me the "pickerwows," — of yourself and of each of the little ones; that Is to say three of every one of you; and send them awful quick — just as soon as possible. Hezzy can't stand it without 'em." And on Tuesday, June 3, 1879, he closes his letter thus : — "The lovely coast of ould Ireland Is before us in all its soft beauty, with cloud-shadows on its purple hills and velvet green fields — all in the glory of a perfect summer day, O, how beautiful! "Votre Belzy," Fiske reached Liverpool at ten o'clock the even ing of June 4, 1879, and he went directly to the Adelphi Hotel, where he found letters from Huxley and Sime, in which they gave him a cordial welcome to England again, and also advised him of the ar rangements that had been made for the delivery of his lectures in London. He was perfectly satisfied with the arrangements, and his state of mind and his movements are given in a letter he wrote Mrs. Fiske the next morning: — "Am perfectly mad with joy at setting foot again on the shores of old England: it seems like Para- "5 John Fiske dise. Was just sitting down to a delicious supper of broiled kidneys, crisp bacon, hot toast and bitter beer about ii p.m. last evening, when in walked Henry Holt." The unexpected meeting between the two friends was a most cordial one, and although Fiske had already planned his trip up to London via Chester and Oxford, he gladly put his own plan aside to join Holt and his friend, William Henry Fuller, on a side-excursion they had planned to Coven try, Kenilworth, Warwick, and Stratford-on-Avon. From Fiske's account of this excursion, written at Oxford, June 6, 1879, the following extracts are taken : — "After dinner at 8 p.m. (Coventry, June 5th, 1879) we started on the most ravishingly beautiful walk on the globe — we started afoot for Kenil worth, sending our bags by a deliciously green rustic with his old wheelbarrow — it is a five-mile road, and sublimity would be no name for it. The road is as smooth as a floor, under giant elms and sycamores overarching the whole way, with mediaeval houses loaded with ivy every now and then. But that does n't tell the road to you, and you'll have to wait till you and I do it together. In this ravishingly soft air I believe even you could walk five miles. It was a scene worthy of Eden. At 10 — twilight, you know — we turned in among the quaint mediaeval streets of Kenilworth, and after some groping found our deliciously green rustic at the King's Arms with all our luggage safe and sound. 116 Kenilworth and Stratford " Got up this morning at 8 and found it raining, which disconcerted my two boys, who were inclined to quit all and go to London. However, I got 'em to go out and see Kenilworth Castle;^ and then I tugged 'em on to Stratford and we did the whole thing and dined at the Red Horse. I was glad to see the dear old town again, and at the church I found the organist — a warm friend of my old fellow- traveller In Italy — John Adkins — and I gave him a syllabus of my lectures with my card and com pliments to Mr. Adkins. The organist was very pleasant, and said Mr. Adkins had a fine estate in the neighborhood and would show me real old English hospitality if I would look in. Perhaps I may, on my way to visit Derbyshire which I'm bound to see." Fiske's engagements necessitated his being in London the next day, Saturday, June 7. Accord ingly, after dining with his friends Holt and Fuller at the Red Horse Inn, Stratford, he was obliged to leave them to jog their leisurely way up to London, while he pushed on to Oxford for the night in order to catch an early morning train. From this time on, Fiske has given In his letters to Mrs. Fiske such a detailed account of his experi ences during this memorable visit to London, that anything interrupting their genial flow would be of the nature of impertinent supererogation. He ^ As a great lover of Scott, the ruins of Kenilworth Castle had a deep interest for Fiske. He got several photographs of the ruins, and the absence of any expression of sentimental feeling in his letter is accounted for by his haste. 117 John Fiske is left, therefore, to tell his story in his own way, with a note here and there in the way of explana tion. As these letters, in connection with the letters giving an account of his previous visit, will doubt less receive much attention, not only as revelations of the many-sidedness of Fiske's intellectual make up, but also as valuable contributions to the bi ographical literature of the time through the glimpses they give of a number of eminent per sonages, one point should be borne in mind In the reading of them — they were written without thought of publication, and that fact gives them their charm. We have frequently had occasion to observe how completely his whole intellectual life was permeated with his domestic affections. In these letters this trait in his character comes out in a little more emphatic way than we have had occasion to observe it before: particularly in his descriptions of his own performances and their effect upon his audience. In the very graphic de scriptions he gives of his own feelings and of the honors bestowed upon him, it should be considered that in his own mind these honors and tributes were not wholly his, were things to be shared with his family, — particularly with his wife and mother, — and hence we have throughout the letters that tone of generous self -revealing frankness which Is so de lightful, and which is the farthest possible remove from selfish egoism. ii8 Second Visit to London On reaching London, Fiske sent postal cards every few days, in which he announced his arrival and gave his general movements. June 23d he took up, in a sort of diaristic form, the story of his visit from the time of his leaving Oxford. 9 Bedford Place, Bloomsbury, London, June 23, 1879. I was so tired when I got to Oxford that I slept over the first train, and did n't start till 12.25, but we reached London (63 miles) at 1.50. At West- bourne Park there Is a junction with the " under ground," so I changed cars and whizzed through the bowels of the earth to Marlborough Road, left my bag at the station and walked with strange emo tions through the well known streets leading to Marlborough Place. As I approached the gate a hansom stopped at It, and out got Mrs. Huxley and Madge! They looked with surprise at the sudden apparition, and then there was a very warm greet ing: told 'em I could n't wait and so had come straight from the cars, which seemed to gratify 'em. Went In and had a delightful lunch with them and Jessie's husband, but was too happy to eat. I could only sit and look at them, and did n't care to say much either. They were both amused and pleased at my beatific state of mind, and Madge gave me a great shake of the hand,'^and said she could n't tell how glad she was to see me; and added "O, I am going to be married, you know!" She showed me a bushel of drawings, etchings, water-colors &c. — you know she draws and paints beautifully — and we had a lovely two hours. The others were not at home. 119 John Fiske Took a cab, got my bag, and went to Bowles's. Came on to rain pitchforks, and I must get lodgings before night so as to make a good toilet for Sunday. Cudgelled my brains a spell, but could n't seem to make any part of London seem like home so much as Bloomsbury: — happy thought, — get my old rooms at 67 Great Russell Street. Hezzy is a real cat, you know, when it comes to the garret-ques tion. Alas ! vicissitudes do occur even in conserva tive London. My pretty landlady and her silly "Alfred" had vanished, clean gone, busted, bank rupted, and moved "down into the country some where." In their place was a horrid old beldame who said I could have the rooms by July 1st, but not before. I looked across at the majestic British Museum, heaved a sigh and came around the comer to I Bedford Place, where I had roomed In May, 1874. All full, but could warmly recommend No. 9. Ancient maiden lady, very kindly, rather proud, and fond of literary people; knows Ralston, and several opera singers! Her papa, an old doctor, deaf as an adder; tries now and then to make a littie conversation, but gives it up ; pats me on the back and nods approvingly, to show that he thinks I 'm falr-to-middlin'. Dogmatic semi-gentlemanly gent, with long auburn beard, and terremenjuously fat wife covered with furbelows, who laughs all the time, misplaces her h's, knows Ruskin, and says stupid things, Invariably getting condign punish ment in the shape of a sarcastic comment from the dogmatic semi-gentlemanly gent. Homely ajid very gentle old maid, dark complexioned and wears aw fully unbecoming blue ribbons, extremely refined in manners, plays Mozart's and Beethoven's sonatas 120 Second Visit to London all day long — and plays 'em very well indeed, on a diabolical old piano. Such, my dear, are the inhabitants of this abode of faded gentility. Terms : For one front room up three flights with boots, candles, attendance, and break fasts twenty nine shillings a week = $6.96 or say one dollar a day! All right: I liked the room and the terms and the Inmates, as far as described, and concluded the bargain and by seven p.m. was in stalled, trunk, bag, and all. Felt very faint and tired ; walked to the Horse-Shoe, and got a steak and some lentils. This tavern now professes to concoct "American drinks" and I enclose the printed list, which I think will amuse you: it shows how J. Bull exaggerates an American-Ism when he once gets hold of it.^ Feeling now revived I cabbed it five miles to SIme's, and did n't I get a good hearty Scotch reception! They could n't shake my hands enough. SIme's brother was there with his wife, so there were a jolly party of us. At 10 o'clock we had supper — veal-and-ham pie, "garden sass" of some kind, cheese and biscuits, Scotch ale and old sherry; and pipes afterwards. Staid till 12.30 and was al most too happy to live. Next day (Sunday) went to Conway's at Ham mersmith — a pretty villa surrounded by a beau tiful garden — to two o'clock dinner. A young painter was there named Bloomer — a Californian. I like his work. Also Mr. and Mrs. Ernestine L. Rose, and Miss Sara Hennell. Miss Hennell Is an old lady about seventy, of most angelic beauty and loveliness: she has the face of a saint: her hair is snow-white and soft as silk: she is a perfect " vision • I regret that this list has disappeared. 121 Joh. in Fiske of loveliness"; her features are purely Greek and exquisite in every outline; eyes deep violet blue with long lashes, — O, Isn't she a beauty! Mrs. Rose is a handsome old lady too. Miss Hennell knew my books well and professed herself delighted to see me.i At six I took the underground to Huxley's and found the good old fellow himself and all the babies. Babies! Good Lord! Nettie and Rachel are as tall as Seringapatam, and Leonard is as tall as I am! The celebrated painter Alma- Tadema and his wife were there. We had a glorious time, and a good "tall tea"; but Hezzy was too happy to eat. Hezzy played piano to the crowd. At ten Huxley took me Into his study, and we had a cozy smoke and talk till 12, when I hansomed home — about three miles and a half. Monday: June 9: Huxley gave me a letter to the principal draughtsman of the Geological Survey, requesting him to get my map for my lectures mounted with all possible speed; and so Monday morning I visited the Royal Concern in Jermyn St. and they took the matter in hand (and had it ready in time). Lunched on a small steak and cucumber-salad at the Vienna Beer Hall. Called at Trubner's shop, but he had gone to Worthing. Took the underground at Blackfriars, and flew to Bayswater and picked up Sime and we cabbed to Conway's where we found a lot of pretty girls and Baron Ernst de Bunsen, son of Bunsen's Egypt, you know. An immensely learned and amiable old fel low, like his papa. He found out that I knew some- ' Miss Hennell was the author of a work significant of the time, entitled Present Religion. Fiske made a notable extract from this work in summing up his argument in his Outlines of Cosmic PhUoso phy (vol. II, p. 503). 122 Social Courtesies thing about the Assyrian language and held me so that I had n't time to talk to any of the pretty girls, which Sime had 'em all to himself, which I envied him and mused upon the unequal way in which Providence distributes its good things. Entr'act. [Two o'clock to-day, June 23: out for a little walk: went behind Great Russell St. and looked at old Bloomsbury clock, which I used to hear in bed years ago and wonder if I ever should get back to my dear ones. Recollected that the ale at the Pied Bull used to seem superior to anything else in London; wondered if it would seem as delicious now, and stepped in. It was just as good; but there was nothing fit to eat but a pork-pie, so I strolled on past where the Cock-a-doodle-doo used to wake me mornings here in the very heart of London. Dear old roosters, they're all dead and gone! — been "served" with sausage and bread- sauce, no doubt. Kept on to the Horse-Shoe and ate a small steak smothered with lentils and now return refreshed to my egotisti-graphical essay.] To continue, Monday, June 9. Sime and I staid to dinner at Conway's and at 9 o'clock went to Macmillan's In Covent Garden. He used to live over his shop when he was young, and now has large parlours there, where he gives receptions in the "Season." It is more convenient than to have people go out to his "Castle" at Upper Tooting. It was truly a stupendous affair. I went quite un invited, knowing that I would be welcome. There were at least 400 people there I should think. What did the bonny old boy do but throw his arms about my neck and hug me like a grizzly bear (!!!) and then step off a bit and hold me at arms-length, and 123 John Fiske scan me from head to foot, and then exclaim with a broad grin, "And was't na a naughta bay, 't wad eoom awver all the way to Englund, and wadna wrait me a lun ta tell me that a was coomin?" I began to apologize on account of the sudden ness, etc. ; but the old fellow hit me an awful thump between my shoulder-blades and said, "De'il take it, mon : I shall have ta forgie ye, for ye 're sach a gude bay." Then he introduced me to a lot of ce lebrities; Dr. Crich ton-Browne, Dr. Lauder-Brun- ton, Maudesley, Charlton-Bastian, Edmund About, and a lot of others. They had all read " Cosmic Philosophy" and all flocked around me and said the prettiest things you could ever imagine ! I said aside to Sime that I was surprised to find all these people knowing me so well. "My dear boy," said Sime, "your ' Cosmic Philosophy' at once gave you a place in England among the greatest thinkers and writers of the age, and you must expect to be treated accordingly while you are here." Dr. Lauder-Brunton said he felt that he owed more to me than to any other man living, and said a lot of other pretty things, and enlarged upon my "beau tiful style," etc. "Yes," said Dr. Fothergill, "he is as great a poet as philosopher," — and forth with he recited a whole page from memory verbatim from "Cosmic Philosophy" to prove his point — which showed that at any rate, he must have been sincere. By Jove, how they did pile it on ! About this time Macmillan came up and said: " Fiske, here's Glaadstane a-askln' ta be antradooced ta ye," and so I turned around and had a very pleasant chat with Gladstone, chiefly about Rus sia. I told him I was Mrs. Stoughton's son, and he 124 Social Courtesies recollected my mother very well and told me how charming she was, and was surprised that she had such an elephant of a boy — though he did n't use just that expression. Well, we had a high old p.m. Tuesday, loth June, 1879. Loafed about Covent Garden and lunched at Evans's — celebrated by Thackeray — on a chop and ale. Walked through Mayfair till tired and took cab to Queen's Gar dens, Bayswater, but Spencer was out of town. Had been wondering every day where "Fiske" was and why he did n't turn up ! Had tried to keep a room in the house for me, but I did n't come and somebody else did and finally Miss Sheckel let it. Sat down and had a pleasant chat with the Misses Sheckel, told 'em I would come Saturday to lunch at I, and strolled off through Kensington Gardens. The day was perfect, — sunny and clear, with a cool, fresh breeze. Giant elms and beeches, velvet grass, herds of sheep, nurses with baby-carriages, the beautiful Serpentine River gleaming between the trees, hawthorns pink and white, in full blos som, yellow laburnums, purple wisteria, moun tains of rhododendrons — as soft and exquisite a scene of beauty as ever fell upon human eye. O how I wished I had you, and Maudie, and Bari, and Lacry, and Waffie, and Offei and 'ittle 'erbert 'uxley! Dined at Vienna Beer Hall and cabbed to Alfred Place; wound up the stone stairs and through the dusky passage, opened the door, and there In his dingy den, buried up among tons of books and papers was my good old Ralston! Another happy meeting and furious handshaking : pipes were lighted and our tongues ran hard till midnight. 125 John Fiske Wednesday, June ii, 1879. Anniversary of the day when I first met you, my angel, on the veran dah at Miss Upham's,^ and instantly made up my mind to marry you if you would consent. First lecture at University College. The room or theatre had been granted at once on Huxley's request. Too late for Royal Institution. Sir Frederick Pollock, Vice President of the Royal Institution, said he was mighty sorry he had not known of my lectures earlier, he would then have had them there. Huxley then decided for the University Col lege, as the next best place to the Royal Institution. Huxley says we will try to make some plan for the Royal Institution next year and this will open the door to all the other lecture places in Great Britain. We are hatching a plan in which you are included ; and if you come you can't imagine what a lovely greeting you'll get. There are two "theatres" at the London Uni versity College. Huxley chose the smaller one, seating about 400, for he said that would be a large audience for London any way. J. Bull Is not such a lecture-going animal as the Yankee. Huxley did n't think I would get a room full no matter how good the lectures might be. Conway was sanguine enough to predict at least 200. All agreed that to fill the room, at such short notice, would be enough of a success to produce famous results, — much more than one could reasonably expect. Well, my dear, you may believe I was nervous beyond my wont. I felt sick all Wednesday fore noon, and all unstrung with anxiety. I feared there would n't be 50 people. If there had been a small > See ante, vol. i, p. 244. 126 Great Success of Lectures audience I should have been disheartened, and should have made a poor appearance. At lo a.m. the sky grew black and all London was dark: a gloomier day I never saw. At ii down came the rain in torrents, pouring like an American rain of the most determined kind. The streets ran in riv ulets: you needed an India-rubber overcoat and overshoes; I never saw it rain so hard before in London; and at 2.30, when I got to the lecture room, it was still pouring in bucketfuls, and I was so unhappy I could hardly keep from tears. Two young American girls were in the room — not another soul till 2.50. O dear, thought I, what if I should have no audience but these two young girls! All at once came a rattle of hansom cabs and in poured the people ! Within five minutes In came two hundred ; and did n't my heart beat with glad ness! Then entered Huxley, and the two hundred applauded! Then Sime, and Conway, and Ral ston, and Baron Bunsen, and so on till by 3.05 the room was full — a good four hundred, I should say: hardly any space left. My spirits rose to the boil ing-point. When I got up I was greeted with loud applause, and I forgot there ever was any such ani mal as John Fiske, and went to work with a gusto. I must have outdone myself entirely; I was inter rupted every few minutes with applause, at re marks which we should n't notice in America; but which seemed to hit them here most forcibly. When I got through they applauded so long, I had to get up and make a bow; and then they went at it again, till I had to get up again and say that I was very much pleased and gratified by their kind sympathy ; 127 John Fiske and then I had a third long round of applause with cheers and "Bravos." Up came Huxley and squeezed my hand and said, "My dear Fiske, you have gone beyond anything you could have expected: do you know you have had the very cream of London to hear you!" Sime came up and said, "My dear boy, I can't tell you how delighted I am: you have entranced us all." Baron Bunsen said, - " I am happy to have de honour of hear so beautiful discourse: accept my most warm congratulashon'. You do please dese London people most extremely." Ralston said, "Fiske, I wish you could bite some of our public speakers and Infect them with some of your elo quence!" Henry Holt was there and he said, "Fact is, John, you have conquered your audience this time. I am glad I was here; these things don't come to a man often." Henry Stevens, the anti quarian, said, "I say, young man, you can give these lectures in every town in England and Scot land, — did you know it?" Well, my dear, I felt quite jubilant, naturally enough — and so to keep the blessed anniversary of the day when first we two did meet, I sent you my brief telegram, "Glorious," which I thought you would understand in the main, and immediately transmit to my mother and my fairy godmother.^ Then we — that is, Holt and I — went to Kettner' s for a grand skylark of a dinner. I led the way through the quaint dingy streets. When we got there I observed "Th^r^se Kettner" over the door, and — sure enough — good old Kettner, most gen ial and learned of cooks, is dead, and it is now his 1 Mrs. Hemenway. 128 Great Success of Lectures widow who keeps up the place. As for the "Book of the Table," all of the learning and most of the fun was really Kettner's own, but he did not write the EngUsh. Dallas — the author of the ' ' Gay Science," which you will probably find in the left-hand or street side of my bay-window alcove — wrote the book from Kettner's dictation and clothed Kett ner's thoughts in his own English. But all the thought was Kettner's own. We had a delicious dinner: — Mulligatawny soup, soles au vin blanc, fillet aux truffles, petits pois, a dainty vol-au-vent, pigeons, a wonderful salade de legumes, omelette sticrSe, fromage de Brie and cafe; with some chablis and champagne, winding up with cigars — quite an especial treat, you know, for this grand occasion. How was this for the eighteenth anniversary, my dear? Friday, June 13, 1879. Second lecture: fine day, and room packed; at least 80 or a 100 standing up in the aisles; huge applause. Huxley told me he thought I was making a really "tremendous hit" (those were his words, — "tremendous hit"), and that a great deal would come of it hereafter. " For my own part, my dear Fiske," he added, " I will frankly say that I have never before been so en chanted in all my life. Henceforth I shall tell all my friends that there is no subject so interesting as the early history of America." Those were Huxley's words. After the lecture I dined at the Arts Club with Sime, ahd we had a most delightful evening. Saturday, June 14, 1879. Called at Spencer's, expecting to find him at lunch. But he had reached home the night before, and had got off for the day, without getting my message from Miss Scheckel. 129 John Fiske I then went off to Hennessy's — the painter — and he invited me most cordially to come and make him a visit at his chdteau in Normandy — near Honfleur — and the temptation is great. I don't quite know yet whether I shall do it or not. Then I went to Simpson's Divan to dine : and there was my same old head-waiter to call out in nasal tones "Saddle o' mutton 15"; and the same old gray- headed servant wheeled up the little table with the saddle o' mutton on it and asked me if I was very hungry to-night. I said yes, awfully faint and ravenously hungry. "Well, sir, God bless ye, we '11 feed ye accordingly" — and so he dealed me out two " terremenjuous" slices of the richest mutton with summer cabbage (" 'Aha,' said Mr. Jobling, 'you are there, are you? Thank you, Guppy, I really don't know but what I will take summer cabbage'." 0 I got a heap of enjoyment out of that dinner and I don't think that even Delmonico could have produced the peer of that Southdown mutton ! Sunday, June 15, 1879. Dined: no, I must begin still earlier. I intended spending the morning writing to you, and mother and Mrs. Hemenway; but just as I got about ready to work Herbert Spencer called, and that broke up my whole A.M. Spencer was extremely jolly and friendly, and we had a most delightful and inspiriting talk of more than two hours. Then I had to go to dine at two o'clock with Henry Stevens the eccentric anti quary. He says I am to be invited to dine with the "citizens of Noviomagas" at the Star and Garter inn at Richmond early in July and shall be expected * See Dickens's Bleak House, chap. xx. 130 Notable Social Courtesies to make a big speech on account of my lectures now. O Lord! but I send you one of their droll pro grammes. Perhaps I may go and "sass" the Lord High as I did before, you know. Had a most jolly dinner with Stevens, who is very learned, and by no means a fool : and then we went to the Zoological Gardens together. "Tall tea" at the 'orrid 'uxleys. Mr. and Mrs. Lecky were there. I sat next Mrs. Lecky at table : she is delightful. Lord Arthur Russell was there with his wife.. I soon made friends with Lady Russell, who is a sweet and lovely lady, and we had a jolly chat. Lord Arthur said I must come to the Cosmopolitan club and see all the " folks.") Yes, my dear, the brother of the Duke of Bedford said " folks." Did n't I always tell you that " folks " was the best of English? In the course of conversation it turned out that Macmillan had forgotten to send Lord Arthur a copy of "Cosmic Philosophy"; but Lord Arthur said he should feel It a great honour to receive a copy even now, with my autograph if not too late. So I sent him a copy the next day and en close you his reply. At lo p.m. the Huxley affair terminated, and Lord and Lady Arthur Russell took me homeward in a four-wheeled cab. Reach ing their home Lady Russell got out and went in, saying that she hoped I would come and see her that we "might prolong this delightful talk." Lord Arthur continued with me to the Cosmopol itan Club. As we entered arm in arm, a most ele gant and beautiful old gentleman got up, with the loveliest smile, and took me by the hand. I did n't know him, but of course responded amiably, — as why should n't I, for I was perfectly bewitched with 131 John Fiske his grace of manner, surpassing anything I had ever before seen in this world. In all my life I had never seen any human being so completely, clothed with gracefulness as this suf)erb old gentleman. Be fore it had time to come to words, Lord Houghton rushed up, saying, "My dear Mr. Fiske, we are all delighted to see you again." Ditto Tom Hughes, and Lord Enfield, — and somebody else got hold of the delightful old gentleman and he went away. The delightful old gentleman was Earl Granville. I was afterwards introduced to him. Lord Enfield gave me a written request to come to the club while in London. Went home awfully homesick for my wife and little ones. Monday, June i6, 1879. Went to Spencer's, as of old, to lunch, and walked with him through Ken sington Gardens and Hyde Park. Dined at Kettner's with Holt and came home to bed at 9 o'clock. By this time Holt's friend Fuller had gone to Paris, and Holt being reduced to me, for comradeship, came up and took a room in this very house. Tuesday, June 17, 1879. Called at Macmillan's shop and proposed to him my new book of essays ("Darwinism and Other Essays"). He said if I would bring him the essays the next day he would look them over and let me know. Got on top of an omnibus with Holt, and traversed miles and miles of streets even to the Seven Sisters Road, near Finsbury Park. Returning lunched at the Angel at Islington, and "trammed" via City Road to Lud gate Hill, where we were most cordially greeted by Trubner. Mrs. Trubner's father, M. Octave Dele- pierre, is fatally ill, — will not live more than two or three months — but Mrs. Trubner had told her 132 Notable Social Courtesies husband that I must any way come to dinner infor mally; and so we arranged for the next Tuesday — Holt to come also. Dined alone at Kettner's, and went out to SIme's, and had a most happy evening. Wednesday, June 1 8, 1879. Carried my essays to Macmillan and found he had already decided to publish the book. He has not yet fully reimbursed himself on the "Cosmic Philosophy," but expects to, for he says my fame is growing all the time and he thinks people will be more "up to" the "Cos. Phil." ten years hence than now. Third lecture to day. It was as successful as the others. Spencer was there, and congratulated me warmly. After lecture went down by cars to Orpington in Kent and found Darwin's carriage awaiting me at the station.^ Drove four miles through exquisite 1 In his daily record Fiske appears to have omitted to mention the fact that soon after his arrival in London he sought an interview with Darwin, who responded with the following cordial invitation to visit him at his home at Down. »r J jr 77- t Down, June 10, 1879. My dear Mr. Fiske: — Would it suit you best to come here on the i8th either to luncheon, or to dinner, returning after breakfast next mormng — for we are not likely to be in London for some time? Pray do whichever suits your arrangements best. If you come for luncheon you must leave Charing Cross by the 11.25 train; if for dinner by the 4.12 train. If we can (but our house will be very full on most days for the next month) we will send to Orpington Station to meet you; but if we cannot send a carriage you must take a bus — distance four miles. I hope what I propose will be convenient to you and that we may have the pleasure of seeing you here. I remain Yours faithfully, Ch. Darwin. I have not been very well of late and am up to but small exertion of any kind. An artist, Mr. Richard, is coming here on the evening of the 18th, as he is making a portrait, but he is a pleasant man and I do not think you will dislike meeting him. 133 John Fiske English lanes (the air heavily scented with blos soms) to Darwin's house. Jolly place with lots of garden. George and Horace were there, and Mrs. Litchfield, and two or three Wedgwoods. The old man was as lovely as lovely could be. Nice dinner and smoke on verandah, and Miss Carrie Wedg wood played considerable Bach, Scarlatti, Schu mann, and Schubert on the grand piano. After wards grandpa and Hezzy got into a very abstruse discussion, and when the clock said ten, up came Mrs. Darwin and pointed with warning finger to the clock, and so grandpa said he must obey orders and trotted off to bed. I staid up till eleven and smoked another cigar with the boys. Breakfast at eight next morning. At ten Darwin was to sit for his por trait In his red Doctor-of-Laws gown, for the Uni versity of Cambridge. He put the gown on after breakfast, to the great glee of the little grandchil dren, and the merriment of all, as he stepped up on a chair to get a full view of himself in the mirror. At 9.30 George Darwin drove me to the station and went up to London with me, as he was to be made an F.R.S. that evening for some mathe matical discoveries. Met Holt and Spencer at the Athenaeum Club at eleven, and we went out by train to Richmond. Perfect summer day, bright sunlight, broken with flitting clouds, delightful cool breeze. I know where Adam and Eve lived before the Fall. It was on the Thames about a mile and three quarters above Richmond. Of course it was; for no other spot on earth smiles with such deli cious and entrancing beauty. We strolled up as far as Twickenham on one bank, and then were fer ried across in a fairy-hodX (pardon the pun : every- 134 A Delightful Excursion thing was fairy that day), and walked back on the other side. O, I thought, if I don't bring you here some day ! ! ! Being hungry we stopped at the Castle inn for lunch, and sat down at a cool table in an oriel window overhanging the beautiful river. Ex cellent chops, salad of cresses, cheese, and ale. Spencer insisted on paying the score and would n't let us: so we silently vowed revenge ! ! ! Walked up to the Park, and an itinerant photographer wanted to " take" us in a group. You can believe I should have liked to bring home such a souvenir; but Spencer gave signs of not wishing to be bored by itinerant business-chaps, and I did n't venture to propose a sitting. We roamed till seven p.m. through the lovely Park, (Richmond Park) now and then lounging under great beeches and oaks, telling stories, making jokes, philosophizing &c. All day long we listened to Spencer's rich bass voice and his rich brogue, with his heavy trill of the r quite equal to a Frenchman's, while he poured out Infinite store of wit and wisdom, and amazed us with his stupen dous knowledge and his wonderful keenness. He felt perfectly well and was in high spirits; I was in my highest feather. Holt carries a pedometer, and so we know that we walked 19 miles that heavenly day. As we came down a beautiful hill about 7 p.m. approaching some quaint houses under overarch ing elms and cedars of Lebanon, I asked what was this lovely place? "O, now," said Spencer, quite unconsciously, "now we're just in Petersham!" It came over me oddly, and somehow made the chokes come, and for several minutes I could think of nothing but my darlings. Fancy such a day, my dear; try to fancy such 135 John Fiske a day! — such a long, long, sunny, happy, sweet, delightful day. From the vision of red-gowned, white-haired Darwin, with his capering grand children in the morning, down to the vision of Spencer, Holt, and myself among the grand cedars at Petersham, in the evening, it seemed a full month, — so much life had I lived on that day of ecstatic bliss! Holt said he would cross the Atlantic at any time, and feel far more than repaid for the time and expense, for one such day as this. But the vague shadow on his face told that he had no dear sympathising one to tell the story to. Spencer had paid for our spree at the inn and we were bent on fell revenge, ^^en we parted at 8.30 in Trafalgar Square, Holt invited Spencer to dine with us at any time or place he might like. Spencer said he did n't care much for dinners just now, and would rather have another day in the country. So we left It in that way, internally resolving to do well by him when the time should come. At 9 Holt and I took a chop at the Horse-Shoe, and then I swallow- tailed and went to a grand reception at University College and was very much lionized there. Friday, June 20, 1879. Fourth lecture: audience increasing and more enthusiastic than ever. Spencer said after the lecture, that he was surprised at the tremendous grasp I had on the whole field of history; and the art with which I used such a wealth of materials. Said I had given him new ideas of Soci ology, and that if I would stick to history I could go beyond anything ever yet done. Said still more: in fact he was quite as enthusiastic as Mrs. Hemen way. I never saw Spencer warm up so. I said I did n't really dream when writing about American 136 Social Courtesies history that there could be anj^hing so new about it. "Well," said Spencer, "it is new anyway: you are opening a new world of reflections to me, and I shall come to the rest of the lectures to he taught I" Went then to a garden-party at Conway's, and saw a lot of folks — among 'em Mrs. Julia Ward Howe. Got back to dinner at eight o'clock at the Reform Club, with Henry James. Turgenleff was the hero of the occasion, and he Is splendid, — not unlike Longfellow in appearance. James Bryce, the great historian, was also there, and my ever- delightful old Ralston. Magnificent dinner, and brilliant chinwag. Ralston walked home with me at midnight. Saturday, June 21, 1879. Spent most of the day at the printers' — my same good old printers Clay and Taylor. Whizzed through the bowels of the earth to South Kensington, and climbed about 1,000,000 stone stairs, and burst in on Huxley who was buried in his new work on Crayfish — and a charming book I think it will be, from what he read me. He said he was tired out with writing, wiped his pen and began joking and laughing. Took me home in a cab to dinner — Jessie was there and is just twice as lovely, now she is married. She is my old pet is Jessie, and we did have a good eve ning and lots of music. Sunday, June 21, 1879. Out to Macmillan's "castle" at Upper Tooting, with Holt to early dinner. Delicious summer day. About a dozen people, good dinner, and very much piano by Hezzy. Miss Pignatel, of my previous visit — is over at Boulogne and not very well. Did I tell you that Mrs. Macmillan and Miss Pignatel are pure 137 John Fiske Italians? The name is Pignatelli. They never talked anything but Italian till they were twelve years old or more. They came from Leghorn. They talk English without any accent. Mrs. Macmillan is very charming, as I have told you before — I gave her my "Unseen World." Got back to "town" at lo and wound up at the Cosmopolitan Club with Earl Granville, his brother Mr. Leveson-Gower, Tom Hughes, Lord Kimberley, Lord Barrington, Mallock the author of "New Republic," Lord Arthur Russell, and Count Teff, a most agreeable Dutchman. Lord Kimberley is at present the head of University College, and of course was the one who at Huxley's request gave me the room to lecture in. Monday, June 23, 1879. Wrote to you on this letter most of the day, and dined at Kettner's with Holt. Tuesday, June 24, 1879. Called at Macmillan's and printers' and loafed about town. Dined with Holt at Trubner's. Warm welcome from Mrs. Trubner. I always told you that no one could get up a dinner like Trubner, and that a sip of his wine gave one a new conception of the heights to which civilization can attain. Found it just so this time, — and so did Holt. Mrs. Trubner sat through the dinner and then went to look after her papa: her papa, you know. Octave Deleplerre, is tiie author of the famous book on "Historical Difficulties," a propos of which I wrote my essay in October, 1868, when your mother said one day at the dinner- table at Oxford Street, "Why, John, if you keep on working this way you'll get rich, only you can't keep on so." [N.B. We had a boiled Indian pud- 138 End of Lecture Course ding that day; it was in the halcyon days of Mary and Maria, about the time when Maudie " storned " the base imputation.] Wednesday, June 25, 1879. Fifth lecture and everything good as usual. Nothing new. Dined with Holt at Vienna Beer Hall. Thursday, June 26, 1879. All day on new book of essays and went to printers'. Devil calls daily now. Called at Huxley's and had an hour's pleas ant chat with Jessie. Dined at Frederick Mac millan's with Holt and had a pleasant evening. Friday, June 27, 1879. A great day! At 11 A.M. strolled through Great Russell Street, — looked at No. 67, of course, — saw a notice in the window, — called, and found my same old suite of rooms vacant and ready for mell! Horrid beldame became at once, in my softened vision, a most amiable and unctuous female. In short, I engaged the rooms at once and am to move in there Wednesday, July 2d!!! Same old rooms, as where Spencer used to come to see me, and where Hezzy used to write " tezzletelts " to you — my heart jumped with gladness! Went out to Spencer's and lunched with him and we went together to my last lecture. Room jammed : every seat full, extra benches full, people crowding up on the platform where I stood, all the aisles packed full of people standing, people perched up on the ledges of the windows, and a crowd at each door extending several yards out into the entry ways ! ! ! I never had such a sensation of "filling a house" before, though I had numerically larger audiences at Baltimore. Now here is one of the unforeseen ways in which you make a "hit" when you talk 139 John Fiske to a somewhat foreign audience. I wrote about Africa quietly and philosophically, foretelling what must happen there, as any one can, of course, fore see. I told it simply, and my Boston audience did not single it out for special notice, as why should '~ they? But I was now addressing a British audience, and these are the days when England is in mourning for husbands, brothers, sons, slain in horrid warfare with the Zulus, and all England is as tender about Africa as we were fifteen years ago about the South. When I began to speak of the future of the English race in Africa, I became aware of an im mense silence, a kind of hreathlessness, all over the room — although it had been extremely quiet before. After three or four more sentences, I heard some deep breathings and murmurs, and "hushes." ^ All at once, when I came to round the parallel of the English career in America and Africa, there came up one stupendous shout, — not a common dem onstration of approval, but a deafening shout of exultation. Don't you wish you had been there, darling? — it would have been the proudest mo ment of your life! . At the end of the lecture they fairly howled applause. Gentlemen stood up on the benches and waved their hats; ladies stood up on the benches and fluttered their handkerchiefs; and they kept it up until I had to make a pretty little speech. Then they clamoured again, and one old white-haired man made a speech of thanks; and then another gentleman got up and seconded the other with an other pretty Httle speech, winding up by propos ing three cheers for me; and they gave three rous ing cheers so that I had to bow and smile £md thank 140 A Day in the Country 'em once more. Then about a hundred or more came up to shake hands and say pleasant things. Spencer kept his bright eyes fastened on me all through the lecture and after all was over he said : "Well, my boy, you have earned your success: it was the most glorious lecture I ever listened to in my life." Ditto or similarly Ralston and Sime. The 'orrid 'Uxley was not there that day — too busy. Loafed around after the lecture with Sime and dined at Kettner's with Sime and Holt. Saturday, June 28, 1879. Took revenge on Spencer by treating him to "a day in the country" at our expense; that is. Holt's and mine. Day of ineffable happiness. Went to Windsor Castle, ascended the round tower and had a wonderful view; walked over to Eton College and saw a fine cricket-match, lots of pretty girls and happy stu dents; strolled through some "English lanes"; lis tened to the carol of the lark and the delicious notes of a great chorus of nightingales; drank in all the sweetness of an English summer day; went back to Windsor, ravenous, and made a mighty lunch at the White Hart, — royal cold mutton, cold ham, salad of endives and lettuce, pigeon pie, superb bread and butter, new Stilton cheese, and miracu lous beer. Even the abstemious Spencer drank a quart of ale, — a thing which he said he had hardly ever done before. Took a carriage and drove through the Park to Virginia Water, and walked the rest of the way. Spencer fairly boiled over with "animal spirits"; he Is a different man from what he was five years ago. Fascinating is no name for it; he was absolutely a magician this day with sparkling wit and his wonderful flashes of wisdom. 141 John Fiske I only wish I could remember it all. We walked sixteen miles by Holt's pedometer, O, what a won derful day!! Sunday, June 29, 1879. Dined with Holt at Conway's and had a pleasant afternoon. Cosmo politan in the evening and had another jolly chat with Tom Hughes, Dr. Hamilton and Count Teff. Earl Granville came in about 11.30 and imme diately "fastened on to" Hezzy and said no end of pleasant things. Said he thought I was doing a great work by giving these lectures here and was only sorry that I had n't an audience of five thou sand instead of five hundred. Hoped I would come again and give some more lectures. And here I bring Fiske's epistolary diary to a close and will summarize his record of the rest of his visit. Monday, May 30, was the day of Miss Madge Huxley's wedding to the Hon. John Collier, and Fiske was an honored guest both at the church service and at the wedding breakfast which fol lowed. He gave Mrs. Fiske quite a detailed account of both functions, but as these details would lead us somewhat aside from our legitimate story it is sufficient to say that It was a delightful occasion, that the bride "was extremely happy and viva cious," that "Huxley looked perfectly splendid," and among the many speeches that were made at the breakfast "his was by far the funniest and best." His lectures over, Fiske found that in revising his forthcoming volume of essays, " Darwinism and Other Essays," he had work In hand that would 142 Social Courtesies detain him some two or three weeks longer In Lon don. Accordingly, on July 2, he settled himself in his old lodgings at 67 Great Russell Street, in as complacent a state of mind as he could enjoy in any place away from his home in Cambridge. But he was not destined to any isolation while in London. His "Cosmic Philosophy" and the great interest in his lectures had made him widely known in the scientifico-literary set in London, while his social reputation had been greatly heightened by his modest, engaging personality. In addition, there fore, to his social intimacies at the homes of his friends Huxley, Spencer, Sime, Conway, Mac millan, and Trubner, together with the cordiality with which he was received at the Cosmopolitan Club, Fiske also received many dinner invitations which he was obliged to forego. He did, however, accept an invitation from Sir Joseph and Lady Hooker, to meet Sir John Lubbock, whose works on "Primitive Man," and on "Plant and Insect Life " were very familiar to him; and also an invi tation from a young author, Mr. S. G. C. Middle- more, where he met "several young chaps, some of whom," he says, "will perhaps be better known ten years hence." He particularly enjoyed this dinner, and he speaks of it thus: "Middlemore I like extremely. I was the grey-haired patriarch of the occasion; and I begin to realize that another generation is coming along." But notwithstanding the many courtesies that 143 John Fiske were bestowed upon him during this visit, Fiske greatly missed the fine intellectual companionship of his friend Professor William K. Clifford, to whom, as we have seen, he became warmly attached dur ing his previous visit. Professor Clifford, although quite a young man, had won recognition as one of the keenest intellects of his time; and his too early death had left the cause of rational, independent thinking bereft of a valiant champion. Fiske, back in his old quarters, could but recall his dear friend, and wish him back, that they might, with hospita ble surroundings, discuss the theory of "a universe of mind stuff" which his friend had bequeathed as a contribution to current philosophic thinking. Soon after he was settled in his old quarters he had the great pleasure of welcoming there his dear Cambridge friends, Professor and Mrs. John K. Paine, who had just arrived in London. He took great pleasure in introducing these good friends to his London friends as representative Americans. He became their guide and companion to the London and the Thames country he had come to know so well and to love so much. The Paines being direct from Cambridge brought him not only personal information regarding his family, but also the information that at the Harvard Commence ment in June he had been elected a member of the Board of Overseers of the college — an honor which was wholly unexpected, and which was particularly gratifying to him. 144 Elected Overseer of Harvard The further things worthy of particular note dur ing this visit are: a dinner at the Arts Club with Spencer, Huxley, and Sime; an excursion to Epp ing Forest with Mr. and Mrs. Sime and their daughter Georgiana; a day with Holt, Haven Putnam, and Sime at Weybridge, Chertsey, and Hampton; a social gathering of a few friends at his rooms in Great Russell Street; his final visit at the Huxleys, and with Spencer. On Friday, July 4, after an excursion to Rich mond with some American friends he got back to London early In the evening for a dinner with Spencer, Huxley, and Sime. Of this occasion he writes : — "An evening of unrivalled glory and bliss. A philosophic discussion of richness and profound ness worth a whole year of ordinary study; — ¦ mainly on the proper method of treating questions of causation in history. I never learned so much in one evening before. I have since heard from Huxley and Spencer that they two would look back on this as one of the happiest evenings of their lives." Brief as is the record of this evening's talk the deep feeling expressed as existing at once rouses the imagination, and any one familiar with the general line of thought of Spencer, Huxley, and Fiske can, in a way, perhaps, conceive what was the general tenor of the discussion. It is safe to say that from the respective viewpoints of the Evolutionary phil- 145 John Fiske osopher, the acute and broadminded scientist, and the philosophic historian, causation In history must have been considered as something far nobler and higher than blind, sportive chance, or than the re sult of anthropomorphic, lawless will. Fiske's enjoyment of nature — and especially of nature blended with human life — was so keen, and he gives expression to his feelings In such graphic language, that I do not like to pass all his records of his country rambles during these remaining days of his visit: and so I give the record of the day — July 5 — spent with his dear friends, Mr. and Mrs. Sime and their daughter Georgiana (aged eleven), wandering In Epping Forest: — " Delicious day of fitful showers, and wondrous atmospheric effects. Groves of stupendous beeches, IOOO years old, gnarled and contorted beyond Dor6's wildest conceptions, leaves so thick that we could sit on a stump and hear the rain pattering overhead as on a shed-roof and still not feel a drop wetting us — a weird and fairy-like scene. We ate sandwiches and boiled eggs, and took a drop of 'mountain-dew' from SIme's flask and were happy, though all sighed for my dear one and said it would be quite heaven if she were with us. We must have walked eight or ten miles, and saw many grand views. At one time we were caught in a pelting shower, and had to run into a quaint old Inn — some two centuries old — where a lot of rustics were wrangling and the indignant landlord kicked one of 'em out, — a jolly scene for Dickens, if he had been there. Went to another jolly old country inn 146 Country Rambles (one of the few that did n't get drowned in Noah's littie six weeks' drizzle, and still survives: the ale there, I doubt not, is the same that Adam drank) and had a tolerably poor dinner there. Got home wearied and happy." And one more of his "wonderful and happy days," Friday, July ii, — aday with his friends Sime, Holt, and Haven Putnam, of New York. He writes thus: — "Gorgeous sunny day with fresh breeze, ther mometer about 70°. No showers. Sime came and breakfasted with me on mutton chops at my rooms at 8.30. Cab to Waterloo Station over Waterloo Bridge, and fine view of the giant city quite clear of fog. Rendezvoused at station with Holt and Haven Putnam. Went to Weybridge and walked to top of St. George's Hill. O, if you had only been there! View of indescribable beauty: foreground of yellow pines, like North Carolina pines, amid which we stood, on a carpet of needles through which sprouted the ferns, as in Petersham. Larches the like of which you never saw, cedars of Lebanon, araucaria, gnarled beeches, elms, oaks, banks of wild rhododendrons loaded with blossoms, great trees of holly, white flowering alders, a wilderness of ivy all growing wild and tangled just as in an American forest! Before us miles and miles of ex quisite undulating country, waving fields of grain, acres of velvet green pasturage with quiet crowds of sheep and deer, lovely hedgerows sprinkled in with scarlet poppies; — on the horizon blue hills with flitting cloud-shadows, the lordly turrets of Windsor Castle about 12 miles distant, rising 147 John Fiske above all surroundings and as conspicuous as Wa- chusett from Petersham, farm houses with red- tiled roofs nestled among the trees; little silvery brooklets winding here and there; arched cause ways with distant train sending out long sinuous trail of white smoke; village of Weybridge with Gothic spire; chimes of noontide bells stealing through the soft air, while the branches over our heads were vocal with nightingales and thrushes, and ever and anon lazy cock-crows answered each other in the distance; O what a scene! "After we had feasted awhile on this loveliness, we walked down the hill by a narrow path, having to push aside the rhododendrons to force our way through, got back to the rail-road and proceeded 5 miles to Chertsey, — a quaint old town which no one knows how old it is, for it wzis here when the'^ Romans invaded Britain about half a century before Christ! Here it was that the burglary was committed in 'Oliver Twist '^ (I believe), and I pointed out to my companions a window which I thought would answer for the one where Monks and the Jew looked in on Oliver asleep. We walked quite through the town to the banks of the Thames to a very quaint inn — which we were all raven ous. We made a capital lunch of cold corn-beef, bread and butter and homebrewed ale — and mighty fine ale it was, too. Then we got a large row-boat and a waterman to row us, and we were rowed about 15 miles down the Thames to Hampton, which we reached at 5.30 P.M. I had never seen this part of the Thames before, and it is quite different from the section about Richmond; but if you ask me * See Dickens's Oliver Twist, chapters xxu and xxxiv. 148 Plans for Future Lectures which part is the more beautiful, I give it up! We were all almost too happy to speak. At Hampton we took train back to London." In the evening Fiske went to the Huxleys' for a farewell visit, as Mrs. Huxley was to leave town the next day for several weeks. After a cordial welcome Huxley took Fiske into his study for the consideration of a plan for future lectures in England. It was Huxley's opinion that the present course of lectures had been such an unqualified success, that there would not be the slightest difficulty In getting for Fiske an invitation to deliver the fol lowing year a course of three or four lectures before the Royal Institution — an invitation that would open for him invitations for their repetition in as many places in England as he could accept, and all on a paying basis. Huxley felt so much Interest in the matter that he suggested that Fiske take for his subject the " Genesis of American Political Ideas," treated according to the law of Evolution and traced back to the early Aryans; and he said, further, that if Fiske could send him, in the course of the next few months, a full syllabus for the proposed lectures, with the number of engagements he could accept, he would undertake to put the whole scheme through. After arranging these details, the two friends fell into the consideration of some of the profound ulti mate questions with which each in the course of 149 John Fiske his investigations frequently found himself face to face. In language full of the deepest reverence Fiske expresses himself thus: — "Then Huxley and I got into a solemn talk about God and the soul, and he unburdened himself to me of some of his innermost thoughts, — poor creatures both of us, trying to compass thoughts too great for the human mind.^ At last about 12.30 I took my leave. And how many months of ordinary life does such a day as this represent, my dear?" Fiske had received so many social courtesies dur ing this London visit that he'desired in some simple way to make what might be termed a social re joinder. Soon after getting settled in his old quar ters he bethought himself in thiswise: "Why not bring this visit to a close by having a social gather ing of my English and American friends who have done so much to make this visit both a profes sional success and a delightful personal experience — and why not have this gathering here in my present quarters? " As he reflected upon the matter the eminent fitness- of such a parting courtesy grew in his mind; and he took counsel with his friend Trubner, the prince of social entertainers. Trubner at once fell In with the Idea, and suggested 1 The tenor of this conversation can be readily imagined by any one acquainted with the thought of Huxley and of Fiske on these subjects at this time. Huxley's thought was expressed in his letter to Charles Kingsley in September, i860 (Huxley's Life and Letters, vol. I, p. 233), and in his discussion with Frederic Harrison in the Nineteenth Century for 1877. Fiske's thought was expressed in his essay on The Unseen World, already alluded to. 150 Gives a Punch Party as an appropriate "function" a "Social Punch Party" in Fiske's rooms in Great Russell Street — at the same time offering his services in aid of the project. Trubner's suggestion was accepted by Fiske, and accordingly he sent out invitations for the evening of July 14 to the following persons: — Ten Englishmen: Lord Arthur Russell, M.P.; Thomas Hughes, M.P.; Thomas Huxley; James Bryce; Herbert Spencer; W. R. S. Ralston; James Sime; Nicholas Trubner; Frederick Macmillan; W. Fraser Rae. Eight Americans: John K. Paine; Henry Adams; J. W. White; Moncure D. Conway; Henry James; Henry Holt; Haven Putnam; Willard Brown. All accepted excepting James Bfyce, Frederick Macmillan, J. W. White, and Henry James. Owing to urgent Parliamentary duties, sprung upon them that evening, both Lord Arthur Russell and Mr. Tom Hughes were unable to come, and Mr. Spen cer entirely forgot the engagement. The next day Fiske gave Mrs. Fiske a brief and hastily written account of the affair: — ' ' ' Terremenjuous ' spree last evening ! The punch (which Hezzy carefully concocted out of lemons, oranges, pineapples, strawberries, rum, brandy, claret, and apollinaris water) was unanimously pro nounced an unparalleled \vork of art, and they all drank it just as though they liked it. The connois seur Trubner was here before any one else, as I had dined with him ; and he saw me put in the finish ing touches; and when he tasted it, he said he had 151 John Fiske never tasted a more delicious punch. I had a moun tain of ice in a big bowl and it was cooling unto the palate. Bro. Paine, who staid with me all night, says he does n't feel the slightest trace of headache this morning, though he drank freely; and if he's all right, I 'spect they all are. I know I am. "We had a truly glorious time, and kept it up till one o'clock. Thanks to Trubner, I had some very good cigars to offer 'em which I don't know how to buy in London myself. All sympathized with Hezzy's scheme for next year's lectures. Huxley was the great wit of the evening. " Bro. Paine and I are now waiting for breakfast." Just as Fiske was closing the above letter he re ceived the following note from Spencer: — Tuesday. Dear Fiske: — Last night at a quarter to eleven, just as I was leaving the Club to come home, I exclaimed to my self — "Good Heavens! I ought to have gone to Fiske's!" I had duly made all my arrangements for join ing you, and then, after dinner, forgot all about it. Pray forgive me. I shall look for you to-morrow at one, and I shall be at liberty till three, when I have an engagement. Truly yours, Herbert Spencer. One incident more: Fiske's farewell visit with Spencer. AVe have just seen from Spencer's note that Fiske was under engagement for luncheon with him the next day, July i6. This engagement 152 Farewell Visit with Spencer Fiske was prompt in fulfilling, as he desired some counsel with Spencer regarding the course of lec tures he had planned with Huxley to deliver in London the next year. Fiske gave Spencer a general idea of the scheme of the lectures as it had become roughly shaped in his mind — the analysis of Anglo- American political ideas into their fundamental bases or elements; and then to show, on the one hand, that these bases are evolutionary products developed out of primitive Aryan civilization ; while on the other hand, their further development among the nations of the earth must be a powerful in fluence making for universal peace. Spencer responded warmly to the whole project, and felicitated Fiske upon his entrance into the historic field with such broad philosophic views. He cautioned Fiske, however, against being misled by some of the current theories regarding primitive culture, and particularly primitive Aryan culture and its evolutionary development; and he enjoined upon him the broadest comparative study possible of primitive man as his starting-point. His closing words to Fiske were: "Go ahead, my dear fellow! You have the right conception of history, and you possess a remarkable power in the art of putting things!" In referring to this interview many years after, Fiske said : — "I was amazed at the profound knowledge Spencer had of history — not knowledge of the 153 John Fiske pedantic sort, but knowledge derived from much reflection upon the underlying causes in history. While I have met many men who greatly surpassed him in a knowledge of historic details, I hever found his equal in the power of historic generalization. His acquaintance with the fundamental facts of his tory was, indeed, remarkable; but what was more remarkable, was his keen insight into the meaning of these facts, and the manner in which they were related and interrelated in his mind." And now the noteworthy incidents of this memor able London visit were at an end. The two remain ing days were given to making parting calls and to finishing the proofs of his forthcoming volume of essays. Saturday, July 19, 1879, saw him well aboard the Cunard steamer Gallia, steaming west ward from Liverpool, with his thoughts centred about the inmates of his Cambridge home whose affectionate greeting he was soon to experience. His homeward voyage was uneventful. During its continuance, however, he had reason for much grat ulation In that the favorable judgment of his his toric lectures given by his Boston audience had been fully confirmed by one of the most critical of London audiences; while his historic undertaking itself had received the heartiest commendation from some of the most distinguished leaders In the liter ary, scientific, and philosophic thought of the time. CHAPTER XXV first lecture programme — PERSONAL APPEAR ANCE — LECTURE campaign IN MAINE — SYLLA BUS FOR LECTURES AT ROYAL INSTITUTION — LECTURES DURING SEASON OF I879-1880 — IN VITATION FROM ROYAL INSTITUTION — PREPARES HIS LECTURES — SAILS WITH MRS. FISKE FOR ENGLAND — LETTER TO REV. E. B. WILLSON GIV ING AN ACCOUNT OF THIS REMARKABLE JOURNEY — RETURNED HOME JULY 27, I880 I 879-1 880 Upon his return from London in July, 1879, Fiske entered upon an entirely new line of thought, and upon a wholly new order of work from that in which he had heretofore been engaged. His London expe rience had confirmed him In the opinion that Amer ican history, in its relation to universal history, presented a rich field for exploration in the light of the doctrine of Evolution. It also gave emphatic confirmation of the fact that his manner of pre senting this great chapter in human history would make the subject one of deep interest to the general public. His signal triumph in London had been reflected at home, and this favoring fortune in connection with his great success in Boston, had created a wide spread interest in his lectures. Hence on his return he found applications for their repetition, in whole 155 John Fiske or in part, in many cities and towns throughout the country; as well as applications from the leading magazines for popular historical articles. Fiske, therefore, found two lines of work ready for his hand : the planning and arranging of a lecture programme for the ensuing autumn and winter, and the preparation of quite a full syllabus of his pro posed lectures for the Royal Institution the follow ing spring. His friend George P. Lathrop, a young man of considerable literary reputation at this period, has given a graphic sketch of Fiske's personal appear ance at this time which is in place here: — "His figure is a familiar one on the Cambridge streets as that of a tall, large-framed man, with thick beard and dark auburn, curling hair, a pale face, and wearing gold-rimmed spectacles, which, added to his preoccupied air, gives him the stamp of a professedly studious person. His step is long, deliberate, and firm, seeming to indicate sureness and regularity of progress in physical matters, as his facial expression does in matters intellectual. The heavy walking-stick which he carries and strikes solidly upon the ground in front of him at every pace, contributes still further to the system atic mannerof his advance. Altogether, he presents a very forcible and characteristic appearance." Soon after Fiske's return he went with his family to Petersham, and during the next few weeks we have glimpses of him enjoying with his children his delightful surroundings and pegging away at his 156 Personal Appearance tasks. He undertook the management of his lecture engagements himself, and soon found it no easy matter to adjust his practical convenience to many of the conditions which surrounded some of the most desirable of such engagements. By dint of much planning and correspondence, he managed to work out a programme which, during the season, yielded him seventy-five engagements and a vast amount of personal experience. His first practical experience in his new order of work — his first campaign with his historical lectures — was in the State of Maine. His engagements were for course lectures in Lewiston, Portland, and Brunswick, three neighboring towns; his programme calling for a lecture every week-day evening for over a fort night, beginning October 21, 1879. Portland being the principal town in the State, Fiske very natu rally regarded It as the most promising place for both appreciative and financial returns; while from Brunswick, being a small college town, — the seat of Bowdoin College, — he counted mainly on appreciation, with perhaps an audience of from fifty to sixty persons. Lewiston, being a manu facturing town, was a wholly unknown quantity; and the only light he had upon the situation was the information that a short time previous " a blear- eyed scare-crow gave a lecture on ' How to Shoot your Grandfather's Ghost,' and had an audience of eight hundred." The prospect here he did not regard as flattering! 157 John Fiske His programme for this campaign called for the delivery of the opening lecture at Lewiston. Judge what must have been his momentary feelings when he found himself facing an audience of but eighteen people. The situation — the great contrast between the deep interest taken in his lectures in Boston, In London, and elsewhere, and the apparent apathy here — was enough to daunt any heart not sustained by an implicit faith in the intelligence of the people and their readiness to appreciate what is fine In thought when it is simply and clearly put before them. Fiske, however, was nothing daunted. If he felt the contrast between his previous audi ences and the one now before him, he did not show it. Writing the next morning he says: "I gave my lecture at Lewiston last evening with as much gusto as if I had a big audience; was bound I would n't flinch anyway. My little audience of eighteen were greatly pleased ; and woefully disgusted at the pros pect of the course being given up." The first thought was that the course in Lewis- ton must be given up; but the few who heard the opening lecture were so greatly interested that they vigorously bestirred themselves and soon had prom ise of better results. Fiske was induced to give his second lecture, when he was greeted by an audience of two hundred and fifty; and to this en larged audience he not only gave the remainder of the course, but also a repetition of the first lecture. At little Brunswick his success was all he could 158 Lectures in Maine expect. He had a very appreciative and enthusiastic audience of seventy-five, and he was very hospitably entertained by two of the college professors. Port land, where he had expended much, and where he confidently expected the largest interest and the greatest returns, proved disappointing — his audi ence, notwithstanding the enthusiasm of those who heard him and the cordial commendations of the press, not much exceeding seventy-five. Brief as was this first lecture campaign, it yielded rich experience, in that Fiske saw that the measure of his success with his lectures was largely dependent upon his getting the nature of his subject clearly before the people. One incident is worthy of special note. It was while struggling with the various ad verse conditions in which we have seen him engaged that he utilized his spare time in preparing the syl labus for his lectures on "American Political Ideas," to be delivered at the Royal Institution in London the ensuing spring. This syllabus was finished while he was facing the untoward conditions at Lewiston. The table of > contents in his published volume, "American Political Ideas," is substantially a re print of this syllabus, which was prepared before any portion of the lectures had been written. We have in this incident a striking example of the orderly way in which he had his wide historic knowledge arranged in his mind: that it was so arranged as to be at ready command, thereby enabling him to sketch out without references — 159 John Fiske directly out of hand, as it were — a series of lec tures, of such profound significance as his dis course on "American Political Ideas" proved to be. Fiske's next appearance was on November 12, 1879, in Brooklyn, New York. Here he gave a course of four lectures. He had found that in some places, while arrangements could not be made for his full course, they could be made for one, two, or four lectures; and he had adapted his material to meet these varying conditions. In Brooklyn he was greeted by a fine and enthusiastic audience. Mr. and Mrs. Stoughton were present. This was the first time they had heard him lecture on his torical subjects, and they "were astonished and delighted" at his style and bearing, and also by his reception. In arranging for this course he was greatly aided by the generous assistance of four of his class mates, — Benjamin Thompson Frothingham, Wil liam Augustus White, Frederick Cromwell, and Francis Alexander Marden, of whom he speaks in a letter to Mrs. Fiske thus: — "Don't you love my dear old Ben and Gus and Fred? — three of the dearest boys that ever were! And did n't you think that Marden's letter was hearty and lovely? These college friendships, after all, are just the next best things to family ties. I remember, on my own class-day, when Ben Frothingham gave his lovely oration, Mother said, ' Can it be that these boys have come to love each other so much?' But now — I don't speak of Ben, 160 Lectures in Brooklyn who is so dear and so good that one need n't be his classmate to love him — but I speak of Marden who was simply my classmate and fellow O.K. — don't you see how warmly he responds? These are some of the sweet things In this world, these college brotherhoods. We don't see or hear of each other for years, but the moment a little favor is desired you have only to suggest It, and it's 'Come, my dear old fellow, and we'll do what we can for you.' " The Brooklyn course was in every way a marked success. In December, Fiske was back again in Boston where he gave two repetitions of his course of six lectures — one a public course In Hawthorne Hall, and the other before a club of ladles. Both courses were given to deeply interested audiences. Here we may interrupt the narrative of his first lecture campaign to make two or three extracts from his Christmas (1879) letter to his mother, in which Is reflected somewhat his fine feeling, his happy domestic life, and his growing reputation : — Cambridge, December 25, 1879. Merry Christmas, darling Mother, and Many Happy New Years ! ! ! Just a midnight minute to say your magnificent Xmas present is received, and not all the resources of the most copious language of the dominant race erf the world, would begin to suffice to express our gratitude or our sense of your kindness. . . . Herbert Huxley has developed into the most 161 John Fiske frightful and horrible maker of mischief that ever was known, quite putting into the shade the whilom renown of Lacry, as princeps scamportmi. He has discovered perpetual motion, and exemplifies it from minute to minute, and woe to the " thing " — whatever it may happen to be — that gets within reach of his all-grasping and all-smashing finger- lets. Such a restless, such a despotic, such a ruth lessly bland and amiable angelic imp, I never before saw. ... ' An elegant work is now being published in London — "Portraits of the loo Greatest Men in History" — classified in eight volumes — one vol ume of Poets, one of Philosophers, and so on. The introduction to the whole work is written by an American, R. W. Emerson. The special intro ductions to the several volumes are by Matthew Arnold, Froude, Dean Stanley, Taine, Helmholtz, Max Mulier, and Renan, Alexander Bain (I be lieve), which makes seven volumes. I have just been invited, in a lovely letter from London, to write the introduction to the eighth volume, and have accepted. So you see your boy is in very good company. My volume has the portraits and lives of Co lumbus, Magellan, Arkwright, Watt, Stephenson, Gutenberg, etc., — the great discoverers and in ventors, — representatives of the industrial life of modern society, just the part that, in my present mood, I would have been glad to choose. . . . This is a world in which people have an odd way of turning up. At my last lecture in Lowell, I met a man (of about sixty, I should say) named Bement, who said he knew my father, and you, and John 162 Lectures in Philadelphia Bound, very well ; and was present at your wedding with my father, and remembered Grandpa Fisk very well as the"jollIest of old fellows, "and thought my father the handsomest, and most brilliant man he had ever met. Is n't it sort of odd — to meet this man in Lowell? The year 1880 opened for Fiske with some thirty lecture engagements in New York, New Jersey, Philadelphia, Washington, Buffalo, and Ohio. The fulfilling of his engagements was marked by alter nate success and failure in getting satisfactory au diences. In New York and in New Jersey he had good and responsive audiences, but In Philadelphia and Washington, where he had counted on a gener ous reception by reason of the prominent persons in terested In his lectures, he was sadly disappointed. In Philadelphia, particularly, partly from the many expressions of interest in his undertaking that he had received from prominent citizens, and partly from the general interest in matters pertaining to American history flowing from the Centennial Ex position of four years previous, he had looked forward with much confidence to good audiences. And yet, although he gave the lectures with his usual charm of manner, and while his hearers were as enthusiastic as were his hearers in Boston, London, and Brooklyn, he had meagre audiences. This fact becoming known, a few public-spirited citizens, not wishing the stigma of non-apprecia tion of such lectures to rest upon the citizens of 163 John Fiske Philadelphia as a whole, made up a purse for Fiske, and sent it to him with an expression of their ap preciation of the important work he was doing in arousing an interest in the significance of American history, and of their personal regard. It was In Fiske's nature, as we have already seen, to extract some good from even rather forbidding conditions, and there was an incident connected with his experiences in Philadelphia at this time which made a strong impression upon his mind — an Incident he often referred to in after years. At the close of his second lecture he attended a recep tion, where he met a notable historic personage of whom he writes: — " I met General Robert Patterson (the Grouchy of Bull-Run), aged eighty-eight, the youngest man in the crowd. He was on Scott's staff at Lundy's Lane, in 1814, and was an intimate friend of Hull, Bainbridge, Stewart, Lawrence, and Decatur! You can imagine what a good talk we had. He took me to my hotel in his carriage — a most wonderfully charming old fellow!" Alternately with his Philadelphia lectures he gave a course of four lectures at Chickering Hall, New York, and here he found ample compensation in large and enthusiastic audiences for his disap pointment in Philadelphia. His success was as marked as it had been In Boston and in London. Indeed, it was so marked, that before the course was concluded he received a letter signed by twenty- 164 Lectures in Washington one ladles prominent in the intellectual and social life of New York, asking for a repetition of the lec tures In a morning course at Chickering Hall, a re quest he complied with a little later, when he was met with another series of large and highly enthu siastic audiences. The fame of Fiske's lectures in London had reached official Washington, and a letter was sent to Fiske, under date of January 30, 1880, signed by President Hayes, the chief members of his Cabinet, Chief Justice Waite, Senators Hoar and Dawes of Massachusetts, General W. T. Sherman, George Bancroft, the historian, Simon Newcomb, the emi nent astronomer, and other distinguished persons, asking for a repetition of the lectures in Washing ton, at his early convenience. President Hayes, in signing this document, said that it gave him much pleasure to be at the head of such an invitation ; that he had heard much of Mr. Fiske's success with these lectures in London; and he expressed a desire, if Mr. Fiske came to Washington, to have an Interview with him. In accepting this invitation Fiske appointed the evenings of February 13, 14, 18, and 21 for the lec tures, and they were given in the Congregational Church. He had a very distinguished audience com prising members of the Cabinet with their families, members of the Supreme Court, attaches of the for eign legations, some Senators, and a few Congress men. Simon Newcomb presided, and in his intro- 165 John Fiske ductory remarks he said that, during a recent visit to England, he found among the scientific think ers there that Fiske was regarded as the deepest thinker America had yet produced. Fiske's Washington audiences, though not large, were of fine quality, and as usual with such audi ences he roused them to great enthusiasm. Financially the Washington lectures were not a success, but through them Fiske's reputation as the interpreter of American history was widely ex tended and he made many friends. While in Wash ington, he received many social courtesies, and his accounts of an evening en famille with Carl Schurz, then Secretary of the Interior in the Cab inet of President Hayes, and of his reception by President Hayes, are of interest. As Secretary Schurz had taken a leading part in getting up the invitation for the lectures, Fiske called upon him immediately upon his arrival in Washing ton, to get the particulars of the arrangements, and what followed is best given in Fiske's own words : — "Got here to breakfast, Wednesday morning, and saw Schurz, who is lovely and very jolly, and who invited me to his house sans dress-suit in the evening. Went around at 8 p.m. and found Schurz and two fine daughters — about twenty-two and eighteen, I should say — and a profoundly medita tive old German chap who beamed on us all the evening and vouchsafed three ' Ja's' as his contribu tion to the conversation, except that he once asked what 'snicker' meant. Carl and I soon got on to i66 An Evening with Carl Schurz music; he made me play. I was in my most can- tahile mood, very happy and ready to play all night. Schurz has a magnificent Steinway grand, every tone of which entranced me. I played my best. Then Schurz extemporized. He has a wonderful gift for improvising. He played one very delightful noc turne, making it up as he went, but could n't play it over again. Most such things are trash: but Schurz's playing is not trash. Then he played a sonata of Chopin's with great fire and expression. His touch is beyond measure delightful. Staid till 1.30 A.M. and the girls sat up. Truly we had a magnificent time." During the evening Secretary Schurz told Fiske that the President would like to see him, and ad vised him as to the best hour for calling. Of his interview with the President Fiske writes : — "Friday morning I called on President Hayes at the White House. He received me very warmly and said he felt very proud of my going over to England to speak to John Bull about America, and of my reception there. When I thought it time to go, the President urged me to stay as long as I could ; and he treated me with very marked deference. He kept me more than an hour, till all the Cabinet came in for a Cabinet-meeting. The President then introduced me to all the members I did n't know, and we had a jolly talk for fifteen minutes before 'biz,' when I left." The untoward financial result of his visit to Washington, while not wholly unexpected, yet, fol- 167 John Fiske lowing so closely upon his experience in Philadel phia, — this strong manifestation of consideration and appreciation on the one hand, unsupported by adequate financial returns on the other hand, — raised, for the moment, a questioning in Fiske's mind as to the outcome of his historical undertak ing, which had expression in one of his Washington letters. The feeling was but temporary, however; for, as he saw his subject ever broadening in Its scope and character, he also saw that wherever he could get an audience, he evoked such an in terest and enthusiasm in his subject as to be con clusive evidence that he had only to bide his time for getting American history, and his method of dealing with it as but one phase of universal his tory, clearly before the American people, to reap a satisfactory reward. Immediately after finishing his Washington course, Fiske returned to New York to fulfil his en gagement with the ladies of New York for a morn ing course at Chickering Hall ; and also an engage ment for an afternoon course with a private school. While these two day courses were going on he gave an evening course of three lectures at Plainfield, New Jersey. While giving these lectures in New York, and vicinity, he made his home with his mother, Mrs. Stoughton ; and I find in a note from Mrs. Stough ton to Mrs. Fiske the following passage which is of interest : — 1 68 Invited to Lecture Abroad "John sat at home much bf the day to-day, and said it was good to get off his boots and frock-coat and sit at ease and read. This afternoon he went with me to a Monday ' at home ' at John C. Hamil ton's, son of Alexander Hamilton. Mr. Hamilton is eighty- two years old, and remembers, when he was a lad, his father said to him one day, — his mother being away, I think, — ' My son, you will sleep with me to-night.' And then, when he got into bed, his father clasped him close to his heart, and, kissing him over and over, said,' My boy, we will say the Lord's Prayer together.' ' "Thatwas the last he knew of his father alive. The next morning he went out at daybreak to meet Burr, and was killed, as you know. Think what he must have felt when he prayed with that child, knowing it was probably the last night, for he meant to fire in the air, and he knew Burr meant to have his life, and he was a sure shot." These three engagements fulfilled, Fiske had a three days' respite, and he returned to Cambridge. Here he found a letter from Huxley, enclosing an Invitation from the Royal Institution of London for his three projected lectures on "American Political Ideas," to begin May i8 following; and also a letter from his good friend. Dr. Muir, of Edinburgh, asking for four of his American his torical lectures before the Edinburgh Philosophical Institute. With pleasing anticipations of another visit to London and to Edinburgh he set out on March 2, 1880, to fulfil his remaining lecture engagements 169 John Fiske for the season, the first at Buffalo, New York. Here he was to give a course of three lectures, and he was most cordially received by large and enthusi astic audiences — the largest he had yet had at any of his lectures, and the most remunerative as well. Of the other lectures of this trip but little is to be said. At Cincinnati all arrangements had been made by Fiske's friend. Judge J. B. Stallo, well known to philosophic thinkers by his essa)^ on the "General Principles of the Philosophy of Nature" and on the "Concepts and Theories of Modern Physics." Judge Stallo was to have entertained Fiske during his stay in Cincinnati, and to this visit with such a profound thinker as Judge Stallo, Fiske looked forward with the pleasantest anticipa tion. Just before his arrival, however, Judge Stallo met with a severe domestic affliction which took him from his home, and although he turned over Fiske's interests into other and willing hands, his own deep personal interest and his cordial, influ ential support could not be made good. While Fiske had fair audiences in Cincinnati, with much enthusiasm expressed, he greatly missed his longed- for converse with Judge Stallo. At Cleveland and at Dayton, his lectures were disappointing. At Cleveland his audience was only thirty-five; yet, small as it was in numbers, Fiske took it by storm and paved the way for future suc cesses when his fame should be firmly established. 170 Lectures in Ohio Cities After a little over a fortnight of lecturing at Buffalo, and in Ohio, he set his face homeward, cheered by the conviction that soon in London and Edinburgh he would be received with distinguished consideration, the while actively shaping in his mind his lectures for the Royal Institution in London. Thus his first real lecture season in America came to a close. The result led him to the conviction that there was no want of interest in his subject as he presented it, but that his ultimate success de pended upon his getting his purpose and his method of treating American history more distinctly before the American people. To this end, in his judgment and in that of his friends, the development of an interest in American history in England, thi"ough the avenues that were open to him there, would be productive of a strong reflective influence in his favor in America. Fiske reached his home In Cambridge the middle of March and immediately set about preparing for his third visit to England. It was decided that Mrs. Fiske was to accompany him, and his letters of this period overflow with expressions of delight that she was to share in his forthcoming experiences and honors. He engaged their passage to Liverpool by the Cunard steamer Atlas, sailing May I, thus giv ing him six weeks for the necessary preparations for a three months' absence, and for the writing of his three proposed lectures. It was, indeed, a busy 171 John Fiske six weeks, and no better evidence could be given of the orderly way in which he held his historic knowl edge at command and his methodical way of work ing, than the record he has left of the composition of these lectures. Beginning March 30, 1880, his thirty-eighth birthday, he spent twenty-three days in the preparation of them, the last four days of which were spent in Huxley's library in London. It has been very generally conceded that these lectures embody one of the most lucid and power ful peace arguments that has ever been made, in that they so clearly predicate universal industrial peace as the politico-sociological result to which the forces of modern civilization are irresistibly tending. This argument is supported by such a wealth of historic knowledge and enforced by such a sound philosophy that it has produced a profound impression during the past thirty years upon the public mind of all English-speaking peoples. Then, again, the style of the lectures is one of their marked characteristics. English literature has no finer ex ample of a great, ennobling theme presented in a thoroughly adequate style. There are many pass ages which deserve a place among the finest exam ples of English prose. I have already considered these points in an In troduction to a recent edition of the lectures. Here we are interested only in their generation, and in the rich personal experiences which attended their first delivery in London. 172 MRS. FISKE IN 1880 Royal Institution Lectures As Mrs. Fiske was to accompany him, it was one of his chief desires that during their stay in London she should have the pleasure of meeting Darwin. Accordingly, in the midst of his preparations he sent to Darwin the following letter: — Cambridge, April 20, 1880. My dear Mr. Darwin : — I am about to sail for England to give some lec tures at the Royal Institution, and shall be in London from May i6th until June 1st. I am going to bring my wife with me this time, for after fifteen years with the children I think she should have a vacation. While we are in London, I hope to get a chance to look at you again for a moment and shake hands. After finishing In London, I go to Edinburgh to give some lectures at the Philosophical Institution and shall be coming home again early in July. I hope you are still well and prospering in your great work. I am unable to follow you In detail quite so closely as I used to, for year by year I find myself studying more and more nothing but history. But Huxley told me last year that he thought I could do more for the "Doctrine of Evolution" in history than in any other line. To say that all my studies to-day owe their life to you, would be to utter a superfluous compliment; for now it goes without saying that the discovery of "Natural Selection" has put the whole future thought of mankind on a new basis. When I see you I shall feel a youthful pleasure in telling you what I would like to do, if I can. I shall stay at Professor Huxley's while in London 173 John Fiske (4 Mariborough Place, Abbey Road, N.W.), and any word from you will reach me there. Ever, my dear Mr. Darwin, Most sincerely yours, John Fiske. Of this visit with Mrs. Fiske to London, Edin burgh, and Paris, in connection with these lectures, Fiske has given quite a detailed account in his letters to his mother, his children, and to the Rev erend E. B. Willson, an uncle of Mrs. Fiske — the clergyman who married them and for whom Fiske always held an affectionate regard. As the letter to Mr. Willson was written during the homeward passage, and as it Is a narrative of their experiences in a consecutive form, I take this letter as an en closing sort of matrix, and weave into it, here and there, details from his other letters in order to save repetitions, and also for the purpose of presenting a full record of this memorable journey In Fiske's own words: — Atlantic Ocean, 735 Miles from New York, July 24, 1880. My dear Uncle: — Your very welcome letter of May 24th, which we received In Edinburgh, is before me. The 14th of June, while Abby and I were going on top of a coach through the Trossachs, we made a plan to send you a huge letter (such as I call "one of my old peelers ") and give you a more or less detailed ac count of all the goings-on since the May-day when 174 Visits Europe with Mrs. Fiske we steamed down Boston Harbour without your Benedicite. We did n't get a chance to write any long letters, though, — and not many short ones, — until we got on to the steamer last Saturday, since which I have had to contend with my natural slothfulness of disposition. Having floored the latter enemy, I now seize the thread of events at May-day, and would observe, by way of prelude, that as the hawser was cast, and the crank began to turn, nothing was quite so vivid In my mind as surprise at actually having got Abby with me on such a wedding journey, with all the babies left behind. I managed the thing with some astuteness, by having company comfe to the house toward the last minute, and so kept things in such a general rush that Abby did n't have a moment free to stop and reflect on what she was about till she was really off. None of the babies cried, though I saw Harold's mouth twitch. They knew enough to understand the danger of an explosion at such a critical mo ment, and their six little noddles were tolerably level. The Atlas is a mean, contracted, uncomfortable old tub, with the concentrated perfumes of twenty years of service; and although we did n't have a single day rough enough to put racks on the table we did n't get Into Liverpool till the morning of the 13th. Abby did n't suffer much from seasickness, but she is n't in any danger of becoming a mermaid from choice! Glad as we were to set foot in Liverpool, we did n't stay there a bit, but drove straight to the station and started for Chester. Reached the 175 John Fiske Grosvenor Hotel, Chester, about noon, had a delicious lunch, and then walked all around the walls — one of the loveliest walks I know of — and admired the river Dee and Grosvenor Bridge and the thin veil of haze over the sunlit landscape. Then we took a little rest at the hotel, and started out to see the Rows, walking down through Bridge and Watergate Streets to "God's Providence House," and went to the Cathedral and heard vespers there. Abby enthuses over the same things that I do, and thought the day about the happiest day of her life up to date. The next morning we transferred ourselves to Rowsley, and put up at the Peacock, which, after a pretty extensive experience, I call the pearl of all English country inns. We did Haddon Hall that afternoon and Chatsworth next morning, and Abby was so charmed with the Peacock that she bought of the old landlady the tea-pot in which we had tea and brought It away as a memento. N.B. It was rather a pretty tea-pot. By Saturday evening (May i6) we had got to London and to Huxley's, where the welcome was warm, and we immediately began to feel as if we had always lived there. The next evening — Sun day — the Huxleys had a reception for us — one of their "tall-teas." But I am not going to particu larize all of our three weeks in London chronolog ically. A digest must suffice. To wit: as regards these "receptions," we had three while at the Huxleys'; and Abby thus met Herbert Spencer, Browning, Frederic Harrison, Frederick Pollock, John Green, the historian, Leslie Stephen, Sir Fitz James Stephen, Lecky, Romanes, Mark Pattison, 176 Warmly Welcomed in London Dr. Burdon Sanderson, Alma-Tadema, Lieutenant- General Strachey, my dear friend Ralston, Clif ford's widow, beside several lords and ladies and others whom I can't think of. The Huxleys had also a dinner-party just before we left, at which were present Herbert Spencer, Lord and Lady Arthur Russell, Sir James and Lady Stephen, Leslie Stephen and wife, Matthew Amold, and others. We also went to a musical party at Alma-Tadema's, at which the piano was melllfluously clawed by Charles Hall6 and by Wagner's friend Richter. We went to a garden- party at Sir Joseph Hooker's at Kew Gardens; and in this way Abby saw many noted people. We took tea with Mrs. Tyndall, but did n't see Tyn dall. We had a lunch at the countess of Alrlie's, where we met Robert Lowe; and we went to a soiree of the Royal Society. By a curious chance I lunched (without Abby) in company with "dynamite Hartmann," the cheerful youth who tried to .blow, up the Czar, near Moscow, the fellow that the French Government would n't surrender. He makes no secret of his wickedness, but glories In it, and means to try it on again if he ever gets a chance! I felt an odd smell of brimstone clinging about me for the next two days ! N.B. The above Hartmann is in outward mien and appearance the mildest of milk-and-water phil anthropists. Then Darwin sent me a lovely letter inviting me to come down to his house in Kent to dine and pass the night, and to bring Abby, so the 21st of May we went down there and had a delightful visit. Darwin treated Abby so sweetly, giving her beau- 177 John Fiske tiful flowers from his garden, which I have care fully pressed; she nearly shed tears when we came away.^ As for Spencer he seemed to take a great fancy to Abby, though he seldom pays much attention to ladies anyway, and invited us to come and take lunch with him at his lodgings. So we went and had lunch in his private parlour and David Masson made the fourth one at the table, and we had most uproarious fun. After our return from Scotland, toward the end of June, Spencer invited us again to lunch and so we did it over again. Spencer is in better health than he has known for years and is one of the jolliest companions I have ever taken a glass of beer with. Abby was very much charmed with him, and they got on together beautifully. I never met a man in my life who 1 Darwin wrote Fiske as follows: — Down, May 14, 1880. My dear Mr. Fiske: — I suppose that you have reached London. I did not write before because we have had a succession of visitors and I absolutely require a day or two of rest after any one has been here. Some persons now in the house leave to-morrow evening, and others are coming on Tuesday mormng. If you and Mrs. Fiske happen to be disengaged on Friday evening (21st), would you come down to dinner and to sleep? There is a good train which leaves Charing Cross at 4.12 p.m. On Monday, the 24th, we leave home for a fortnight for me to rest. If it would be more convenient to you to come here after June Sth or thereabouts, it would suit us equzJly well and we should be very glad to see you and Mrs. Fiske then. In haste to catch the pxjst, Yoiirs sincerely, Ch. Darwin. Very many thanks for all the kind expressions in your note. 178 Royal Institution Lectures for brilliant conversation could be compared with him: and then, his voice is so rich and musical you could never get tired of hearing it. We also dined at Conway's and at my friends the MacmlUans', and the Triibners'. At the MacmlUans' we also had a fine musical evening. As for the Simes — my most intimate friends of all — we went to Richmond together, rowed up the Thames past Twickenham to Teddington, and drove to Bushy Park while the horse-chestnuts were in full glory; and we did chin-wag together even until Sime ac companied us to Euston Square Station and saw us start for Liverpool. We also saw pretty much all the "sights" of London, from Westminster Abbey, down to Mrs. Jarley 's Wax- Works. We went once to the opera, to hear Lohengrin, and once to the theatre to see Henry Irving; and we did one stylish drive at 3 p.m. in Hyde Park; and Abby got into the House of Commons and heard Gladstone and others blow off steam. As for me, more through Ignorance than malice-aforethought, I got in on the floor of the House instead of the strangers' gallery, and passed for some time as a new member (it being a new House), until finally my non-identity becoming ap parent, I was respectfully shown to the gallery. ' The lectures at the Royal Institution went off with great success. There was a grand audience — lords and ladies, Members of Parliament and sav ants; very swell in quality. Huxley says they are the very best lectures he has ever heard at the Royal Institution. He says he had no fears about my "filling the bill" when he had me invited there, but I have utterly gone beyond his expectations. 179 John Fiske Spencer thinks the last lecture simply "wonder ful." The audience was very enthusiastic, con tinually stopping me with applause. James Russell Lowell, our Ambassador, was there at the last one and much pleased. Dowager Lady Stanley of Alderly (cousin to Lord Derby) was there and wild with delight. She blew my trumpet to Gladstone that day at dinner. Next evening we went to a party at her house, where Abby was Introduced to Gladstone, Tom Hughes, Matthew Arnold, and others. Lady Stanley kept introducing right and left with as much enthusiasm as If she had been Mrs. Hemenway, of whom she slightly reminded me. Gladstone remembered me from last year and came up to me, so that I Introduced Abby. Lady Henniker had me to lunch Tuesday before lecture ; her whole family were warm over the lectures. Lord Granville's brother, Mr. Leveson-Gower, was at the last lecture and I saw him vigorously clap ping his hands. The foregoing made altogether a tolerably in dustrious three weeks' time in London. Mighty little grass grew under our feet in spite of the propitious showers. On the 3d of June we left the Huxleys in London, and went to Ipswich and put up at The Great White Horse of Pickwickian renown, a place where I had stopped before and lost my way to boot, though without any such romantic consequences as en sued in the case of my immortal predecessor. Our object in going to Ipswich was to visit the home of my Fiske ancestors at Laxfield. I knew the name of the manor, and thought there might still be a potato-patch on the old spot and bearing the old 180 Visits Home of Ancestors name, though if Abby had n't insisted on my go ing, I should probably have been too lazy to go. It turned out to be the most romantic experience we had In our whole journey and marked out Friday, June 4th, as a red-letter day in our calendar. We started from Ipswich by train at 7 A.M. for Framlingham, about twenty-five miles distant. There we got a young man with a dog-cart, which I call rather an awkward vehicle for a heavy fellow like me, and he drove us eight miles to Laxfield. Framlingham is a small market town with a col lege and ruined castle. Two or three Fiskes live there now. My own direct ancestors came over from Framlingham to Wenham, Massachusetts; but the headquarters of the family from at least 1400 to about 1640 was Stadhaugh Manor at Lax field. Laxfield is a village about the size of Peters ham. Arriving near the village, after a beautiful drive through delicious rural scenery, we began to inquire for Stadhaugh, but nobody seemed to know it, and I began to think It possible that the place might have vanished. But in England things don't vanish easily. By and by we stopped and asked at a wheelwright's shop. The man said he paid quit- rent for a bit of land held from Stadhaugh Manor, and paid it to a Mr. Aldrich. We drove to Mr. Aldrlch's house, a very quaint old place, and him self a quaint old man of eighty. He remembered that there used to be Fiskes at Stadhaugh. In 17 18 the place was owned by a John Smith, who left it to the town, and the town leased it to a Mr. Read. By Smith's will the rents were to be applied to keeping up a charity-school for twenty boys. The house, with 112 acres of land surrounding, have been 181 John Fiske leased and occupied by six generations of Reads — at present by^Thomas Read, Esqr. We drove to the house, about half-a-mile from the village; and it is a fine, comfortable house, though not grand ; but in comparably the finest place in the neighbourhood. As we drove up, Mr. Read came out to meet us — a most stalwart, ruddy, and cordial country squire, full of laugh. He was greatly interested In our errand, took us into the dining-room (a fine old room with low celling, and huge beams across it, a book-case, a piano, sideboard, and tall Dutch clock), sat us down before the fire, and gave us some port wine and cake, and began to talk over antiquities. This is the very identical house where my ancestors lived; the house which the Reverend John Fiske, of Cotton Mather's "Magnalia," left in 1637 to come to Cambridge, thence to Salem (where I believe he taught the first grammar school), thence to Chelmsford. He was n't my direct ancestor; but his grandfather Robert (in Elizabeth's time) was, and must have lived in this very house, for the house goes back to that time. It was a good deal altered in 1602, being then a very old house. Mr. Read was extremely courteous, and after about an hour's talk we started for the parsonage, Mr. Read going with us. The vicar has a bright boy of eleven who collects birds' eggs, like Clarence. Old Mr. Aldrich told me that I would find the Fiske graves in the pavement of the church. So we all went to the church — an immensely old place, one of the oldest churches I have seen, and un affected by "restorations." I think it must date from the ante-Norman times, though the vicar 182 Visits Home of Ancestors did n't know. The stone floor was covered with matting and carpets which the sexton lifted and swept under till we had taken up seven or eight bucketfuls of dust; but nary a Fiske. The search was not exhaustive, however. There were spots from which it was difficult to raise the carpeting; and besides, our time was limited. Moreover, as I knew the family history down to the departure from England, at least as well as gravestones could tell it, I did n't look for the graves for information, but only for sentiment, and so did not press the matter. Mr. Aldrich said he had seen the graves, and I presume we should have found them if we had hunted long enough. I saw the grave of John Smith, of Stadhaugh (died 1 71 8), in the church: the inscription was in Latin, and he was described as "Armiger." I also saw the grave of John Borrett, of Stadhaugh Manor, and his wife Mary (died 1691 and 1699). Now I know that Stadhaugh was owned by Nicho las Fiske In the time of Charles II (i 660-1 685), from a grant In the " Heraldic Journal " referring to the crest on the Fiske coat-of-arms. I now know all but one point — how did Stadhaugh Manor pass from Fiske to Borrett and to Smith? There are no Fiskes now in Laxfield ; and my im pression is that pretty nearly the whole lot cleared out and went to Massachusetts. There were many such cases of wholesale migration. The vicar's boy knew all about the burning of John Noyes in 1557 by order of Bloody Mary and told me of the exact spot. John Noyes was brother-in-law to Nicholas Fiske, of Dennington, a lovely village four miles from Laxfield, through which we passed on our 183 John Fiske dog-cart drive. This Nicholas Fiske (mentioned in Foxe's "Book of Martyrs") was son of Robert and Sybil. Well, what was this for a romantic day? In the morning I did n't know that the old Fiske place had survived. Now I know beyond peradventure that it does survive and that in the very room where my forefathers ate I actually drank a glass of wine — and a lovely room it was too! And to have had Abby with me to see it all ! ! ! I have had some photographs of the house made to bring home. , We got back to the Great White Horse, Ipswich, about 4 P.M. and our room, for aught I know, may have been the very one in which Mr. Pickwick met the middle-aged lady in yellow curl-papers. While waiting for our dinner I read to Abby the Ipswich part of "Pickwick Papers" and we enjoyed it hugely! From Ipswich we went to Cambridge, Ely, Lincoln, and York — all places which I knew well already, and was glad to see again with Abby. I have never seen a grander cathedral than York, though I have seen the finest ones on the Continent. Then we got to Edinburgh, where I gave four historical lectures at the Philosophical Institute. The audience was very large — something like 800 — and very enthusiastic, and the whole affair went off splendidly. In the intervals between lectures the first week we devoted ourselves to seeing Edin burgh, to dining and lunching with W. W. Hunter (who wrote the Annals of Rural Bengal, and a dozen other books) and David Masson, and my good friend Dr. Muir, as well as to miscellaneous fun. Among other things — Abby having been dressed 184 YORK MINSTER Lectures in Edinburgh in long skirts for a luncheon — we drove with Mr. and Mrs. Hunter around Arthur's Seat, and It being proposed we should make the ascent, we ascended, which as we got to a very steep place near the top, Abby holding up her train, and I pushing her along and using mine umbrella as a third leg unto myself; lo! the sky darkened, and the windows of heaven were opened, and the floods came down ; whereat the undersigned raising aloft the umbrella to protect his better yi, did thereby deprive himself of the third leg needful for propelling his weighty earthly tabernacle up the steep declivity, and thus we did remain to consti tute an impressive tableau for about five or eight minutes, until aid did arrive from the summit of the mount In the person of Hunter with another umbrella. Which we did n't see anything after we got to the top, and so descended and explored Craig-Miller Castle. And the next week we took two Highland trips between lectures. The first trip was the one "they all take" — to wit: the Trossachs, Loch Katrine, and Loch Lomond, and Abby thought she never knew what scenery was before. The second, how ever, outdid it: it was a big excursion to be made in two days, but as I knew what the Pass of Glen coe was I was bound Abby should see it to make up for not being able to go to Switzerland. And this is the way we did It. We started on Wednesday morning early from Edinburgh, took the train four hours to Tyndrum and were thence taken ten miles by dog-cart to Inveroran. As I doubt if you have ever seen the road, I will make bold to say It is one of the most sublime on the earth : if you have seen 185 John Fiske it you will agree with me. Huge mountains rise from 2000 to 3000 feet each side of the road, al most perpendicularly, covered with heather. Not a tree, not a house, not a sign of life. Inveroran is a charming place consisting of a lake, a grove of Scotch firs, and a pretty inn, where we did eat. And the undersigned not liking the jerk of the dog-cart we then did take a wagonette for the next twenty- six miles which took us through the Pass of Glencoe, to Ballachulish on Lake Leven. It was 9 p.m. when we reached the inn at Ballachulish, and at 10 we saw the sun set over the beautiful lake. The drive through Glencoe filled us with a feeling of awe which we were long in getting over. The mountains are little more than three thou sand to thirty-five hundred feet high ; but they rise sheer from the road so that you see their full height, and their tops overhang you against the sky. There is no vegetation on them and the enormous rocks are piled above each other with a grandeur that is absolutely terrific. At the bot tom of the glen is the little oasis where the Mac donalds were massacred. The next morning we got up at five and took steamer down Loch Linnhe, by the land of Ossian, through most magnificent scenery twenty-six miles to Oban. We breakfasted at Oban, and got on top of a stage and did the road by Dunstaffnage Castle and Ben Cruachan, through the Pass of Brander, and past Loch Awe to Dalmally, whence we took train five hours to Edinburgh. Total, four hours train, thirty-six miles of private carriage, twenty-six of steamboat, twenty-six of stage-coach, and five hours train — that is my idea 186 In France of a good deep draught at the cup of pleasure, and Abby, this time at any rate, quite agreed with me. I had seen every bit of the road before and hope I shall see it again. Then too, the Lord was on our side and gave us such superb weather as one does n't often see in Scotland. June 19 we departed from Auld Reekie, and went 400 miles at one dash to Oxford, where we spent a delightful Sunday and dined at the rooms of a friend. Next day we did Stratford-on-Avon and went on to London where we put up in lodgings for a few days to give Abby a taste of my old-fashioned kind of life there. I had been asked to repeat my three Royal Institution lectures at South Place Institute (Conway's place), and did so the even ings of June 22d, 24th, and 25th, spending the In tervening time in mousing about London with Abby. The 29th we went to the Isle of Wight, and used up the 30th in driving by the Undercliff Road from Ventnor to Carisbrooke Castle and Cowes. That night we crossed from Southampton to Havre, and thence next day to Honfleur, and drove five miles of charming wooded road to the Chateau of Pennedepie. My old friend Hennessy the painter has lived there for some years and I now carried out an old project of visiting him. We staid a day and a half there and wished we could stay forever. It was more like Petersham than anything else I have ever seen in Europe, although with the lovely hills and the walks in the pine woods there is also to be seen at Pennedepie the deep-blue sea. Indeed, the great watering-place, Trouville, is but five miles distant and we included that in an afternoon drive. 187 John Fiske Then we pegged along to Rouen and spent half-a- day there viewing the Cathedral and went on to Paris and staid there eleven days. Our very best, number one, jolly day in Paris, was spent, not in Paris, but in Versailles. To my mind there is nothing in Europe more interesting than the Pal ace of Versailles — It is so crammed with history. Westminster Abbey is nothing to it, in point of quantity, at any rate. As for Paris, we wished it would smell a little sweeter. (I tell Abby I don't know what she would say If she were once to get a good square whiff of Naples, but Paris is enough for a warm day.) On the whole, we don't belong to the sect of good Americans who go to Paris when they die. I never did like Paris much, and Abby does n't like it. She likes some dresses, and a love-of-a-bonnet or two, though. We do bow down to the superiority of French millinery — and cooking, too, to some ex tent, though Abby could n't for her life get a de cent cup of tea with cream, or a glass of real lem onade even, in this headquarters of y^ gourmets. It had been suggested that I should give two or three lectures in Paris, and Taine and Renan were interested In the scheme; but it was out of the question to scare up an audience in July, and the scheme stands postponed. I have had a letter from Emile de Laveleye, the author of "Primitive Property," who lives at Li^ge, and it Is proposed that the next time I come over I shall give some lectures at Li^ge. I have been Invited to lecture at the London Institution, at the Birmingham Mid land Institute, and again at Edinburgh. All this might be done next spring, but I have got tired of i88 Returns to America being away from home so much and don't think I shall cross again for eighteen months or two years. From Paris we crossed via Calais-Dover to Lon don on Wednesday, July 14th, and had just time to drop the parting tear with our friends, and get off to Liverpool for the Gallia. Doxology: The Gallia stopped six hours at Queenstown, and we went ashore and took a lovely drive of ten miles or so on a jaunting car, just to give Abby a taste of "ould Ireland." And all together, it was a very good notion of a three months' skylark. Deo volente we shall reach Cambridge, and the babies, Tuesday, the 27th, and go to Petersham Saturday, the 31st, to remain till about the 8th of September. Abby and I hold that all Europe has no more attractive place than Petersham. They may have better places over there, but if they have they keep them out of sight. And so I have given you quite an "old peeler" of a letter, though I can't decorate the envelope with a British stamp — and am, with very much love to you all, in which Abby joins, affectionately yours, John Fiske. The Gallia reached New York July 26, 1880, and thus Fiske's second lecture excursion to England, with Mrs. Fiske, is shown by his own record to have been a veritable "wedding journey," and one of rare experiences. CHAPTER XXVI domestic life in petersham — controversy with dr. william james — essays — lectur ing experiences — visits st. louis, milwau kee, indianapolis, cornell university — received with great interest — special his torical lectures at old south church — prepares three articles on great britain for cyclopedia of political science — short history of american people dawning in his mind — agrees to prepare a short history for harper and brothers 1880-188I On the return of Mr. and Mrs. Fiske from England they joined their children in Petersham, and there the family remained until the middle of September. From the letters we get glimpses of an idyllic country life amidst the pleasantest surroundings: of picnic excursions galore, one of which has special mention in a letter to Mrs. Stoughton: — "On Monday (September 6th), being the six teenth anniversary of our wedding day, we had a picnic at Tom Howe's farm — Abby, our six babies, and six friends. We built a fire and the boys roasted corn and broiled slices of pork on the end of a stick; and we had sandwiches, and baked beans, and potato salad and coffee : and there was a sort of wedding-cake. We had a jolly time and staid till dark." 190 Domestic Life in Petersham Of Fiske's musical diversions we get this glimpse : — "We have a fine piano and a young lady who is able and willing to play difficult accompaniments by the hour and I am singing a lot of most beautiful songs of Schubert." Fiske's marked success in England, which had been widely noticed by the American press, greatly increased the demand for his lectures in the home market. His repertoire now consisted of nine lec tures, out of which could be chosen a single lecture, or a course of three, four, or six lectures, and he was able to adjust his "discourse" so as to meet the great variety of local conditions. On his re turn, therefore, he found many applications for his lectures awaiting him. By the opening of the lecture season, in November, Fiske had secured en gagements for nearly his whole available time till the close of the season In the following April, 1881. His lecture engagements extended over a wide range of territory, within the bounds, one might say, of Boston, New York, Baltimore, St. Louis, and Milwaukee, the fulfilling of which involved al most incessant travelling. Before entering on his lecturing campaign — in fact, while he was arranging his campaign — Fiske wrote two magazine articles, "Sociology and Hero- Worship" for the "Atiantic Monthly," and "The Causes of Persecution" for the "North American 191 John Fiske Review," and also a brief article on "Heroes of Industry." The first of these articles is worthy of serious consideration by every one who wishes to see the application of the doctrine of Evolution to social development clearly presented, and who also wishes to get light upon Fiske's historical method. In the "Atiantic Monthly" for October, 1880, William James, of Harvard, the well-known psychologist, published an article entitled "Great Men, Great Thoughts, and the Environment." In this article James rambled quite discursively over much phil osophic, historic, and scientific ground, with no little incisiveness and brilliancy of phrase. The main point of the article was an attack upon the doctrine of Evolution in its application to indi vidual and social life, and this attack bristled with sharp thrusts at " Mr. Herbert Spencer and his dis ciples." James stated his thesis thus: — "Our problem is. What are the causes that make communities change from generation to generation — that make the England of Queen Anne so differ ent from the England of Elizabeth, the Harvard College of to-day so different from that of thirty years ago? I shall reply to this problem. The differ ence Is due to the accumulated Influences of in dividuals, of their examples, their initiations and their decisions . . . The mutations of societies then from generation to generation are in the main due directly or indirectly to the acts or the example of individuals whose genius was so adapted to the 192 Reply to William James receptivities of the moment, or whose accidental position of authority was so critical that they be came ferments, initiators of movement, setters of precedent or fashion, centres of corruption, or destroyers of other persons, whose gifts, had they had free play, would have led society in another direction." James admitted there was some kind of evolution at work In human society, for he says : — "Thus social evolution Is a resultant of the Inter action of two wholly distinct factors: the individual, deriving his peculiar gifts from the play of physi ological and Infra-social forces, but bearing all the power of initiative and origination in his hands ; and second the social environment, with its power of adopting or rejecting both him and his gifts. Both factors are essential to change. The community stagnates without the impulse of the individual. The impulse dies away without the sympathy of the community." Good Spencerian, Darwinian, Fiske Evolution ary doctrine, this, as far as it goes. But it gives no hint of the play of the physiographic forces in the environment, or any distinct recognition of the so cial institutions by which organized society is held together — institutions which in their development conserve and generate an intellectual and social atmosphere without which, from the viewpoint of social science, your "Great Man" could not exist. Fiske read James's article with mingled feelings of regret and surprise: regret that a psychologic 193 John Fiske thinker like James, who made so much in his teach ing of the play of environing conditions, physio logical, physical, and social, in his interpretation of psychical phenomena, could so far forget his indebtedness to Spencer for blazing the way to a rational method of psychologic study as to charge Spencer with "impudence" in his argument, and to characterize his theory of social progress as an "obsolete anachronism." And he was greatly surprised to observe that with all his sociologic and historic study, James had failed to note that Evolutionary ideas, of which Spencer was the greatest living exponent, were permeating as with new life all modern thought; and that, while bitterly condemning Spencer in toto, he was in many re spects following closely In Spencer's footsteps him self. Regarding some of the points In James's article as directed against himself, he being a disciple of Spencer's, Fiske felt that he was challenged for a , reply. And he lost no time In making it: one in which there Is an entire absence of a desire to make brilliant points ; rather one which consists of a lucid presentation of the facts involved with the logical overwhelming conclusion to which they lead. In the first place, Fiske is at pains to show the points wherein James and the Spencerian Evolu tionists are agreed, and then turns with perfect fairness to the charge which James brings against the Spencerians of neglecting the function of great 194 Reply to William James men in their theories of social evolution. He shows conclusively, from Spencer's writings and his own, that there has not been any such neglect — indeed, the evidence leads to quite the contrary conclusion. He sums up his argument at this point with this keen, incisive statement: — " If Mr. Herbert Spencer and his disciples main tain any such astonishing proposition as this [the denial of the function of great men In social evolu tion] it must be difficult to acquit them of the charge of over-hasty theorizing to say the least : if they do not hold any such view, it will be difficult to avoid the conclusion that somebody has been guilty of over-hasty assertion . ' ' Having thus turned James's polemic batteries, which were aimed at "Mr. Spencer and his dis ciples," back upon James himself, Fiske proceeds to the discussion of the real question involved — that of sociology as a science and how its development is affected by great men, a discussion wherein the views of James, reflecting Carlyle's doctrine of hero-worship, seem sadly out of place. Defining sociology as the science of social phenomena, he pointed out that the truths with which sociology Is primarily concerned are general truths relating to the structure of man's various social organizations, and the functions of their various parts ; truths re vealed by a comparative and analytical study of the actions of great masses of men when considered on a scale where all matters of individual idlosyn- 195 John Fiske crasy are averaged, and, for the purposes of the enquiry, are eliminated. As a pertinent illustration of this fact Fiske cites the representative assembly common to all govern ments making any pretence to a consideration of the interests: of their people. This assembly is a direct outgrowth from the primary meeting of in dividual citizens, and has been developed through social changes among the people themselves. This is a fact established by a wide historic induction; and its implications, when once fully unfolded, go farther toward explaining the differences between Greek and Roman political history on the one hand, and English political history on the other, than do the biographies of all the Greek and Roman [ and English statesmen from Lycurgus and Servius , Tullius, to Gladstone. Then, too, this scientific study of social phe-" nomena, as illustrated by the investigations of Maine, Stubbs, Coulanges, Maurer, Tylor, and others, Is not only bringing new interpretations to history, but also juster valuations of the services of '"Great Men." Carlyle's method of dealing with /history, making It a mere series of prose epics, has many merits, but it is nevertheless Inadequate. It does not at all explain the course of events; It leaves them a jumble. History is something more than s, biography, else we are thrown back upon "special causes" and have nothing stable wherewith to in terpret the past or to predicate the future. And It 196 Reply to William James is here that sociology comes In as a science, and affirms the relativity of all social phenomena to " One far-off divine event To which the whole creation moves." Fiske closes his article with three very pertinent illustrations of the effect of the scientific study of social phenomena In the interpretation of history, and also In the valuation of great men, which are overwhelming in their support of his contention. He says : — "As an example I may refer to the way in which the life of Caesar has been treated respectively by Froude and by Mommsen. To both these writers Caesar is the greatest hero that has ever lived and both do their best to Illustrate his career. Both, too, have done their work well. But Mr. Froude has profited very little by the modern scientific study of social phenomena, and his method Is In the main the method of Carlyle. Mommsen, on the other hand, is saturated In every fibre with 'science,' with 'sociology,' with the 'comparative method,' with the 'study of institutions.' As a result of this difference, we find that Mr. Froude quite fails to do justice to the very greatest part of all Caesar's work, namely, the reconstructive meas ures of the last years of his life, which Mommsen has so admirably characterized in his profound chapter on the 'Old Republic and the New Monarchy.' Or, if a still more striking proof be needed that the scientific study of the evolution of society is not Incompatible with the highest possi ble estimate of the value of individual initiative, I 197 John Fiske may cite the illustrious example of Mr. Freeman. Of all the historians now living Mr. Freeman Is the most thoroughly filled with the scientific spirit, and he has done more than any other to raise the study of history on to a higher level than it has ever before occupied. His writings in great part read like an elaborate commentary on the doctrine •of Evolution — a commentary the more valuable in one sense, in that Mr. Freeman owns no especial allegiance to Mr. Spencer, or to any general evolu tionary philosophy. Yet this great historian, whose opinions are determined everywhere by the soclo- .^ logical study of institutions, turns out to be at the same time as ardent a hero-worshipper as Carlyle himself, and vastly more intelligent." To sum up in a word Fiske's conception of the ¦^ " Great Man," it was that of servant, — servant in the service of humanity; and the really great serv- -^ ants of humanity stood in his mind, to use his own words, "as the Memnon Colossi of the human race. No matter in what century or among what people their feet may be placed, around their brows the mu sic of morning and of evening is forever playing." James and Fiske were the best of friends, and ' James was prompt in acknowledging the force of Fiske's criticism, as appears by the following note: — Cambridge, December 19, 1880. My dear Fiske : — I have received your spanking, and I should n't mind having some more from the same rod. I kiss the rod that chastises me! It is pleasant to find one 198 Essays who so perfectly endorses all I have to say about the facts and laws of sociology; and reading your last pages has made me more than ever regret that you are not teaching history in college. As for the Spencer question, perhaps I laid It too strong on the individuars share in my polemic passage, as he on the "Conditions" in his polemic passage. Always yours faithfully, Wm. James. In the second article referred to as written at this time — "The Causes of Persecution " — Fiske showed how this terrible infliction on the human race was the outcome of expanding social ideas in conflict with established social conditions, a conflict which enabled egoistic great men, when uncurbed by adequate social forces, to resort to the most dire persecutions for opinion's sake. He pointed out also how, with the growth of more rational views of social well-being, — the outcome of increasing tol erance, — society Is steadily sloughing off the con ditions which made it possible for great men, as persecutors or as arbiters of public opinion, to exist. His article on the "Heroes of Industry," written at this time, was prepared as an introduction to the eighth volume of the work entitled "The Hundred Greatest Men." This volume comprised biogra phies of inventors and discoverers, and Fiske's intro ductory article illustrates some of the points made in his reply to James. Fiske's lecture experiences during his season of 199 John Fiske 1 880-8 1, so far as success with his audiences was concerned, were much more satisfactory than dur ing the previous season. His new course on "Amer ican Political Ideas" was received with greater favor, if that were possible, than his course on American history. Never before had the peace > movement been given such a comprehensive and philosophic basis as was given to it In this presen tation of American political ideas. What is more, these lectures are to-day the best interpretation we have of the underlying principles of our Federal Union. During this season's campaign, he had sorae per sonal experiences which are of interest, not only as reflections of his own Individuality, but as typical illustrations of the social and intellectual culture of the American people. The season was opened in Boston with his three lectures on "American Political Ideas," and the lectures were received with as deep an Interest and with as marked an enthusiasm as had been bestowed upon them In London. Here Is a glimpse of his experiences, in January, 1 88 1, among the Quakers at Haverford College, near Philadelphia. Fiske gave here his six lectures on "America's Place in History," and the last lec ture in his course on "American Political Ideas," alternating their delivery with two shorter courses in Baltimore, and in Plainfield, New Jersey. He writes : — 200 Lecturing Experiences " I have got a most enthusiastic audience here of students with prof.s and prof.s' wives; and several people who heard my lectures last winter in Phila delphia, and who come out here to hear me now. It is the same old story; the lectures are voted a success of the first water. President Chase Is a true scholar, and a man of broad views and great heart — an ideal college president. His wife and children are also very interesting. They are all Quakers and say ' thee and thou ' and their family life is a new ex perience for Beelzie. It Is awfully countrified here, quite like Petersham. We walk to the lectures under pine trees, and pick our way among the snowdrifts. Quite an Acadia. . . . The last lecture, ' Manifest Destiny,' was a tremendous success (as every where) and especially pleased the Quakers, who be lieve In peace, you know. They say Hezzy Is a boss Quaker himself! I said good-bye regretfully to the Chases, who are lovely people." In his extensive railway travelling Fiske occa sionally met with incidents of much personal inter est. Whenever he met with an experience that was in any way an attestation to the value of his work in the world of thought, he took great pleasure in passing it on to his wife or to his mother, as he so truly regarded them as joint sharers in whatever of appreciation or honor might come to him. Imme diately after the close of his Haverford lectures he started for St. Louis; and on his way, via the Penn sylvania Railroad, he fell in with some "chance acquaintances" who relieved the monotony of the journey, and also paved the way for a lecture 201 John Fiske engagement at Indianapolis; which, as we shall see, proved an event of great interest and pleasure to himself and to the good people of Indianapolis. The delightfully simple and frank way In which Fiske tells Mrs. Fiske of his experiences with these "chance acquaintances" needs no comment. In his account of his trip to St. Louis, under date of February 2, 1881, he wrote her thus: — "Saturday after lunch I went into a little smok ing-room and found a very bright-looking young man of thirty there, who lighted my pipe. We got talking on railroad travel and its recent improve ments, and he proved to be one of the principal mechanical engineers of the Pennsylvania Railroad Company, the inventor of the best kind of car wheel. His name is Barr. From car- wheel making we got on to contraction and expansion, molecu lar motion, vortex-atoms, the nebular hypothesis, matter and spirit, etc., and I took great pleasure in the keenness and precision with which the young man talked and the extent of his scientific knowl edge. "After a while he said, 'These materialists are getting some heavy blows lately, and soon will learn that they have n't exhausted the sphere of knowledge. These matters have been beautifully treated in a little book called "The Unseen World," by John Fiske — ever see it? Tell you what, sir, that man 's by all odds the greatest thinker of our day — sees farther than Spencer himself in many points. In my opinion nothing has ever been done that equals the argument in the "Unseen World." I'd give a heap to see that man! ! !' " 202 Lecturing Experiences "Here I thought it best to interfere at once and not sit and let him go on In that vein. I explained that the individual here alluded to was Identical with the 'gent here present.' Whereat he got .up In great excitement and seized my hand, and told me that words could n't begin to tell the good I had done him with my writings, and he considered this one of the greatest days of his life ! "This young man lives In Altoona, in the Alle ghanies. At Harrisburgh, we were joined by an other Altoona man named Duffield, an orthodox minister, enormously fond of all sorts of literature and especially of folk-lore. He recognized me, and said he had met me in Central Park, with Henry Holt, as we were returning from Bob Weeks's. I remember the time. It was In February, 1877, the last time I ever saw dear Bob, We entered into a 'terremenjuous' triangular chin-wag till 10 p.m., when we reached Altoona, and my two friends got out. "Next morning, as I was taking my after-break fast smoke, a young man (of twenty-five or so) came up and Introduced himself as F. C. Eaton, of Indianapolis, a graduate of Williams. Mr. Duffield had told him I was on my way to St. Louis to give some lectures, and he wanted to know If I could n't put In two or three at Indianapolis. I told him I could give three lectures there and named my terms. He thought there was no doubt it could be arranged and is to let me know next week." As we shall see, Fiske gave his three lectures on "American Political Ideas" in Indianapolis during the following April. 203 John Fiske At St. Louis his engagement was for three lec tures on "American Political Ideas" under the auspices of Washington University. . He was most cordially received by Dr. Eliot, the President of the University, and by Professor Snow, the Pro fessor of History. The latter was an undergradu ate at Harvard with Fiske, but In the class of '65. Fiske also received many social courtesies from President Eliot, the University Club, Judge Gantt, Colonel Hitchcock, formerly of General Sherman's staff — "a capital fellow, native of Alabama, but very Northern in feeling and highly cultivated"; and several others. In short, the St. Louis people took him warmly to their hearts, and he established personal friendships that in years to come were enduring. His lectures were received In the most flattering manner, with unstinted applause, and with ex pressions of personal appreciation that were most gratifying. President Eliot said to him, "You are throwing a new light on the whole of American history, and you are a benefactor to your country men." On the strength of his great success Presi dent Eliot made a definite engagement with him for a course of five lectures under the auspices of the university the next winter. In one of his letters to Mrs. Fiske, from St. Louis, telling of his great success, Fiske remarks parenthetically: "By the way, my dear, these Royal Institution lectures ('American Political Ideas') are the ones to give 204 Lectures in St. Louis whenever the audience is cultivated enough — they are grander than the historical series." A little incident occurred during this St. Louis visit, worth relating as showing the wide range and accuracy of Fiske's knowledge. Judge Gantt, who was a well-informed man of some sixty-five years, had taken a great fancy to Fiske and he seemed to take a delight in probing Fiske's knowledge. One day he sought to feaze Fiske with a historico-legal question or puzzle, and here is Fiske's account of the incident: — "Judge Gantt thought he would stick me and so propounded to me the barbarous law-Latin puzzle propounded by Sir Thomas More to a learned jurist at Amsterdam, 'whether a plough taken in withernam can be replevied?' Did n't stick Heze kiah — not much. I gave him a minute account of the ancient process of distraining and Impounding and of the action of replevin, — considerably to my own amusement and his astonishment." Fiske left St. Louis greatly cheered by the hearty Western appreciation that had been shown to wards his work, as well as by the warm personal friendships he had established. Henceforth we are to see St. Louis stand forth in his regard as one of his intellectual homes. From St. Louis he went to Milwaukee. He spent a month in Wisconsin giv ing lectures in Milwaukee, Madison, Appleton, and Waukesha. In these places he was received with the same enthusiastic appreciation given to him 205 John Fiske elsewhere. He writes: "Wisconsin has certainly waked up to Hezzy! They're lively folks out here; want to hear all the new notions. At Madison I had the Governor and several members of the Legisla ture present, and they were profuse in their ex pressions of delight." He encountered some snow blockades which interfered with a few of his en gagements. He took the interruptions philosoph ically, however, contenting himself with an exple tive now and then, such as this: "The snow in Madison lies in mountains. Great Scott, what a sight!" While in Wisconsin Fiske made his headquarters in Milwaukee; and of course he at once resumed personal relations with his dear friends Professor Peckham and his family, and the Reverend Mr. Dudley, of whom the reader has doubtless retained pleasant recollections, from the account which was given in previous pages of Fiske's first visit to Milwaukee with his philosophical lectures in 1872. He had a tender regard for these dear friends who sought by many delicate attentions to make his so journ among them agreeable to his aesthetic tastes. He was entertained by the Peckhams during the whole period, and here is just a glimpse he gives Mrs. Fiske of his pleasant home-like surround ings:— "It is a divinely beautiful Sabbath morning, quiet as Petersham, snow three feet deep and bright sun. George [Professor Peckham] is reading my 206 In JVIilwaukee Again Pollock's 'Spinoza,' now and then exclaiming with delight or reading a sentence aloud ; his little dear of a wife is looking over the newspaper, and his white-haired mother is dozing in a big rocking- chair before the fire. So I will grasp the occasion to write a line to my dear home circle, eleven hundred miles away. "George is going to give a 'tremenjuous' break fast-party for me here next Sunday morning, at 10 o'clock; so you can imagine Hezzy in great feather and in good company." He had many "chin-wags" with his ever-delight ful old Middletown friend and adviser Dudley, to whom, with his intimates, he gave the sobriquet of "Black John" by reason of Dudley's swarthy com plexion, — hence remarks like these: — "Friday, nth. Lunched with Black John, and chin-wagged till 4 P.M. "Saturday, 12th. Stormy. Lunched and chin- wagged all day with Black John and his wife, and played on their Steinway piano. Dear old Black John — how I do love him! He's awful good." We can easily imagine the nature of their "chin- wags": their Middletown reminiscences; Fiske's youthful Inquiries and their profound significance; and the great development of thought the inter vening years had brought to both. The Misses Hathaway were by no means overlooked. In a letter to Mrs. Fiske he gives an account of an eve ning in their hospitable home, which Is, one may well say, self-revealing on both sides. He writes : — 207 John Fiske "Saturday, I2th. At 8 p.m. went to the Hatha way's, with Peckham, and found the three girls, their brother Andrew, and their Uncle John. Car ried my Schubert songs and sang nearly all of them to Mary's accompaniment on the Steinway grand. Hezzy was In his very best voice. Then we all went up to the uncle's den at the top of the ' hipe.' He is a jolly old bird, fat, black-eyed, handsome and good- natured. His room is half the attic, with low eight foot celling; a compound of bedroom and study, with lots of books, rugs, and easy-chairs, and a side board to boot. It is just awfully cosy. Here in this delightful nest, with a bright fire, a glass of ' some thing hot,' a rich cigar, the beaming old uncle, the ever philosophic George, the three charming sisters, and the wind howling outside for a background to enhance the brightness of it all, Hezzy for the time being, dropped the gnawing homesickness which he generally carries around in his thorax just next his heart. It was midnight when we reached home. I wish you had been there, — you would enjoy the Hathaways; and the den was just the kind to make Maudie flap her wings." As I turn over these Milwaukee letters of Feb ruary, 1 88 1, I am struck by the following coin cidence which could not possibly be owing to any premeditation: I find a note from Mr. Howells, then editor of the "Atlantic Monthly," asking Fiske for a paper, critical and reminiscent, on George Eliot; and close beside this note I find a letter of Fiske, which contains this injunction to Mrs. Fiske: — 208 In JMilwaukee Again "Read the ' Undiscovered Country ' at once. It Is by far the best thing Howells has yet done. It Is simply magnificent. It made the tears come." While in Milwaukee, Fiske had the good news that his dear friend Huxley had received from the English Government a sinecure appointment — Inspector of Salmon Fisheries — which doubled his income without increasing his work. This greatly delighted Fiske, inasmuch as he well knew how this honor would ease Huxley's declining years. He also received a letter at this time from his dear Scotch friend, James Sime, of London, who, in the follow ing extract, not only gave expression to his deep personal regard, but also voiced the grief of Eng land at the departure of one of the most striking and influential personalities of the Victorian era. Sime writes under date of February 7, 1881 : — "As I write we are all mourning the loss of our great old hero Carlyle. I do not think any of us knew how much we loved him until now. He said many wild things about your country, as Indeed he did about most subjects: yet how much we all owe to him! It seems somehow as If life must be less ideal now that his grand picturesque figure is gone. With all his extravagances he had some of the very qualities which we appear to need most in these materialistic times. Spencer's Influence is any thing but materialistic but we want so much more glow and fervour than a writer of his stamp can give us. If only the mighty poet for whom the whole creation is groaning would come! Nature 209 John Fiske seems to find it very hard to give birth to those radiant spirits who, without exactly adding to our knowledge give a new meaning and glory to the world, and bring us nearer to the very heart of things. " I am so pleased to think that you are resolved to visit the old country again as soon as you can. Next time I hope nothing will prevent us from having some happy days together in the country, or, still better perhaps, on the continent. What say you to our planning a trip from Coblentz to Treves, such as Mrs. Fiske and you thought of? It would be all the more delightful if she were of the party. We should have quite a world of happy memories." Thus, greeted by enthusiastic audiences, and cheered by warm personal friendships, — some ex tending over the greater portion of his life, — and all in the midst of Wisconsin's terrific snows, there came to Fiske this sympathetic note from Sime as a sweet message from his friends beyond the sea, and at the same time a delicate attestation to his own place in the world of thought. His state of mind is reflected in this passage in one of his Milwaukee letters: "Hezzy is well, bright, and clear all the time nowadays, things look so bright to him." While In Milwaukee Fiske received an urgent request from Mrs. Mary Hemenway, for two lectures to be given in the Old South Church in Boston : one in support of the proposition to make this historic building a centre for the teaching of 2X0 The Old South Church American history, and the principles of good citi zenship; and the other upon Samuel Adams as a type of eminent citizenship. He was glad to comply with this request as a patriotic duty; and getting a postponement of his lecture engagements at In dianapolis for a month, he went directly from Mil waukee to his home in Cambridge, where he arrived March 13, and at once set about the preparation of the two lectures, to be delivered April 4 and April 6. In the first lecture he gave a summary of the principal events in New England history, and par ticularly an account of the notable Incidents which Identified the Old South building with the War of Independence. He had a fine audience, and in a letter to his mother he gave quite a graphic account of the occasion: — "I gave my new lecture on the Old South Church to-day, on the site of the pulpit where Sam Adams and Warren once roused the people to resist the encroachments of George III. There were 400 or more present. I wound up with a grand appeal to save the building and convert it into a place for teaching American history. Every one says it is the most eloquent thing I ever did. Mrs. Hemenway is overjoyed. I know myself that I never held an audience so breathless with interest before. I got excited myself, and Abby says she never before saw me so animated in manner. My audience was the cream of Boston. More than all, I believe I have started a fresh impulse toward saving the 211 John Fiske building; and If so, it will be well. O, this has been a sweet and happy day! Harold and Ralph were there, and took it all in with enthusiasm. How funny it seems to have children old enough to do so!" The Samuel Adams lecture, which came two days later, was also one of great interest, and gave Fiske a fine opportunity to show his appreciation of the function of great men in the development of social and political well-being, and also an oppor tunity to display his power of individual character ization — the first opportunity he had had to treat a really great historic personality by itself. He first sketched the spcial and political life of New Eng land, based on its town meetings and its represent ative assemblies, as forming the general social con ditions into which Samuel Adams was born; and which furnished him, in the maturity of his powers, with the instrumentalities for doing his great work for, and with, his countrymen. And thus by the play of outward and inward forces Samuel Adams be came the type of New England citizen-statesman ship at the opening of the Revolutionary period. Then by way of complementary contrast, Fiske briefly sketched the social and political development of ^Virginia, and pointed out how this development tended to the production of leaders In thought and action, so that Washington became as distinctly and legitimately the type of Virginia citizen-statesman ship as Samuel Adams was of that of New England. Having thus sketched a general background for 212 Lecture on Samuel Adams his portrait, he presents his hero, not only as the first of citizens, but also as the statesman around whom the civil history of the Revolutionary period centres, as its military history centres around Washington. Thus, cheered by a patriotic duty well performed, and by a short visit with his family, Fiske promptly set his face westward to fulfil his two remaining lecture engagements of the season — the one at Indianapolis and the other at Cornell University, Ithaca. There is a free, autobiographic frankness of ex pression in the letters immediately following, the aim being throughout to present Fiske as he was, especially to give due prominence to his robust enjoyment of life, his profound sympathy with his fellows, and his great pleasure in service. In giving joy to others. He knew Dickens by heart and Dickens's char acters were his constant companions. Hence he ^ looked out upon life as abounding in charity and humor, and he was ever ready "to lend a hand." Then, too, these letters were written under cir cumstances where he had only to reveal himself, — his impressions, his feelings, his thoughts, — and it will be noted that his revelations all relate to worthy things. His trip to Indianapolis was by way of New York and thence over the Pennsylvania Railroad. Of his journey under date of April 15, he writes thus: — 213 John Fiske " I had a most delightful ride hither from Phila delphia over the mountains. The day was wonder fully beautiful — all the loveliness of spring. I read Lecky all day with intense delight and the car was so well lighted that I was able to read com fortably till 10 p.m. By the time I got here I had nearly finished the first volume. Eaton met me at the Station and brought me here — the New Denison Hotel. It is one of the most comfortable hotels I have ever stopped at; clean beds, pleasant rooms, good food. I have made a great hit with the lectures, the last of which I give to-night. Wednes day afternoon half a dozen young ladies assembled at Mrs. Eaton's, and Hezzy sang a lot of songs and some of the ladles sang, and then we adjourned to the church, and Hezzy played on the organ. After the lecture the Literary Club gave me a grand re ception. Yesterday Mrs. Eaton gathered 38 ladies in her parlour, and Hezzy read 'em his paper on a Common Origin of Languages, and then answered about 500 questions about everything, and told 'em about George Eliot, and sang 'Wohin,' and 'Am Meer,' and 'Bid me to live,' in which Mrs. Vinton, Judge Stallo's daughter, accompanied me. This afternoon the VIntons take me to drive and to tea. After the lecture to-night there is to be a great pow-wow here at the hotel, including a supper and speeches and songs. I was asked to make a speech, but resolutely refused. Then I was asked to sing some songs, which I said que oui, and am to sing, possibly, a bouquet consisting of "I. Wohin. "2. Am Meer. "3. Auf dem Wasser zu Singen. 214 Lectures in Indianapolis "They are bound to have me here next winter they say. Indianapolis is a very pretty city — a sort of immense New England village with wide, shady streets; but not to be compared with Mil waukee for beauty." After the evening's "pow-wow" he writes as follows : — " Grand shindy came off this evening. Supper of 300 people. Speeches, stories, and fun. Toasts were given me. When called up, I waived speech and gave 'Rauschen' with a good accompanist on a grand piano. Never before did Hezzy's voice ring out so loud and clear. It was all utterly bran- new to these Indlanopolitans! By Jove — the applause was uproarious, absolutely deafening, and prolonged till encore was a necessity. Then I sang 'Auf dem Wasser zu Singen'; and I never sang so before in my life. It went off beautifully. So did Hezzy's lecture to-night. Everything is working well. I think I have conquered Indiana. The whole Legislature heard me sing to-night ; and I held a levee afterward, shaking hands with 'em all. And now every town in Indiana wants to 'have the honor ' of entertaining me with a lecture course next winter. My two songs were worth two lectures to me. If all else fails, I'll go a-singing with Thomas's Orchestra!!" Fiske spent another day in the friendly atmos phere of Indianapolis, and then set out for Ithaca by way of Buffalo. From Ithaca, under date of April 20, 1 88 1, he resumes the record of his experi ences. Writing to Mrs. Fiske he says : — 215 John Fiske "Well, my dear, what do you suppose Hezzy did the next morning after he sang songs to 300 people? Lindley Vinton came with his two prancing nags in a light buggy and we scampered, you may believe. Drove away out into the woods, where It was so beautiful that we got down, hitched our team, and went into the woods and lay an hour on the dry leaves looking up Into the sky. I enclose some of the leaves. Then we went to the Bates House and had a festive dinner of wild ducks, etc. Then Hezzy packed and went over to Mrs. Eaton's, and sang a lot of songs In which Miss Helen Wright accompanied me. Then took tea and left at once to get the 7.30 train for Buffalo (got a horrible break fast next morning at Cleveland), and reached Buffalo at 1.15, reading Lecky all the a.m. with great delight! Henry Richmond was there to meet me with carriage, and took me bag and baggage up to his 'hipe,' and regaled me with some fried oysters, broiled spring chicken, delicious French rolls, and heavenly beer. Two nice young Harvard graduates were there. Then Richmond took me a long, beautiful drive in an open buggy — it was chilly. At 7 we had dinner, to which came Fred Wheeler and five others, so that we sat eight at table. Great tall chairs like those in the 'Old Curiosity Shop'; rich tapestries hanging over the doors; rare paintings on the walls, and portfolios, prints, giant red volumes, etc., scattered about in confusion; low ceiling of solid oak; orchestrion discoursing sweet music; — jolly place, my dear! We had a clear soup, fresh shad, porter-house steak and potato croquettes, wild duck, lobster salad, Charlotte russe, ice-cream and coffee; with 216 At Cornell University claret and champagne. Broke up at 10.30, and Avent around to Wheeler's house for an hour — then came back and bunked in. Had a truly magnif icent time, and the boys all treated me as if they were glad to see me. r "Got off Monday morning on the 8.20 train, read Lecky all day, and reached Ithaca at 5.20 p.m. I was immediately brought up here to Sage Col lege, which is the building especially devoted to the young women ; and so here is Hezzy, in a great building full of 'sweet-girl-undergraduates.' None but ministers, I am told, are allowed this privilege; so I suppose I am a minister. I have a lovely pair of rooms — parlour and bed-room — on the second floor. There is a great commons hall downstairs, where I take meals with the 60 or 80 'sweet girl undergraduates,' though here two male instructors do likewise, besides the husband of the matron. "As a rule the girls are not extremely pretty, and their general style is more or less annexy ! Does n't Hezzy put up in all sorts of places? There's a monstrous parlour with a good Steinway concert- grand, and this morning I struck out an outline of a ' Dona Nobis ' for my Mass, which seems good, and if I really adopt it and fill it out, that will finish the Mass, you know. — These girls are mighty well-mannered. There's very little discipline, but there 's never been an atom of trouble or scandal of any sort, though you see the girls strolling about the yard with the young men, to and from lectures, etc. They do get married, though; it Is a common thing for engagements to take place here, resulting in marriage soon after graduation. They say the boys work a great deal harder for having the girls 217 John Fiske to hear and see what they do. Every one, without exception, approves of the system unreservedly, which I found to be the case also at Madison. "A great deal has been said of the beauty of this place but no description can begin to come up to the reality. In the first place, there is Cayuga Lake, forty miles long and averaging four miles in width: that goes winding away among the hills, almost as lovely as a Scotch lake. At the head of the lake, on a flat plain, stands the village of Ithaca, about twice as large as Athol, with wide shady streets, and many handsome houses. There are several milllonnaires living in the village! From the village up to the college-yard the ascent is quite as steep as the ascent to Tom Howe's farm — steeper In fact, for a road straight up would be impossible. The road winds up turning corners as sharp as those which scared you, as we approached Loch Lomond. As I sit here, I see village and lake 400 feet below. Beyond them rise the opposite hills, with mountains in the distance, where snow still lies. Great gorges, two and three hundred feet in depth cut through the yard, and are crossed by elegant stone bridges. At the bottom of these gorges are roaring streams and waterfalls. One of these falls, which is over 150 feet high is worth a journey to see. The gorges are thickly covered with pine-trees. " The college-buildings are very large and elegant, and are not crowded together. The houses of many of the professors stand about the edges of the yard. Before my window, on the edge of the steep descent, stand five or six, all many gabled and picturesque. It is simply a wonderfully beautiful place. There 218 At Cornell University are not many large trees about the yard but they are not needed. Here and there are clumps of huge pines. They say it is terribly cold here in winter, which I readily believe. " My lectures are in a large hall down in the vil lage, and we go down in an omnibus with brakes. The hall, which seats about lOOO people, was packed full the first night, and the lecture was voted a suc cess as usual. To-night I give the second lecture. "The food at the feminine commons is very good: something like what we get at Mrs. Moore's In Petersham — and a great plenty of it. Most of the girls look fresh and rosy and healthy. It is profoundly quiet, but now and then I hear 'em laughing as they go along the hall. Lots of feminine head-gear and worsted shawls and sich hang around by the foot of the stairs, and altogether the whole sense of being installed here for ten days is sort of odd. " O, my dear, I am awfully homesick! I am read ing and studying as hard as I can to keep down my feelings. I do think it Is wicked that I have to be away from home so much. It is all as wrong as it can be. I have finished Lecky and am now reading Gardiner's 'Thirty Years' War.' " From Cornell, Ithaca, under date of April 28, 1 88 1, he writes: — "They tell me that there have never been any lectures here, since the University was founded, so successful as mine. The hall is packed every time and there are many standing up. I seem to have won the heart of everybody and can count on Cor nell in future as often as I have anything to give. 219 John Fiske To-night by general request I gave ' Common Ori gin of Languages' here in the lecture-room of Sage College. The room was packed. At least 300 peo ple tolled up the fearful hill from the village to hear me. After getting through my manuscript the spirit moved me to make some extempore remarks, which I interspersed with some puns and odd stories, and it was a great success every way. To-morrow eve ning I give ' Manifest Destiny ' and wind up Satur day at 9 a.m. I then 'quit these diggln's,' shall take sleeping-car at Utica and reach Boston about 9 A.M. Sunday, May ist." Thus Fiske's third lecture season came to its close, and he was only too glad to get an easement from his peripatetic work. But he could not remain idle. His experience in presenting some of the gen eral aspects of American history to popular audi ences, the universal favor with which his lectures had been received, the widely expressed opinion of eminent critics that he was giving not only a fresh interpretation, but also a new philosophic valida tion to 'American history, were definite evidences that he had undertaken a greatly needed work, and that his broad, philosophic method of treating his subject — presenting American history as a chap ter in the social evolution of mankind — would be readily appreciated by his countrymen. While engaged with his lectures, his mind was much engaged with thoughts of a concise history of the American people, from the discovery of the continent by Columbus, down to the close of the 220 Plans New American History Civil War in 1865; this history to be comprised in three volumes. He took as a typical model John Richard Green's " Short History of the English People." While brooding on this subject during the spring of 1 88 1, he received a letter from Messrs. Harper & Brothers, publishers, in which they asked if he was open to negotiations for a work on American history. The letters show that after a few days' rest with his family, Fiske was in conference with the Messrs. Harper in New York, and that he was not long in coming to an agreement with them for the publication of such a history as he had in mind. Having now a very definite literary task before him, Fiske set about its execution in the same care ful, deliberate way we have had occasion to note as customary with him when undertaking any impor tant literary work. In the first place, he laid out a tentative plan for the proposed work, showing within the prescribed limits its main features in their logical order. This plan is an interesting docu ment, not only as an exhibition of Fiske's orderly way of working, but also as showing what consti tuted the main features of American history as this history had at this time shaped itself in his mind. One who reads it cannot fail to be Impressed by the arrangement of the main features in a series of topi cal chapters presenting a logical flow of events from the beginning to the very end. As we run through 221 John Fiske the scheme and observe the steady evolution of socla.1 and political conditions that constitute, as it were, its framework; and then consider that this scheme is cast as a scenic background for the por trayal of the services of great men as their lives come and go — as they function in the flow of the events in which their lives are cast — we recognize one of the principal factors in Fiske's lucid style, his careful attention to the logical arrangement of the subject-matter of his thought. Henceforth, however much he may be called aside for special work, Fiske's main line of thought is to be given to the presentation of American his tory, as indicated in this first tentative plan. The subject, however, is to expand greatly under his hand. We are to see him in the next few years sub stantially completing a history as here sketched out, and then putting the work aside as inadequate, as having been undertaken under too circumscribed conditions — three volumes — which necessitated too condensed a treatment of many essential points. In short, we are to see him come to the point of regarding what he had done on the foregoing plan as but a skeleton framework for the history he wanted to write. We are then to see him begin the work all over again with a much broader purpose: the presentation of American history from the philosophic viewpoint, from its relation to pre- Columbian history, from its relation to antecedent and contemporaneous European history, and also 222 Laylor's Cyclopaedia as involving within Itself the development of certain social and political principles of vast significance to the future well-being of civilized society. All this AvIU appear as our narrative unfolds. ,^._^ The ensuing summer was spent by Fiske alter nately in Cambridge and Petersham. He had a lit erary task in hand which kept him busy the whole summer — the preparation of three articles for Laylor's "Cyclopaedia of Political Science": one on Great Britain, one on the House of Commons, and one on the House of Lords. It is interesting to note, a propos of his controversy with William James, that his article on Great Britain consists of a suc cinct account of the origins of the people of the United Kingdom, and the historic evolution of their government, their institutions, their indus tries, and their commerce. It is essentially a brief history of the English people, and In no sense a biography of great men. In truth, the article may be characterized as presenting the environing phys ical and social conditions which have made the development of the great men of the English race possible. As he was finishing these articles for Laylor's "Cyclopaedia," Fiske received an invitation from an association of Unitarian ministers to give a pa per on some philosophic subject agreeable to him self at a meeting of the association at Princeton, Massachusetts, on October 4 following. He gladly accepted the invitation and prepared a paper, to 223 John Fiske which he gave the title "The True Lesson of Prot estantism." It was a paper replete with a knowl edge of modern philosophic and religious thought, and in its fair-mindedness, it appealed to the ad vanced thinkers of the Unitarian faith no less than to all serious-minded persons who were observant of the steady, unmistakable disintegration going on in all the orthodox religious creeds. Briefly stated, the thesis was this: since the day when Martin Luther posted his audacious heresies on the church door at Wittenberg, a great change has come over men's minds, the full significance of which is even yet but rarely comprehended. The immediate effect of Luther's revolt was the forma tion of a great number of little churches, each with its creed as clean-cut and as thoroughly dried as the creed of the great Church from which they had separated. At the present day it is not the forma tion of new sects, but the decomposition of the old ones that is the conspicuous phenomenon inviting attention. The latter half of the nineteenth cen tury will be known to the future historian as es pecially the era of the decomposition of orthodoxies. People, as a rule, do not now pass over frora one church into another, but they remain in their own churches while modifying their theological opin ions, and In this way the orthodoxy of every church is gradually but surely losing its consistency. In view of this decomposition, which is going on before our eyes, it is not strange if we are sometimes 224 The Lesson of Protestantism led to ask. What is to be the final outcome of this disintegrating movement? Will the present decom position of religious beliefs be succeeded by a period of reconstruction in which the teaching of some church shall be accepted as authoritative in all matters pertaining to religious belief; or will the decomposition go on until, through the develop ments of science, the last vestige of religious faith shall have vanished, and all educated men shall have become atheistic materialists? Fiske repudi ates any such implications as being involved In the rational thought of the time, and says : — "It Is my object on this occasion to show that no such alternative really confronts us; that the very propounding of such a question involves grave philosophical and historical errors; that neither materialism on the one hand, nor any spe cies of ecclesiastical orthodoxy on the other hand, is likely to. become prevalent in the future; and that the maintenance of an essentially religious atti tude of mind is compatible with absolute freedom of speculation on all subjects, whether scientific or metaphysical." He then goes on to show with much fulness of illustration, how the deeper scien tifico-philosophic thought of the time is leading away from material ism and to ever-increasing problems of a transcen dental nature, so that the time may come when men shall be as profoundly interested In questions of a transcendental or ontological character as were 225 John Fiske Aquinas and the other great mediaeval thinkers; only that the conceptions of the Infinite Eternal Power, the Source and Sustainer of all things, by the thinkers of the future, will not be hedged in by the personalities with which the mediaeval thinkers invested their conceptions of a Divine Creator. The true lesson of Protestantism Fiske finds to be this : — " Religious belief is something which in no way concerns society, but which concerns only the in dividual. In all other relations the individual Is more or less responsible to society; but for his reli gious belief and his religious life, these are matters which lie wholly between himself and his God." He closes with the following fine thought: — "When this lesson shall have been duly compre hended and taken to heart, I make no doubt that religious speculation will continue to go on; but "such words as 'infidelity' and 'heresy,' the present currency of which serves only to show how the rera nants of primitive barbaric thought still cling to us and hamper our progress — such words will have become obsolete and perhaps unintelligible save to the philosophic student of history. . . . To feel that the last word has been said on any subject is not a desideratum with the true philosopher, who knows full well that the truth he announces to-day will open half-a-dozen questions where it setties one, and will presently be variously qualified, and at last absorbed in some deeper and wider truth. When all this shall have been realized, and shall have been made part and parcel of the daily mental 226 Yorktown Anniversary habit of men, then our human treatment of reli gion will no longer be what it has too often been in the past — a wretched squabble, fit only for the demons of Malebolge, — but it will have come to be like the sweet discourse of saints in Dante's 'Paradiso.'" The 19th of October, 1881, being the centennial anniversary of the surrender of Cornwallis at York- town, Mrs. Hemenway desired to have this his toric event commemorated by some appropriate exercises In the Old South Church. Accordingly she asked Fiske to deliver an address on the occa sion. He was glad to comply with the request. He had the story of the remarkable campaign which brought the War of Independence to a close so well in hand, that in a few days he produced a very lucid and interesting account of the combined move ments of Greene in the Carolinas, of Lafayette In Virginia, of Washington's wonderful march from the Hudson, with the operations of the French fleet under Count de Grasse, all culminating in such a complete investment of Cornwallis at York- town that he had no possible alternative but an unconditional surrender. CHAPTER XXVII DEATH OF EDWIN W. STOUGHTON — THE STOUGH TON HOME IN NEW YORK — GENERAL SHERIDAN AND HIS HISTORIC FLAG — SPENCER's VISIT TO AMERICA — THE SPENCER DINNER IN NEW YORK 1882 The year 1882 opened with a sad bereavement to Fiske's mother, in the death of her husband, the Honorable Edwin W. Stoughton, which occurred on the 7th of January. Mr. Stoughton was a lineal descendant of the brother of William Stoughton, who was Lieutenant-Governor of Massachusetts Bay Colony, the first Chief Justice of that Province under the last royal charter, and who presided at the famous witchcraft trials at Salem. He had passed a life of great activity at the bar, and by his abilities and force of character he had "achieved a foremost position among the eminent lawyers of the country. In the memorable controversy which arose as to the choice of President in the Presiden tial election of 1876, whether Hayes or Tilden, and in the establishment of the Electoral Commission to which the issue was confided, Mr. Stoughton took an active part in behalf of the Republicans, and was of counsel to argue the claim of Hayes before the Commission. 228 Death of Mr. Stoughton For his services in behalf of the Republican Party in this memorable contest. President Hayes appointed him, in the autumn of 1877, Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary to Russia. The climate of Russia did not agree with him, and after less than two years he returned, with his health seriously impaired. Several months be fore his death a movement had been started among his professional brethren in favor of his appoint ment as Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. Had he lived and his health permitted, he undoubtedly would have received an appointment to this high office. The Stoughton home at 93 Fifth Avenue, New York City, was also the home of Fiske and his fam ily when in New York, and it was a most hospitable one. Here one was sure to meet those eminent In the various walks of life, for Mrs. Stoughton had developed social entertaining Into a fine art. Among the many visitors to this hospitable home of whom we get glimpses through Fiske's eyes, no single individuality stands out with greater dis tinctness than that of Captain John Ericsson, of Monitor fame. Mr. Stoughton was counsel for Captain Ericsson during the greater part of his inventive career, and particularly during the Mon itor period, and the intimacy between counsel and client was of the closest kind, the Captain being a welcome guest in the Stoughton home whenever he felt like dropping in. 229 John Fiske When the Builders of Iron Ships and Marine Engines presented Captain Ericsson with a gold model of the Monitor as a tribute to his inventive genius, he asked Mrs. Stoughton to take charge of the gift for him; and for a long time it was one of the attractions in her home — an attraction that appealed to Fiske with ever-increasing significance. Here he had a concrete symbol of the dominance of mind over matter, consisting simply in a new adjustment of materials and forces, an invention which impelled an immediate reconstruction of the naval architecture of the world. Fiske found Captain Ericsson a wonderfully in teresting man, not only on account of his great in ventive powers, but also by reason of the play of his mind in conversation, as he grappled with the various problems arising from the applications of the broadening truths of science to man's social well-being. As I turn over the Stoughton papers which have been placed in my hands I find cunong them many mementos of the fine social life characteristic of the Stoughton home, and among these I find certiun facts relating to a social entertainment given by Mr. and Mrs. Stoughton in the early spring of 1873, which, from an incident that flowed from it, is of much historic interest. The entertainment was given in behalf of some event connected with our Civil War, — for in the decorations, the opening and the close of the war were symbolized: the one 230 Gold Model of the Monitor by the presence of the flag borne by the Star of the West, the vessel sent by President Buchanan in January, 1861, to relieve the garrison at Fort Sum ter, and which was fired upon by the rebel batteries; and the other by a floral arrangement representing the words "Five Forks," where the success of the Union forces under General Sheridan led to the surrender of General Lee at Appomattox. The de sign was a most significant one, and upon General Sheridan, who was one of the guests, it made a strong impression, so great that he said to Mrs. Stoughton: "To fully complete your design you should have the flag which is the complement to the flag of the Star of the West!" " And what may that be?" she asked. "The flag my troops carried in the final charge on Lee's forces at Five Forks and which compelled Lee's surrender." "That would be a fitting complement, indeed!" said Mrs. Stoughton. General Sheridan responded: "I have the flag still In my possession and it will give me great pleasure to present It to you, Mrs. Stoughton." Shortly after Mrs. Stoughton received the flag from General Sheridan, accompanied by the fol lowing letter, which gives the flag, historically, a priceless value. ^ * The original letter of General Sheridan is in the possession of William K. Bixby, Esq., of St. Louis. 231 John Fiske CracAGO, March 23, 1873. My dear Mrs. Stoughton : — When last in your house in New York, enjoy ing your hospitality, I saw the flag of the Star of the West draped with evergreens and under its " Union" the words, "Five Forks," written in beau tiful flowers. I cannot express to you, Madame, the emotions, and many thoughts, crowding each other which this delicate representation of inter esting national events created. I thought, perhaps, that it would not be inap propriate to let you replace the flowers, which fade, by the battle-flag of "Five Forks," and then you could drape together the first and last flags fired upon In the great struggle for our national exist ence. My proposition was most gratefully accepted, and I send you by express to-day the flag. It has always been very dear to me; but this only serves to increase the pleasure I have in giving it to you. The flag was new when I left Winchester in the Shenandoah Valley, February 27, 1864, and from that date commenced its active service. It took the place of its old and faded comrade of Opequan, Fisher's Hill, and Cedar Creek. At Waynesboro the remnant of General Early's Army of the Shen andoah surrendered to it. At the crossing of the James River by my command on the 25th of March, 1865, it was lowered to Mr. Lincoln as he passed through the bridge over which we were crossing. When General Grant passed through the gate to Mr. McLean's house to receive the surren der of General Lee at Appomattox Court House, 232 General Sheridan's Flag it was lowered to him: it has never been lowered, in salute or otherwise, to any one else. At Five Forks, when it was necessary that we should win, I took it from the color-bearer and it led the troops to victory. The bullet hole in the white was received there. At Jetersville It stood in front of Lee's army to oppose its further prog ress until the arrival of the Army of the Potomac. At Sailor's Creek, Ewell and his corps surrendered toit. On the morning of the 9th of April, 1865, it stood opposite the white flag which the Army of North ern Virginia raised in token of surrender; and while I was advancing to meet the envoys repre senting the enemies' flag, it was fired upon by a brigade of South Carolina troops receiving the last shot from the Army of Northern Virginia.^ I am, dear Madame, Very respectfully. Your ob'd't. Servant, P. H. Sheridan, Lt. General. After the death of her husband Mrs. Stoughton had no desire to live in New York. In her loneli ness, its social attractions were In no way compar able to the joy of living in close relations with her children and her grandchildren. Accordingly, she disposed of her Fifth Avenue residence, and pur chased a vacant lot in Cambridge, near the Fiske • At the death of Mrs. Stoughton this flag descended to Mrs. Fiske. As she thought so priceless an historic object rightfully be longed to the family of General Sheridan, she returned it to Mrs. Sheridan. 233 John Fiske home; and while plans for a suitable home for her self were being worked out she took a journey to Europe. Fiske's labors for the year 1882 were of a some what different character from those of previous years. In the first place, his mother's bereavement, her removal to Cambridge, and the condition of her affairs generally brought a fresh weight of care upon him. Then, too, his history, now well in hand, needed his closest attention in order to bring it to completion in conformity to his agreement with his publishers. Lecturing was, therefore, greatly curtailed. Of magazine articles he published in the "At lantic Monthly" two of a scientifico-evolutionary character relating to the arrival of man in Europe, articles which for some time had been lying in his desk; and also a memorial tribute to Charles Dar win, who died April 19, 1882. To "Harper's Maga zine" he contributed four articles on subjects taken from his history. But the events of the year of greatest significance in the life of Fiske, as well as to the cause of Evolution, were the death of Darwin and the visit to America of Herbert Spencer. Most of Fiske's days, therefore, were spent with his family, and while we have delightful glimpses of him in his home at Cambridge, and at Peters ham engaged In his literary work, at play with his children, and enjoying his musical diversions, these 234 Tribute to Darwin glimpses are very similar in character to what we have seen in previous years and they do not call for any particular mention. I, therefore, pass them by, and will ask the attention of the reader to these points: Fiske's fine discriminating tribute to Dar win, and Herbert Spencer's visit to America and Fiske's identification therewith. Fiske's appreciation of Darwin was charged with a feeling of personal affection, which had expres sion in such fine literary form that the opening and closing paragraphs of his article are in place here: — "To-day, while all that was mortal of Charles Darwin is borne to its last resting-place in West minster Abbey, by the side of Sir Isaac Newton, it seems a fitting occasion to utter a few words of tribute to the memory of the beautiful life that has just passed away from us. Though Mr. Dar win had more than completed his threescore and ten years, and though his life had been rich In achievement and crowned with success such as is but seldom vouchsafed to man, yet the news of his death has none the less impressed us with a sense of sudden and premature bereavement. For on the one hand the time would never have come when those of us who had learned the inestimable worth of such a teacher and friend could have felt ready to part with him; and on the other hand Mr. Dar win was one whom the gods, for love of him, had endowed with perpetual youth, so that his death could never seem otherwise than premature. As Mr. Galton has well said, the period of physical 235 John Fiske youth — say from the fifteenth to the twenty- second year — is, with most men the only avail able period for acquiring intellectual habits and amassing the stores of knowledge that are to form their equipment for the work of a life- time; but in the case of men of the highest order this period is simply a period of seven years, neither more nor less valuable than any other seven years. There is, now and then, a mind — perhaps one in four or five millions' — which in early youth thinks the thoughts of mature manhood, and which in old age retains the flexibility, the receptiveness, the keen appetite for new Impressions, that are charac teristic of the fresh season of youth. Such a mind as this was Mr. Darwin's. To the last he was eager for new facts and suggestions, to the last he held his judgments in readiness for revision; and to this unfailing freshness of spirit was joined a sagacity which, naturally great, had been refined and strengthened by half a century most fruitful in experiences, till it had come to be almost super human. "When we remember how Alexander von Hum boldt began at the age of seventy-five to write his 'Kosmos,' and how he lived to turn off in his ninetieth year the fifth bulky volume of that pro digiously learned book, — when we remember this, and consider the great scientific value of the mono graphs which Mr. Darwin has lately been publish ing almost every year, we must feel that it is In a measure right to speak of his death as premature. " It is fitting that in the great Abbey, where rest the ashes of England's noblest heroes, the place of 236 Tribute to Darwin the discoverer of natural selection should be near that of Sir Isaac Newton. Since the publication of the immortal ' Principia' no single scientific book has so widened the mental horizon of mankind as the 'Origin of Species.' Mr. Darwin, like Newton, was a very young man when his great discovery suggested itself to him. Like Newton, he waited many years before publishing it to the world. Like Newton, he lived to see it become part and parcel of the mental equipment of all men of science. The- theological objection urged against the Newtonian theory by Leibnitz, that it substituted natural causes for the immediate action of the Deity, was also urged against the Darwinian theory by Agas siz; and the same objection will doubtless con tinue to be urged against scientific explanations of natural phenomena so long as there are men who fail to comprehend the profoundly theistic and re ligious truth that the action of natural causes is In itself the immediate action of the Deity. It is interesting, however, to see that, as theologians are no longer frightened by the doctrine of gravi tation, so they are beginning to outgrow their dread of the doctrine of natural selection. On the Sunday following Mr. Darwin's death. Canon Lid don, at St. Paul's Cathedral, and Canons Barry and Prothero, at Westminster Abbey, agreed in referring to the Darwinian theory as 'not neces sarily hostile to the fundamental truths of reli gion.' The effect of Mr. Darwin's work has been, however, to remodel the theological conceptions of the origin and destiny of man which were cur rent in former times. In this respect It has wrought a revolution as great as that which Copernicus in- 237 John Fiske augurated and Newton completed, and of very much the same kind. Again has man been rudely unseated from his imaginary throne In the centre of the universe, but only that he may learn to see in the universe, and in human life, a richer and deeper meaning than he had before suspected. Truly, he who unfolds to us the way in which God works through the world of phenomena may well be called the best of religious teachers. In the study of the organic world, no less than in the study of the starry heavens. Is it true that 'day unto day uttereth speech, and night unto night showeth knowledge.' " As Fiske penned these closing lines, so full of deep religious feeling, it can be readily imagined that there flashed through his mind the recollec tion of his own bitter experiences In championing Darwin's views. And what an instance it is of the mutability of opinion in matters theological: the bitter condemnation of Darwin in 1860-62, because, as a man of science, he had found that the truths of nature ran counter to the dogmas of theology; and twenty years after, the placing of his remains, with theological acquiescence and with conspicuous honor, among the immortals of the English race. We pass now to the visit of Herbert Spencer to America in this year 1882. For some years the thought of visiting America had been floating in Spencer's mind, and the idea was eagerly encour aged by Dr. Youmans, who was always on the look- 238 Spencer's Visit to America out for whatever would tend to direct public at tention to Spencer and the cardinal points in his philosophy. Then, too, Spencer had strong rea sons of his own for making personal observations of the political and social forces at work in the United States, for he was at this time in the midst of the sociological section of his great philosophi cal undertaking. A personal glance, therefore, at society in the "Great Republic" was a great desideratum. As in all Important matters, he made preparations for the visit well beforehand. We find that early in September, 1881, he had definitely planned to make the visit in the autumn of the ensuing year, and that he then informed Dr. Youmans of his purpose. In January, 1882, he advised Fiske of his intended visit. Fiske replied, telling Spencer that his own visit to England was postponed for a year, and express ing his great pleasure at knowing that within a few months Spencer would take a trip to America. Fiske gave him a cordial invitation to visit him at his home in Cambridge. Spencer arrived In New York August 21, 1882. He was accompanied by his lifelong friend, Edward Lott. Mr. Lott came not only as a companion, but also as a "buffer" or protector to guard Spen cer, in his unstable health, against undue excite ment or exertion arising from the public interest that would undoubtedly be called forth by the visit. The "reporters" were awaiting them on 239 John Fiske their arrival, all desirous of an interview. By the dexterous management of Dr. Youmans, however, this ordeal was eluded, and the two travellers were soon quietly resting at the Windsor Hotel.- The "reporters" were not long in finding the travellers' retreat, but they were skilfully kept at bay by Mr. Lott, who pleaded Spencer's enfeebled condi tion as a bar to the desired "interview." The failure to get at Spencer did not prevent, however, i the concoction of several ingenious "interviews" on the part of the ready-witted reporters, some of whom, in professing to express the opinions of Spencer on men and things, were widely amiss of the truth. The travellers remained but two days in New York, and then went to the Kaaterskill Hotel, in the CatskiUs on the Hudson, a hotel selected by Dr. Youmans as a choice resting-place after the fatigue of the sea voyage. Here they remained in undisturbed quiet, as "Mr. Edward Lott and friend," for five days, during which time Spencer was for the first time made acquainted, among other things, with a portion of a virgin forest. He says : — "I was shown how erroneous was my precon ception. In common, I dare say, with the pre conceptions of most others, mine had been based on experiences of woods at home ; and I had failed to imagine an Important trait of which we see noth ing in England — the cumbering of the ground on every side with decaying, moss-covered trunks of 240 spencer's Visit to Amenca past generations of trees, lying prone, or leaning one upon another at various angles, and in all stages of decay." From the CatskiUs the travellers went to Sara toga, where they spent two uninterested days, and from thence they journeyed on to Montreal. But Canada, as seen about Montreal, brought no pleas ant thoughts to either of them. After a brief de scription of the city and its environs, Spencer says : ^ "To many travellers these would, I dare say, have given more pleasure than they gave to me; for I failed to exclude the thought of certain ante cedents not in harmony with a feeling of admira tion. For a generation or more Canadians have been coming to England for capital to make their great lines of railway; and have put before Eng lish investors statements of costs and profits so favorable, that they have obtained the required sums. These statements have proved far more wide of the truth than such statements usually prove — so wide of it that the undertakings have been extremely disastrous to investors: Impoverish ing great numbers and ruining not a few (my poor friend Lott becoming, eventually, one of these last, and dying prematurely in consequence) . But while, to open up these communications which have been so immensely beneficial to their commerce and industries, the Canadians have, by exaggerated representations, got from the mother-country re sources which they were unable to furnish them- 1 Autobiography, vol. ii, p. 463. 241 John Fiske selves, they have yet been able to build imposing cities full of magnificent mansions, and at Mon treal an hotel far exceeding in grandeur anything the mother-country could, at that time, show." Spencer has been charged in philosophical mat ters with unduly basing his conclusions upon a-priori considerations. I apprehend that the citi zens of Montreal feel that they are entitled to a more appreciative social valuation from an Eng lish philosopher than is given in this distinctly a-priori verdict. From Montreal the travellers set out for Niag ara Falls by way of Kingston, Toronto, and Buf falo. One observation of Spencer's during this journey shows his freedom from national bias in his judgment of his own countrymen. Their boat stopped some little time at Kingston, and the trav ellers rambled about the town, and found, to their astonishment and shame, that this town of only ten or twelve thousand people had the telephone in use all over the place; while at that time It was scarcely in use in London, and was unknown in the great provincial English towns. Commenting on this state of things Spencer says:^ — "I have sometimes puzzled myself over the anomaly that while in some ways, the English are extremely enterprising, they are, in other ways, extremely unenterprising. While there exist a se lect few among us who are full of ideas, the great * Autobiography, vol. n, p. 465. 242 Spencer's Visit to America masses of our people appear to be without ideas. Or, to state the case otherwise, it seems as if the English nature (I say English, because "I do not assert it of either Scotch or Irish) exhibits a wider range than any other nation between its heights of intelligence and its depths of stupidity." Spencer found the Falls much what he expected — they neither came short of his expectations, nor much exceeded them. The effect of a closer ac quaintance with them was to deepen the impres sion of grandeur. The travellers had intended to go as far west as Chicago, but on reaching Cleve land, they decided that they had had enough of Western travel, and to return to New York by way of Pittsburgh, Washington, Baltimore, and Philadelphia, and close their visit with an excur sion to New Haven, Newport, and Boston. On reaching Baltimore they were met by Dr. You mans, all intent that on the eve of his departure Spencer should be the guest of a public dinner at Delmonico's, which should be an expression of the feeling of an influential portion of the American public towards Spencer and his great work. Spen cer was reluctant to allow himself to be set up as a target for post-prandial eulogies, and pleaded his physical Infirmities as unable to withstand the ordeal. But Dr. Youmans's persistence prevailed, and with Spencer's assent, he immediately re turned to New York and preparations for the dinner went on apace. 243 John Fiske On reaching New York a few days later, Spen cer suggested that, inasmuch as many opinions had been attributed to him since his arrival which were wholly untrue, it might be well to give the press a formal interview, and thus make sure of having his views correctly stated. Dr. Youmans readily agreed, and between the two an "author ized interview" was prepared and distributed to the press. This "interview," while consisting mainly of adverse criticism of American political life, was yet so imbued with a just appreciation of the really important features of the social and political life that were being worked out here, and the inherent difficulties attending their develop ment, that these criticisms were seen to be those of a friend anxious for American welfare, rather than those of an enemy hostile to our institutions. Accordingly, the "interview" was well received and greatly heightened the interest in the forth coming public dinner. On Saturday, October 28, 1882, Spencer and Mr. Lott arrived in Boston and attended a din ner of the Saturday Club at which Dr. Oliver Wen dell Holmes presided. This was a select dining- club, no less famous in America than was the X Club^ In England. In speaking of the occasion Spen cer says: — "The 'Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table' proved himself a very genial head of the dinner-table. It 1 See ante, vol. i, p. 469. 244 Spencer's Personality was pleasant to meet. In company with others less known, one whose writings had given me so much pleasure, and some copies of whose best known book I had given to friends as a book to be read and re-read." ^ The next forenoon the travellers made their way to Fiske's home, 22 Berkeley Street, Cam bridge, and remained to luncheon with Mr. and Mrs. Fiske and their six children, a luncheon strictly en famille. As Spencer here comes in pro pria persona directly within the circle of interests it has been a purpose in the foregoing pages to weave around Fiske and his family home, it is eminently fitting that we endeavor to get before us, as vividly as possible, a picture or a concep tion of his remarkable personality. Spencer was now sixty- two years old. He was five feet ten inches in height, but his long limbs and his slender figure gave him an appearance of greater height. His weight was about one hundred and fifty pounds. He wore side whiskers, thus leaving the features of his face fully exposed. He was quite bald, with light locks of gray hair flow ing over his ears and mingling with his side whis kers. His physiognomy was a noticeable one, by reason of its massive, overarching brow, its some what prominent, slightly aquiline, nose, its pro nounced upper lip, its well-shaped mouth indicat ing both firmness and tenderness, and its positive 1 Autobiography, vol. 11, p. 477. 245 John Fiske chin. And these features were so related to a pair of keen, deep-seated, penetrating blue eyes that the whole countenance could be made to glow with deep interest or benignant kindness; could be made expressive of profound meditation or indignant scorn — yea, could oftentimes give vent to uncontrolled, petulant feeling, according as the soul behind the face was stirred to action by its environing conditions. His voice was rich and harmonious in its tones, and was modulated in strict accord with his feelings. His conversational powers, when in the mood for conversation, were of the rarest order. He had an easy flow of lan guage, and had his wide and varied knowledge at such ready command that he was able to illumine all subjects in which he felt an interest with much lucid thought and pertinent illustration. He was easy and graceful in his movements, although his bearing and manner clearly indicated his physi cal invalidism. As, in 1873, Fiske described his appearance as that "of a strong man tired," so now. In 1882, his tired appearance was somewhat accentuated. It was a great pleasure to Spencer, after his many weeks' travelling, to find himself in such a quiet, scholarly home as this of Fiske's. In the library, seated in a comfortable easy-chair before an open wood fire and surrounded by books on books, he seemed for a time to forget his physical ailments and his discomforting journeyings in the 246 HAROLD m 1, RALPH CLARENCE HERBERT THE FOUR SONS OF JOHN FISKE Visited by Spencer presence of so much quiet restfulness. He was also delighted to see Fiske's whole family together, especially his six children; and after taking in the whole family surroundings he remarked most gra ciously, but with just a tinge of personal loss: "Well, Fiske, you certainly have a happy home here. I can now understand your homesickness when away from it." Fiske had in his library a cuckoo clock, which promptly opened its little door and in musical tones announced the hour and half-hour as the time glided by. Spencer's attention was early attracted to this faithful little monitor. At last he said: "Doesn't it disturb you, Fiske, to have so many books and things all about you, and this little monitor to remind you of the passing time? Why, I could n't work at all under such condi tions!" Fiske assured him that these surroundings had quite the contrary effect upon himself; that his thought never flowed quite so freely when away from them; and at times they were a positive in spiration to him.^ 1 In the Life a'nd Letters of Herbert Spencer, by David Duncan (vol. II, p. 117), I find, in a letter of Spencer to F. Howard Collins, the following reference to the necessity of his relieving his mind from all possible distractions: " I am desirous in all cases to exclude superfluities from my environment. Multiplication of books, and magazines, and papers which I do not need continually annoys me. As you may perhaps remember, I shut out the presence of books by curtains, that I may be free from the sense of complexity which they yield." 247 John Fiske Of course, there was much talk regarding mutual friends in England, the recent death of Darwin and the significant opinions regarding his life-work that had been expressed in influential quarters, and also regarding the increasing attention that was being paid to the subject of sociology now that Spencer had brought the subject under fresh con sideration, by treating it as an important branch of science and as one of the structural divisions of his doctrine of Evolution. Two or three points came out in the conversa tion, as reported to me by Fiske shortly after, which are of Interest as reflecting Spencer's thought while in America. He frankly admitted that his visit had greatly broadened his comprehension of the political and social problems that were being worked out here. In the first place, he had had no adequate conception of the physical environment which so largely conditions the sociological devel opment of the people. Then, statistics of immigra tion had given him no realizing sense of the socio logical problems that were rising here through the mixing of races in various stages of social and political culture. While the people of London pre sented various phases of social aggregation, from the most degraded to the most highly cultured, the great mass were members of the English race with their racial characteristics. In New York, on the other hand, Spencer found a great, imperial city, made up of various nationalities or races, 248 spencer's Observations some of which in their new urban aggregation re tained many of the social ideas and customs to which they were born. In fact, he found, on one side In New York, a great German city, and on an other a great Italian city; and scattered here and there, were sections made up of lesser nationali ties; while he had not failed to observe that the shop signs throughout the city bore witness to the fact that the distributions of food and Industrial commodities was by no means in the hands of peo ple of the English race. These observations could not fail to start trains of thought in regard to the effect of this mixing of races under a democratic form of government upon the future of the Ameri can people, and, through them, upon the people of the world at large. He saw that the immediate effect of this mixing of races, in various stages of social and political culture, under a democratic po litical organization, was the lowering of the stand ard of intelligence, of virtue, In the electorate. As to this fact there could be no question. Political bossism and civic corruption were too apparent. Fiske then pointed out that, while the immedi ate effect of this great foreign immigration was political and social deterioration, it had a healthy evolutionary tendency in two directions: it tended to an ever-increasing differentiation in the inter ests and the employments of the people, coupled with an ever-increasing development of integrating power on the part of the Government, both State 249 John Fiske and Federal. This increase of integrating power was particularly noticeable in the provisions for public education, sanitation, and transportation; and for the protection of the public from unjust demands of capitalistic combinations and labor organizations, as well as the protection of the natural resources of the country from individual or capitalistic exploitation. Spencer was quick to see the point, that while this great tide of foreign immigration had a nat ural tendency, if left to itself, to weaken the in tellectual and moral stamina of the people who founded the Republic and who had thus far sus tained it, this deteriorating influence was met by a much stronger counteracting force, that of social and political integration, whereby the interests of the people as a whole were made paramount to the interests of individuals, classes, or sections. Hence, the ever-increasing provisions for public education, sanitation, and the public welfare gen erally. He also saw that this was an order of social and political development somewhat at variance with his preconceived ideas of what the order of such development should be. He saw, in fact, that in placing himself, as he had done in England, in strong opposition to provisions for public educa tion, sanitation, etc., he had logically put himself out of sympathy with the great integrating social and political forces at work in America. Fiske suggested that the structural difference in 250 spencer's Observations the social and political organizations of the two peoples called for different methods of integration while in the process of social and political evolu tion. For instance, in England the fundamental social and political idea in practice is, that govern- ' ment is for the people, by privUeged classes, and primarily for the benefit of the privilegedj classes. Hence all governmental acts affecting public in terests are more or less tainted with special bene fits to the privileged classes — at best, they tend to develop a spirit of dependence, rather than of independence, among the people. In the United States, on the other hand, the fundamental idea of government is, that it is of the people, by the people, and for the people. Hence the public in terest is put forward as the integrating, control ling interest; and consequently questions affecting the welfare of the people as a whole become ques tions of legitimate practical importance. Spencer admitted the justice of the distinction, between the conditions obtaining in England and in the United States, and he said that his visit had given him a fresh light on some of the prob lems attending the social and political develop ment of the future. He enjoined Fiske to keep an observant eye upon the development of these Inte grating forces, particularly In American industrial and political life. He believed that the great in crease of wealth, so manifest on every side, and coming upon a generation so unprepared for its 251 John Fiske use, would make its baleful influence felt through political corruption, in its efforts to obtain special privileges. To guard against the insidious advance of special privileges in the rapidly developing life here, seemed to him the imperative duty of the American citizen.^ At the luncheon, Spencer quite forgot the phi losopher and did his best to make himself one with the children. He could be most Interesting when he passed out of the "homogeneity" of his own thoughts and feelings into the "heterogeneity" of the thoughts and feelings of others. On this occasion he pleasantly sought the various interests of the children, and then made their interests his own and deftly enforced his points of view by per tinent, happy anecdotes. He was in an inquiring mood and he created no little merriment among the young people by asking, quite unphilosophically, when a plate of raised biscuits was passed to him: "Fiske, do tell me, are these buckwheat cakes?" After a most agreeable hour at the luncheon- table, Spencer said he had the impression that music had been much cultivated in this pleasant home, and if so, he would like a taste of it, that he might take away with him a remembrance of the ' As stated in the text, Fiske gave me, shortly after Spencer's viat, the substance of their conversation. In after years, as we met fre quently and had occasion to discuss the steady advance of the demand for special privileges in nearly all the departments of our industrial life, the remembrance of Spencer's remarks came back to us, and I have found no difficulty in recalling them for insertion here. 252 Spencer in the Fiske Home Fiske family home as a whole. Accordingly, Miss Maud, who for some seventeen years has occasion ally appeared in these pages, cheerfully complied with his request, and sang two songs from the beloved Schubert, "Friihlingslaube" and "Du Bist die Ruh," with such grace and expression as to give Spencer unfeigned delight. Mr. Lott had known, ever since they set out on their journey, how much Spencer had looked for ward to this meeting with Fiske and his family. He therefore remained a quiet observer, aiding in the conversation when necessary. But Fiske could not let his friends depart from Boston without their having a glimpse at Harvard College and at some of the suburbs of Boston. Accordingly, he arranged for the next day a visit to Harvard and to the suburbs of Brookline and Jamaica Plain, on the condition that there should be no calls on officers or professors or any intro ductions. In their visit to Harvard, Fiske took his friends to the house on the corner of Kirkland and Oxford streets, and pointed out the room where in i860, as a Sophomore, he first became acquainted with Spencer's thought by reading "Social Statics." He also showed them the University Building with its faculty room, where in 1861 he was threatened with expulsion from college if caught disseminating Evolutionary ideas among students. He then took them to the little Holden Chapel, where eight years afterwards he was called to expound, under auspices 253 John Fiske of the coUege, the fundamental principles of the Evo lutionary philosophy to undergraduates and to all who would choose to hear. Gore Hall, the Library, was also visited, and here Fiske was able to show his friends where he had spent the best six years of his life in the service of the College as its librarian, the custodian of its literary treasures. It is to be presumed that they visited the Agassiz Museum, although there Is no mention of a visit there. After the inspection of the principal buildings of the college, Fiske took his friends to drive In the suburbs of Brookline and Jamaica Plain. Spencer was in exceedingly good spirits during the whole excursion; and at parting he was very gracious, and with much feeling he said: "Fiske, it has been a great pleasure to me to see you in your home and in your surroundings. These two days have been the pleasantest days I have had in America." Both knew they were to meet again at the fare well dinner to Spencer in New York, and so they bade each other good-bye for a few days. During this visit to Boston, Spencer and his friend made an excursion to Concord, a reference to which is not out of place here. In his "Autobi ography," Spencer makes record of this Concord excursion thus : — "Our chief purpose was, of course, to visit Emer son's house ; and here a pleasant hour was spent in company with his widow, son, and daughter. We 254 Spencer and Emerson were then taken to the cemetery. Not many months had passed since Emerson's death, and the grave-heap was undistinguished by any monu ment. 'Sleepy Hollow' is so beautiful and poeti cal a spot as to make one almost wish to die In Concord for the purpose of being buried there." But why this special interest in Emerson on the part of Spencer, leading to a special pUgrimage to Emerson's house and grave? There is no record of Spencer's paying a similar mark of respect to any other thinker. What can be the meaning of this act when it is well known that Emerson was not a reader of Spencer? ^ The answer is, that Spencer was a penetrating reader of Emerson, and found, in his pithy, oracular phrases, which the religious mind of half a century ago regarded as the quintessence of mystic infidelity, deep in sights, both poetic and philosophic, into the pro- ^ I have a bit of testimony on this point. In i860, when Spencer published a prospectus of his proposed philosophical undertaking, we had, in the " Old-Corner Bookstore" of Ticknor & Fields, a number of copies for distribution. We have seen that it was from this prospectus that Fiske got his first knowledge of Spencer's under taking. (See vol. I, p. 138.) I had become interested in Spencer through reading his essays in the Westminster Review and his Social Statics. Emerson was a frequent visitor to the store, and one day I saw him attentively reading Spencer's prospectus. When he had finished I asked him if he could tell me anything about Spencer. His reply was: " I cannot, but I hear much about him. I have not read him at all, and from what I hear I am not impressed with his philoso phy. Mr. Alger or Mr. Silsbee can tell you about him." I referred to the very remarkable list of subscribers to Spencer's undertaking and Emerson said: " Yes, he is undoubtedly a man of great intellectual power, and if he completes the work here outlined it will be a great achievement." 255 John Fiske found mysteries of the cosmos. He also saw that Emerson's Idea of God was purified from the Cal vinistic anthropomorphism of the time. Let us look at a little evidence on these points. Away back in 1833 we find Emerson reading with critical insight the speculations of Lamarck, the precursor of Darwin, in regard to the origin and distribution of the organic life of the globe; and in a lecture, delivered in December, 1833, on "The Relation of Man to the Globe," he speaks of this relationship and man's development under it, thus : — "The most surprising, I may say the most sub lime, (fact, is) that man is no upstart in creation, but has been prophesied in nature for a thousand ages before he appeared; that from times incalcu lably remote, there has been a progressive prep aration for him, an effort to produce him; the meaner creatures containing the elements of his structure and pointing to it from every side. . . . His limbs are only a more exquisite organization — say rather the finish — of the rudimental forms that have been already sweeping the sea and creep ing in the mud: the brother of his hand is even now cleaving the Arctic Sea In the fin of the whale, and innumerable ages since was pawing the marsh in the flipper of the saurian." ^ And again, in the essay on "Fate," we have a similar passage: — "The book of Nature is the book of Fate. She tums the gigantic pages — leaf after leaf — never * James Elliot Cabot, Memoir of Ralph Waldo Emerson, vol. i, p. 20. 256 Emerson and Evolution returning one. One leaf she lays down, a floor of granite; then a thousand ages and a bed of slate; a thousand ages, and a measure of coal ; a thousand ages, and a layer of marl and mud : vegetable forms appear; her first misshapen animals. Zoophite, trilobium, fish ; then saurians, — rude forms in which she has only blocked her future statue, con cealing under these unwieldy monsters the fine type of her coming king. The face of the planet cools and dries, the races meliorate and man is born. But when a race has lived its term. It comes no more again." ^ These extracts — and many more of similar im port might be given — clearly show that years be fore Spencer and Darwin had laid the scientific foundations for the doctrine of Evolution, Emer son had come, by pure insight, Into»a conception of Divine action regarding the cosmos which re lated man to the organic world as its crowning evolutionary product; and this, at a time when religious orthodoxy was scoffing at science and af firming the fall of man as an ultimate Divine truth, transcending all the positive evidences of nature in regard to man's origin and development. In regard to Emerson's conception of the Deity, his writings speak for him from beginning to end. His conception may be said to have been a conver sion of Spencer's affirmation of an " Infinite Eter nal Energy from which all things proceed" into a positive, uncognizable Spirit stripped of all an- 1 Emerson's Conduct of Life (Riverside Edition), p. 20. 257 • John Fiske thropomorphic connotations. Hence it was a con ception that defies analysis. In a far deeper sense than did Spinoza, he saw God, and the goodness of God, in everything. In his own words: "The world is a temple whose walls are covered with the em blems, pictures, and commandments of the Deity." "Ineffable Is the union of man and God in the soul." " If a man have not found his home In God, his manners, his forms of speech, the turn of his sentences, the build, shall I say, of all his opinions, will Involuntarily confess It, let him brave it out how he will." Then, too, his insights into man's social evolution of the future were no less remarkable than his in sights into man's origin and development, and they were permeated with the highest optimism, and were given forth before Spencer had begun his pro found sociological observations. In evidence let us take an extract from his essay on "Culture," written between 1850 and i860: — "The fossil strata show us that Nature began with rudimental forms and rose to the more com plex as fast as the earth was fit for their dwelling- place, and that the lower perish as the higher ap pear. Very few of our race can be said to be yet finished men. We still carry sticking to us some remains of the preceding inferior quadruped organ izations. We call these millions men; but they are not yet men. Half-engaged in the soil, pawing to get free, man needs all the music that can be brought to disengage him. If Love, red love with tears and 258 Emerson and Evolution joy; if Want with his scourge; if War with his can nonade; if Christianity with its charity; if Trade with its money; if Art with its portfolios; If Science with her telegraphs through the deeps of space and time can set his dull nerves throbbing, and by loud taps on the tough chrysalis can break its walls and let the new creature emerge erect and free, — make way and sing paean ! The age of the quadru ped is to go out, and the age of the brain, and the heart is to come in. The time will come when the evil forms we have known can no more be organ ized. Man's culture can spare nothing, he wants all the material. He is to convert all impediments into instruments, all enemies into power. The for midable mischief will only make the more useful slave. And If one shall read the future of the race hinted in the organic effort of Nature to mount and meliorate, and the corresponding impulse to the Better in the human being, we shall dare affirm that there is nothing he will not overcome and convert, until at last culture shall absorb chaos and gehenna. He will convert the Furies Into Muses, and the heUs into benefits." Thus we see that Spencer, with his frigid intel lectual nature, was by sympathy drawn to Emer son as the intuitive poet of the oncoming doctrine of Evolution, and hence his visit to Concord was quite in the natural order of things. This being the case, the setting-forth of their intellectual kinship in the promulgation of Evolutionary views in the past Is of rightful place here. Inasmuch as in the portion of our narrative which follows, we are to 259 John Fiske see the poetic, religious insight of Emerson blended with the profound philosophic generalizations of Spencer, as Fiske, in language of great force and beauty, sets forth that ethical conduct has its genesis in the cosmic nature of man, and that Its development has been pari passu with the purifi cation of men's conceptions of the Infinite Being, the Source and Sustainer of the cosmic universe, and that the recognition of these truths is among the first principles of the doctrine of Evolution. While Spencer was visiting New England the preparations for the farewell dinner in his honor in New York were going on apace. Dr. Youmans had a keen appreciation of the weight of public opinion when massed on any important question, and he determined, therefore, that the proposed honor to Spencer should at the same time be an occasion for a fresh setting-forth of the doctrine of Evolution In its relation to all the higher in terests of humanity. The dinner was served at Del monico's on the evening of November 9, 1882. About two hundred persons, representative of the best interests and thought of the country, were present in person or by letter. The Honorable William M. Evarts, formerly Secretary of State, and at that time America's leading statesman, pre sided. In the course of his remarks introducing Spencer, Evarts said : — "We are glad to see you, for we recognize in the breadth of your knowledge, such knowledge as is 260 Farewell Dinner to Spencer useful to your race, a greater comprehension than any living man has presented to our generation. We are glad to see you because in our judgment you have brought to the analysis and distribution of this vast knowledge a more penetrating intelli gence and a more thorough insight than any living man has brought even to the minor topics of his special knowledge. In theology, in psychology, in natural science, in the knowledge of individual man and his exposition, and in the knowledge of the world. In the proper sense of society which makes up the world, the world worth knowing, the world worth speaking of, the world worth planning for, the world worth working for — we acknowledge your labors as surpassing those of any of our Mnd." Spencer, who was in bad form physically, re sponded, as was his wont, with criticism — good- natured criticism — of our American "Gospel of Work," and made an earnest plea for more con sideration of the "Gospel of Relaxation" and a higher ideal of life than he had seen about him. Spencer was followed by Professor W. G. Sum ner, of Yale University, who spoke warmly of Spencer's great services in bringing the new science of sociology into recognition as an important de partment of Science. Next the Honorable Carl Schurz responded to the toast, "The Progress of Science tends to International Harmony." Then came Professor O. C. Marsh, of Yale University, Acting President of the National Academy of Sci ences, who responded to the toast, "Evolution — 261 John Fiske once an Hypothesis, now the Established Doc trine of the scientific world." After Professor Marsh, Fiske was called to respond to the toast, "The Doctrine of Evolution and Religion." Fol lowing him came Henry Ward Beecher, who spoke for the liberal orthodox clergy, and who testified to the trouble Spencer had given to the ministers, who found they could not get along with Calvin and Spencer both. He closed his stirring address with the following reverent tribute to Spencer: — "May He who holds the storm in His hand be gracious to you, sir; may your voyage across the sea be prosperous and speedy; may you find on the other side all those conditions of health and of comfort which shall enable you to complete the great work, greater than any other man in this age has ever attempted ; may you live to hear from this continent and that other an unbroken testi mony to the service which you have done to hu manity ; and thus, if you are not outwardly crowned, you wear an invisible crown in your heart that will carry comfort to death — and I will greet you be yond." There were other tributes ready for expression, particularly one by Youmans, while cordial letters had been received from Andrew D. White, Presi dent of Cornell University, and from Oliver Wen dell Holmes, and others. But at the close of Beech er's address, it was felt that the fitting words had been spoken, and as Spencer appeared fatigued, on the motion of Evarts, the company rose and ex- 262 Farewell Dinner to Spencer tended to him a heartfelt bon voyage, thus bringing to a close an evening forever memorable in the lives of those present, as well as forming an occa sion of much significance in the appraisement of the doctrine of Evolution. All of the addresses were of a high order, and it will be noted that the doctrine of Evolution and Spencer's labors were approached from various viewpoints. To Fiske was allotted the task of set ting forth the philosophic relation of the doctrine of Evolution to religion, to the very highest in terests of the human mind. His address was so compact and clean-cut in thought, so lucid in state ment, and so fine in literary form, that it greatly impressed his hearers, and gave a special satisfac tion to Spencer. At its conclusion, Spencer, who sat near Fiske, partly rose from his chair and said, taking his hand: "Fiske, should you develop to the fullest the Ideas you have expressed here this evening, I should regard it as a fitting supplement to my life-work." This was not the expression of a passing feeling on the part of Spencer. He wrote Fiske shortly after getting home, expressing his mature conviction regarding the address: — 38 Queen's Gardens, Bayswater, London, W. November 24, 1882. My dear Fiske: — I regretted very much that I did not return to the Windsor In time to see you the day before sail ing, but there were so many imperative matters to 263 John Fiske be settled that I found it impossible to get back in time. Had it not been that Youmans gave me the Impression that I should again see you before starting, I should, notwithstanding my state of fatigue, have written you a letter on the Saturday morning. I wanted to say how successful and how impor tant I thought was your presentation of the dual aspect, theological and ethical, of the Evolution doctrine. It is above all things needful that the people should be impressed with the truth that the philosophy offered to them does not necessi tate a divorce from their inherited conceptions concerning religion and morality, but merely a purification and exaltation of them. It was a great point to enunciate this view on an occasion en suring wide distribution through the press; and if Youmans effects, as he hopes through the medium of a pamphlet reporting the proceedings, a still wider distribution, much will be gained for the cause. Thank you for the aid thus given. Very truly yours, Herbert Spencer. As this Spencer-dinner address of Fiske's ex presses in a brief and lucid form the relation of the doctrine of Evolution to religion and ethics, and as the views expressed therein had the emphatic en dorsement of Spencer, it can be said that it marks a definite stage in the development of the Evolu tion doctrine — a stage when the two leading pro tagonists of the doctrine were ready to grapple with all the religious and ethical questions involved in 264 Address at Spencer Dinner it. Viewed in this light this address may well be considered as a key-note to the religious and ethi cal Implications of the doctrine as held by Spencer and by Fiske. In the religious essays of Fiske, those we have already considered and those which are to follow, it wUl be noted that the rational phi losophy of this Spencer-dinner address pervades them all, while it permeates his "Cosmic Philos ophy" as a deep refrain. ^ * The address is published in full in the volume of Fiske's essays, Excursions of an Evolutionist, p. 294. CHAPTER XXVIII FOURTH VISIT TO LONDON — AT HIS OLD QUARTERS 67 GREAT RUSSELL STREET — COURTESIES BY SIME, HUXLEY, AND SPENCER — SEVERE ILLNESS AT TRIJBNER'S — SAILS FOR HOME — RESUMES WORK ON HIS HISTORY — HARVARD COLLEGE AND THE DEGREE OF LL.D. AND GOVERNOR BUTLER I 883-1 884 Mrs. Stoughton returned from Europe in No vember, 1882, and was welcomed to the Fiske family home while her own house was being built a short distance away on Brattle Street, Cam bridge — a very commodious house which she planned with special reference to its becoming later "the homestead of the Fiske family." But the building of the new home and the settiement of Mrs. Stoughton's affairs brought many perplexi ties which found their way to Fiske's study, seri ously Interfering with his literary work, — ¦ his his tory of the American people, to the prosecution of which all other interests were subordinate. The plan that seemed practicable under the conditions was expatriation to London, for a season, provided he could find in the British Museum the necessary books of reference on American history. To settle this point he wrote to his friend Henry Stevens, of London, the eminent antiquarian scholar, in quiring as to the Americana resources of the Brit- 266 90 BRATTLE STREET Letter from Henry Stevens ish Museum. He received in" reply the following characteristic and very satisfactory letter from Mr. Stevens : — 4 Trafalgar Square, W.C, London, Jantiary ix, 1883. John Fiske, Esqr., XXII Berkeley St., Cambridge, in N.E. My dear Sir: — I think you will find the Library of the British Museum a little better place for study on early American history, as well as late, than even Har vard College Library and the Boston Public Ditto thrown in, though it may be hard to convince any Massachusetts man of this fact, until he has seen something outside the hub and its surroundings. The Museum library does contain the New York Nation about which you inquire as to materials for modern history, and, moreover, possesses part of the "Youth's Companion," "Niles's Register," and Puffer Hopkins, on "International Copy right." But what is still better, the Trustees will at once purchase any book illustrating the history of the American people that you, from your experi ence, will point out to them as a desideratum. Do pray come over and do your work here, where roast beef, American cheese, and strong beer may be had and taken ad libitum. The Museum is rich in American local history and genealogy. It has not much about the Miss issippi Valley prior to Father Marquette's voyage, but possesses almost everything since. Jefferson's purchase of Louisiana from Napoleon, when he was hard up, is pretty well sifted in the early Congress papers and in the French memoirs — all of 267 John Fiske which may be found in the B.M. ; and as to Mary land, you will probably find a fuller bibliography, from L. Baltimore to Scharfe, than you will find in any other one library. You will also in the Museum find material con cerning Mathew Lyon from the time he landed at Newbury Port, from the North of Ireland, and was sold to Mr. Leffinquile afterwards, of Vermont, for a yolke of bulls, until the famous contest on the floor of Congress wherein he broke his wooden sword with Master Griswold; and every other im portant subject iUustrative of the rise and prog ress of the American People, not omitting the re markable case of Timothy Dexter, the author of "A Pickle for the Knowing Ones." The Tree of Knowledge grows now in the Centre of the Reading Room of the British Museum in a huge pot. You have only to shake it and down the ripe fruit drops. There is stUl room in London, prob ably at your old quarters, for another American. So pray take an affectionate leave of your large family, pack up your ideas, leave your sins behind, and embark for Bloomsbury, with your American gold-pen, and your Yankee energy. Forget that there is not an international copyright and picca- roon right and left until you have boiled down and simmered the great subject. All this in answer to your racy and offhand notes of the 28th December to be answered instanter. Dine with us at Noviomagus 21st February. En closed find a late programme. Yours truly, Henry Stevens, G.M.B. 268 Fourth Visit to London This letter of Mr. Stevens was sufficiently assur ing, and accordingly Fiske arranged for at least a six months' absence and engaged his passage' on the Cunard steamer Bothnia, sailing from New York to Liverpool January 31, 1883. He then ad vised his friends Spencer, Huxley, Sime, and Ral ston of his sailing. He had a rough passage over and he found the Bothnia to be a great pitcher and roller, so much so that they were " either on one side or on one beam-end all the way over." Just before reaching Queenstown he wrote Mrs. Fiske, giving the fol lowing racy account of the voyage: — "The coast of ould Ireland is freninst me, but it is all wrapped in mist, and the rolling is so bad as to forbid anything like extensive letter- writing. If there ever was an old tub that could beat this Bothnia, for rolling, I should like to see it. The portmanteaus have kept up a wild demon-dance in the state-room, and the number of tumblers I have seen smashed would do credit to the Jo Bun- kerest Paddy girl that you ever saw. Coffee and beer have been liberaUy poured on the table cloth ; fried eggs have hopped around like mature chick ens, with their heads cut off; and those have had cause to be truly thankful who, by dint of quick wit and extreme agility, have succeeded in keeping their 'wittles' from landing in their laps." On his way from Liverpool to London, he stopped overnight at Lichfield to see the cathedral; and he writes: — 269 John Fiske " It is a grand Cathedral, not equal to York, but unlike any other, and especially beautiful in its three tapering spires. Its length is gigantic, and the effect inside is not broken by the organ inter posing between nave and choir." Fiske reached London Sunday, February lo, and was met by Sime, who took him home until suitable quarters near the British Museum could be found for a permanent abode and the prosecu tion of his work. Above all places in London he desired his old rooms at 67 Great Russell Street, but on inquiry he leamed that these rooms would not be vacant for a week or more. FeeUng that no other rooms in London would seem like home to him, he engaged them, and meantime he took rooms at 7 South Crescent, Tottenham Court Road. Having arranged his settlement, he be gan to look up his other friends, although he was far from feeling well — his rough voyage having greatly shaken him up. He was cordially welcomed by Henry Stevens, by Ralston, by the Huxleys, by Trubner, by the younger MacmlUans, — the senior Macmillan hav ing gone to Mentone to look after John Green, the historian, who was very ill, — and he found a very courteous recognition at Kettner's famous dining- rooms. But his experiences should be told by him self. Writing Mrs. Fiske under date of Tuesday, February 20, he says: — " I had a dreadful time last week because every- 270 Cordially Welcomed thing reminded me of you, and for the first time London seemed a great lonely place and as If I must take the first steamer back to America. "After writing you Friday, I went up to Kett ner's, and little Mademoiselle, behind the desk, bowed recognition as if but a week had elapsed since I had dined there. Do you remember the burly, smooth-faced, bustling head- wai ter who used to say, 'Thank you sir!' with so much energy? He showed me to a seat, inquired very politely as to how I had been, and hoped I left ' Madame ' quite well. I wished 'Madame' was there so much that it half spoiled my delicious dinner. On coming out I met Fred Macmillan and his wife, who had also dined at Kettner's. I went home with them and staid till II, and there I met a queer old Dickens character named Bain, a well-known bookseller, and a very learned old chap. Fred Macmillan is a really good fellow and- his wife is very nice, and while with them I had been quite jolly. But all this did n't prevent my breaking down when I got to my rooms. I went to bed and fell asleep from mere exhaustion in bemoaning my loneliness. "Saturday morning, I got up feeling weak and mean, and at noon I went by omnibus to Bays- water, but found that Spencer had gone down to Derbyshire to spend a week with Mr. Lott. He is not feeling very well. Miss Scheckel brought me a glass of Sherry and a biscuit, and I sat two hours chatting with her. She seemed to cherish an affec tionate remembrance of you, and sent her love to you. I told her I felt low-spirited and out-of -sorts ; and she said Spencer's doctor was a great man- of-science and very reasonable in his charges, that 271 John Fiske Spencer thought there was nobody like him, and that I had better consult him. She gave me his address — ' Dr. Bruce, 42 Kensington Gardens Square, Bayswater, W.' "After leaving Miss Scheckel I returned, via New Bond Street, and being near the Royal Insti tution I thought I would look in and see if I should find Tyndall. Sent up my card and was presently shown up to the top of the hipe, to the famous rooms once occupied by 'ngSir ngHumphry ngDavy.' ^ Had a most cordial greeting from Tyn dall and his wife. It was about 5 p.m. and presently Mrs. Tyndall's father. Lord Claude Hamilton, came in and the tea-tray was brought and we had a good cup of tea with some very thin slices of bread and butter. Lord Claude is a great, bluff, honest, hearty fellow. He has an enormous admiration for Spencer, and he appeared to take an immedi ate fancy to 'Hezekiah.' Mrs. Tyndall was lovely and Tyndall himself was perfectly delightful. We had a fine talk. Mrs. Tyndall said she should think it would be more than I could bear to be separated from my family — su£^h a family as she had seen portraits of at the Huxley's. There was a real ten derness toward me on the part of all three which went deep into my heart. Tyndall said he thought the History would be well received In England and 1 Fiske often quoted with great glee the opening sentences of one of Professor Josiah P. Cooke's chemical lectures delivered dur ing Fiske's undergraduate days. The Professor had a nasal twang in his utterance which was very pronounced when he attempted to emphasize a phrase. The quotation was as follows: "In a room lined with blue litmus paper sat a philosopher. Who was that philos opher? Sir Humphry Davy!" The name thus stressed Fiske en deavored to represent on paper as " ngSir ngHumphry ngDavy." 272 Cordially Welcomed Lord Claude said it was just what they needed above everything; they were shamefully ignorant about America, and eager for an interesting his tory of it. Tyndall said there were a great many rare books and documents on America, right there in the Royal Institution and I might come there as much as I liked, and have a room all to myself to study and write in ! They all three said my speech at the Spencer dinner was magnifique! "Well, my dear, after a delightful hour-and-a- half I left them and went to Kettner's where I had a delicious dinner, but I did n't enjoy it! Some how I seemed to miss you terribly at Kettner's. Came to my rooms, lighted pipe and read in Abel's ' Linguistic Essays ' — a charming book that Triib ner gave me on Friday. Felt a little chilly, and went to bed, desperately lonesome, about eleven o'clock. When I waked at 9 Sunday morning, it was a black fog. I felt empty and weak, but not hungry; feet a little cold; no assignable cause for all this fuss. Concluded to resign myself, and call Dr. Bruce. The doctor came at eleven o'clock; fine, hearty fellow with long side whiskers — a very pleasant fellow. Knew all about me and treated me very courteously. First made me tell how I feel naturally, when I am well, then how I had felt for two or three months past, all about leaving home, the voyage, etc. ; asked especially after my appetite for the past month; felt of both pulses; in short, he gave me such an overhauling as I never had before. Then he began some general conversation, while I suppose he turned things over in his mind. Said he thought my history would have a great sale in England, and he was glad to know that I was the 273 John Fiske chap that was writing it. Said he had read my speech at the Spencer dinner again and again, and thought it was wonderful, and if I could write a book like that, I might do something toward lead ing this age out of its materialism; that I spoke like a man who had gone through and through the thought of this age, and was beginning to utter the ideas which the next generation would realize bet ter than this. Said he had also had this feeling when he read my Princeton address on the 'True Lesson of Protestantism,' which many in England praised, but few (he thought) really understood. "Well, wasn't it nice, my dear, to find such a sympathizer? After a while, he said I was a strong, active fellow, without a flaw physically as far as he could see; heart and lungs seemed in splendid condition; said he was glad I was made so strong to do the work I was born to do. Said I had done well to take advice, for I was just where a good square chill might come in with savage effect. "Yesterday (Monday) Dr. Bruce came at ten, looked me over more or less and said I might get up and have — sole for breakfast; and might have — broiled chicken for dinner, might smoke a pipe if I liked, but no cigars; and mustn't go out of doors. So I sat all day before the fire and read Abel's 'Essays' and finished them; and Sime came in at four p.m. and staid till six, and we had a pleasant chat. I began to feel keen, sharp pangs of hunger, and when my little broiled chicken came up I ate every scrap of it. This, with a slice of toast and cup of tea, constituted my repast. I then smoked a pipe and thought of home more peace fully than I had done; and at nine p.m. went to bed 274 Consults Spencer's Doctor and slept soundly till nine this morning, — just twelve hours! To-morrow he says I may go out, rain or shine, and may go to dine with the ' Citi zens of Noviomagus,' only I must choose the sim pler dishes and keep to red or white wine. He will call on Thursday, by which time he thinks I can resume beer and take care of myself generally. He says I did wisely to call for aid, for I might have fussed and bothered for six weeks and got discouraged about my work and then have had to call a doctor after all; whereas now I am rea sonably sure of being in glorious condition by the end of this week. His medicine has wrought a profound effect I can see. The mulligrubs have all blown away and I begin to think only of the History and of success sure to come, and of earning the right to keep my dear home, and stay in it. "Dr. Bruce says if I will get up at nine, write from ten till five (but not without a solid break fast, and some lunch), walk never less than three and generally five miles, dine heartily at seven, write or study two hours in the evening if I like, never or VERY rarely eat a late bite, go to bed at twelve; — if I'll do this he'll warrant I'll write my twenty- five weeks with a blithe heart, and feel better at the end than if I had n't worked at all. That is not the programme he would cut out for a weak man; but he thinks it right for me, and you see it allows me nearly nine hours a day for work. I think all the doctor's ideas very good. "Well, my dear, have n't I made a regular bore of myself with all this rigmarole! But I thought you would like to know what the doctor has to say. 275 John Fiske I could n't help thinking how you would like to talk with him, he is such a jolly fellow, and so extremely elegant, and courteous. "Friday I am to dine with the TyndaUs. Spen cer is expected back on Thursday, and I may meet him at the TyndaUs'. I shall move into 67 Great Russell Street Saturday afternoon, and spend Sun day arranging things. All my friends know how busy I am to be, and they all promise to let me alone." In a letter two days later, February 22, we have a glimpse of him at his work: — " I have been studying these two days back, on local self government In Illinois, where the Virgin ian and New England systems came into collision, and the New England system proved the stronger. I have also, at last, got a flood of light through John Rope's suggestion about the Scotch-Irish ele ment in the South. It is n't quite as he conceives it, but it is better still. I shall set forth the his toric meaning of the whiskey rebellion in Penn sylvania in a new light. Ideas are coming to me thick and fast." And he has begun his London peregrinations: — "I started out at four o'clock for my walk, and I have been on my legs just two hours and twenty minutes, so that I can't have done less than five or six miles, though I have walked slowly, pondering my book, but keeping my eyes open. From Tot tenham Court Road I kept down High Holborn to Chancery Lane, and down that till 'Cursitor Street ' caught my eye, and I struck into that until 276 Walks about London I found ' look's Court ' and went through It. You remember In ' Bleak House,' Mr. Snagsby's house was in ' Cook's court, Cursitor Street.' Then I ex plored Church Passage till I found a place vile enough for the graveyard in Tom-all-alones; but I am sure it is not the place. I shall find that some day, as also the Sol's Arms. Then I turned up Carey Street and wound through a labyrinth of passages into New Square, thence into Lincoln's Inn Fields, thence Southwestward through a still more tangled labyrinth Into Blackmoor Street, thence Into Drury Lane, coming out into the civil ized world at St. Mary-le-Strand, — rather tired and mighty hungry. So I call my first walk a suc cess. Such creatures as I have seen! And some very, very ancient houses, as funny as any in Chester. One can easily walk five miles in London without going very far; and one is a goose to stick to the thoroughfares. The side alleys and courts are the picturesquest of all." The next day he took a five-mUe walk and dined with the Tyndalls. He says: — "Had a charming dinner with Tyndall and his wife in their upstairs den. After dinner we went downstairs and heard Walter Pollock's lecture on Sir Francis Drake, and it was pretty good. After the lecture the Pollock family and Sir John Mow bray came upstairs and we had some bisquit and mulled claret. I had a long talk with Sir Frederick Pollock." Before going to the TyndaUs' Fiske received the following note from Spencer: — 277 John Fiske Bayswater, Febrtiary 23, 1883. My dear Fiske : — Welcome to England ! I shall be glad to see you on Saturday at one. Please apologize on my behalf to the TyndaUs for not joining them with you to-night. I have not dined out once since my return from America ; and at present dare not do so. Would you like to be invited to the Athenaeum Club, or to the Saville Club, or to both? The Sa ville would suit you very well in the respect of hav ing a good and not expensive table d'hote. It has also a magnificent smoking room which you would appreciate; and its present position in Piccadilly is a very pleasant one. But the Athenaeum would also be desirable for you as bringing you Into con tact with friends. Ever yours, Herbert Spencer. On Saturday, February 24, Fiske called on Spencer and took luncheon with him. Spencer re ceived him most cordially, and they had a "won derful talk and walked about four miles together." He adds: "The weather is lovely, the buds are starting, the birds are singing, and the grass is ever so green." He found that Spencer was also to be gin work the next week in earnest; that since his return from America he had done but little. On re turning from Spencer's he gathered his traps to gether and took possession of his old rooms at 67 Great Russell Street ; and three days after he writes Mrs. Fiske : — 278 In his Old Quarters February 27, 1883. My darling Wife : — At length Hezzy is himself again. I think I have really been very much upset, but now I am wooden. I am all arranged in apple-pie order in my dear old rooms. The rooms have been newly papered, Brussels-carpeted and curtained. There is a new iron bedstead, with new hair mattress and canopy over the head. All the chairs have been newly cov ered with olive green plush, and olive green is the prevailing color all over. The pictures, too, are In good taste — all engravings. The rooms are now really elegant, and with my books and things about, you can't tell how cheerful it looks. I shall not be ashamed to receive a call here from Gladstone him self! The quiet here is profound, except the vague rumble of the streets which does n't annoy me. When I ring in "mornin' air," my cannel coal fire Is made to burn brightly, my little round table Is covered with a clean white cloth, and a gigantic mutton chop is served, with a loaf of bread and a pot of blazing hot tea. When I get through, I ring, and the maid, Alice, comes with the morning paper and "Mrs. Coldrey's compliments, sir, and 'opes you are quite well to-day." Then Hezzy smokes and looks over the paper for a few minutes while the little table is cleared, and then goes to work. My dear, I wish you would come over and take breakfast with me! I have drawn a diagram of the rooms with the furniture so that you can, with your recoUec tions of the rooms, picture Hezzy to yourself quite completely. I don't think it would be possible 279 John Fiske in all London to find anything more cosy and cheerful. Mrs. Coldrey is not a widow. Her 'usband has business in the City. A newspaper writer and wife are over me; and a bachelor London merchant is under me, on the ground floor. They might as well be IOO miles away, for all I ever hear or see of them. This was a fine house a century ago. The walls are tremendously thick, and very little sound passes from floor to floor. I can vaguely hear the piano overhead, but it is a distant sound that I hardly notice. I am absolutely undisturbed. If I want a bite of lunch. It is only to touch the bell and Alice brings cheese and biscuit and a tankard of splen did ale fresh from the tavern around the corner; — I do not need to stir. Nothing could be more perfect. The London gas Is so poor that I have bought a lamp for $3.86 — a very powerful triplex burner. Have bought a special pair of scissors for it! First thing after breakfast, I take it out into the octagon, spread a thick piece of paper on a chair, fill the lamp on it, trim the three wicks accurately, wipe chimney and globe quite clean, rub it dry with a piece of old flannel, bring it back and stand it on the centre-table, burn up the paper, onto which drops of oil have fallen, and carefully put away the piece of flannel in the octagon comer-cupboard. It is no trouble, and I won't entrust it to Alice. Is n't this correct housekeeping? I have got a pedometer, and shall henceforth know just how much I walk every day and shall enter it in my diary. After all, though these are not the rooms in 280 In his Old Quarters which I finished "Cosmic Philosophy," the asso ciations with them are almost as strong. I occu pied these rooms when I first came to the house in October, 1873. It was here that Spencer first came to see me. I moved upstairs in November. Then in 1879 I occupied these rooms again, and it was here that I received brother and sister Paine. It was here that I had my famous punch party and brother Paine slept In the octagon which then had a small bed in it. Who knows but in future the guide-books may point out this old house as the place where Hezzyklah did so much work? Only I wish I had you here, my dear! ! ! If I had known how great the strain was going to be, I don't think I should have had the courage to face it. It is dreadful to be so homesick! But this deep quiet is going to make the book grow with great speed. The lady overhead is now playing divinely. It sounds very distant, but O, so sweet! Yesterday I tried a new dodge — for dinner. Went to the famous Angel at Islington. Found it splendid and shall go there again. It will be a fairly good walk — say three miles to the Angel, and I can get home on top of a 'bus for 4 cents. By the way, I think the top of a 'bus even beats a hansom cab for jolly; you can sit so high, and see so much; and it costs about a penny, where cab costs a shilling. O, London is a delightful place! But I wish I had you and the little ones here! To his mother, under date of March 2, 1883, Fiske writes: — 281 John Fiske " I have been too much absorbed in the treasures of the British Museum to make a great show of pages this week but I am going to work Sunday, and next week I expect to report a great pile. I should have been a fool not to have come over here. What do you think? I can actually go in to the shelves and mouse for what I want!!! Splendid, is n't it? The one thing I feared, was the red tape. It used to bother me in 1873. ' Now Richard Gar nett, son of the great philologist, is director of the reading room and generally all-powerful in the library. He has always liked me because I was one of the first to see the value of his father's very ab struse researches, and praised him enthusiastically in the ' North American Review' as long ago as 1869. I don't know whether this had anything to do with it, but as soon as I had walked in and shaken hands with Garnett, and told him what I had come to England for, the bars were all thrown down at once. No red tape for me. If I want to find any thing, there are ninety thousand volumes on Ameri can histoiy just across the street entirely at my disposal ! "Garnett showed me the sheets of some of the new printed catalogue of the whole Museum Li brary!! They are going to print it all, and it will fill about six hundred royal octavo volumes!! How is that for a big library? "O, this Is the capital of the world! You can have no idea of the endless treasures of Americana across the way. My coming over here was the wisest thing I could possibly have done. "I just now met Lecky, on Great Russell Street, and we talked twenty minutes, standing in the 282 The British Museum street, about the Scotch-Irish element in the popu lation of the Alleghany region. I told Lecky I had got some bones to pick with him, and he said some evening we will fight it out over a pipe. "I have had some absolutely horrible turns of homesickness this week, though my rooms are really delightful, and I have every comfort that heart could wish, and everybody treats me with the greatest cordiality — almost tenderness; and I am highly excited over my work. But if there ever was a chap that loved his home, it 's me. "Have n't I been concentrated on my work this week? Profound, almost awful quiet, all day long. Not a human being except landlady, maid, and offi cials, did I speak to from Monday morning till yesterday — Thursday — afternoon, when I ran in before dinner to chat fifteen minutes with Ral ston. I felt as if I must scream for somebody to speak to. To-night Siine is coming — wUl be here' soon — we shall dine at Kettner's, and come back to smoke before the fire. Gradually I shall get used to the silence, and I see already that the arnount I can do in a day is prodigious. "The Huxleys have a dinner-party for me on the 14th of March. In her invitation Mrs. Hux ley asked me if I was 'glooming into the Man uscripts of the British Museum to good pur pose?' " On March 9, he writes: — "It is Friday, and I hadn't exchanged words with a soul all this week — except Alice — when Spencer came and made me a lovely call. He has had me admitted to the Athenaeum Club and hopes 283 John Fiske I will dine there with him often. He says I am shut ting myself up too closely. Last Saturday after noon I heard a divine concert at St. James's Hall. Just think, Beethoven's Kreutzer Sonata by Miss Krebs and Joachim; also songs of Handel and Mendelssohn by Santley. Santley's voice has not the wondrous ring it had in his prime, but O, the pathos and sweetness of it! It made me shed hot tears. He is a singer straight from Heaven. "Whenever the American letters come, Mrs. Coldrey sends them up by Alice, with 'The Missus's compliments, sir, and 'opes Mrs. Fiske and the childrens are quite well.' I have a delightful home here, and it is a pity you can't all have some memo ries of it to carry along through life with me." But this was written on the verge of a much more serious collapse than he had yet experienced. A little later he writes : — "Sunday, March il, I waked up finding that I had an awful chill which I could n't account for, except that the weather was excessively raw and my bedroom felt damp. I had n't hitherto thought it worth while to keep a fire in my bedroom, which I see was an error. Spencer says because I lived and flourished here one winter in defiance of all precautions, I mustn't think I can do so always; and it is just as well to know that when England makes up its mind to chill you, you have got to look out. I don't need any more lessons, for I have* got the creed at my tongue's end. The way that chill seized me and knocked all the strength out of me began to scare me towards evening. But I walked down to the Criterion, got a little dinner, 284 Severe Illness at Trubner's felt dreadfully weak and wretched, with my feet like icicles, and longed for a kind word, and would have given $1000 never to have left home. Where should I go for a word of bright cheer? A little chat with Trubner, I thought w:ould do me good, and I beckoned a cab. It began to snow and a north west gale blew hard. Cabby could hardly hear me, and I found my voice going. A three-mile drive brought me to Upper Hamilton Terrace, quaking and teeth chattering, and legs frozen to the knees. Paid cabby, went in, and went to the dining-room, where Trubner was dozing In his easy-chair before the fire. He jumped up and said, 'O, my friend, it gladdens my heart to see you ! ' I tried to speak, but could only faintly whisper, and felt everything whizzing about my ears. 'O, my friend,' said he, 'what voice is this I hear? Good God, you are ill! Your face is very pale.' He led me to a big chair by the fire, went out, and in a minute came back with a huge pair of German felt boots that came halfway up to my knees, kneeled down and unlaced and took off my shoes and put on these warm things, and did n't they feel good? Then he went out again and presently came back with Mrs. Trubner and Lina and Jacobina (or ' BInnchin ' as they call her) the sister. You remember them all, no doubt. Lina came up and kissed me. Mrs. Trubner said, 'Why, my dear Mr. Fiske, how is it that you have come to be so ill? We shall not let you go home to-night.' " How the Triibners kept him and tenderly nursed him for four days, and got him in condition for the dinner at Huxley's, where he was the guest of 285 John Fiske honor, Is delightfully and gratefully told. He closes his account thus: — "Trubner Is a noble fellow, a great scholar, a generous publisher, a charming host, and his hon est German heart is as full of tenderness as a hu man heart can be ! I believe they saved me from a dangerous illness; and if I were to live a thousand years I could never forget their kindness. I shall always carry it with me as a sweet memory. It was almost worth while to be sick, to find out what dear friends I had got there." In getting back to his quarters In Great Russell Street Fiske felt fully recovered, and plunged into his work with better spirit and great energy tem pered by a sense of moderation in his application — he took more relaxation. Sime was a frequent visi tor, was very sympathetic, and quite enthusiastic over Fiske's "significant grasp of facts." The let ters contain extracts from his growing manuscript that Mrs. Fiske might see the style in which he was doing his work. At the Huxley dinner he met a fine company; and Spencer gave him a dinner at the Athenaeum Club where he met Hirst and the Honorable George Broderick, Warden of Merton CoUege, Oxford. He spent an evening with James Martineau — "a dear old man" — and also dined and spent an evening with WiUiam Sime, a brother of James Sime, where they had much music. He found William Sime possessed of a fine knowledge of French literature, and that he had a great rever- 286 Billingsgate Fish Market ence for Voltaire. He writes: "William Sime opened up to me new lights about Voltaire." And in the afternoon of "Good Friday," his friend Ralston came in, "blue with the cold," ready for a trip down to Billingsgate Fish Market for dinner. Here is Fiske's account of his experi ence : — " Put on my big ulster, and we walked down Hol born and Newgate Street into the old City, and through its noble quaint streets to Billingsgate Fish Market. The Three Tuns Tavern is in the market, on the edge, just overhanging the Thames below London Bridge — a forest of masts just out side the windows. At 4 P.M. daily they have a fish table d'h&te dinner. Ralston said the last time he had been there was about twenty years ago. Gee- rusalem, what a place! but lovely, for a blazing sun lit up the river, and, when in out of the wind, it was warm. The head- waiter had just come out of Dickens. The diners were mostly queer coves, and doubtless thought us queer coves. The head-waiter stood at the end of the table, and when all were seated rapped loudly on the table with his knife- handle, and then said grace! And this was the din ner: — I. Boiled salmon with anchovy sauce. 2. Boiled cod with oyster sauce. 3. Fried cod with piquante sauce. 4. Fried eels. 5. Whitebait with brown bread. 6. Roast beef, with potatoes and greens. 7. Cheese. Beer, Coffee, and Cigar. 287 John Fiske " The bill was 3/2= 76 cents for each of us. I en joyed it! The fish was fresh, delicious, and su perbly cooked. We walked home again, making about seven miles for the day's walk. I got back to work again about 7 o'clock and wrote till 12.45, making eight of the best pages of the book so far. I don't dawdle or waste a minute of time here." The letters show that for a fortnight after his illness at the Triibners', by sheer force of will, by steady work on his history, and various diversions, he managed to keep his homesick feelings under. But as his birthday came around (March 30), bring ing him letters from home in which he seemed to hear the voices of all his family, — his mother, his wife, his children, — the effect was overpowering, and he could not endure the thought of a much longer isolation from them. Writing Mrs. Fiske, March 31, he says: — "I really think I had better come home soon. I am making good progress, but no better than I could make at home. I go on nicely, for a few days, and then I get to thinking of my home, and It com pletely upsets me for a day or two. The fact is the day has gone by when I could do such a thing as I once did — be absent from my family for ten months. Being away from you amounts in itself to a serious illness. The agonies I have suffered since I landed In England are such as no words can ever describe, and it goes far to offset the good effects of my seclusion. Nay, rather, let me come 288 Depressed by Homesickness home and work as in the old days. I fear that this awful homesickness will break down my strength. "More than all, I am cured of Europe. I shall never come over again except with you or some of the children for a short summer glorification. Never! I am disenchanted. I crave nothing but my home, my wife, and my children. London is splendid, and I find myself famous here, and I shall have got great good from coming over. My book is making fine progress, and everybody is tenderly kind to me, and Sime is the sweetest fellow that ever lived, but I cannot be happy without my dear ones." Fiske struggled bravely against his depression. The quiet attractiveness of his rooms, so favor able for composition, began to pall upon him the moment he released his mind from his work, for he had none of his family to share his pleasant sur roundings with him. His unselfish nature was in revolt against the conditions which gave him pleasures he could not share with his dear ones; and then, in his intellectual work hitherto, he had had Mrs. Fiske at hand, with her appreciative sympathy with what was best in his writings, to cheer him on ; while now, even in his pleasant sur roundings, he was isolated from all that was dear est to his heart — the very attractiveness of his London home only intensified his loneliness in it. From the extracts from his manuscript copy of his history which he sends Mrs. Fiske as examples 289 John Fiske of his style, it is readily seen how much he craved her appreciative sympathy. In his moments of depression the thought oc curred to him to have Mrs. Fiske come over to London for a while — that her presence and her sympathy for a few weeks would serve to break his long exile, and thus prove the best prescription for his diseased mind. Accordingly, we have in his letters to Mrs. Fiske early in April earnest plead ings for her to come to him, and picturing how their days might be spent — he at his work and she aiding him by her presence and her ready sym pathy, and cheering him in his hours of relaxation ; in short, he pictured how, with her, his London life would be perfect, while his history would grow apace. But it c©uld not be. It was impossible for Mrs. Fiske to leave her family for the many weeks necessary to make her visit to London of benefit to him, and she cabled him to this effect. Fiske was disappointed; but he struggled on, his days alternating between those of depression and those of determination to carry his project through. But his work suffered, not so much in quality as In quantity — there were days he could do no work. His friends were most considerate for him. The Huxleys, the Triibners, the MacmlUans, and the Simes were unremitting In their kind courte sies. Spencer invited him to dinner to meet the Japanese Minister and a few friends, and after wards took him down to Brighton for a few days. 290 Returns to America But the weight on his mind could not be lifted. He consulted his friend. Dr. Lauder Brunton, and asked him if he could minister to a mind diseased. Dr. Brunton advised him to send for his wife. He again consulted Dr. Bruce, and Dr. Bruce advised his returning home as the only sure remedy in his case. This advice was conclusive, and accordingly he took passage on the Cunard steamer Servia which sailed from Liverpool April 21, and he ar rived in New York April 29, 1883, thus bringing to a close his last visit to England, a visit which was ' undertaken with anticipations of much pleasure, and with expectations of great profit to his work. The visit, however, was not a failure. Notwith standing his great personal discomforts, he did a good body of solid work. Among the rich treasures in the British Museum he found much of great value to him relating to the discovery of America, and particularly relating to English politics and English thought regarding America during the period of world-activity from 1753 to the estab lishment of constitutional government under Wash ington In 1789. At this time Fiske was writing the story of the revolt of the colonies and of the Revo lutionary War. Fiske'sc return to his home brought his cure. With his family about him the pressure on his heart — his real ailment and one no medication could reach — was relieved, and he soon settled down to steady work at his task. In the Harvard 291 John Fiske Library and in the Boston Public Library he found the necessary books of reference, although not so convenient for his use as were those In the Brit ish Museum. His working hours were carefully guarded by Mrs. Fiske, and thus, for the remain der of the year, his days In Cambridge and Peters ham, with but few interruptions, sped along with great serenity and with steady accretions to his history. Among the incidents of this period, perhaps the most notable, and the one that most deeply stirred his feelings, was his action as a member of the Board of Overseers of Harvard University In opposition to conferring the degree of LL.D. upon General Ben jamin F. Butler, then Governor of Massachusetts. It had been customary to confer this degree upon the Governors of the Commonwealth, although the university was under no obligation to do so; in fact, the conferring of the degree was simply an act of courtesy on the part of the university. Massachusetts had been fortunate in a line of Gov ernors who had nobly served the Commonwealth and who were worthy of the honors of her chief university. Consequently the propriety of the cus tomary bestowal of this high honor upon the chief magistrate of the Commonwealth had not hereto fore been questioned. But Governor Butier, by his personal character and by his derisive floutings of some of the cherished opinions of the New Eng land mind, in short, by his gross vulgarity, and 292 Harvard and Governor Butler contempt for Harvard's ideals of citizenship, had roused a strong opposition to bestowing upon him the university's highest honor. This opposition was met by the somewhat plausible but weak argument that the bestowal of the honor was not upon the man, — the incumbent of the office, — but upon the office itself. On his return from England Fiske found that the discussion of the propriety of conferring this degree was rife in the various departments of Harvard University and also under general discussion by the Boston press. The President and FeUows of the university had unanimously voted to confer the degree, and although none thought the act con sistent with the character or the services of the Governor, it was generally regarded as politically unwise to withhold from him the customary honor. Even those most urgent for conferring it were em phatic in condemning the unprincipled character of the Governor. Fiske, as we have seen, was one of the Overseers of the university, and the vote of the President and Fellows proposing the con ferring of the degree had to be confirmed by the Board of Overseers in order to become operative. Fiske promptly took a decided stand against de basing Harvard's honors by a bestowal of her chief honor upon one who for thirty years had lost no opportunity of publicly testifying his contempt for the university and all its belongings; and who, by the testimony of his neighbors, had been pro- 293 John Fiske nounced untruthful, tricky, and dishonest, both professionally and politically. He ridiculed the idea of Harvard, with its motto of "Veritas," find ing In the life of such a man anything worthy of honor; and pointed out the absurdity of attempt ing to make a distinction between the office and its incumbent in order to save the credit of the university in its act. He found ready sympathy among his fellow members of the Board of Overseers, particularly the Reverend James Freeman Clarke, who, when the matter came before the Board for final action, made a vigorous plea for moral consistency in their action. The recommendation to confer the degree was defeated by the decisive vote of eleven to fifteen. As Fiske was now at home, and as his mother was living with him while her house near by was being built, there are no self-revealing letters from him giving the details of his life during this period such as we have had in previous years. His papers and memoranda give glimpses of him as steadily at work on his history, as taking pleasure in reading certain passages of it to Mrs. Fiske and his mother, and as taking great pleasure in diversions with his children. Among his papers I find a letter from his friend James Sime, written in July of this year, — 1883, — which so clearly reflects the fine friendship between the two men, as well as somewhat of their 294 Letter from James Sime personal characteristics, that I make place for the following extract. Sime writes: — " Your happiness in getting home was, I am sure, as deep as the Atlantic. Your visit to England will now seem like a dream, but not a bad dream, I hope; for after all, you had some happy hours. To me you brought, as usual, much joy of the kind that can only be feebly expressed in words. All the same, however, both my wife and myself were very anxious about you from the first day of your visit until nearly the last; and while regretting to lose you, we knew that it was best for you to get back to those who would give you new life and energy. How thoroughly miserable you seemed to be at times! as if all the lights of the world had been sud denly quenched! But that is all passed now, and when you come again your mood will always be as bright and as elastic as It often was even when you were IU and homesick; for of course your wife will be with you, and I do not think you could despond in her presence however much you might try! "Looking back on the times we had together, I think I enjoy most the recollection of that perfect day at Rochester, and of your last long evening here, when we talked of Goethe, Heine, Omar Khayydm, and I know not what besides. The Rochester day was a gem of purest ray — one of those days in which one's nature and the world seem to be in absolute harmony, and when one feels sure that the last word does not belong to the pessimists. I could not help thinking of the strange influences which had brought you and me together there — united in idea and affection although trained in such diverse circumstances — near us 295 John Fiske the monuments of a far-off age in which even America has its roots, and all around, the earth so gracious and so young, as if the crowd of bishops and warriors had never been! I wonder whether six centuries hence, our descendants will find a touch of romance in us ? I cannot doubt that they will ; for there must be deep poetry in all this stir ring of mighty forces, that are going to bring forth a new world. "So you are making good progress with your History? I congratulate you, for I feel confident that it Is to be a great book. The more I think of America, and know about her, the more I believe In her. She Is one of the supreme sources of hope for mankind and it is a satisfaction to know that in you, she is to have a worthy historian." Now that Fiske had a very complete envisage ment of American history, he was whenever prac ticable ready to lend a helping hand in bringing the significant features of this history home to the people. And Mrs. Hemenway, whose efforts to make the Old South Church In Boston a centre for the propagation of a knowledge of American history as well as for the dissemination of the principles of good citizenship have already been noted, was ever active in her beneficent work. During the school vacation for the summer of this year she provided a course of lectures in the historic old church on topics in American history of interest to young people. Fiske was very glad to cooperate. in this good work, and accordingly, on the after- 296 Lectures to Young People noon of September 12, 1883, he gave to a large and interested audience, mostly of young people, a simple, lucid story of our Revolutionary struggle — its causes, its main incidents, its results. He made the story interesting by keeping in the narra tion the causes more prominent than the incidents, so that the latter were seen to flow naturally from the former. For instance, he briefly sketched, in the first place, the nature of the political differences which had arisen between the mother country and the colonies, and pointed out why the estrangement was stronger in the New England colonies, on the one hand, and in Virginia and the Southern colo nies, on the other hand, than it was in the middle colonies of New York, New Jersey, and Pennsyl vania. He then called attention to the geographi cal situation of the colonies from the military or strategic viewpeint — the New England colonies being separated from the others by the Hudson River, thereby leaving the confederacy open to attack from the seaboard at New York and from Canada by Lake Champlain — attacks which if united and successful would sever the New Eng land colonies from the confederacy, thus enabling the British forces to subjugate the colonies in de tail. Having made these points clear, he showed that the English Cabinet adopted as its plan of military operations three lines of converging forces: the first consisting of a strong force, under General Burgoyne, to descend through Lake Champlain and 297 John Fiske Lake George; the second, a smaller force, under Colonel St. Leger, to come by way of Lake Ontario, Oswego, and the Mohawk Valley, these two forces to come' together in the vicinity of Albany, where they were to be joined by a strong force from New York, under Lord Howe, which was to move up the Hudson River. By these combined movements it was expected that the colonial confederacy would be effectively dismembered. Success depended upon these three lines of operations being conducted under a complete understanding by the three com manders of the general plan of the campaign. Ow ing, however, to the stupid neglect of Lord George Germain, the British Cabinet officer having charge of the colonies, the definite instructions prepared for Lord Howe in New York defining the impor tant part he was to play In the general movement were never sent. So General Burgoyne and Colo nel St. Leger, deprived of his assistance, were left to their respective fates: the former surrendered his army at Saratoga, while the latter was com pletely routed at Fort Stanwix and fled for his life. These signal victories in the year 1777, completely upsetting the British plan for dismembering the colonies, in connection with Washington's bril liant campaigns In New Jersey, Fiske showed, formed the turning-point in the Revolutionary struggle. The British ministry were signally de feated in their main efforts to subdue the colonists, 298 On the Revolutionary War and France now came to their open assistance with her army and her fleet. What followed during the next five years was succinctly and graphically told : the great public privations and distresses, Ar nold's treason, the efforts of the British generals to win back the Southern colonies, the brilliant campaign of General Greene In Georgia and the Carolinas, ending with the cooping-up of Lord Comwallis at Yorktown, the descent of Wash ington with his army from the Hudson, the co operation of the French fleet, the surrender of Corn wallis, the close of the war, and the treaty of independence and peace between England and the United States in the autumn of 1782. Fiske was so familiar with his subject that he had but little occasion to refer to his notes. The lecture therefore partook of the nature of an ex tempore talk on a subject in which he took a deep interest. He was also interested in his audience, and he spoke with great ease and fluency. I took a seat where I could observe the audience. It was, indeed, an inspiring sight — so many bright young faces animated by "a desire to know," and as the theme was unfolded it was pleasant to see their growing interest. When the story of Arnold was told, his base treason, in contrast with his previous brilliant services, and the effect of the treason upon Washington, the interest of the audience was profound. Every eye was riveted on the speaker, and In the rapt attention it could be seen that feel- 299 John Fiske ings of pity were pilngled with feelings of indig nant patriotism at such dastardly conduct. Another incident of the lecture I recall. The story of the investment and surrender of Com wallis was foUowed with close attention. When Fiske told, in a highly pleased and animated way, how the news of the surrender, flying northward, reached Philadelphia on a dark morning in the fourth week of October, 1781, and was announced to the citizens by an old German night-watchman in his broken English — " Basht dree o'glock und Gorn vallis Ish dakendt" — the deep feeling of the audience found relief in an Impromptu round of applause, which showed the keen, sympathetic interest with which the whole story had been fol lowed. This lecture was so successful, it showed so clearly that the Revolutionary struggle had, when properly presented, so many points of a deep and general interest which bore directly upon the ele ments of good citizenship, that Mrs. Hemenway desired to have a succinct history of the American Revolutionary War in its various relations and as pects given in a course of popular lectures at the Old South Church. This course was not only to set forth, with much fulness of detail, the historic events of the great struggle, but also to bring into clear light the many types of personal character — ^of citizens — that were developed during the struggle. 300 Old South Lectures As Fiske, in his "History of the American Peo ple" which he had in hand, had already treated the Revolutionary period in much the way Mrs. Hem enway desired, it was not a difficult task for him to prepare from his manuscript copy a course of twelve lectures for delivery at the Old South Church. And this he did. Beginning on Satur day, November 17, 1883, he gave twelve weekly lectures (omitting Christmas week) under the fol lowing titles : — I. The First Misunderstandings. 1761-67. II. War Clouds Gathering. 1767-74. III. Coming on of the Storm. 1774-75. IV. Independence declared. 1775-76. V. The Times that tried Men's Souls. 1776. VI. Struggle for the Centre. 1777. VII. Beginning of the End. 1778. VIII. Spreading of the War. 1778-80. IX. The Final Struggle. 1779-81. X. Independence achieved. 1781-83. XL The League of Friendship. 1781-87. XII. Order out of Chaos. 1787-89. These lectures were given at noon, and they were attended by large and enthusiastic audiences. So great was the interest taken in them that be fore the course was finished Fiske was asked by the Govemor, the Honorable George D. Robinson; by the Superintendent of Schools, Edwin P. Seaver; Toy the Secretary of the State Board of Education, J. W. Dickinson; by Francis Parkman, the emi- 301 John Fiske nent historian; by the 'Reverend Edward Everett Hale, and other prominent citizens, to repeat the course at an hour more convenient to the general public. Fiske was greatly pleased to comply with this request, and he repeated the lectures in an evening course, also at tHe Old South Church, be ginning February i, 1884. In the lectures of the latter half of this course he made some changes, by leaving out of considera tion the seven years' League of Friendship under the Continental Congress and confining himself strictly to the war period with greater fulness of detail. He felt that in the original course he did not do full justice to the closing years of the great struggle, while a calm review of his presentation of the important events that occurred during the League of Friendship, out of which grew the Con stitution of the United States, led him to the deci sion to give to these events a fuller treatment In another and a particular course of lectures. How these lectures were received was well expressed by the "Boston Advertiser," then the leading critical journal In Boston, in passing upon them the fol lowing judgment: — "The delivery of these lectures has been a liter ary event of the first magnitude. It is not easy to explain the secret of the orator's wonderful charm. The fervid manner and varied grace of gesture of Everett, and the tragic air and pathetic tones of Choate, together with the devices of rhetoric which 302 Lectures in St. Louis both employed, might explain theirs, as did the audacity and edge of Phillips's speech account in a good measure for his. Mr, Fiske makes no ges tures, and indulges in no high-flown rhetoric; but his manner is extremely easy and graceful, and his dramatic method of presentation brings us face to face with persons and events as if we had seen and known them. The character of George Washington has never before been so impressively depicted in so few words. Part of the effect, no doubt, is due to the surpassing beauty of his language." Before finishing his lectures in Boston, Fiske was asked to repeat the course in St. Louis during the spring term, under the auspices of Washington Uni versity. He was glad to comply with this request, and so from the last of March till the early part of , May of this year he was in St. Louis. And his lec tures evoked as great an interest as they did in Bos ton. He had large audiences and the interest deep ened to the very close. General Sherman was an attentive listener, and he commended very highly Fiske's lucid presentation of the military opera tions of the war on both sides. The impression given by the lectures in St. Louis was well summed up by the leading journal, the "St. Louis Globe- Democrat," in the following par agraph: — "For picturesqueness, and dramatic power, the description of the Boston Tea-Party, the battle in the ravine at Oriskany, the awful fight between 303 John Fiske the Serapis and Bon Homme Richard and the splendid march of Washington upon Cornwallis have never been surpassed in historical literature. The character drawing was no less remarkable. Al most side by side, in the same lecture, the jovial, irascible, learned, and energetic German tactician Steuben, and the strangely majestic figure of the great Mohawk preacher and war-chief. Brant, are so vividly portrayed as to haunt one's memory forever. Mr. Fiske's command of the English lan guage is unrivalled. The success of the lectures has been simply astonishing." Before passing from Fiske's activities of the winter of 1883-84, mention should be made of his publication of "Excursions of an Evolutionist," a duodecimo volume In which he brought together his various essays, etc., printed during the previous three or four years. In it was Included his speech at the Spencer dinner. This volume bore the fol lowing felicitous dedication to an old friend whose name has several times appeared in previous pages: To Rev. John Langdon Dudley Dear a'nd Honoured Friend: — Quarter of a century has passed since I used to listen with delight to your preaching and come to you for sympathy and counsel in my studies. In these later days while we meet too seldom, my memory of that wise and cordial sympathy grows ever brighter and sweeter; and to-day, in writing upon my title-page the words of the great German seer,^ my ' Willst du ins Unendliche schreiten Geh nur im Endlichen nach alien Seiten. Goethe. 304 Excursions of an Evolutionist thoughts naturally revert to you. For I know of no one who understands more thoroughly or feels more keenly how it is that if we would fain learn something of the Infinite, we must not sit idly repeating the formulas of other men and other days, but must gird up our loins anew, and diligently explore on every side that finite realm through which still shines the glory of an ever-present God for those that have eyes to see and ears to hear. Pray accept this little book from one who is Ever gratefully yours, s John Fiske. Mr. Dudley acknowledged the compliment by the following grateful note : — Washington, D.C, Deceniber 12, 1883. My good Friend : — Your admirable book reached me after several stages, — being forwarded from Milwaukee. But you have crowned me with laurel: you have set me up with honor. If from all the gods in the kingdom of letters I might have chosen one to braid a chaplet for me you would have been named first, and only. So you must know that when I read your generous tribute it touched me tenderly. For five and twenty years I have watched your career with interest and rejoiced in its triumph from stage to stage, until at last you have scored your name among the constellated few that shall have light for the pathseekers of to-morrow. Dear friend, if from my advance bloom any pollen may have fallen upon the blossoms in the garden of your spring-time, who shall deny that the glory of the harvest comes more from the soil . than the seed. In the abiding youth of the Avida veteris flammae I shall continue yours, J. L. Dudley. 305 John Fiske This volume was very cordially received by Fiske's growing audience of readers; and the wide catholicity of his thought, the absence of all ap peals to prejudice, the disposition to find some good in all phases of human development, com bined with his ready command of his encyclopaedic knowledge and his wonderful power of lucid expo- ' sition, commended him to an ever-increasing con stituency of rational minds. CHAPTER XXIX the two concord addresses — "the destiny OF man" — "the idea of god" I 884- I 885 We now come to two interruptions in Fiske's his torical work resulting in the production of two re ligious addresses which have had a marked influ ence upon the religious thought of the time: his two addresses before the Concord School of Philosophy at the two sessions of the School In 1884 and 1885, The Concord School of Philosophy had its be ginning in 1879, at Concord, Massachusetts, as a sort of gathering-place where those who felt dis turbed over the apparent materialistic tendency of the current scientific thought could meet, and, by free converse on the deeper questions of the theo- loglco-Idealistlc philosophy, emphasize the Impor tance of keeping the mind fixed on the Divine per sonality of God, on the direct relationship between God and man through man's conscious powers, as the necessary conditions for sound philosophic thinking regarding the principles of right conduct in human life itself. The Directors and the active workers in the School were: A. Bronson Alcott, Transcendentalist; Dr, Hiram A. Jones, Platonist; Dr. WUliam T. 307 John Fiske Harris, Hegelian; Frank B. Sanborn, literary and social critic. The real founder of the School was Mr. Alcott, in whose mind the possibility of such a school, where men interested In the problems of the transcenden tal philosophy could meet in freest converse, had for years floated as a sort of Platonic dream. Emer son encouraged the founding of the school, and appeared at its first two sessions. He took no active part, however, in its conduct. His health was failing. An examination of the papers pre sented during the first five sessions of the School, 1879-83, shows that the prevailing order of phil osophic thought was decidedly metaphysical in character, with the implication that only by this order of philosophizing could the tmths regarding God, nature, man — the ultimates of all philosophy — be ascertained. Along with these presentations of metaphysico-philosophic doctrine, there was much dwelling upon the contributions thereto by Plato, Socrates, Aristotle, Kant, Fichte, and Hegel. For the session of the School In 1884 the Faculty chose, as one of the leading subjects for discussion, "Man's Immortality"; and in a laudable desire to give the discussion a wide range, Fiske was asked to give a paper on the general subject. I gather that he was expected to speak as a materialist. Fiske accepted the invitation with much pleasure, as the occasion would enable him to set forth, under conditions of special significance, his views as an 308 THE BROOKS HOUSE, PETERSHAM VIEW FROM REAR PIAZZA OF THE BROOKS HOUSE Concord School of Philosophy Evolutionist on this vital question of religious be lief. Fiske's address was written in Petersham amid the pleasantest surroundings and at intervals while he was deeply engaged in his historical work. It was delivered at Concord on the evening of July 31, 1884, and in the very simple chapel which had been specially buUt upon the estate of Mr. Alcott for the purposes of the School. All the surroundings were in keeping with great simplicity of life and high thinking on great themes. A larger audience than usual was gathered, drawn doubtless by a desire to hear what the leading Evolutionist in America ^ had to say on one of the fundamental doctrines of the Christian religion. It was, therefore, an au dience of an unusuaUy select character. The address was characterized by all the marks of Fiske's careful, orderly preparation. He took the question of man's immortality entirely out of the realm of metaphyslco-theologlcal speculation, and brought it under consideration in the light of man's evolutionary origin and his ever-developing, intellectual, moral, and spiritual nature as revealed by positive science. He opened with a brief refer ence to the conception of the cosmic universe as held by theologico-philosophic thinkers previous to the Copernican era, when, as set forth in the "Divine Comedy" of Dante, — "that wonderful book wherein all the knowledge and speculation, all the sorrows and yearnings of the far-off Middle 309 John Fiske Ages are enshrined in the glory of imperishable verse, — the earth, the fair home of man, was ; placed in the centre of a universe wherein all things were ordained for his sole behoof: the sun to give him light and warmth, the stars in their courses to preside over his strangely checkered destinies, the winds to blow, the floods to rise, or the fiend of pestilence to stalk abroad over the land — all for the blessing, or the warning, or the chiding of the chief among God's creatures, man." Upon such a cosmological theory as this — the whole universe ministering to the present and fu ture well-being of man as Its ultimate goal — was founded an imposing theological system crowned with man's immortality, an eternal life to be spent in the joys of Heaven or in the torments of Hell according as individual life here on earth had been spent well or ill. Naturally the impinging of the Copernican as- ^ tronomy upon such a body of established theo- logico-cosmological doctrine as this could not but be revolutionary in the extreme. Commenting upon what took place Fiske says: — "In our day it is hard to realize the startling effect of the discovery that man does not dwell at the centre of things, but is the denizen of an ob scure and tiny speck of cosmical matter quite in visible amid the innumerable throng of blazing suns that make up our galaxy. To the contempora ries of Copernicus, the new theory seemed to strike 310 Address on Immortality at the very foundations of Christian theology. In a universe where so much had been made without discernible reference to man, what became of that elaborate scheme of salvation which seemed to rest upon the assumption that the career of Humanity was the sole object of God's creative forethought and fostering care? When we bear this in mind i we see how natural and inevitable it was that the Church should persecute such men as GalUeo and Bruno." But while the establishment of the truth of the Copernican astronomy by Kepler and Newton completely discredited the theologico-cosmological scheme which preceded it, this astronomical scheme gave no explanation of the cosmic universe Itself, or of man's place in it. It simply aflSrmed the exist ence of a vast universe of stellar phenomena in which the earth had a very subordinate place, a universe held in order and unity by some Divine Power. Consequently man was dethroned from his position of primacy in the universe, and relegated to a very conditioned form of existence on the sur face of the earth. Theology, grappling with this astronomical truth, which it was forced to accept, gradually shifted Its ground as to ultimate truth regarding man and his place in the universe. It finally centred its affirmations around man's spe cial creation as an inhabitant of the earth, and his endowment with consciousness and Immortal life, as part of the acts of the Divine Creator in the 311 John Fiske creation of the universe by fiat, some six thousand years ago. This theologico-cosmological scheme was sup ported with much affirmation of its being ultimate Divine truth, down to the middle period of the nineteenth century. Then the geological researches of LyeU and his followers, the palaeontologic re searches of a number of men, the biological re searches of Darwin and his followers, the sociologi cal researches of Spencer and his followers, together with the discoveries In the chemical and physical sciences relating to the properties of matter and energy, completely swept away the foundations of this amended scheme. It left In Its place the con ception of a universe of phenomena immeasurable In its vastness, its variety, its duration ; a universe of order and unity ever in a process of develop ment Into more complex and higher forms of phenomenal existences In conformity to immutable law; a universe In which man appears as an inter related crowning product of organic life, the whole an attestation to the existence, as the source and Sustainer of it all, of an Infinite Eternal Power, transcending, in the nature of its existence, the com prehension of the human mind. Coming now to the direct question of man's im mortality, Fiske frankly admitted that science could not as yet either affirm its truth or assert its denial, with any positive evidence whatsoever. This being the case it becomes us reverently to study the na- 312 Man's Place in Nature ture of man's present existence and the conditions under which it Is given to see whether his present life, so developmental in character, Is legitimately terminal in itself; or whether its very terminal cos mic conditions do not imply a conscious existence in another form of life beyond as its necessary ful filment. He then proceeded to bring under review man's place In nature as established by biological science. Accepting the truth of man's genesis, through his evolution from lower forms of animal life, he could not but note the psychical aspects of this evolution, wherein is shown man's ever-increasing mastery over nature's materials and forces, ever bringing them more and more into his service through the development of his psychical powers. From this fact he found the conclusion irresistible that man is the highest manifestation of the Divine Creator's power, the culmination of His handiwork as thus far manifested, and that further cosmic develop ment or revelation of the Divine Creator lies in the ' perfection of humanity In its moral and spiritual aspects. Believing this to-be the truth regarding man's place In nature, a place of far greater significance for his moral and spiritual well-being than had been assigned him in any scheme of things born of an cient mythology, Fiske turned, in contemplating man's destiny, to these revelations of science re garding the conditions under which his present cos- 313 J< [ohn Fiske mie existence is given, as pointing unmistakably to some far-off Divine result of which his ever- developing cosmic experiences are adumbrations. And among these revelations of science he found a group of facts relating to the origin and develop ment of man's psychical powers of special signifi cance, attesting that the enhancement by all the forces of nature of man's moral and spiritual well- being here on earth, over and beyond his physical well-being, was a distinct tendency in the nature of things. These facts Fiske presented in the order of their development. In the first place, accepting the ani mal ancestry of man as established truth, man's distinct differentiation from his animal progenitors may be said to have had its beginning when in the struggle for existence the utilization of the psy chical powers had become of greater service than the physical powers, yielding ever more and more the element of self-consciousness, thus opening an entirely new chapter in the organic life of the world. Indeed, in the far-off ages of the past, as now so clearly revealed by palaeontologic science, we are enabled to conceive primitive, man as he emerged from his animal condition, giving evidence, by his nascent powers of cognition, by his Incipient lan guage, and his crude arts, that a higher form than that of mere physical or animal existence, was making its way, was being developed in this uni verse of things. 314 Development of Humanity Fiske then pointed out that this progress in psy chical development has been continuous, and he gave himself to tracing out the ever-increasing pre dominance of psychical life manifested in the de velopment of humanity. He particularly empha sized the lengthening of infancy ^ and its giving rise to feelings and actions on the part of parents not purely self-regarding, leading to the develop-'. ment of the family with its altruistic feelings, the unit of human society. He then pointed out how, following this advance in the development of primi tive man, there came the beginnings of social life and the origin of social organizations and of moraL conduct: manifestations of the actions of psychi cal forces which In their development are slowly ridding man of his egoistic animal nature and re placing It with a nature dominated by psychical forces having a spiritual and moral content. A point of profound significance in this connection is the physiological fact that, pari passu with the development of man's spiritual and moral nature, there has gone on a corresponding development of his cerebral organization. Here Fiske found a mass of scientific evidence, the truth of which could not be gainsaid, which was clear indication that the life of civilized man, as shown by his origin and his progressive devel- ^ opment towards spiritual and ethical ideals, was the highest manifestation of the Divine Creator's * His original contribution to the doctrine of Evolution. 315 John Fiske power and purpose in this universe of things. Fur ther, it was in evidence that this conscious psychi cal life of man had had a course of development parallel with, and in strict conformity to, the de velopment of the physical universe which formed its environment, a universe which is ever in a proc ess of transformation into more and more complex forms of phenomenal manifestation without any loss or destruction of material, or energy, what ever. Then came the vital question, — vital to science, vital to religion — Does the psychical life of man end with death? Does this marvellous form of conscious existence, the crowning manifestation of Divine power in this developing universe of phe nomena, where nothing is ever lost or destroyed, cease to exist? Is It a mere chance occurrence in cosmic phenomena, ephemeral in its nature and without definite meaning or purpose In the cosmic universe? Fiske could not so believe. In his mind the ascent of man from an animal ancestry, emerging from his brute inheritance, and the development in its stead of religious feelings and altruistic conduct born of spiritual, moral, and intellectual ideals, was a truth of such sublime grandeur and signifi cance, as to be without a parallel In the whole uni verse of things. Yet, he admitted that it is not likely that we shall ever succeed in making the immortality of the soul a matter of scientific dem- 316 Science and Immortality onstration, for we lack the requisite data : it must ever remain an affair of religion, rather than of science. At the same time he asserted with much emphasis : — "The materialistic assumption that the life of the soul ends with the life of the body is perhaps the most colossal instance of baseless assumption that is known to the history of philosophy. No evidence for it can be alleged beyond the familiar fact that during the present life we know Soul only in its association with Body, and therefore cannot discover disembodied soul without dying ourselves. , This fact must always prevent us from obtaining direct evidence for the belief in the soul's survival. But a negative presumption is not created by the absence of proof in cases where, in the nature of things, proof is inaccessible. With his illegitimate hypothesis of annihilation, the materialist trans gresses the bounds of experience quite as widely as the poet who sings of the New Jerusalem with its river of life and its streets of gold. ScientificaUy speaking, there is not a particle of evidence for either view." ^ ' This positive statement in regard to our ignorance of man's spiritual existence after death will be more seriously questioned now than at the time when Fiske wrote. The many able investigators engaged in probing scientifically the mysteries of psychical phe nomena, attacking the problem at both ends, — the beginnings of consciousness and the continuance of conscious existence after death, — are bringing forth a mass of evidence which goes to show that in their investigations they are more or less in the presence of a form of existence which transcends mere physical existence; the nature of which and the conditions under which it is given are not verifiable in terms of man's experiential knowledge. Indeed, it can be said that science,' religion, and philosophy are now facing the problem of a form of existence transcending this material cosmic existence, more 317 John Fiske Fiske closed his address with the following em phatic confession of faith : — "For my own part I believe in the Immortality of the soul, not in the sense In which I accept the demonstrable truths of science, but as a supreme act of faith in the reasonableness of God's work. Such a belief, relating to regions quite Inaccessible to experience, cannot of course be clothed in terms of definite and tangible meaning. For the experi ence which alone can give us such terms we must await that solemn day which is to overtake us all. The belief can be most quickly defined as the re fusal to believe that this world is all. The mate rialist holds that when you have described the whole universe of phenomena of which we can be come cognizant under the conditions of the present life, then the whole story is told. It seems to me, on the contrary, that the whole story is not thus told. I feel the omnipresence of mystery in such wise as to make it far easier for me to adopt the view of Euripides, that what we call death may be but the dawning of true knowledge and of true life. The greatest philosopher of modern times, the mas ter and teacher of all who shall study the process ©f Evolution for many a day to come, holds that the conscious soul is not the product of a coUoca- directly and more intelligently than at any pre^'^ous period in the history of human thinking. In fact, each of these orders of thought confesses its impotence to explain the simplest cosmic phenomena; while the scientific investigation of psychical phenomena is daily bringing to light evidence that these phenomena su-e by no means wholly subject to physical conditions: in truth, that man's progress in civilization, is taking decidedly the character of bringing the materials and forces of nature in subjection to his ever-developing psychical powers. 318 A. Confession of Faith tion of material particles, but is in the deepest sense a divine effluence. According to Mr. Spen cer, the divine energy which is manifested through out the knowable universe is the same energy that wells up in us as consciousness. Speaking for myself, I can see no insuperable difficulty In the notion that at some period in the evolution of Humanity this divine spark may have acquired sufficient concen tration and steadiness to survive the wreck of ma terial forms and endure forever. Such a crowning wonder seems to me no more than the fit climax to a creative work that has been ineffably beautiful and marvellous in all its myriad stages. "Only on some such view can the reasonable ness of the universe, which still remains far above our finite power of comprehension, maintain its ground. There are some minds inaccessible to the class of considerations here alleged, and perhaps there always will be. But on such grounds, if on no other, the faith in immortality is likely to be shared by all who look upon the genesis of the highest spiritual qualities in man as the goal of nature's creative work. This view has survived the Copernican revolution In science, and it has survived the Darwinian revolution. Nay, if the foregoing exposition be sound, it is Darwinism which has placed Humanity upon a higher pin nacle than ever. The future is lighted for us with the radiant colors of hope. Strife and sorrow shall disappear. Peace and love shall reign supreme. The dream of poets, the lesson of priest and prophet, the inspiration of the great musician, is confirmed in the light of modern knowledge; and as we gird ourselves up for the work of life we may 319 John Fiske look forward to the time when in the truest sense the kingdoms of this world shall become the king dom of Christ, and he shall reign for ever and ever, king of kings and lord of lords." Fiske was nearly two hours in deUvering the address, yet so lucid was the flow of thought owing to the logical arrangement of the wide and varied knowledge embodied in the argument, so rational and inspiring was the thought of man's immortal ity as the fitting complement, the culmination to his progressive moral and spiritual evolution here on earth, and so attractive was the style in which the whole argument was presented, rising at times to passages of supreme eloquence, that these fea tures, combined as they were with an easy, un affected delivery, held the audience in rapt atten tion from the beginning to the end. The address was soon published in a dainty vol- ' ume and with the following dedication : — To MY CHILDREN MAUD, HAROLD, CLARENCE, RALPH ETHEL, AND HERBERT THIS ESSAY IS LOVINGLY DEDICATED The publication of the address attracted wide attention, not only by reason of the circumstances which called It forth, but also and more particularly by reason of its treatment of the question of man's immortality in the light of recent discoveries in 320 The Destiny of Man biological science regarding his animal ancestry and the evolution of his civilization. The little book was cordially welcomed by the advocates of liberal thought, on the one hand, while it was emphatically condemned by the strenuous up holders of Christian theology, on the other. Upon the minds of people who desired to know what the testimony of science Is as to the ultimate destiny of man, and to what extent the question of a future existence must be a matter of faith or belief, the little book made a deep impression. And Fiske had the great satisfaction of learning, through private letters from persons in various walks of life, that his essay had been the means of bringing rest and comfort to minds sorely per plexed with the problems of existence as presented by Christian theology. Some of these letters are before me, and they are pathetic in their revela tions of the mental distress which not unfrequently accompanies the acceptance of the Christian dog mas by minds finely organized spiritually. At the same time they attest the fact that a goodly por tion of cultivated minds are ready to welcome the spiritual truths written in the phenomena of the cosmic universe when these truths are presented in all their grandeur, with fulness of knowledge, with beauty, and with power. From Spencer Fiske received the following let ter in regard to the little book, which is of in terest as showing that Spencer was in doubt as to 321 John Fiske the immortality of man — a doubt he never over came with a positive conviction. Biographical literature presents no parallel instance of a great mind going to its rest under circumstances of such profound sadness as accompanied the closing life of Spencer. Having himself rendered an inesti mable service to humanity by pointing out man's place in the phenomena of the cosmic universe, he was yet unable to reach any positive conclusion as to the destiny of man; at the same time wish ing some solution of the mystery might be found, 37 Queen's Gardens, Bayswater, October 24, 1884. My dear Fiske: — I was glad to get your little volume serving to remind me of your still continued philosophical activity — showing that you have not wholly merged the philosopher in the historian. My state of brain, though improved somewhat recently, has long debarred me from any appre ciable amount of reading. Such little as I can do being by necessity limited to that bearing upon my immediate work. The only part of your little volume which I have looked at. Is the closing part, and in this, so far as I gather its drift, you ap proach more nearly to a positive conclusion than I feel inclined to do. Have you ever looked into W. R. Greg's later essays? In one of these he, in a very interesting way, discusses the question of immortality; implying that In his own case, the desire for continued life wanes as age advances, and the desire becomes rather that for absolute rest. 322 Letter from Spencer You see that I have been dreadfully bothered with controversies of late. Now, however, I have done. With an article which appears in the "Nine teenth Century" on the first of next month, I shall have done with the question of agnosticism and the Religion of Humanity, and I hope now, after a long desistance, to make some way with my per manent work. Partly from these distractions, and partly from my disturbed health (which has never yet reached its ordinary low level), I have lost an amount of time which is dreadful to look back upon. With kind regards to Mrs. Fiske, believe me. Ever yours sincerely, Herbert Spencer. The controversy to which Spencer refers in this letter was his memorable debate with Frederic Harrison in the "Nineteenth Century Review" for 1884 on the "Nature and Reality of Reli gion," in which the implications of Mr. Spencer's term "The Unknowable" and Comte's "Religion of Humanity" were very forcefully argued. It is apparent that this debate was of influence in shap ing Fiske's thought in these two Concord addresses. So wide and deep was the interest awakened by Fiske's address on "The Destiny of Man" that the Directors of the Concord School invited him to give at the session of the School the follow ing summer, 1885, another address on some philo sophic subject agreeable to himself. He gladly ac- 323 > John Fiske cepted this second invitation, as affording a proper occasion for saying certain things he had for some time had in mind in regard to theism. He chose for the subject of his discourse, therefore, "The Idea of God as affected by Modern Knowledge," for the purpose of Introducing the discussion of the question whether pantheism is the legitimate out come of modern science. With this object in view It seemed to him that his purpose would be best attained by passing in review the various modifi cations the Idea of God has undergone in the past, and pointing out the shape in which it is likely to survive the rapid growth of modern knowledge; and especially the establishment of the doctrine of Evolution, which is fast obliging us to revise our opinions on all subjects whatsoever. Fiske approached the discussion, as he tells us, with the following theistic belief: — "We may hold that the world of phenomena is intelligible only when regarded as the multiform manifestation of an Omnipresent Energy that is in some way — albeit in a way quite above our finite comprehension — anthropomorphic or quasi- personal. There Is a true objective reasonableness in the universe; its events have an orderly progres sion, and, so far as those events are brought suffi ciently within our ken for us to generalize them exhaustively, their progression is toward a goal that is recognizable by human intelligence; 'the process of Evolution Is itself the working out of a mighty Teleology of which our finite understandings 324 The Idea of God can fathom but the scantiest rudiments'; it is In deed but imperfectly that we can describe the dra matic tendency in the succession of events, but we can see enough to assure us of the fundamental fact that there is such a tendency; and this tend ency is the objective aspect of that which, when regarded on its subjective side, we call Purpose. Such a theory of things is Theism. It recognizes an Omnipresent Energy, which is none other than the living God,"^ The attentive reader of Fiske's religious addresses cannot fail to notice the characteristic manner of their openings — in each case the presentation of a significant thought derived from some department of knowledge opposite to the subject under discus sion. In "The Destiny of Man," as we have seen, he opened his discourse with a graceful reference to the sorrows and yearnings of the far-off Mid dle Ages as enshrined In the imperishable verse of Dante. Now, having to speak on a still greater theme, the greatest that can engage the human mind, he turns for a text for his discourse to "Faust," Goethe's immortal poem. He finds — in the incident of Faust's walking with Margaret at eventide in the garden, and Margaret's enquiry of her lover if he believes in God, and Faust's per plexity, having delved In the deepest mines of phi losophy, to make answer which shall be truthful and at the same time intelligible to the simple- minded girl that walks by his side — an incident ' Preface to The Idea of God, p. xi. 325 John Fiske suitable to his purpose, as depicted by one of the profoundest thinkers of modern times. The opening paragraph, in which Fiske sets forth Faust's efforts to explain to Margaret his idea of God, and her difficulty in apprehending an idea so far beyond any concrete symbol of the Divine Crea tor with which she was acquainted — so far be yond what had been presented to her by the priest at the confessional or the altar — is not only a passage of rare literary eloquence, but is also one of the finest renderings of the thought of Goethe regarding Deity, as expressed by Faust, that we have in English. Focussing attention by reference to this inci dent In Goethe's great poem, Fiske then pointed out that the difficulty with which Margaret was beset is the same difficulty which besets every mind when confronted with the thought of the great thinkers — the outcome of their endeavors to fathom the hidden life of the universe and inter pret Its meaning. He then goes on to say that most people content themselves through life with a set of concrete formulas or symbols concerning Deity, and vituperate as atheistic all conceptions which refuse to be compressed within the limits of their creed. For the great mass of mankind the idea of God Is overlaid and obscured by symbolic rites and doctrines that have grown up in the long historic development of religion. All such rites and doc trines once had a positive meaning beautiful and 326 The Idea of God Inspiring, or forbidding and terrible ; and such con crete symbols have in all ages been fought for as the essentials of religion, until decrees of coun cils, and articles of faith, have usurped in men's minds, in a great measure, the place of the living God. Fiske then showed, with great clearness of state ment, how Inevitable it is in the nature of things that this should be so: that to the half -educated mind a theory of Divine action, in which God is depicted as a distinct person, and as entertaining human purposes and swayed by human passions, is not only Intelligible, but Is also impressive, and in some cases may be made Inspiring. However myth ical the form In which the theory is presented, it seems to uncritical minds profoundly real and sub stantial. Just in so far as it Is crudely concrete, just In so far as its terms can be vividly realized, does such a theory seem rational and true. On the other hand, a theory of Divine action, which, dis regarding as far as possible the aid of concrete symbols, attempts to include within Its range the endlessly complex operations that are forever go-^ Ing on throughout the universe, is to the ordinary mind unintelligible. It awakens no emotion be cause it is not understood. For these reasons all attempts to study God as revealed in the workings of the visible universe, all attempts to character ize the divine activity in terms derived from such study, have met with persistent opposition and 327 John Fiske obloquy as attempts to fritter away the true idea of God, or at best to reduce it to a mere abstraction. Fiske closes this very lucid summary of the per petual conflict between man's mythically derived ideas of God and the idea of a Divine Creator de rived from man's ever-advancing knowledge of the cosmic universe, which formed his introduction, with this exceptionally fine paragraph : — "Thus through age after age has it fared with men's discoveries in science, and with their thoughts about God and the soul. It was so In the days of Galileo and Newton, and we have found it to be so in the days of Darwin and Spencer. The theolo gian exclaims, If planets are held in place by gravi tation and tangential momentum, and If the high est forms of life have been developed by natural selection and direct adaptation, then the universe is swayed by blind forces and nothing is left for God to do: how impious and terrible the thought! Even so, echoes the favorite atheist, the Lamet- trie or Buchner of the day; the universe, it seems, has always got on without a God, and accordingly there Is none: how noble and cheering the thought! And as thus age after age they wrangle, with their eyes turned away from the light, the world goes on to larger and larger knowledge in spite of them, and does not lose its faith, for all these darkeners of counsel may say. As in the roaring loom of Time the endless web of events is woven, each strand shall make more and more clearly visible the liv ing garment of God." Turning now to his direct argument, he finds 328 The Idea of God that at no time since men have dwelt upon the earth have their notions about the universe and the conditions which govern human life undergone such great changes as have taken place during the nineteenth century; that never before has knowl edge increased so rapidly, or philosophic speculation been so active, or their results so widely diffused as during this period. In support of this affirmation he makes a concise summary of the great advances in knowledge regarding the cosmic universe and man's place in it which this century had witnessed, and he adds : — "As the inevitable result of the thronging dis coveries just enumerated, we find ourselves In the midst of a mighty revolution in human thought. Time-honored creeds are losing their hold upon men; ancient symbols are shorn of their value; everything is called in question. The controver sies of the day are not like those of former times. It Is no longer a question of hermeneutics, no longer a struggle between abstruse dogmas of rival churches. Religion itself is called upon to show why It should any longer claim our allegiance. There are those who deny the existence of God. There are those who would explain away the hu man soul as a mere group of fleeting phenomena attendant upon the collocation of sundry particles of matter. And there are many others who, with out committing themselves to these positions of the atheist and the materialist, have nevertheless come to regard religion as practically ruled out from human affairs. No religious creed that man 329 John Fiske has ever devised can be made to harmonize in all its features with modern knowledge. All such creeds were constructed with reference to theories of the universe which are now utterly and hope lessly discredited. How, then, it is asked, amid the general wreck of old beliefs, can we hope that the religious attitude in which from time Imme morial we have been wont to contemplate the uni verse can any longer be maintained? Is not the belief In God perhaps a dream of the childhood of our race, like the belief in elves and bogarts which once was no less universal? and is not modern science fast destroying the one as it has already destroyed the other? "Such are the questions which we daily hear* asked, sometimes with flippant eagerness, but oftener with anxious dread. In view of them It is well worth while to examine the idea of God, as it has been entertained by mankind from the earliest ages, and as it is affected by the knowledge of the universe which we have acquired in recent times. If we find in that Idea, as conceived by untaught thinkers In the twilight of antiquity, an element that still survives the widest and deepest generali zations of modern times, we have the strongest pos sible reason for believing that the idea Is permanent and answers to an Eternal Reality. It was to be expected that conceptions of Deity handed down from primitive men should undergo serious modifi cation. If it can be shown that the essential element in these conceptions must survive the enormous ad ditions to our knowledge which have distinguished the present age above all others since man became man, then we may believe that it will endure so 330 The Idea of God long as man endures for it is not likely that it can ever be called upon to pass a severer ordeal." With his purpose thus outlined and his method of approach thus indicated, Fiske's exposition took the form of an enquiry Into the following subjects of knowledge with conclusions based thereon: — I. Sources of the Theistic Idea. II. Development of Monotheism. III. The Idea of God as immanent in the World, IV, The Idea of God as remote from the World. V. Conflict between the Two Ideas, commonly misunderstood as a Conflict between Reli gion and Science. VI. Anthropomorphic Conceptions of God. VII. The Argument from Design. VIII. Simile of the Watch replaced by Simile of the Flower. IX. The Craving for a Final Cause. X. Symbolic Conceptions. XI. The Eternal Source of Phenomena. XII. The Power that makes for Righteousness. These subjects were treated with such a fulness of knowledge, such a finely tolerant spirit, and with such a profoundly reverent faith, that no ab stract could do them justice. Space, therefore, can be found only for the closing paragraph of the dis course, in which is reflected, in language of unsur passed beauty, Fiske's belief in Deity — a Power which transcends the comprehension of the human mind. Fiske's words are: — 331 John Fiske "As to the conception of Deity, in the shape impressed upon us by our modern knowledge, I believe I have now said enough to show that it is no empty formula or metaphysical abstraction which we would seek to substitute for the living God. The Infinite and Eternal Power that is mani fested in every pulsation of the universe is none other than the living God. We may exhaust the resources of metaphysics in debating how far his nature may fitly be expressed in terms applicable to the psychical nature of man ; such vain attempts will only serve to show how we are dealing with a theme that must ever transcend our finite powers of conception. But of some things we may feel sure. Humanity is not a mere local incident in an endless and aimless series of cosmical changes. The events of the universe are not the work of chance, neither are they the outcome of a blind necessity. Practically there is a purpose in the world whereof it Is our highest duty to learn the lesson, however well or ill we may fare In rendering a scientific account of It. When from the dawn of life we see all things working together toward the evolution of the highest spiritual attributes of man, we know, however the words may stumble in which we try to say it, that God is in the deepest sense a moral Being. The everlasting source of phenomena is none other than the Infinite Power that makes for righteousness. Thou canst not by searching find Him out; yet put thy trust in Him and against thee the gates of hell shall not prevail; for there is neither wisdom nor understanding nor counsel against the Eternal." The address was given in the little chapel at 332 The Idea of God Concord on the evening of July 29, 1885. A much larger audience than usual was gathered; and al though, as on the previous occasion, Fiske was nearly two hours in the delivery, he held the rapt attention of his audience to the close. In the au tumn the address was published in a dainty little volume as a companion to the previous address, "The Destiny of Man," with a preface, in which the relation of the two Concord addresses to the views presented in "Cosmic Philosophy," pub lished ten years before, was set forth. To this little volume he gave the following felici tous dedication : — To MY WIFE IN REMEMBRANCE OF THE SWEET SUNDAY MORNING UNDER THE APPLE-TREE ON THE HttLSIDE WHEN WE TWO SAT LOOKING DOWN INTO FAIRY WOODLAND PATHS AND TALKED OF THE THINGS SINCE WRITTEN IN THIS LITTLE BOOK I NOW DEDICATE IT 'Apyvpiov Kai xpvtriov ovv virapxei fioL' 5 Si ex<^, TOVTO John Fiske We have seen that Fiske, after working seven years on his "History of the American People" for Harper & Brothers, found that he could not do the subject justice within the publishing limits pre scribed for that work and that he amicably secured an annulment of his publishing agreement with them. But the literary material he had prepared was not without value, — Indeed, he could not put his pen to any historical subject without greatly en riching it, — and as the Lea Brothers & Co., pub lishers, of Philadelphia, were engaged in prepar ing their great historic work, a "History of All Nations," a work to be comprised in twenty-four volumes and to be sold by subscription, Fiske found no difficulty in disposing of the materials he had prepared for the Harper work with some modifica tions and additions to them. In this work of Lea Brothers, Fiske's contribu tion was to form an Important section under the respective sub-titles of "The Colonization of the New World," "The Independence of the New World," "The Modern Development of the New World." The proper presentation of these subjects in the Lea work called for a broad, outiine method of treatment for which the work produced by Fiske under the Harper agreement was in substantial accord. This work of Lea Brothers was not published until 1905, four years after Fiske's death; and his 376 History of All Nations contribution thereto, by virtue of its manner of preparation and its mode of publication, formed no part of his definitely planned historic scheme subsequently prepared for Houghton Mifflin Com pany, although it covers In outline some of the ground included in the later scheme. CHAPTER XXXII conception of NATIONALITY OF UNITED STATES GREATLY ENLARGED — IMPORTANCE OF ABORIG INAL AMERICA — VARIOUS LECTURES AND AD DRESSES — PUBLICATION OF VOLUME ON CRIT ICAL PERIOD — PERPLEXITIES OVER HIS GREAT TASK — RELIEVED BY HIS PUBLISHERS I 887-1 888 \ Fiske returned from his trip to the Pacific Coast with a greatly enlarged conception of the United States as a nation, and its place in the intemational world. Hitherto his personal knowledge of its physical features and of its people had been con fined to the section of country east of the Missis sippi River. By this trip he was brought to a vivid realization that not one half of its territory or of its natural resources, and but littie of its scenic beauty, had been revealed to him. The de velopment in his own day of a high degree of social and political order — of States with republican constitutions — out of the rapid influx of emi grants into the new territory, of various races, nationalities, and languages, a commingling of peo ples to such an extent as to bring the Oriental and the Occidental civilizations face to face, could not but give a fresh impulse to his desire fully to set forth the fundamental principles underlying this 378 Aboriginal America marvellous evolution of a great nation with its ac companying political and social phenomena, as well as to trace out the genesis and development of these principles: "to set forth and illustrate some of the chief causes which have shifted the world's political centre of gravity from the Medi terranean and the Rhine to the Atlantic and the Pacific: from the men who spoke Latin to the men who speak English." Then, too, he was impressed as never before with the importance to his theme of setting forth the results of ethnologic researches regarding abo riginal, prehistoric society in America, as a back ground to the presentation of the introduction of European civilization into America. In his early conceptions of a " History of the American People," it does not appear that any consideration was to be given to prehistoric society In America. After his return from this visit to the Pacific Coast, however, this subject becomes a prominent feature in the broader historic scheme that is shaping in his mind — a feature, which, as we shall see a little later, he presented in Its full philosophico-historic significance. It thus appears that the historic theme which was now taking quite definite shape in his mind was composed of three interrelated parts: (i) the sifting of the nations for the germs of a new order of political organization based upon the inalien able rights of man; (2) the planting of these germs 379 John Fiske in the new world of America, and their political integration; (3) their fruitage in the Federal Gov ernment of the United States. Immediately on his return Fiske took his family to the summer home at Petersham, where he was soon at work writing a new course of five lectures on "Scenes and Characters in American History," the several titles of which were: "The Revolution of 1689 In New England"; "Thomas Hutchin son, Last Royal Governor of Massachusetts"; "Charles Lee, the Soldier of Fortune"; "Andrew Jackson, Frontiersman and Soldier"; "Andrew Jackson and American Democracy Sixty Years Ago." Fiske's reputation was now so well estab lished that applications for his lectures were more numerous than he could fill, and it took some care ful planning to have his engagements centre about Boston, New York, Philadelphia, St. Louis, and Chicago respectively. Private schools were be ginning to see the great value of his lectures in stimulating young minds to an interest in Ameri can history, and Fiske particularly enjoyed minis tering to such a demand. When it became known that his interest in music was hardly less than his interest in history, that his knowledge of the theory of music was in its thoroughness very rare, while he had a cultivated voice of exceptional range and power, the demands from the schools for lectures on both history and music became much greater than he could meet. 380 Limits of Artistic License An incident occurred during this period which is of no little literary as well as musical Interest. It appears that Fiske's classmate and friend, James Herbert Morse, had written a poem under the title of "Come, SUence, Thou Sweet Reasoner," the words of which Fiske had set to music for a chorus of men's voices. The words of the poem contained the following line : — "The cricket tunes his slender throat." Professor Paine objected to the line as a basis of musical expression, inasmuch as it was entomologi- cally Incorrect. This led to a lively discussion of the limits of artistic license in poetical and musical composition. Fiske maintained that the poet or musical composer was not wholly confined to the literal facts of nature In his composition. As the discussion broadened to the practice of Shakespeare In this respect, — did he adhere strictly to the truth of Nature? — Fiske claimed that he did not, and proposed that the question at Issue be referred to his friend, the eminent Shakespearean scholar and fine literary critic,' Horace Howard Furness. It was so referred by Fiske in a most humorous, characteristic letter, which unfortunately has not been preserved. When asked for it to use In this connection, Mr. Furness replied: "I find to my ex ceeding regret that I have preserved none of Dr. Fiske's letters to me. Had I at the time known the gift of God I would have preserved every scratch 381 John Fiske of his pen." His letter, however, brought forth the following illuminating reply : — My dear Fiske, — WUl you ever forgive me for letting slip by the two weeks of your stay in New York without an swering yours of 24th March? I fully grasped the heinousness of my conduct only this minute, and have tumed as red as a lobster from head to foot, and from shame and mortification am screaming hard all the time I write. But I swear it was not intentional. You have asked me a devilish hard question, — ¦ nothing less than to fumish you with a citation which shall prove the divine WUliam to have been zoologically wrong, — when my motto is, that under all circumstances Shakespeare is always right. However, the cause for which you ask is so good that for Its sake and for your own sweet sake I have been cudgelling my brain to recall a passage to serve your tum. Let me premise by say ing that I reecho every word you say about the weakness of any objection to the tunefulness of the cricket's throat — you might just as well urge that no throat is tuneful, only the vocal cords which are in the throat. The first thing that occurred to me is that Shakespeare talks of the cricket's singing, and singing implies a throat. You remember lachi- mo's first words, when he creeps out of the chest in Imogen's bedchamber, are, " The crickets sing and man's o'erlabored sense repairs itself by rest," etc. If you need justification I think you have really sufficient here. Tennyson, too, will countenance you — in his "Marianna in the South" he says, "At eve a dry cicada sung," etc. But if you wUl force me to recall a phrase in Shakespeare where 382 Letter from H. H. Furness a literal, prosaic interpretation involves an error, why, then take Titania's command to her fairies, — and be darned to you. She tells them to "take from' the bees their waxen thighs. And light them at the fiery glow-worm's eyes," Now, we all know that, as Dr, Johnson remarked, a glow-worm's light is not in its eyes, but in its tail. But I 'd like to examine the bumps of a man who would change the phrase to entomological cor rectness. — "Her eyes the glow-worm lend thee," says Herrick to Julia, and the glow-worm ought to jump at the chance. — When Hamlet's father says, "The glow-worm 'gins to pale his ineffectual fire," Brother Paine would say, " 'T ain't fire at all. There's no oxygen combustion about it!" Indeed, I think literature must be full of allusions to the song of the crickets, and if a song, then there must be a throat. — Lady Macbeth says," I heard the owl scream and the crickets cry" — and Paine would substitute j^AZ/e. Have I given you any help? If I have I 'U praise Heaven. Let me know that this reaches you — and that you stUl hold me to be Yours cordially, Horace Howard Furness. 6th April, 1890, I like "The cricket tunes his tiny throat" better than "slender," My Anglo-Saxon instinct likes al literation, but "slender" is pretty, it must be con fessed. ' Fiske had a keen appreciation of humor, as is seen in his grea.t love of Dickens and in the occa sional use in his serious writings of a humorous al lusion or phrase to clinch his argument. While he 383 John Fiske was engaged in preparing for, and planning the details of, his coming season's lecture campaign, at a time when he says, "My noddle is just now stuffed pretty full of Andrew Jackson and his 999 quarrels," he received from the editor of the "New York World" a request for a telegram giving his opinion regarding Ignatius Donnelly's theories about Shakespeare and Bacon as set forth in Don nelly's work "The Great Cryptogram: Francis Bacon's Cypher in the so-called Shakespere Plays." Fiske's reply expressed the subtile thought of the philosopher and the humorist. It was as follows: — Petersham, September 3, 1887. To the Editor of The World, New York. As regards Mr. Donnelly's theories about Shake speare, I have only to say that if a man really likes to amuse himself with such stuff, I can see no ob jection. It keeps him busy, and is far less danger ous than if he were to meddle with questions about labour and capital. Years later Fiske wrote an article entitied "Forty Years of Bacon-Shakespeare Folly," in which, with his ripe knowledge and his invincible logic, he completely swept away the pretensions of those who would find in the genius of Shakespeare only a corruptly minded Bacon. During this year Fiske contributed the foUow ing articles to the "Atlantic Monthly": — 384 New Course of Lectures February, "The Federal Constitution," June, "Concluding Work of the Federal Con vention." November, "The Adoption of the Constitution." December, "Paul Jones and Armed Neutrality." The year 1888 was a memorable one to Fiske, inasmuch as Its close brought a complete change in his conditions of working, with the assurance of financial support sufficient to enable him to work out his historic scheme as it had now shaped it self In his mind. We will follow the incidents of the year in their order. The year opened with a very active lecture cam paign arranged for the winter and spring in and about New York, PhUadelphia, St. Louis, and Chicago. His new course on "Scenes and Charac ters in American History" was given only in St. Louis, where the several lectures were received with the usual enthusiasm. In his naive way he tells Mrs. Fiske that "the folks out here seem to like everything I do." In Philadelphia he gave his full course on "The American Revolution," to large and enthusiastic audiences; and calling to mind the reception he received in Philadelphia a few years before, he could not but mark the con trast. Playfully he writes, "The Filadelfy folks are now .wild over my lectures." Fiske's frequent use of the word "folks" is notable. It is a good old English word that he greatly liked. While thus engaged with his lectures, Fiske 385 John Fiske chanced to fall in with James Martineau's recently published work, "A Study of Religion." In this work the author, while disagreeing with Fiske on many points, had spoken very sympathetically of Fiske's two Concord addresses. Fiske had met Martineau in London, and esteemed him highly as one of the deepest philosophico-rellgious think ers of England ; and it was a great delight to him to find that their views on some of the great questions which were now under discussion coincided at many points. Accordingly Fiske wrote Martineau expressing the great pleasure with which he had read the latter's book. Martineau replied with the following letter which Fiske highly prized by rea son of the fine liberal spirit it displays: — 35 Gordon Square, London, W.C. April 2, 1888. My dear Mr. Fiske: — Your kindly and forbearing way of receiving my volumes, and their free, though sympathetic expressions of dissent from you gratifies me much. I do not venture to hope that you can accord to the book any large measure of approval. If it only helps a little, here and there, towards the modus vivendi of which you also are in quest between the scientific and religious theory of the world I shall be content and grateful. I am delighted to hear that, in that view, you are at work upon the lines of moral law and tendency. It is good news — for others at all events and for me If I am still a lingerer here, — that you con template another visit to Europe, at no distant 386 Letter from James Martineau date. If I check myself in forming plans for the fu ture, it is not that the present alters with me much, but simply from the reckoning of a.d. I remain, dear Mr. Fiske, Yours very sincerely, James Martineau. The summer of 1888 was spent almost wholly in Cambridge, and In persistent work. His main task was the preparation of five new lectures for the ensuing season. He chose for his subjects, "Alex ander Hamilton, his theory of government, and its influence upon American history"; "Thomas Jef ferson, his political career, his theory of govern ment, and its influence upon American history"; "James Madison, his services in framing the Fed-, eral Constitution, his Presidency, and his place in American history"; "Tippecanoe and Tyler Too," an account of the origin of the Whig Party and the political complications which followed ; " Daniel Webster and the sentiment of Union." November 14, 1888, the Commonwealth of Mas sachusetts dedicated, with fitting ceremonies on Boston Common, a memorial to Crispus Attucks, Samuel Maverick, James Caldwell, Samuel Gray, and Patrick Carr, victims of the "Massacre" which took place in Boston March 5, 1770, when British soldiers, illegally quartered in Boston, fired upon unarmed citizens, and thus, by wholly illegal action, opened the conflict which resulted in the American Revolutionary War. 387 John Fiske Fiske delivered the address on the occasion, In which he sketched the illegal forcing by the British Government of British troops upon the people of Boston, the indignation of the people at this at tack upon their liberties, and the incidents which led up to the firing of these troops upon an un armed body of protesting citizens and the killing of the five persons named in the memorial. The address had all the characteristics of his free-flowing, lucid style, and it closed with this fine peroration: — "The moral lessons of the story are such as ought never to be forgotten. Adams and Warren, and their patriot friends, were right in deciding that the fatal 5th of March should be solemnly com memorated each year by an oration to be deliv ered in the Old South Meeting-house, and this custom was kept up until the recognition of Amer ican independence In 1783, when the day for the oration was changed to the 4th of July. At the very first annual March meeting after the massa cre, it was proposed to erect a monument to com memorate it. The form of the proposal shows that the character of the event was understood by town- people at that time as I have endeavoured to set it forth to-day. In dedicating this memorial on Boston Common after the lapse of more than a century, we are but performing an act of justice too long delayed. There let it stand for future generations to contemplate as a monument of the wickedness and folly of all attempts to employ brute force in compelling the obedience of the people to laws which they have had no voice in making." 388 The Critical Period The very favorable reception given to his lec tures on "The Critical Period of American His tory," and to their publication in the "Atlantic Monthly," induced Fiske to take up the considera tion of this critical period — the six years between 1783 and 1789 — and present it in book form as a distinct feature, a memorable chapter In American history. This he found he could do to signal ad vantage by presenting the political events of this period by themselves, apart from the war struggle which went before, and the domestic political strug gles which came after. In addition, he found that he could so treat the subject that the volume would have a legitimate place In his contemplated history as the connecting link between his account of the overthrow of the colonial governments and the establishment of the Federal Government under Washington. Then, too, the publication in book form of an essay on the most memorable period In our national history would be, in a certain sense, an appeal to the public interest in behalf of the great historic scheme he had in mind: a test of his powers to present satisfactorily to the highest form of literary criticism a great historic undertaking. Accordingly, during the latter half of the year 1887, and the first half of 1888, all his spare time was given to preparing his collected material for the press. In one of his letters he says: — " I am having a busy and happy time. My little book is going to be a fine affair, that 's clear, whether 389 John Fiske It Is exactly what was intended or not. It is grow ing finer every day." The book was published in the early autumn of 1888 — the centennial of the work of the Con vention which framed the Constitution of the United States. In this volume Fiske set out with the proposition that the period under review was the most critical period in the history of the American people. The main features of the work comprised a clear setting-forth of the political dangers, exter nal and internal, that, then confronted the new nation, an impartial presentation of the issues in volved, accompanied by a rare exhibition of his toric justice shown In the personal sketches given and the judgments passed upon the leaders in the Constitutional Convention. These were combined with a fine, discriminating analysis of the consid erations which governed the several States in their acceptance of the Constitution, with a graphic presentation of the crowning of the work in the in auguration of Washington as President of a strong and united nation. These features were presented with such a full and accurate knowledge of the facts involved, with such a firm grasp of, and sympathy with, the fundamental principles of repubUcanism which were the impelling forces underlying the whole movement, and In such a free, lucid style, that the work could hardly fail to aw£iken the in terest of the reader in the subject and carry a con viction of the truth of the main proposition. 390 The Critical Period The book was received with great applause. The leading critical journals were unanimous in com mending it. It was readily seen that Fiske had found an important period in our national life that had been sadly neglected; that with his keen his toric insight he had seen the necessity of bringing a knowledge of this neglected period into the full light of day, in order rightly to understand the genesis and full significance of the Federal Govern ment of the United States. It was further seen that in his deeply Interesting narrative of this "storm and stress" period of our nation's birth, the per sonal characteristics of the leaders in this great movement — Washington, Franklin, Samuel and John Adams, Madison, Jefferson, HamUton, and their compeers — came out with a fresh interest as they were sympathetically yet Impartially por trayed grappling with the great problems before them. The work was reviewed at length by the "Atlantic Monthly" and the "Nation," and their judgments are here given. The "Atlantic Monthly" summed up its criticism thus: — " Mr. Fiske justifies his title to his work. By his masterly grouping of events, his projection of the period upon a large scale, and his comprehensive study of the movements which determined the course of affairs, he has set the whole subject in the clearest light, and by so doing has made a contribu tion to our literature of no mean order." The judgment of the " Nation " was as follows: — 391 John Fiske " If the reader misses in the present treatise the comprehensive generalizations which gave such a fascination to the author's work on 'American Political Ideas,' he will find his recompense In the solid facts of history pertaining to the formative period in our annals, and can here see those facts placed in a historical perspective which reveals at once their national grandeur, and their world-his torical significance." Of personal commendations of the work from literary critics, from historic students, and from men in public life there were many. Two are here presented as representative of the general tone of the whole. The first is from John Morley (now Lord Morley), the prince of literary and historic critics. In the "Nineteenth Century" for August, 1889, Morley, in a signed article, reviewed the work at some length, in which, after setting forth the conditions that prevailed after the establishment of peace with Great Britain, he says: — "The author of the present short volume starts from the proposition that the most trying time of all [for the new nation] was just beginning. [Quot ing Fiske : ] ' It is not too much to say that the period of five years following the peace of 1783 was the most critical moment in all the history of the American people. The dangers from which we were saved in 1788 were even greater than the dangers from which we were saved in 1865.' This proposi tion, Mr. Fiske makes abundantly good and he has turned it into a text for one of the most interesting chapters of history that has been written for many 392 The Critical Period a day. . . . Mr. Fiske is a most competent guide! He is a trained thinker in more fields than one; he knows how to tell a story in a free, clear and Uvely style, and he has not the terrible defect of insisting on telling us everything, or telling us more than we want to know." The second Is from the Honorable John Jay, a grandson of John Jay, one of the American Com missioners who negotiated the treaty of peace be tween Great Britain and the United States In 1783, and himself an eminent publicist. Mr. Jay wrote Fiske as follows : — New York, November 2>o, 1888. Dear Mr. Fiske: — I thank you for your new volume, "The Critical Period of American History," with Its kind inscrip tion. I have delayed acknowledging It until I could read it. I have read it with instruction, and great satisfaction; and with no little admiration for the rare and happy power with which you re-present with new face the familiar phases of our history and make clear and impressive the philosophic les sons that they teach. The book I regard as of especial value, as ena bling not simply our countrymen at large, but the most thoughtful of our students of American his tory, to appreciate more than ever the dangers that threatened our Union at the close of the war, and the formidable difficulties Involved in the framing and adoption of the Constitution. It Is a matter that concerns not simply the record of the past, but the national policy of the 393 John Fiske future, that Americans should have the clear and compact idea which your narrative presents of the marvellous wisdom, patience, tact, and skill with which that task was accomplished. Let me thank you also for your approval of my sketch of the Peace Negotiations, your view of which I regard as settling the question for future historians. With sincere regard. Always faithfully yours, John Jay. John Fiske, Esqr. Cambrtoge, Mass. iVTotwIthstandlng this widespread interest in his undertaking and the high praise he was receiving on every hand for his work both as lecturer and as essayist, Fiske had moments of great perplexity. I saw him frequently at this period, and the diffi culties under which he was laboring were subjects of much talk between us. The most perplexing difficulty was that in the working-out of his scheme he could not take hold of his subject in the proper manner; that is, by bringing forward its features in logical sequential order through laying first a proper foundation for the historic superstructure he desired to build. In what he had published he had treated of events which were developments out of conditions which had a genesis in a common, under lying ground. The more he studied his subject the more imperative became the need of laying the foundations of a satisfactory history of the Ameri- 394 Perplexity over his Task can people in the world-events connected with the discovery of America and what this discovery sig nified to the European peoples of the fifteenth, six teenth, seventeenth, and eighteenth centuries. But to treat the discovery of America in the light of its world-significance, with reference to the past and the future, was a task requiring years of careful research, with a free mind. , As we have seen, Fiske's undertaking had de veloped into a demand upon himself which in volved from five to six months' almost continuous lecturing, with the necessity of preparing each year a new course of from four to six lectures, with all the details of arranging the lecture engagements in addition. It is evident that conditions did not exist which would admit of his engaging In the research-study so essential to the scheme that had now become firmly fixed in his mind. Naturally, this untoward condition in the de velopment of his task made him somewhat dis couraged, for without a presentation of the Discov ery Epoch, with its full significance, his historic scheme would be without suitable foundations. But ample and wholly unexpected relief was at hand. Mr. Henry O. Houghton, the head of the pub lishing firm of Houghton, Mifflin & Company, was not only a broad-minded man of great business sagacity; he also took great pride in his publishing business and ever sought to make it a support to 395 John Fiske good literature. In the passing of the publishing firm of Ticknor & Fields, which, under the direc tion of the eminent publisher, James T. Fields, and by its ownership of the "Atlantic Monthly," had long held a prominent place in the publishing world, Mr. Houghton secured for his firm not only the ownership of the "Atlantic Monthly," but also the publishing agreements with leading authors held by Ticknor & Fields, thus placing Houghton, Mifflin & Company in the front rank of publishing houses in America. Mr. Houghton was a good appraiser of literary values. He had observed Fiske's growing reputa tion as an interpreter of American history, and had noted particularly the very favorable manner In which his first distinctly historic work, "The Critical Period," had been received. Presuming that Fiske contemplated publishing something fur ther on American history, he sought an Interview to learn what, if anything, Fiske had in mind. Fiske frankly outlined to Mr. Houghton his his toric scheme in its five divisions: the Epoch of American Discovery; the Period of Colonization; the Revolutionary War; the Critical Period; the Establishment of the Federal Government of the United States and its development. He pointed out that he had the third and fourth divisions, and a part of the second, substantiaUy completed. He also frankly stated the difficulties under which he was laboring, owing to his inability to go forward 396 Relieved by his Publishers with the persistent research-study necessary for the proper treatment of the Discovery Epoch, which must form the foundation of the work, on account of his dependence financially upon his lectures. Mr. Houghton, with his business insight, grasped the whole situation with great perspicacity. He was much impressed by the high character of the scheme, and also by the logical order and clearness with which Fiske had its several features related in his mind; and he could see what a valuable and fresh contribution to historic literature such a work would be. On the other hand, he saw very clearly that, as a publishing undertaking, it was one that would require a large investment of capital for its preparation, and that It would be several years be fore it would yield remunerative returns even If it met with a cordial public reception. He was, how ever, so favorably impressed by the scheme, and with Fiske's mastery of it, that he said he would seriously consider undertaking its publication. Mr. Houghton saw Fiske shortly after, and made him a definite proposition to this effect: that he would advance the money necessary to enable Fiske to produce the foundational works required in the scheme, leaving the question of copyright on the whole scheme subject to future agreement: this proposed agreement to be terminable by either party, at any time, if found inequitable in its work ing. In short. It was a proposition whereby the two were to combine their forces, each trusting the 397 John Fiske other, until a definite literary property had been created as a basis for a copyright agreement. As it was desirable that the scheme should be kept before the public, Fiske was to have the privilege of lecturing three months in the year on his own account. The immediate effect of the acceptance by Fiske of the proposition would be, that he would be placed at ease for the preparation of the funda mental works of his scheme, which required some years of patient research-study. Fiske did not hold the proposition long under consideration. He accepted it, with a due apprecia tion of Mr. Houghton's business sagacity in being willing to undertake on such liberal terms the pro motion of a literary venture of such a personal character, and one requiring a large investment of capital. The year 1888 closed with Fiske's giving his course of six lectures on "Scenes and Characters in American History" at the Old South Church in Boston ; and with his coming to an agreement with his publishers, Houghton, Mifflin & Company, for the further prosecution and publication of his historic scheme. CHAPTER XXXIII new conditions and their effect — activities OF A threefold NATURE — PUBLICATION OF "the AMERICAN REVOLUTION" AND "THE BE GINNINGS OF NEW ENGLAND" — " CIVIL GOVERN MENT IN THE UNITED STATES" — COMPOSITION OF "the DISCOVERY OF AMERICA" — ITS PUB LICATION AND RECEPTION I 889-1 89 I Fiske's agreement with his publishers for the pro duction and publication of his historic scheme went Into effect January i, 1889, and now was opened an entirely new chapter in his domestic and intel lectual life. For several years he had been obliged to make all his activities subordinate to the de mands of his lecture campaigns, in the preparation of new lectures each year as well as in the delivery of them. Now, his lectures were to be a subordinate feature in his life, thus giving his mind much greater freedom to grapple with his great theme. He did not, however, entirely relinquish his lecturing, for he had become so familiar with his general subject and had acquired such proficiency in extempore speaking that he was enabled, without any special preparation, to present to his audiences the more important features of his great subject, as well as sketches of the historic characters embodied in it, 399 John Fiske with much interest and impressiveness. Thus, aside from the annoyances of travelling and the interruption of his home life, his lecturing greatly widened his influence and brought him many di versions. For some time there had been gestating in his mind the preparation of a small volume on "Civil Government in the United States," which might be useful as a textbook in schools, and at the same time be serviceable to the general reader interested in American history. As the project took shape in his mind, he found that he could treat it after the modern method of historic exposition: that is to say, by pointing out the origins of the fundamental features of our political organization, and indicating some of the processes through which they have ac quired their present form, thus keeping before the mind of the student the Important fact that gov ernment is perpetually undergoing modifications In adapting itself to new conditions, is ever in a proc ess of evolution. Fiske's publishers were much in terested in this work, foreseeing its value in gen eral education, and they encouraged him to carry along its preparation as a side product of his gen eral scheme. Then, too, Fiske was so familiar with the events of the War of Independence that he had on several occasions given impromptu talks to schools, in which In the time of a single discourse he had broadly sketched, as an interesting story, the main 400 Volume on Civil Government incidents of this memorable struggle. This Infor mal talk was so well received by his youthful audi ences that his publishers induced him to write it out for publication. Now that he was relieved from the necessity of preparing a new course of lectures each season, he found himself ready to prepare for publication, without much labor, the two sections of his his toric scheme already written and which had formed the basis of two of his courses of lectures — "The Beginnings of New England" and "The Ameri can Revolution." These, however, were but side issues. Above and beyond them all his study and his thought were concentrated during the ensuing three years upon the production of "The Discovery of America," the work which was to be the foundational feature of his magnum opus — "The History of the Ameri can People." These three years, 1889-91, were therefore years of varied and ceaseless activities. But there are no self-revealing letters to his wife or to his mother, such as we have had in previous years. He was more at home. But his diaries are faithful records of his activities. Not a single day was passed with out its record; and these records, when classified and brought into relativity with the high purposes which we know were animating him, as well as with the results produced, are the evidences of the workings of his mind engaged upon the task of 401 John Fiske Interpreting to his countrymen the profound sig nificance of their national history. I shall not enter into the full details of this cul minating period of Fiske's life as revealed in his diaries, as I wish to present as fully as possible the character of the literary results produced. It Is well, however, in passing to note briefly the chief divisions of his activities, for in their grouping the> reflect unmistakably his personality and his great purpose. His activities may be grouped into three interre lated classes: his social life, his personal diversions, his literary work and lecturing. In regard to the first, it is readily understood that with his wide circle of friends and his promi nence as a philosophic thinker and historian, the social demands upon him should be very great. He dearly loved his friends, and no man enjoyed social intercourse more than he. In social converse he was not In the slightest degree disputatious or arrogant. He was a good listener. Indeed, he pos sessed his great knowledge with singular modesty. He could receive the fine thought of another and give it even a higher significance than was in tended, in the expression of his appreciation. What he had to say on any subject was so replete with understanding that It was well worth listening to. Then, too, he had a keen appreciation of humor, and he seemed to have at command all the Avitty sayings of the race, ready to cap with delightful 402 Three Classes of Activities appositeness any bit of human experience. Over all his fine social qualities was his great love for music. Hence it will be readily seen that the social demands upon him, especially on his lecture ex cursions, were very great. A popular lecturer, with great musical powers and a fine personality, was not likely to be socially neglected. In regard to the second division of his activities — his personal diversions — there is a very full record, and they appear to have been governed by the demands of his social life on the one hand, and the requirements of his intellectual work on the other. He was President of the Boylston Club — a musical club — for seven years, and when at home he was a faithful attendant at its meetings. His main diversions centred around his home, or good- fellowship with his friends while lecturing. His home diversions consisted largely in attendance at musical entertainments with his wife or children, of picnicking with them when in Petersham, and of gatherings of his musical and literary friends around his own board. Now and then he records a day given to fiction reading, with occasionally a day spent simply in "loafing." On his lecture ex cursions he received many social courtesies which were pleasant reliefs from the discomforts of much irregular travelling. Indeed, many of these occa sions gave him great enjoyment, especially where music was made a feature of the entertainment, in which he was asked to take an active part. 403 John Fiske These diversions are very interesting when con sidered in relation to the overpowering purpose which we know was dominating his mind. Nat urally, his children had a foremost place in his thought, for they had reached stages of develop ment where reciprocity in thinking between him self and them had begun to manifest Itself. In his fiction reading, Dickens comes in for the major portion, as might well be supposed. At the same time he drops a little into Bulwer and George Eliot. His association with Professor Paine on musical matters was a constant inspiration. This but emphasizes what we have seen all along: that music was an essential part of his being. His rec ord of days spent in "loafing" will be appreciated by any one accustomed to severe mental labor, and who has had experience of days when the mind has no resilience, when it refuses to work, and the whole bodily system demands a change. These days were not frequent, however: they fol lowed periods of excessive labor. Most significant are the days recorded as "put tering with my plants." His writings show that he was sufficiently acquainted with the fundamental principles of botanical science to be an intelligent observer of nature's processes in the phenomena of the floral world. His plants, therefore, were a never-ceasing source of interest and suggestion to him. With even the tiniest of them, in their germi nation, their progressive development, their in- 404 His Personal Diversions florescence, and their methods of propagation, he felt himself on the border-line between the known and the unknown, between science and the great mystery that surrounds us on every 'side — in the very presence of Infinity. Much that is finest in his religious thought had its inspiration in his conservatory. Here I may properly give, perhaps, the result of a persqnal interview with him. I remember call ing upon him on one occasion, and finding him in his conservatory with his microscope. His mind was full from his recent observations, and natu rally the conversation turned to the deeper ques tions underlying botanical science, and his thought as then expressed was substantially as follows: — "Often when weary with my studies, I find great rest by going into my conservatory and puttering with my plants. They are far from being inani mate substances to me. Indeed, when in their pres ence I equip my imagination with microscopic power and peer Into their simple mechanism, which through root, and stem, and leaf, and flow er, is using the same soil, and heat, and air, and light, to body forth Into the world of phenomena a hundred different manifestations of life, I con fess to a peculiar sense of nearness to the pro found mystery of existence which surrounds us on every side. And when, in contemplation of this quiet orderly working of immaterial forces, moving without haste or resting to certain predestined ends, I ask, 'whence this marvellous display of 405 John Fiske power and purpose?' I feel the answer welling up in the innermost parts of my own being, 'Account for yourself and you have accounted for aU.' " Under date of Sunday, February, 1890, he makes this record: "A day of delicious loaf in Conserva tory." Fiske's interest in all phases of plant life was, Indeed, a profound one, and It was manifested in all his home surroundings. Here is an instance where he wished to have his Ubrary bay-window, within which he wrote, "glorified" by being cur tained with some choice selections of foliage. In a letter to his daughter Maud at this period he gives the following directions : — "Perhaps you can do something for me. Your mention of spring and garden and blossoms sug gests it. Year after year goes by and I never can get any vines started because I am always away at planting-time. Now I want either Japanese ivy or Virginia creeper to grow all over my library bay-window as thick as ever it can (for the shears can always thin it If too luxuriant). I don't care so much about the front, and where the rosebush is, but all the side, and also the end window, where mamma sits, I want covered, embowered, festooned, draped, and glorified ! ! ! — "Japanese ivy is the thing if it will cling to the wooden wall, and I rather think it will because the wall is rough. But if that won't work, then Vir ginia creeper will do very well." 406 ETHEL FISKE (Mrs. Otis D.Fisk) MAUD FISKE (Mrs. Grover Flint) His Lecturing And here is an extract from his essay on "The Everlasting Reality of Religion": — " I often think, when working over my plants, of what Linnseus once said of the unfolding of a blossom : ' I saw God in His glory passing near me, and bowed my head in worship.'" ^ We come now to the last division of his activi ties during this period, his lecturing, his historic researches, his literary composition. While there is much that is of interest from a purely personal viewpoint In these activities, we must be content with noting only such as have a distinct bearing upon his great purpose, the setting-forth of the historic evolution of the political and social life of the people of the United States. The ten years of study and thought which he had given to the sub ject had but deepened his conviction that it was in its entirety one of the greatest of historic themes. Now that he was so placed, by his publishers, as to ways and means of working, that he could pro ceed with the unfolding of his scheme in its logical order, he was supremely happy, and he set about arranging his work so that its threefold character could be carried on harmoniously. His lecturing was limited to the first five months of the year — January to May. While during this period its demands were supreme, he so arranged his engagements in and around Cambridge, New * Through Nature to God, p. 177. 407 John Fiske York, Chicago, and St. Louis that these cities became centres of radiation to which he could speedily return for the intervening days between his lectures. As he always took with him on his visits to New York and Chicago and St. Louis a good quantity of literary material relating to the particular work he had in hand, he was enabled to utilize his spare time to good advantage. In New York he established very pleasant working quarters on Irving Place; while in Chicago he was so fortunate as to have, in Franklin H. Head, a genial friend, who opened to him his hospitable home, where he had the privacy essential to literary work, mingled with most agreeable social life. During the three years he gave three hundred and eighteen lectures. The first year these were mainly repetitions of those relating to the Eng lish colonization of America, the American Revo lution, and incidents and characters in American history which we have already noted. In 1890, the result of his fresh studies of the period of the dis covery of America, and the Spanish conquests that followed, gave him new themes with which to meet his old audiences, and at the same time lay foun dations for future discourses. Here we have to note a lecture engagement of some related interest. We have seen that in 1872 ^ when Fiske was delivering a course of philosophi- ' See ante, vol. i, p. 395. 408 Lectures at Lowell Institute cal lectures at Harvard College, President Eliot interested himself to have Fiske invited to give a course of lectures before the Lowell Institute of Boston, and that the invitation was refused by rea son of the fact that Fiske was not a believer in the special Divine inspiration of the Scriptures. Now, however, opinion at the Institute had so far changed In regard to Fiske that the year 1890 opened with his giving a course of twelve lectures, under the auspices of the Institute, on "The Dis covery, Conquest, and Colonization of America." While this Lowell Institute course covered much ground that he had been over In his first course of historical lectures in 1879 on "America's Place in History," he introduced much new matter, partic ularly in regard to pre-Columbian America, the search for the Indies, and the Spanish conquests of Mexico and Peru. The lectures were outline sketches of the great historic work that was soon to follow, and were received with great favor by large and critical audi ences. Fiske was greatly encouraged, for he saw more clearly than before how through his lectures he could interest the public in the scope and charac ter of his great undertaking as Its various instal ments came from his hand. Despite all the discomforts and annoyances at tending these periods of lecturing, there were some satisfactions attending them. Had he produced his historic work in the quiet retirement of his library, 409 John Fiske we should have had unquestionably a fine, schol arly performance; but would it possibly have been wanting in those strong, humanistic characteris tics which pervade all his historic writing, — the evidence that during the whole period of his his toric composition he was In close touch with the common people, the evolution of whose political and social institutions it was his chief desire to make clear to them. Then, too, he derived much pleasure and in spiration from being brought into direct contact with masses of his countrymen through the lecture platform. He was a true democrat of the Jefferson and Lincoln stamp, and thoroughly believed in the good sense of the people as a whole. With his lit erary skill he was enabled to invest his historic themes with such universal human interests as to awaken at once the confidence and good-will of his hearers; and being an effective public speaker he could sway with rare power the minds of his audiences. This implied the reciprocal action of both giving and receiving pleasure, and his letters are abundant evidence that he did enjoy speaking to responsive audiences. In his diary, where he mentions giving a new lecture or appearing before a new audience, he records the result thus: "The usual Sciat." But no social courtesies, no applause from his audiences, could take the place of his domestic enjoyments; and so, on his return from lecturing 410 Visits the Betts Academy pilgrimages, we find frequent expressions like this: "O, my sweet home!" Among the letters of this period I find one in which, under date of March 22, 1889, he gives to Mrs. Fiske an account of a lecture at Stamford, Connecticut, and of a visit to the Betts Academy, where, as we have seen, some two years of his edu cational life were spent. His visit to the academy brought back to him so vividly the days of his youth when, within Its walls, he was an earnest seeker after knowledge, that his account of the visit is of special interest. He writes: — " I dined up at Betts's School to-day, and had a delicious time. My heart was touched. Things generaUy change and are so disappointing. But there is the same old 'hipe,' same schoolroom, same everything, almost as I left It thirty-two years ago, in all the glory of having written and delivered an oration which everybody said was the beginning of a great career! " I looked over the old marking-books and saw my record, which I have copied for you! and it was rather fine, no doubt. I went up to my old bedroom where I used to have my cosy little bookcase, and things; and went to prayers in the same old sitting room, and the past came over me so that the tears stood in my eyes. "Willie Betts, the principal, is a charming fel low, always laughing and beaming with kindliness — such a contrast to his father! When I was there he was a little Traddles. Now, you, my dear, are to see it all next week. You are to see the last thing 4H John Fiske still remaining unspoiled, that goes back to my boy hood, before I had ever seen George Roberts." Coming now to Fiske's creative literary work for this period, we find it consisted, first, in prepar ing for publication in book form his lectures on "The Beginnings of New England," and also his lectures on "The American Revolution"; and secondly of the composition of two new works; the one, "Civil Government in the United States," In one volume; the other, "The Discovery of Amer ica," in two volumes. He also prepared a brief story of the Revolutionary War in a small volume for young people. "The Beginnings of New England" was pub lished in one volume in the spring of 1889, and con tained as its opening chapter Fiske's fine lecture on "The Roman Idea and the English Idea of Nation-Making," one of the most suggestive phil- osophlco- political essays of modern times, suffi cient of itself to establish his reputation as a pro found thinker on historic subjects. In 1891 he published his lectures on "The American Revo lution," in two volumes; thus, with the volume on "The Critical Period of American History," published in 1888, and the volume on "The Be ginnings of New England," published as above, completing three sections of his historic scheme. How these last two works were received by the general public, we will not stop to consider in any detail. Suffice it to say that, although the critics 412 The Beginnings of New England could not see the great historic purpose of which they formed a part, and that they were ultimately to form sections In a completely unified historic whole, they were not slow in recognizing the great merits of the works as valuable contributions to a right understanding of two important periods of American history. The wide and accurate knowl edge displayed throughout the two works, the philosophic insight into the underlying causes im pelling human action during the two periods, the keen appreciation of character as developed by the sequence of events, the judicial fairness exhib ited in weighing evidence and passing judgment on disputed points, with the easy-flowing, lucid style conspicuous on every page, were convincing proofs that a historian of the first rank was now grappling with American history, and was giving to the established facts of this history a new set ting and significance. Here is a fitting place to present two letters from the eminent historian, Edward A. Freeman, whose historical writings Fiske regarded as of the highest character: — Somerleaze, Wells, Somerset, August 9, 1889. John Fiske, Esqr,, My dear Sir: — I suppose it is yourself that I have to thank for your two books on American History, The one on the "New England Settlement" I have read, the one on the "Critical Period" I am reading, 413 John Fiske Let me tell you plainly that I have read very few things for a long time that have given me more in tense pleasure than some parts of both. I have sel dom, if ever, seen any part of English history, that part of it which happened on American soil, treated so thoroughly as part of the history of the one English people. It is so strangely hard to get people on either side of Ocean to take in the simple fact that Englishmen on both sides of Ocean are one people. 'T is only the other day I saw a British paper that fancies itself Liberal babbling about the cir clet of the Cross — or some such humbug — join ing all the members of the English race. So I sup pose the people of Massachusetts and Virginia are no part of the English race, and the barbarics of India are. That is the kind of thing one has to fight against. To me, with my Greek, and specially my Sicilian work, the whole thing seems so obvious. I never think of Sicily without America, or of America without Sicily; and the twin colonies of Corinth: Syracuse, Korkyra. Why should not Middle and New England have been as Corinth and Syracuse? If anything should bring you to Middle Eng land, remember you will be welcome either here, or at Oxford, according to the time of year. Believe me, yours faithfully, Edward A. Freeman, In acknowledging this letter, Fiske sent Free man a copy of his volume, "American Political Ideas." This brought from Freeman the following response : — 414 Letters from E. A. Freeman 16 St. Giles, Oxford, November 10, 1889. Dear Mr. Fiske: — I have to thank you for your letter and also for your book "American Political Ideas." This I see does come straight from yourself. I have not been very long back, and I have barely looked at it; but I see you are on the right track, at least on the track which I am bound to look upon as the right one. Truly you preach exactly the same doctrine that I do, which is a recommendation at least to me. I shall have a chance of saying a word or two again on that text (the unity of the English peoples) next Thursday, when I have a lecture on the Car tularies of i88q, in which I shall suggest that here in Middle England we have been talking too much about 1789 at Versailles, and not enough about 1789 at New York; and further, that 1689 at Bos ton should not be wholly forgotten. Along with your book came what I certainly did not expect. My picture of the Landesgemeinde of Uri, quoted and commented on In a sermon at Hartford. Believe me very truly yours, Edward A. Freeman. Finally, we come to the two works which were written and published during this period — the vol ume on "Civil Government," and the two volumes on "The Discovery of America." As we have quite full particulars of the composition of these two important works, it is of interest to observe Fiske's method of working. 415 John Fiske It appears that during the summer of 1889 the volume on "CivU Government" was muUIng in his mind. Preparatory to beginning composition upon it, he read with great care Bryce's "American Com monwealth," Howard's "Local Constitutional His tory of the United States," Roosevelt's "Winning of the West," "The State," by Woodrow WUson, " Economic Interpretation of History," by Thorold Rogers, and Hannis Taylor's "Origin and Growth of the English Constitution," all very suggestive as well as directly helpful works for the purpose Fiske had in view. On September 18, 1889, he tried to make a start at the composition of his contemplated book, "but could n't get up steam," with the resultant feeling that perhaps he had better turn his thought in some other direction. Finally, on October 11, he refo- cussed his mind on the " Civil Government" project and vigorously set about its composition, writing on the first day four pages. There was now no longer any doubt or hesitancy in his mind, and his thought flowed with the utmost directness and clearness and with such freedom that he finished his task in forty- three days — on December 30, 1889. This, consid ering the nature of the subject and the wide and varied knowledge required for its mastery, was an almost incredible performance; yet it appears to have been easily performed at the rate of about five pages a day; showing that it was the product of a full, well-ordered mind. The bibliographic 416 Volume on Civil Government notes scattered through the volume are abundant evidence of the thoroughness with which he had made himself master of the literature on the sub ject. The work itself was a confirmation of one of the suggestive observations of Sir Henry Sumner Maine: — "Wherever the primitive condition of an Aryan race reveals itself either through historical records or through the survival of its ancient institutions, the organ, which in the elementary group corre sponds to what we call the legislature, is every where discernible. It is the Village Council. . . , From this embryo have sprung all the most famous legislatures of the world," The volume was published in the autumn of 1890, with some "Suggestive Questions and Di rections" after each chapter, prepared by Mr, F. A, HIU, Head Master of the Cambridge English High School, and given to facilitate the use of the work in schools. The work was very cordially welcomed by the leading educators of the country as a most impor tant aid in the study of the fundamental principles underlying our republican form of government. With the composition of this work off his hands, Fiske opened the year 1890 with great elation of mind, inasmuch as he could now take up the prep aration of what was to be the foundation of his historic scheme, and which had long lain near his heart, "The Discovery of America," with its sig- 417 [ohn Fiske nificance to the civiUzation of the modern world. We have seen that in opening his historic lectures in 1879 he took for his theme "America's Place in History," and that his opening sentence was, "The voyage of Columbus was in many respects the most important event in human history since the birth of Christ," Ten years' study of the discovery of America and its relations to all subsequent history had but deepened his conviction of the truth of his statement in regard to the world-significance of the voyage of Columbus. Now that he could put In permanent literary form, as the basis of a great historic scheme, his conclusions regarding this im mortal voyage and what flowed from it, with their verifications, he was supremely happy. He entered upon his task with as lofty a purpose as that which animated Gibbon and Macaulay in entering upon their immortal histories. With fine historic insight, Fiske saw the task be fore him as one which Involved the blending of two themes, very different in character, yet so closely related that the one is needful for an adequate com prehension of the other. He says truly in regard to the first: — "In order to view in their true perspective the series of events comprised in the Discovery of America, one needs to form a mental picture of that strange world of savagery and barbarism to which civilized Europeans were for the first time intro- jduced in the course of the fifteenth and sixteenth 418 The Discovery of America centuries in their voyages along the African coast, into the Indian and Pacific oceans, and across the Atlantic. Nothing that Europeans discovered dur ing that stirring period was so remarkable as these antique phases of human society, the mere existence of which had scarcely been suspected, and the char acter of which it has been left for the present gen eration to begin to understand. Nowhere was this ancient society so full of instructive lessons as in aboriginal America, which had pursued its own course of development, cut off and isolated from the Old World for probably more than fifty thou sand years. The Imperishable interest of those epi sodes in the Discovery of America known as the con quests of Mexico and Peru, consists chiefly in the glimpses they afford us of this primitive world. It was not an uninhabited continent that the Span iards found, and in order to comprehend the course of events It Is necessary to know something about those social features that formed a large part of the burden of the letters of Columbus and Vespucius, and excited even more intense and general interest in Europe than the purely geographical questions suggested by the voyages of those great sailors. The descriptions of Ancient America, therefore, which form a kind of background to the present work, need no apology." In regard to the second theme, the discovery of this unknown Western World, Fiske found some thing solemn and impressive in the fact of human life thus going on for countless ages in the eastern and western portions of our planet, each unknown to, and uninfluenced by, the other. In asserting 419 John Fiske that the contact between the two worlds practically began in 1492, he did not mean to imply that occa sional visitors may not have come and had not come from the old world to the new before that mem orable year. On the contrary, he was Inclined to believe that there may have been more of such oc casional visits than we have been wont to suppose. For the most part, however, he found such visits shrouded in the mists of obscure narrative and fan tastic conjecture, and without satisfactory proofs. When he came, however, to the claims of the Northmen, based on their voyages in the tenth and eleventh centuries, he found quite a different state of things, in the dealing with which he was for the most part on firm historic ground. He says: — "The colonization of Greenland by the North men In the tenth century Is as well established as any event that occurred in the Middle Ages. For four hundred years the fortunes of the Greenland colony formed a part, albeit a very humble part of European history." So much being established, he reviewed the pre- Columbian voyages of the Northmen and pre sented their achievements with great fulness of knowledge and rare candor of mind. His conclu sions were as follows : — "Nothing had been accomplished by those voy ages which could properly be called a contribution to geographical knowledge. To speak of them as constituting in any legitimate use of the phrase a 420 Pre-Columbian Voyages Discovery of America, is simply absurd. Except for Greenland, which was supposed to be a part of the European world, America remained as much un^ discovered after the eleventh century as before. In the midsummer of 1492, it needed tb be discovered as much as if Leif Ericson or the whole race of Northmen had never existed. "As these pre-Columbian voyages produced no effect in the Eastern hemisphere except to leave in Icelandic literature a scanty but interesting record, so in the Western hemisphere they seem to have produced no effect beyond cutting down a few trees and killing a few Indians. In the outlying world of Greenland, it is not improbable that the blood of the Eskimos may have received some slight Scan dinavian infusion. But upon the aboriginal world of the red men, from Davis Strait to Cape Horn, it Is not likely that any impression of any sort was ever made. It is in the highest degree probable that Leif Ericson and his friends made a few voyages to what we now know to have heen the coast of America ; but it Is an abuse of language to say that they ' dis covered' America. In no sense was any real con tact established between the eastern and western halves of our planet until the great voyage of Co lumbus in 1492." With the discoveries of the Northmen disposed of, Fiske paused in his narrative to consider the condition of European society during the closing half of the fifteenth and the opening of the sixteenth century, when the spirit of Renaissance enquiry was impelling the human mind to seek in every direc tion for the truths relating to human existence, 421 John Fiske At this period the configuration of the earth's sur face, man's place of abode, only partially revealed in the very limited geographical knowledge of the time, was a practical question of supreme impor tance by reason of the serious interruption to the intercourse between Europe and Asia, owing to the ruthless depredations of the Ottomans upon the inter-continental commerce of the Mediterranean. In a chapter entitled " Europe and Cathay," re plete with well-digested leaming, Fiske sketched in broad outlines the nature and extent of this Eu ropean-Asiatic intercourse from classic times down to its serious interruption by the Ottoman power in the latter half of the fifteenth century. The chap ter contains a fine appreciation of Marco Polo's account of his wonderful joumey to Asia in the thirteenth century: — • "One of the most famous and important books of the Middle Ages. It contributed more new facts toward a knowledge of the earth's surface than any book that had ever been written. Its author was the first traveller to trace a route across the whole longitude of Asia, the first to describe China in its vastness with Its immense cities, its manufactures and wealth, and to tell, whether from personal ex perience, or direct hearsay, of Thibet and Burmah, of Siam and Cochin China, of the Indian Archipel ago with its Islands of spices, of Java and Sumatra and the savages of Andaman." The chapter closes with the following summing- up of the geographical problem then presented: — 422 Europe and Cathay "Could there be such a thing as an 'outside route' to that land of promise? A more startling question has seldom been propounded; for it in volved a radical departure from the grooves in which the human mind had been running ever since the days of Solomon. Two generations of men lived and died while this question was taking shape, and all that time Cathay and India and the islands of spices were objects of increasing desire, clothed by eager fancy with all manner of charms and riches. The more effectually the eastern Mediterranean was closed, the stronger grew the impulse to venture upon unknown paths in order to realize the vague but glorious hopes that began to cluster about those remote countries. Such an era of romantic enter prise as was thus ushered in, the world has never seen before or since. It was equally remarkable as an era of discipline in scientific thinking. In the maritime ventures of unparalleled boldness then undertaken the human mind was groping toward the era of enormous extensions of knowledge in space and time represented by the names of New ton and Darwin. It was learning the right way of putting Its trust in the Unseen." Fiske gives an account of prehistoric America, and shows that its existence was wholly unknown to the peoples of Europe before the closing years of the fifteenth century. He then also tells of the long-continued intercourse between Europe and Asia over inland routes and the interruptions to this intercourse by the increasing depredations of the Ottoman power in the Mediterranean, accompanied 423 John Fiske by speculations regarding a sea route from Europe to Asia. Then, discarding present knowledge of the sphericity of the earth and ideas derived from the modern map, he sought to put himself back Into the latter half of the fifteenth century and the opening of the sixteenth, when European society was struggling with the problem of an outside or sea route to India and the islands of spices. This gave a proper vantage-ground from which to trace in the sequence of events the unfolding of the mighty drama which yielded a new world of far greater import to the well-being of mankind than was In volved in the discovery of any new route to India. Placing himself thus, he found widely prevalent speculative ideas regarding the rotundity of the earth derived from the ancient Greek and Latin writers, and the profound practical question," How to outwit the wily Saracen In his depredations upon Christian Commerce in the Mediterranean." If the rotundity of the earth was a geographical truth, there must be, it was argued, a sea route to India either by skirting the Atlantic coast of Africa or plunging boldly westward across the Atlantic — perhaps by both. Fiske makes it clear how completely ideas of a sea route to India possessed the minds of the bold navigators of Italy, Spain, and Portugal at this time, and how limited was their knowledge of the Atlantic, or "Sea of Darkness," as it was called. He also shows how ill-equipped these navigators were 424 A Sea Route to India for the necessary voyages into the great unknown, with their small vessels, limited supplies of food, imperfect instruments of navigation, the preva lence of scurvy, and superstitious, mutinous crews. First he directed attention to the eastern route, • and sketched the voyages of the Portuguese along the African coast, from the time of Prince Hen ry's navigators in 1425, to the memorable voyage of Bartholomew Diaz, in 1486-87, by which, al though unknown at the time, the southern point of Africa was turned and the way to the Indian Ocean was opened. On this voyage Diaz had for shipmate an enthusiastic Italian mariner, Bartholomew Co lumbus, the younger brother of Christopher Colum bus. Fiske next gave attention to the proposed western route directly across the Atlantic, a route which had its embodiment in the life of Columbus, and the exploitation of which was undertaken under the auspices of Spain. I need not dwell upon Fiske's treatment of the well-known story of the life of Columbus, his cor respondence with the eminent astronomer and cos- mographer, Toscanelli, of Florence, his bearing the burden of his great Idea for years in spite of all ob stacles, his several voyages, the honors and the in sults he received, and at his death passing away without the slightest conception of the great service he had done mankind. Fiske's sketch of Columbus is a fine example of historic portraiture, presenting a man with a high-tempered soul animated with 425 John Fiske a purpose that no obstacles could daunt; intrin sically honest, and imbued, in behalf of the Church, with the missionary spirit of the time; and at the same time reflecting the sordid environment that surrounded Columbus, and which could not appre ciate the nature or the magnitude of his services to the Spanish Crown. After giving the narrative of the first voyage, Fiske well says : — "Nobody had the faintest suspicion of what had been done. In the famous letter [from Columbus] to Santangel there Is of course not a word about a New World. The grandeur of the achievement was quite beyond the ken of the generation that witnessed it. For we have since come to learn that in 1492 the contact between the eastern and western halves of our planet was first really begun, and the two streams of human life which had flowed on for countless ages apart were thenceforth to mingle together. The first voyage of Columbus is thus a unique event in the history of mankind. Nothing like it was ever done before, and nothing like it can ever be done again. No worlds are left for a future Columbus to conquer. The era of which this great Italian mariner was the most iUustrious representa tive has closed forever." Columbus died without knowing what he had accomplished. Although bewildered by the strange coasts and the still stranger inhabitants he had found, he firmly believed that he had discovered a new route to the Indies. The fact that he had dis covered a new world wholly unknown to the Euro- 426 Americus Vespucius pean mind was as little understood by the con temporaries of Columbus as by Columbus himself. One of the most interesting chapters In Fiske's work is the one entitled " Novus Mundus," wherein he brings out with great clearness the fact that the discovery of America, of a new world, was a growth of two centuries, the outcome of ever-widening knowledge of the earth's surface. This chapter has also two other particularly noteworthy features: the vindication by Fiske of Americus Vespucius, and the graphic account of the wonderful voyage of Magellan in circumnavi gating the world — the greatest feat of navigation that has ever been performed, and nothing could be imagined that would surpass it except a journey to some other planet. Americus Vespucius, Fiske found under severe condemnation in several quarters. So careful a writer as Emerson speaks of him thus: — "Strange, . . . that broad America must wear the name of a thief. Amerigo Vespucci, the pickle- dealer at SeviUe, who went out. In 1499, a subal tern with Hojeda, and whose highest naval rank was boatswain's mate In an expedition that never sailed, managed in this lying world to supplant Columbus and baptize half the earth with his own dishonest name." ^ Fiske carefully reviewed all the evidence bearing upon Vespucius, his character, his voyages, and his letters, and completely vindicated him as a man of ' English Traits (Riverside Edition), p. 148. 427 John Fiske honor, as one of the most skilful navigators of the time, and as wholly free from any attempt to foist his name upon the newly discovered lands. In fact, Fiske made it clear that by placing one's self back in this stirring time of world-exploration and trac ing the sequence of events, as they appeared to participators and contemporaries, it was evident that the naming of the newly discovered lands "America" was not the work of any one person, but was In itself a process of development. In the chapters given to the conquests of Mexico and Peru, we have the story of these memorable episodes in the discovery of the new world impar tially retold, by a skilful narrator deeply inter ested in the phases of human life developed by the earliest contact of peoples representing the highest civilizations of the two hemispheres, each hitherto ignorant of the other, and each marvellously affected by the other. It is not likely that the Spaniards, when they first set foot upon the soil of Mexico and Peru, had ever imagined anything stranger than the things they found there. It is evident, moreover, that the native inhabitants were greatly overawed by the appearance of the newcomers, with their ships, their animals, and their weapons of warfare. The three chapters in which the main features of these conquests are set forth are full of interest, and at the same time re plete with evidences of much study into the prob lems of man's varying civilizations, with deep 428 Appreciation of Las Casas thinking thereupon. One thing is particularly no ticeable and adds to the historic value of these chapters: they are not written from the moral stand ard or viewpoint of to-day, but from that of the first half of the sixteenth century, when all Span ish explorers were imbued with the idea that above all other considerations they were missionaries of the Cross to the heathen, the bearers of the news of salvation — were in fact extending the dominion of the Church of Christ. In a chapter given to Las Casas, Fiske turned a little aside from his general theme to do an act of historic justice to the noblest character that bore a prominent hand in this great epoch of discovery and advancing civilization. It is not necessary to recount the great services of Las Casas in opposi tion to slavery and in behalf of human liberty as well as in the promotion of ethical conduct among men. His life forms a part of the imperishable record of the time; and in no other chapter that Fiske has written do the qualities of his own mind, his tolerance and his appreciation of uprightness of character, show to better advantage than in this. Himself a scientific theist and a vigorous opponent of Catholic dogma and intolerance, his mind was so broad, and his insight so keen, that underneath all the ecclesiastical wrappings that enshrouded the mind of Las Casas, Fiske saw the noble soul within and sought to do it justice. The chapter closes with the following fine appreciation: — 429 John Fiske "In contemplating such a life as that of Las Casas, all words of eulogy seem weak and frivolous. The historian can only bow in reverent awe before a figure which is In some respects the most beauti ful and sublime in the annals of Christianity, since the Apostolic age. When now and then in the course of the centuries God's providence brings such a life into this world, the memory of it must be cherished by mankind as one of its most pre cious and sacred possessions. For the thoughts, the words, the deeds of such a man there is no death. The sphere of their influence goes on wid ening for ever. They bud, they blossom, they bear fruit from age to age." Phillips Brooks, after reading this chapter on Las Casas expressed the following opinion: "The chapter on Las Casas in Fiske's 'Discovery of America' is the finest piece of historical narrative in the English language." The sixteenth century opened upon this great epoch of maritime exploration, with Columbus and his followers and successors skirting among what we now know as the West Indies and along the eastern coast of Central and South America, endeavoring to reconcile their discoveries with their preconceived ideas of India, China, and Japan. With the voyage of Magellan and the conquests of Mex ico and Peru, the vast continent of South Amer ica had, by 1540, been quite distinctiy delimited, although it had not yet been detached in men's minds from the continent of Asia, which was con- 430 Maritime Exploration ceived as extending over vast regions to the west and the northwest. The maps constructed during this period are an interesting record of the steady growth of geographical knowledge, mingled with the quaint conceits of their makers. Indeed, the discovery of the continent of North America had yet to be made before the true import of the voy age of Columbus in 1492 could be perceived. This discovery of the North American continent, with its final delimitation from the continent of Asia, was the work of two centuries. It may be said to have begun with the expeditions of Ponce de Leon to Florida, in 1513-21, and to have ended withthe expedition of Vitus Bering in 1728, the last an ex pedition which yielded a positive knowledge of the narrow strait which separates the two continents, and which bears the name of its discoverer. Thus was broken the last link connecting in men's minds the old world with the new. Fiske devotes the closing chapter of his work to a survey of the discoveries during these two cen turies, with France and England engaged in the work. He brings out with great clearness how dur ing this period maritime supremacy and the lead in colonial enterprise had been transferred from Spain and Portugal to France and England. He tmly says: — "Our story impresses upon us quite forcibly the fact that the work of discovery has been a gradual and orderly development. Such must necessarily 431 John Fiske be the case. The Discovery of America may be regarded In one sense as a unique event, but it must also be regarded as a long and multifarious proc ess. The unique event was the Crossing of the Sea of Darkness in 149 1. It established a true and per manent contact between the eastern and western halves of our planet, and brought together the two streams of human life that had flowed In separate channels ever since the Glacial period. No inge nuity of argument can take from Columbus the glory of an achievement which has, and can have no parallel in the whole career of mankind. It was a thing that could be done but once." At the close of this period of external discovery France appears as the dominating power in North America by virtue of her interior possessions ex tending from the St. Lawrence through the Great Lakes and down the Mississippi River to the Gulf of Mexico. But this dominance was soon to pass into the hands of Great Britain, by the crowning victory of Wolfe at Quebec — the turning-point in modern history. Fiske closed his work with the following tribute to the colonizing and nation-mak ing power of the English race, whose achievements in these directions are to be presented in the suc ceeding volumes of this history: — "Wherever, in any of the regions open to colo nization, this race has come into competition with other European races, it has either vanquished or absorbed them, always proving its superior capac ity. Sometimes the contest has assumed the form of strife between a civilization based upon whole- 432 Dedication to E. A. Freeman some private enterprise and a civilization based upon government patronage. Such was the form of the seventy years' conflict that came to a final decision upon the Heights of Abraham, and not the least Interesting circumstance connected with the discovery of this broad continent is the fact that the struggle for the possession of it has revealed the superior vitality of institutions and methods that first came to maturity in England, and now seem destined to shape the future of the world." Fiske was nearly two years writing ' Tiie'Dis-^ covery of America." He finished his manuscript November 14, 1891, and we have the record of his researches and the steady progress of his composi tion from the beginning to the end. He made care ful studies of original documents and authorities on all disputed points. There was very little re modelling of the text as it flowed from his pen. In fact, the printers were close on his heels all the way through, which is evidence that he started with a very definite plan in his mind. The work was published In the spring of 1892, and its publication was a fitting commemoration of the four hundredth anniversary of the voyage of Columbus, It bore the following dedication to England's great historian: — TO EDWARD AUGUSTUS FREEMAN A SCHOLAR WHO INHERITS THE GIFT OF MIDAS, AND TURNS INTO GOLD WHATEVER SUBJECT HE TOUCHES, I DEDICATE THIS BOOK, WITH GRATITUDE FOR ALL THAT HE HAS TAUGHT ME 433 John Fiske And how was the work received? There can be no doubt on this point: it was received with great applause. The wide and accurate learning con spicuous on every page, the rational consideration given to disputed points in the narrative, and the judicial fairness with which judgment was ren dered regarding them, above all, the fine historic Insight and ripe scholarship displayed in uniting the discovery of America with the other world- movements of the time, could not but impress in teUigent readers with the fact that a historic work of the first importance had been produced in America itself. Among the many appreciations the work re ceived, I find two which may be regarded as rep resentative of the highest critical judgment be stowed upon it. The one is a lengthy review of the work in the "New York Sun," written by Mayo W. Hazeltine, a literary critic who possessed an exceptionally fine knowledge of Spanish literature, and who was especially well versed in the facts of Spanish-American history. The following extracts from Mr. Hazel tine's article give his judgment upon the general character and value of the work: — "What will Invest this book with a strange charm for the general reader is the fact that there is not one of its twelve chapters in which the author, though he evinces no proclivities to paradox, does not arrive at conclusions more or less divergent from the commonly received opinions, so that the 434 Value of the Work work gains from its treatment something of the same fascination of novelty which the subject had for the contemporaries of Columbus. Where the statements and deductions made by preceding his torians are reaffirmed, it is always plain that the evidence has been subjected to independent scru tiny, and often confirmatory testimony is added. "When we bear in mind the scope of this narra tive and the multitude of details which the author is led to touch, the accuracy exhibited is surprising, not to say amazing! We have scrutinized the book from the first page to the last, and with the delib erate purpose of detecting mistakes if we could — especially in references to the history of Spain with which we happen to be somewhat conversant, we supposed that a slip might be discernible. We have been unable to discover a single inadvertence, much less a distinct misstatement of facts. A dozen minor errors, had they been disclosed, would not have availed to efface or even cloud the general impression of exactitude. Homer sometimes nods, but In this instance, so far as we can see, there Is no deduction to be made on the score of momen tary negligence. "We do not hesitate to pronounce this book — and we speak with a distinct recognition of our in debtedness to Bancroft and Prescott — the most valuable contribution to history that has been made by an American. It is a book of which the author's countrymen may well be proud, whether they consider the range and variety of the topics discussed, or the patience, sagacity, and thorough ness with which each branch of enquiry is pursued, or the clearness and soundness of the judgments 435 John Fiske ultimately reached. Viewed as it should be, with due heed to aU that went before and after, the dis covery of America is a theme which might well tax the attainments and the energies of a score of collaborators, each working in his special province. That the whole of its vast significance should have been brought out by one man with scientific accu racy and with artistic vividness seems to us a very great achievement." The other appreciation mentioned is from Charles Eliot Norton, who, by his wide learning and his rare independence of thought, held a foremost place among the critical writers of the last half-century. Norton's appreciation was expressed In the follow ing note: — Shady Hill, 6 April, 1892. My dear Mr. Fiske: — You have given me a great pleasure in sending me a copy of your volumes on "The Discovery of America," and I thank you for it. I should value any gift from you as a token of regard and re membrance, but I value this book also for its own sake. I am reading it with great interest, instruc tion, and admiration. It takes rank at once as the best book on the subject, and it seems likely to hold this place permanently. For breadth of view, for intelligent marshalling of the facts, and vivid presentation of them, for abundance of leaming easily held in hand — for mastery, in fine, the book is without a rival in the field ! It reminds me pleasantly of the days, so long ago, when I sought your aid to make the "North 436 Letter from C. E. Norton American" better than it had been; when I went to see you (at Miss Upham's) recovering from ill ness. How much you have done since then to jus tify my prognostications! I heartily congratulate you, and remain, with renewed thanks, Sincerely yours, C. E. Norton. John Fiske, Esq*. CHAPTER XXXIV CENTENNIAL OF THE DISCOVERY OF THE COLUMBIA RIVER — VISIT TO ALASKA — CELEBRATION OF FOUR HUNDREDTH ANNIVERSARY OF DISCOVERY OF AMERICA — HONORS FROM UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA AND FROM HARVARD — SCHOOL HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES — MESSAGE FROM TENNYSON I 892-1 894 Fiske was now subjected to an interruption of three years, 1892-94, In the working-out of his historic scheme. This interruption was occasioned by the demands upon him arising from a previous , engagement to write the life of his friend Dr. Ed- ' ward L. Youmans, his co-worker in promoting the doctrine of Evolution, from the request of his pub lishers to prepare a "History of the United States for Schools," and from a greatly increased call for his historic lectures and for memorial addresses as well as critical tributes to some of his co-workers in the historic field. Edward L. Youmans, whose great interest In the spread of scientific education and in the propaga tion of the doctrine of Evolution we have seen, died in January, 1887. He had expressed the wish that in case a record of his life should be prepared, it should be written by Fiske, and Fiske had agreed 438 Columbia River Centennial to undertake the task provided the materials could all be gathered and arranged ready to his hand. The work of gathering the materials was done by Youmans's sister. Miss Eliza A. Youmans. To this work Fiske gave a good portion of his spare time during the years 1892 and 1893. It was a task he carried about with him on his lecture campaigns, and his diaries reveal many a day in tervening between lecture engagements given to setting forth the many and great services of his friend in behalf of public enlightenment on the great questions of man's social and political well- being and depicting the many fine characteristics which made up his rare, inspiring personality. The centennial anniversary of the discovery and naming of the Columbia River would occur May II, 1892, and it was proposed by the people of Oregon to hold on this anniversary, at Astoria, a celebration commemorative of the event. Fiske's "Discovery of America" marked him as preemi nently the orator for the occasion. Accordingly, he received a cordial invitation to deliver "the spoken word." There was much In this invitation that ap pealed to him. He was familiar with the history of the discovery of the great river and the vast terri tory it drained, and its discovery stood out in his mind as the last of those great achievements, which, beginning with the voyage of Columbus In 1492, had, during three centuries of maritime adventure and internal exploration which followed, yielded 439 John Fiske substantially an accurate geographical knowledge of the continent of North America. The occasion was, therefore, of great historic interest to him. And there were other interests beside. We have already seen how profoundly he had been impressed by the scenic beauties of the region of the Columbia, and that from his own observations he was cogni zant of the fact that during the period of his own life the whole territoiy had been transformed, from a wilderness inhabited by savages, into a region filled with thriving cities and happy homesteads — Into the seat of three imperial Commonwealths. He longed, therefore, to look into the faces of the pioneers, the men and women who in their own lives had wrought so much for humanity; he longed to take part in a celebration not only commemora tive of a great historic event, but which was also illustrative of the signal social and political progress going on right about us in our own day. But could he arrange his lecture engagements so as to admit an acceptance of the Astoria invita tion? This came as a practical question immediately his " Discovery of America" was off his hands. He found but little difficulty in arranging a series of engagements directly helpful to the end in view. First, he arranged a series of engagements which, beginning at Albany, ran consecutively westward through Buffalo, Toledo, Chicago, St. Paul, Minne apolis, Omaha, to Denver. From thence he struck directly for the Pacific Coast and found the people 440 Celebration at Astoria of San Francisco, Oakland, Sacramento, Portland, Salem, Tacoma, Olympia, Seattle, and other towns, only too happy to have him with them again; and they gladly took all the lectures he could give. Fiske set out on this trip February 15, 1892, and met with his usual successes in the Eastern cities. He reached San Francisco April 6, and was as de lighted with the general aspect of nature on the Pacific Coast, and with the people, as during his previous visit of 1887. His lectures kept him pretty busy, yet he received many social courtesies, where he gave as well as received pleasure through his ever ready willingness to sing whenever he could have a good accompanist. In San Francisco he gave an afternoon talk on Schubert which he iUus trated by singing several of Schubert's songs. He was made at home in the families of the Reverend Dr. Stebbins, of San Francisco, and the Reverend Dr. Eliot, of Portland, and for each of these clergy men he preached his religious sermon on the " Mys tery of EvU." The celebration at Astoria was a memorable event. Representatives of the three States of Ore gon, Washington, and Idaho participated, and spe cial honors were bestowed upon the Oregon pioneers of fifty years before. The exercises lasted three days. Fiske was received with conspicuous honor. As he rose to speak he saw before him many white heads whose active lives measured the period of trans formation of this vast region of the Columbia from 441 John Fiske a wilderness to populous States representing the finest types of citizenship surrounded with all the amenities of modern civilization. His address was in his best style. He sketched in broad outlines the early explorations of the Spanish, Russian, and English navigators along the Pacific Coast of our continent, seeking safe harbors or passages to the Atlantic, down to the voyage of the American sea man. Captain Robert Gray, of Boston, who in 1792, in the good ship Columbia, appeared on this coast; and, braving the great turmoil of waters that had frightened away all other mariners, passed for the first time into what proved to be the mouth of a great river, a river which he named the Columbia, thus establishing the American title to the territory by external discovery. Fiske then turned to the events which led to the discovery of the territory from the interior — the Louisiana Purchase from France by Jefferson in 1803, which carried the title of the United States to the territory lying between the Mississippi River and the crest of the Rocky Mountains; followed by the Lewis and Clarke exploring expedition, which, starting from St, Louis in 1806, struck the upper waters of the Snake River, which were traced to their junction with the Columbia, and then the Columbia was traced to its mouth — thus add ing internal to external discovery in behalf of the United States. But, as the title of this vast northwest territory 442 His Address at Astoria was by the logic of eventsbeing settled in favor of the United States, there came the War of 1812 with Great Britain, which at its close left the title to all the territory west of the Rocky Mountains in dispute between the two governments. This complication was greatly aggravated by the claims of the Hudson's Bay Company, a powerful British corporation, which held a monopoly of the fur trade in all the region of the Northwest subject to Great Britain, The outcome was a temporary agree ment for a joint occupation of the territory open to the citizens of both Governments, Under this agreement the immigration from the States greatly predominated; and, after the great immigration of 1843-46 title to the territory by occupation as well as by discovery had clearly passed to the United States, Accordingly, when, by the treaty of 1846 between the two Governments, the great territory was amicably divided, there was no difficulty in se curing for the United States the region drained by the Columbia, which has yielded the goodly States of Oregon, Washington, and Idaho, as well as the section which rounds out the contour of Mon tana, The presentation of these points in their sequ en- tial order was a fine example of historic narration. The great migration into -the territory of 1843 was graphically told ; while the diplomatic negotiations between the United States and Great Britain, with reference to the boundary line between the Oregon 443 John Fiske territory and Canada, which were terminated by the treaty of 1846, were very lucidly set forth. The address closed with this fine peroration: — "Perhaps no one who has not visited this glo rious country can adequately feel the significance of these beginnings of its history. When one has spent some little time in this climate unsurpassed in all America, and looked with loving eyes upon scen ery rivalling that of Italy and Switzerland; when one has sufficiently admired the purple mountain ranges, the snow-clad peaks, the green and smiling valleys, the giant forests; when one has marvelled at the multifarious and boundless economic re sources, and realizes how all this has been made a part of our common heritage as Americans, one feels that this latest chapter in the discovery and occupation of our continent is by no means the least important. All honor to the sagacious mariner who first sailed upon these waters a century ago! and all honor to the brave pioneers whose labors and sufferings crowned the work! Through long ages to come theirs shall be a sweet and shining memory." This visit to the Pacific coast roused a strong desire in Fiske's mind to visit Alaska and get a glimpse at our new territorial possessions as well as at the incipient social and political order there developing. He found that he could make the round trip of about three weeks from Tacoma to Juneau and Glacier Bay, thence back to Vancouver, where he could take the train home via the Cana dian Pacific Railroad. Feeling the need of some 444 Trip to Alaska absolute mental rest after a steady pull of five months' lecturing, he decided to make the excur sion. He had a few more lectures to give in Port land, Tacoma, and Seattle, after his Astoria address. These were soon off his hands, and on May 26, 1892, he set sail from Tacoma on the steamer City of Topeka for Alaska. As he had no means of sending letters during this trip he wrote none. His notes In his diaries are con fined -to brief mentions of the wonderful scenery and the forbidding aspects of much of the social life that he saw, and to some mishaps he encountered on his way through Canada. He brought back to Mrs. Fiske a large collection of photographs which he said must be his memorial of a region possessing great potentialities for future development. He reached his home in Cambridge June 22, 1892, — as he records, with only one cent in his pocket, — after an absence of a little over four months, during which period he had lectured seventy-five times on historic themes, had given two addresses on the doctrine of Evolution, had given two Schubert en tertainments illustrating the development of mod ern song, and had preached from six pulpits his phUosophico-rellglous sermon, "The Mystery of Evil." As all his utterances were inspired by the highest ideals, and as in all instances his appear ance called forth large and enthusiastic audiences followed by much public discussion by the press, it will be readily seen from this lecture campaign alone 445 John Fiske that he was a great influence In setting forth to his countrymen the nature of Anglo-American civili zation and its import to the well-being of mankind. For the ensuing two and a half years Fiske's work was of a varied character. His lecturing took up the greater part of the time from November to May of each year, leaving but irregular intervals for literary composition. Then, too, the calls upon him for memorial addresses and for review articles were far beyond what he could respond to. During this period, however, there were some calls that he could not well refuse. On the four hundredth anniversary of the Discovery of America — October 21, 1892 — the City of Boston held an elaborate order of exer cises commemorative of the event, Fiske was the orator of the occasion, and gave a very lucid ac count of the historic events which led to the voyage of Columbus, of the voyage itself, how Columbus died not knowing what he had discovered, and how the new world he had found came to be named America. During this period he wrote two critical articles '^of very exceptional merit; one on Edward A, Free man, the eminent English historian, and the other > on Francis Parkman, the historian of the French domination in America, These two articles are among the best of Fiske's critical essays. Not only is fine appreciation meted out to these Iwo eminent historians of his own day, but the reader is'also led to see the principles which should govem in historic 446 Invited to Lecture in Oxford narration, principles which are well illustrated in his own work, — Indeed, in his judicious praise of Park- man, the attentive reader feels that similar praise can be bestowed upon his own work. Among the many calls upon him during this period for special lectures, he received one from the Department of University Extension of the Univer sity of Oxford, which was indeed flattering in its nature. It was as follows: — University Extension Delegacy, Examination Schools, Oxford, March 20, 1894. Dear Sir: — At the next summer meeting of University Exten sion students, which wiU be held in Oxford during next August, the chief series of lectures wUl be upon the history of the seventeenth century. Among other lectures, we are specially anxious to have a short course of three or four on the Pilgrim Fathers, and The Making of New England. The members of the University Extension _ Delegacy desire me to convey to you a very cordial invitation to deliver this course, if it is possible for you to be in England during the first three weeks in August. They feel that there is no one in the world, whom our English students would so much like to hear on this subject as yourself. If you could possibly come it would be the greatest delight to them, and to us. Your presence would also further that desire for the strengthening of the inter-national side of Uni versity life which has been gaining ground in recent years in Oxford and Cambridge. We are specially anxious that there should be more Intimacy be- 447 John Fiske tween the American and English Universities, and your presence at our summer meeting, which is at tended by a thousand students from all parts of the country, would carry with it a significance which would have a great effect. Should you happUy be able to accede to the request of the Delegacy, they would desire to have you entirely free in point of subject, and would gladly consult your con venience as to the day and hour of the lecture. But, failing other preference on your part, the evenings of August 17th, i8th, and 20th (Friday, Saturday, and Monday) or, the mornings of August 13th, 14th, and 15th, would be the most suitable. The last named dates would fall within the period of the British Association meeting at Oxford, when a great number of scientific men will be in residence. It would be very pleasant if your visit were to co incide with theirs. Believe me. Faithfully yours, Michael E. Sadler. Dr. John Fiske, Cambridge, Mass. It was with profound regret that Fiske was obliged to decline this invitation. The year 1894 brought him signal collegiate honors. The University of Pennsylvania, at Its Com mencement, June 5, bestowed [upon him the de grees of M.A., LL.B., and Litt.D., while Harvard University, at its Commencement, June 27 foUow ing, conferred upon him the degrees of Litt.D. and LL.D. To be thus honored, and especially by his 448 Collegiate Honors Alma Mater, was particularly gratifying to him. He was present at both Universities, when the honors were bestowed, and the marked expressions of approval, from the two bodies of alumni when the honors were announced, were quite overwhelm ing. With all his multifarious activities connected with his social life, his lecturing, his essay writing, etc., during these two and a half years, Fiske had two pieces of solid literary work, ever ready to his hand, and demanding every available moment of his time: his "Life" of his friend Youmans, and a short school history of the United States, His work on the former extended over the years 1892-93, He was somewhat delayed in finishing it owing to the desirabUity of having the approval of Herbert Spencer on certain points. The work was published early in 1894, with the following appro priate dedication : — TO HERBERT SPENCER My dear Spencer: — It was thirty years ago this month that our personal acquaintance began in so far as the exchange of letters could make such a beginning. It was at the time of my first visit to Youmans, in this very street, and within a stone's throw from where I now sit writing; and as the last of this memorial volume goes hence to the press, recollections of days that can never come again crowd thickly upon me. Our friend expressed a wish that if his biography were to be written I should be the one lo do it; no sign from him is needed to assure me that he would have been glad to have me dedi cate it to you. Pray accept the book, my dear Spencer, with 449 John Fiske all Its imperfections, in token of the long friendship we have shared with each other, and with him, who has gone from us; and believe me, as always. Faithfully yours, John Fiske. Irving Place, Netw York, February 12, 1894. A natural outcome of Fiske's lectures, his maga zine articles, and his published volumes was a wide spread interest in American history. His way of looking at human history as a process of evolution ary development, the outcome of causes having their origin in the conditions of human life, com bined with his great power of individual characteri zation and his simple, easy-flowing style of narra tion, made a great impression upon educators, and there came a persistent call upon his publishers for a short history of the United States written by him and adapted to pupils In the upper grades of the grammar schools. Fiske gave the project of a school history much consideration on his lecture excursions during the year 1892. His railway travelling gave him frequent opportunities for what he called "framing his thought" for literary projects as weU as for direct literary composition. His knowledge was so thor oughly organized in his mind and his memory was so tenacious of details that he could easily think out a literary proposition in all Its elements before putting pen to paper. In the matter of composition, he was so accustomed to think without paper that 450 short History for Schools some of the finest passages in his writings were fully composed while he was being whirled physi cally over the country. IUustrative of his habit of mental projection I remember once taking a train from Rochester to Buffalo, and finding him at one end of the car appar ently dozing. Upon being gently touched, he roused quickly, and to my enquiry if he was resting, he said: "Oh, no, I was at work on an article for the 'Atlantic Monthly'!" Not observing any writing materials, I said: "But you don't seem tohave made much progress!" "Oh, yes, I have!" he re plied. Then he added: " I can compose my thought as well here as anywhere else; and when I reach Brother Head's, at Chicago, all I 'U have to do will be to spin out my thought on paper." The preparation of a history of the United States which should present in one small volume the story of the discovery of America, the colonization of North America, the Revolutionary War, and the establishment of our Federal Union, a story which should be written in a style to interest young people and at the same time be adapted for use as a textbook in schools, was certainly a literary task very different from anything Fiske had hitherto undertaken. It presented many serious difficulties. In the first place, there was the great difficulty of attempting to squeeze the narrative of four centu ries of stirring events within the prescribed limits without making the story dull. Then, again, so 451 John Fiske much compression would require the wisest selec tion of details and their proper grouping in order to bring out clearly in the narrative the true rela tions of cause and effect, so that young minds mights experience the charm that is felt in seeing an event ( emerge naturally from its causes. Mature consid eration of these difficulties, (coupled with thq^fSct that he was familiar with the whole story ,^j led Fiske to the conclusion that they could be sufmounted, provided the text could be supplemented by sug gestions to teachers as to proper methods of arous ing the interest of pupils in historic subjects. To do this adequately, however, would require a defi nite knowledge of school conditions which he did not possess. This obstacle was overcome by his publishers' engaging Dr, Frank A, Hill, an educator of wide experience in practical teaching and In school ad ministration, and whose educational Ideas were in harmony with Fiske's, to assist in preparing the work for efficient use in the schools. Some time was taken in planning the distinctiy educational fea tures of the work. By January, 1893, the general plan was completed, and Fiske settied down to the composition of the work as his most serious literary task for the time being. This took much the greater part of his time not given to lecturing during the years 1893-94. He found it the most exacting literary task he had ever attempted. It was, how ever, a piece of literary and educational work well 452 < Message from Tennyson done; and it has had, and Is still having, a great influence in public education. In January of this year, Fiske received a message from Tennyson that was most gratifying to him. In Tennyson's poetry, Fiske found much that appealed to his highest aspirations, "In Memoriam," and "The Two Voices," particularly, with their sweetly solemn music, and their complete Impregnation with the spiritual implications of the doctrine of Evo- '^" lution, were ever in his mind, not only as master pieces of literature, but also as harbingers of that awakening, through the revelations of science, to the immense spiritual realities of human life that the coming years would bring. This message from Tennyson came in a very happy, personal way. Sir Henry Irving began an engagement in Boston at this time, and, as was his custom, he sent tickets to Fiske and his family for the opening night. On reaching the theatre, Fiske was met by Mr. Bram Stoker, Sir Henry's manager, a gentleman of fine literary and artistic culture, who said : — "Fiske, I have a special message for you from Lord Tennyson. I was visiting him in 1892 at Far ringford, Isle of Wight. Whilst we were talking after dinner I happened to mention something in your volume on 'American Political Ideas.' Tenny son then enquired in a very interested way: 'Do you know John Fiske?' "I answered that you were an old and dear friend of mine. He then said : ' When you see John 453 John Fiske Fiske, will you tell him, from me, that I thank him most heartily and truly for all the pleasure and profit his books have been to me? ' " I then said, ' I shall write to him to-morrow, and tell him what you have said, and I know it will be a great delight to him,' "He answered quickly: 'No! Don't write. Wait till you see him and then tell him direct from me, through you, how much I feel indebted to him,'" Fiske was, of course, delighted, and immediately went after his wife and daughters who had gone forward into the theatre, and brought them back to have Mr, Stoker repeat the message. In the time between the giving of the message and its deUvery, Lord Tennyson had died, so that it came to Fiske, as it were, from the grave. CHAPTER XXXV RESUMES WORK ON HISTORIC SCHEME — COMPRE HENSIVE NATURE OF SCHEME — PHILOSOPHIC UNITY UNDERLYING IT — SEQUENTIAL ORDER OF ITS PARTS — CIVIL WAR LECTURES — REFLEC TIONS ON UNITED STATES HISTORY — FISKE'S TRIBUTE TO PARKMAN APPLIED TO HIMSELF 1895 With the school history off his hands, Fiske was enabled to return (with unencumbered mind) to his great historic undertaking. His lecturing contin ued, but for lecturing on historic subjects It was not necessary for him to prepare any new lectures ; he was now so familiar with all the important eventS^ and characters in American histoiy that he could speak extempore upon any subject in this history that might be desired. As has been noted already, he greatly enjoyed extempore speaking. There was a freedom about it that he greatly liked, and when he came before appreciative and responsive audi ences he frequently let his discourse run beyond the customary lecture hour. His working out of his school history, notwith standing all the perplexities of adapting it to par ticular conditions, was of great service to him, in that he was compelled to traverse his whole historic scheme and bring its various features into their 455 John Fiske sequential order, so that they might appear in their interrelatedness and at the same time as forming a related chapter in the world's civilization. Inasmuch as he was not permitted to complete his great historic undertaking, — as, in fact, he left its culminating feature untouched, — it is worth while here to pause a little and from this school his tory as a sort of ground plan to gather up in their structural unity the several features of the greater undertaking upon which he was engaged, which was nothing less than presenting to his countrymen the drama of American civiUzation, of which the politi cal organization of the United States was the crown ing feature, as an evolutionary development from antecedent causes and of great significance to the future civilization of the world. With a compre hension of his purpose in its entirety we shall the better be enabled to appreciate the nature of his his toric labors already recorded as well as of those still to be set forth. His definitive purpose may be stated as an at tempt to establish the unity or interrelated char acter pervading the following five lines of historic development during the last five centuries : — I. That the expansion of European thought dur ing the latter half of the fifteenth centuiy in re gard to the nature and extent of the earth's surface, coupled with the desire to bring the products of its various divisions within easy access for the needs of mankind, together with the desire for empire, led 456 Comprehensive Historic Scheme in the fifteenth, sixteenth, and seventeenth cen turies to maritime explorations which resulted In the discovery and delimitation of the better part of a new world, the world of America. II. That the social and political disturbances in Europe during the sixteenth, seventeenth, and eighteenth centuries together with the desire for Individual betterment, — for civil and religious liberty, caused the migration of great numbers of people to North America that they might begin life anew under entirely new conditions of livelihood, and with much readjustment of social, religious, and political relations. III. That in the struggle for world-empire be tween Spain, France, England, and Holland, dur ing the sixteenth, seventeenth, and eighteenth centuries, England was the most successful, and became possessed, by colonization and by conquest, of much the more important part of North Amer ica, a vast territorial empire, the colonization of which went rapidly forward mainly by people of the English race; that when, In the middle period of the eighteenth century, England's colonial empire in America was fully established, she attempted, during a period of political regression, to subject her colonists to forms of colonial vassalage repug nant to their Ideas of ciyil liberty as well as to the fundamental principles of English liberty and Eng lish law: whereupon thirteen of her colonies vigor ously protested against her unjust and Illegal acts. IV. That in the latter half of the eighteenth century the people of thirteen of her American colonies, English by nature, revolted against her unjust encroachments upon their rights and liber- 457 John Fiske ties and succeeded in dispossessing her of all rights in the territory occupied by them, and in establish ing an independent federated government of their own, "a government of the people, by the people, for the people" — the present federated constitu tional government of the United States. V. That this federated form of constitutional government was the direct outgrowth of English ideas of civil and religious liberty developed through centuries of violent struggles against political and religious oppression In England, ideas which, in the rich experiences of colonial life, had ripened to complete fruition; that during the centuiy of its existence this federated form of constitutional gov ernment had acquired great accessions of territory until it reached from the Atlantic to the Pacific; that it had so far proved itself the most successful form of political organization yet devised for the well- being of human society; that people from aU na tions were flocking to it for citizenship, while at the same time it was exerting a powerful regenerative influence upon all forms of government throughout the world. « Here we have the evidence of a great purpose, one much broader than that of giving a faithful record of certain historic events of much interest in themselves, or of treating certain periods of American history as unrelated. We have, rather, the evidence of a purpose to present as a sequential narrative the causes which led to the discovery of America and the transplanting to it of the better elements of European civilization, where under en- 458 Breadth of View tirely new conditions these elements had had a fresh development to the great betterment of man kind — the whole forming a distinctly related chap ter in the history of the world's civilization. Viewed in this light, Fiske's theme had a distinct connection with the great uprising of the European mind in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, when, weary of its long bondage to priestly intolerance, ignorance, and superstition, it began to assert itself against political and religious tyranny in demands for nobler interpretations of human life, its duties and its meaning — all tending to the betterment of man's social and political condition here on earth, as "that to which the whole creation moves." His theme, therefore, was a branch of the great Re naissance movement, and what particularly distin guishes his treatment of it from that of other his torians is the breadth of view in which the theme is conceived, a conception which, with rare historic insight, enabled him to trace both cause and effect in Interpreting this great chapter in modern his tory. So much for Fiske's general theme and its stmc tural features as these stood related at this time — 1895 — in his mind. The opening of this year reveals him busy on the second and third divi sions of his theme — the colonial period. As this period comprised the establishment under widely different conditions of fourteen separate colonies, which differed more or less in their forms of govern- 459 John Fiske ment and varied greatly in their industrial pur suits, he grouped them for clearness in presenting their interrelatedness and their respective features into four divisions: (i) the Southern colonies, Vir ginia, Maryland, the Carolinas, and Georgia; (2) the New England colonies, Massachusetts, New Hamp shire, Rhode Island, and Connecticut; (3) the Dutch and Quaker colonies. New York, Pennsyl vania, Delaware, and New Jersey; (4) the French colony. New France or Canada. The following six years, 1895 to 1901, — the close of his life, — ¦ were given by Fiske to completing his history of these colonies, and he lived to finish substantially this section of his task, thus complet ing the first four divisions of his great theme, thereby connecting, by the narrative of a rich colo nial experience, which reflected much of contem poraneous European history, the historic sequence between the discovery of America and the inaugu ration of Washington as President of the United States, an event which signalled the entrance of a new nation with essentially a new form of govern ment upon the stage of the world's intemational activities. The following is the order in which the several volumes of Fiske's historical writings should be taken in order to get the sequential flow of the narrative: — "The Discovery of America." "Old Virginia and her Neighbours." 460 Order of Historical Writings "The Beginnings of New England." "The Dutch and Quaker Colonies." "New France and New England." "The American Revolution." "The Critical Period of American History." -^ During the period under review — 1895 to 1 901 v — the following three portions of the above works were published: "Old Virginia and her Neigh bours," in 1897, "The Dutch and Quaker Colonies," in 1899, and "New France and New England," in 1901. With what thoroughness of research, candid weighing of evidence, and profound sympathy, the principles of democracy that were here slowly evolving were set forth, the volumes are them selves abundant evidence. Their merits have been so generally conceded, it is not necessary to con sider them in detail. Here should be mentioned the publication, in 1900, of a course of lectures which were quite Inci dental to Fiske's general historic scheme. We have seen that in 1886 he prepared a course of lectures, Illustrated with the aid of the stereopticon, on the military campaign in the Mississippi Valley during the Civil War down to the battle of Chattanooga. These lectures were very popular, and were given in many cities from Lewiston, Maine, to Portland, Oregon. Now, in 1900, no longer desiring to use the material as lectures, he added a graphic ac count of the battle of Nashville, giving due honor 461 John Fiske to General Thomas, and published the whole in one volume under the title of "The Mississippi Valley in the Civil War." Nowhere in Fiske's writings do his remarkable powers of lucid description, com bined with keenness of insight and orderly arrange ment of subject-matter, appear to better advantage than in this work. In preparing his lectures he had the assistance of distinguished officers in the con tending armies and his work has had the cordial approval of the best military critics. The non-sequential order In which the historic volumes were published, and the long intervals between some of them, have given rise to the opinion that they did not present a continuous narrative during the period covered ; that with all their charm of style they were detached essays on various periods of American history, more or less interre lated, it is true, but without a distinct historic con tinuity running through them. This is a great mistake. We have already seen that from the beginning Fiske had a very definite plan for his undertaking considered as an interre lated whole; but, being enabled to prepare certain portions of his narrative out of their sequential order in his scheme, he was induced to publish them from time to time, knowing full well that, while they would answer to a temporary interest in them selves, they would fall into their proper places, their sequences, as he brought his undertaking to completion. And the reader, taking his historic 462 Order of Historical Writings volumes in the above order, finds no loss of conti nuity in a narrative running back to the Renais sance period, and in which Is reflected much of the finest thought of modern times in its process of de velopment. Indeed, the reader of these volumes has his in terest first called to the existence of a vast conti nent or a new world, inhabited by races of men in various stages of barbarism and semi-civilization, a new world wholly unknown to the European world of the fifteenth century. He then has told him the story of the chance discovery of this new world and its exploration by the European peoples during the sixteenth, seventeenth, and eighteenth centuries. He Is made acquainted with the inci dents connected with the transplanting to this great wilderness of the elements of European civili zation and the rise of distinct colonies with strong European affiliations. He has traced out for him, with fine philosophic insight, the development of a high degree of social and political order based on the principles of personal liberty and local self-gov ernment — the outcome largely of these new con ditions of colonial life. He has presented to him with great fulness of knowledge the external condi tions which impelled these colonies to find protec tion against common dangers by combining their forces — in fact, how they grew together and formed a League of Friendship to which they yielded a stronger allegiance than to the European powers 463 John Fiske from which they sprang. He has set before him a graphic account of how, under this League of Friendship, the colonies rebelled against the un just exactions of Great Britain, and through a great war achieved their political independence among the nations of the earth. He has pointed out to him with rare Insight the Inherent weakness of the League of Friendship as a means of defence against internal and external dangers and the various ef forts to remedy these defects. In the last volume he finds such a vivid, impartial account of the immortal Constitutional Convention of 1787 that he is fairly enabled to see Washington, Franklin, Madison, Hamilton, James Wilson, and their asso ciates at work welding with profound wisdom these distinctly separate colonies into a powerful national unity. Finally, as the reader comes to the last pages of this volume wherein is a brief but impres sive account of the inauguration of Washington as the first President of the United States, he sees that this event is the direct outcome of antece dent causes, and that Fiske is the historian who has most distinctly set It forth in Its full historic development and in its profound significance to the political well-being of mankind. As the reader closes the concluding volume of this series with Washington taking the oath of office as President of the new Republic, he experi ences a profound regret that he is not to have, in the interpretation of the political career of the new 464 Scheme never Completed nation during the first century of its existence, the guiding hand of the historian who has, with such fulness of knowledge, such freedom from bias, such keen, philosophic insight into "the thoughts that move mankind," given us the story of Its political genesis. This is a regret that all students of historic science fully share, for In this branch of science Fiske is a recognized master; and it was weU known that to this portion of his theme he had given particular attention, inasmuch as the United States illustrates, more instructively than any other political experience or unit, the inter play of the two primal factors in nation-making — mUitancy and industrialism. Broadly speaking, in national life political parties arise directly or indirectly out of the conflict between these two antagonistic factors: the former ever tending to the integration of the social forces into a more coherent, centralized political organization, curb ing Individual freedom and local self-government; the latter, ever tending to the differentiation of the social forces, thereby securing expansion of the political organization accompanied by greater per sonal freedom and increased local self-government, Fiske accepted as one of the facts of historic sci ence, as well as one of the truths of Evolution, that with advancing civilization the militant type of political organization was declining; and that all the provisions for social well-being born of mili tancy were giving way before a type of political 465 John Fiske organization based on industrialism ; that militancy had done its work in bringing human society into conditions where industrialism could prevail, and that further social progress must come through making the Industrial type of political organization evermore paramount in the structure of national life. The inauguration of Washington was the em phatic announcement to the political world that a new nation had come with its militant forces in complete subjection to its industrial forces in its political organization, Fiske during his later years gave much thought to the history of the United States during the first century of its existence, considered In the light of its evolutionary development. He saw here, un derneath the strife of political parties, and even the issues of the great Civil War, the persistent struggle between the two types of antagonistic political forces — militant and Industrial — which were duly recognized in the form of govemment established for this union; and it was his purpose, in succeeding volumes, so to set forth the order of events that they could be clearly seen in their rela tion to, as well as the outcome of, the struggle for mastery between these two types of antagonistic forces. To this end he was making, at the time of his death, a careful study of the decisions of the United States Supreme Court, wherein he found much light thrown upon the development of na tionality, on the one hand, through emphasis of 466 Tribute to Parkman the militant power of the Constitution ; and on the other hand, to the curbing of executive power through emphasis of the industrial rights and liber ties of the people guaranteed by this same politi cal charter. I cannot better close this account of Fiske's his torical labors than by applying to him as a his torian the very words he applied to his compeer, Francis Parkman. In his tribute to Parkman he said : — "Nowhere can we find a description of despotic government more careful and thoughtful, or more graphic and lifelike, than Parkman has given us in his volume on 'The Old Regime in Canada.' Sel dom, too, will one find a book fuller of political wisdom. The author never preaches like Carlyle, nor does he hurl huge generalizations at our heads like Buckle; he simply describes a state of society that has been. But I hardly need say that his de scription is not — like the Dryasdust descriptions we are sometimes asked to accept as history — a mere mass of pigments flung at random upon a canvas. It is a picture painted with consummate art; and in this instance the art consists in so handling the relations of cause and effect as to make them speak for themselves. These pages are alive with political philosophy, and teem with object les sons of extraordinary value. It would be hard to point to any book where History more fully dis charges her high function of gathering friendly les sons of caution from the errors of the past, "Great in his natural powers and great in the 467 John Fiske use he made of them, Parkman was no less great in his occasion and in his theme. Of all American historians he is the most deeply and peculiarly American, yet he is at the same time the broadest and most cosmopolitan. The book which depicts at once the social life of the Stone Age, and the victory of the English political ideal over the ideal which France inherited from imperial Rome, is a book for all mankind, and for all time. The more adequately men's historic perspective gets ad justed, the greater it will seem. Strong in its in dividuality, and like to nothing else, it clearly belongs, I think, among the world's few master pieces of the highest rank, along with the works of Herodotus, Thucydides, and Gibbon." Fiske's theme was a far greater one than that which engaged the life labors of Parkman, impor tant as that theme was. As we have seen, Fiske's theme was nothing less than tracing the antece dents of this great American Republic back to the period of the Renaissance, in whose genesis was reflected the persistent struggle between the mili tant and industrial forces of civilized society dur ing the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries; to gether with setting forth the conditions of its birth, and what it stands for politically by virtue of its national existence of over a century. Certainly this is one of the greatest of historic themes; and in view of his conception of it and his labors to set his conception forth, the appraisement of Fiske as a historian is yet to be made. CHAPTER XXXVI INCIDENTAL LITERARY WORK: "A CENTURY OF SCIENCE AND OTHER ESSAYS" — "ESSAYS, HIS TORICAL AND literary" — "tHE STORY OF A NEW ENGLAND TOWN" — PHILOSOPHICO-RELI GIOUS ESSAYS — EMERSON, FISKE, SPENCER, DARWIN I 895- I 900 Busy as Fiske was during these six years, 1895 to 1900, with his general historic lectures and with completing the colonial period of his history, he had many calls upon him for special articles and memorial addresses. Then, too, his active mind was ever seeing, in the evolving world about him, subjects caUing for the expression of his thought. Some of these calls he took pleasure in responding to, and so we have a number of very delightful essays on a variety of subjects overflowing with his wide and varied knowledge, his tolerant spirit, his fine appreciation of sterling character com bined with intellectual power, and his keen, pene trating insight into all forms of literary shams. These productions have been gathered into three volumes and published under the titles of "A Cen tury of Science and Other Essays," in one vol ume, and "Essays Historical and Literary," in two volumes. 469 John Fiske While all these products of his pen are full of pregnant thoughts, the overflow of a richly laden mind, some of them are of particular interest and value. The two on " Evolution; Its Scope and Pur port," and "Its Relation to the Present Age," are specially noteworthy as showing how this philo sophic conception of the phenomenal universe is entering into all forms of scientific investigation, and how it is affecting present philosophic and re ligious thought. The one on "Old and New Ways of treating History" is replete with a thorough knowledge of the great histories of the world and their "points of view," and is full of wise sugges tions as to the study of histoiy. The three essays on Parkman, Tyndall, and Huxley are admirable tributes to men who have enriched human knowl edge greatly in three directions — men whom he knew intimately, and with whose works he was familiar; while the seven essays on American states men from Hamilton to Webster are so full of the political history of the United States for the first half -century of its existence, and of general politi cal philosophy, that they are clear indications of the impartial, philosophic, yet interesting manner in which United States history as a whole was to be treated in the volumes to be given to this por tion of his great theme. Then, too, in the "Century of Science" volume, there are three essays which well illustrate how overwhelming Fiske could be in his criticism of 470 Incidental Literary Work literary shams, or of "Eccentric Literature." These essays bear the following titles and they have had a wide reading: "Guessing at Half and Multiplying by Two"; "Forty Years of Bacon-Shakespeare Folly"; "Some Cranks and their Crotchets." One memorable historic address of this period is not included in these volumes, "The Story of a New England Town" — an address delivered by Fiske at Middletown, Connecticut, October 19, 1900, on the two hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the settlement of the town. This address was the last of his historic productions, and was published in the "Atlantic Monthly" for December, 1900, and subsequently in 191 1 in the second edition of his volume on "American Political Ideas." This address, while given mainly to matters of local Interest, contains some touches of a personal nature reminiscent of Fiske's boyhood experiences In the old town. It was an occasion of much signifi cance to him. The conspicuous honors bestowed upon him on this festal occasion brought distinctly before him the conditions under which he had left the town forty years before and the feelings of pro found sadness that were then surging through his mind. What eventful intellectual experiences had been his since then! And what a change in the public mind on religious matters had taken place in the old town that would admit the honors bestowed upon him on such an occasion as this! 471 John Fiske Fiske, as we have seen, was a firm believer in the purifying, ennobling effect that science was hav ing, and was destined still more to have, upon the religious faith of mankind. He was greatly strength ened in this belief by the many cordial expressions of approval of his philosophico-rellgious writings which came to him from people in all parts of the country when on his lecture tours. Indeed, when on his lecture trips he was cast over Sunday In a town blessed with a liberal church, the occasion sel dom passed without his being asked to occupy the pulpit. These applications became so numerous and so urgent that he was induced to prepare three addresses adapted to pulpit utterances, their titles being "The Mystery of Evil," "The Cosmic Roots of Love and Self-Sacrifice," "The Everlasting Re ality of Religion." All were intended as Ulustra- tions of the higher phases of the Evolutionary doctrine. The first was designed to supply some consid erations which he was obliged to omit in his Con cord address on "The Idea of God." The second is, with a few slight changes, his Phi Beta Kappa Oration delivered at Harvard University In June, 1895. This was intended, in the first place, as a reply to Huxley's famous Romanes lecture on "Evolution and Ethics," given at the University of Oxford in 1893. In this lecture Huxley main tained that the ethical progress of society is op posed to the cosmic process of evolution. The 472 Through Nature to God third was intended to show that that inward con viction, the craving for a Final Cause, the theistic assumption which is the basis of the religious idea, is one of the master facts of the universe, and as much entitled to respect as any fact in physical nature can possibly be. These addresses were repeated many times, and never did they fail to bring forth expressions of deeply aroused thought. On one occasion, after the delivery of the one on "The Everlasting Real ity of Religion," an elderly lady came to him, with much emotion, and said, "All my life I have been an ardent Presbyterian, but I thank God you were 'evolved.' " These addresses were published in 1899 in a volume by themselves. Fiske was perplexed for a fitting title. FinaUy he struck out "Through Nature to God," saying, "That is a title which ex presses my religious faith and at the same time fitly caps the titles to my two Concord addresses." The volume has had a wide circulation, and It has brought great religious hope and comfort to many minds. I have before me many letters from persons wholly unknown to Fiske, in which are ex pressed feelings of profound gratitude for the great help the volume has been to them In enabling them to see that the doctrine of Evolution calls for a higher conception of God, a nobler conception of man and his place in the cosmic universe, than is presented by current theologies. The number of 473 John Fiske clergymen of various denominations who person ally expressed to him their substantial agreement with him in his interpretation of Evolution was so great that at times he was inclined to think 'he must be preaching an old-fashioned doctrine. •Then we have, at the close of this period, another memorable religious address. Harvard University has an endowed lectureship known as the " Inger soU Lectureship." The provisions of this endow ment require that under the auspices of the Uni versity there shall be delivered each year a lecture on the " Immortality of Man." Fiske was invited to deliver this lecture for the year 1900. He took great pleasure In complying, and on the evening of December 19, 1900, he gave in Sanders Theatre — the public hall of the University — an address under the title of "Life Everlasting." This was, indeed, a memorable address. Fiske brought before his hearers various views of immor tality held by peoples in the early stages of civili zation, and pointed out how they had given way before advancing knowledge. He also presented the views of some modern scientists denying the possibility of the continuance of life after death, and he brought into clear light the grounds for the wide prevalence of rational doubt on the sub ject owing to the unverifiable assumptions of dog matic theology. After giving the scientist the fullest warrant for his conclusions owing to the ab sence of experiential knowledge, he went straight 474 Life Everlasting to the central point in the modern issue over im mortality, in declaring that the absence of verifi able evidence of the continuance of conscious life after death was no presumption against its truth so long as our knowledge of phenomena is limited by the conditions of this terrestrial life; conditions which disqualify the mind for making negative assertions as to the existence of conscious mind under other conditions. He then passed to the consideration of the dis tinctive differences between materialism and con sciousness, and affirmed that there could be no such thing as the transformation of the one into the other; that they were entirely disparate in their natures; that conscious life forms no part of the closed circle of physical phenomena, but stands entirely outside of it, concentric with the segment which belongs to the nervous system. His conclusions were that the implications of the doctrine of Evolution, confirmed by the revela tions of science, did not at all favor the material istic doctrine that death ends all; rather that the cosmic process indicated that the production and perfection of the higher spiritual attributes of hu manity was a dramatic tendency in human life which was aimed at at the beginning, and which had been persistently followed through all the stages of human development. This involved the eternal reality of the human soul; and it was his belief that a further, deeper study of Evolution 475 John Fiske would supply a basis for a natural theology more comprehensive, more profound, and more hopeful for man than has yet been conceived. This address was Fiske's last public utterance on philosophic or religious subjects. It was alto gether fitting that it should have been made under Jh^ auspices of his alma mater. Among my visits to Fiske at this period one stands out in my memory with much distinct ness by reason of the subject of our conversation, I found him deeply immersed in Emerson, he hav ing just been reading Cabot's "Memoir of Ralph Waldo Emerson." He began by saying that he liked to dip Into Emerson now and then because he found him so impregnated with the evolutionary idea; that his insights, fragmentary and illogical though many of them were, oftentimes gave much food for thought, — in fact, were very tonic to the thinking mind. In reading Cabot's "Memoir" of Emerson he was struck by the fact that at the beginning of his literary career, in his essay on "Nature," published in 1836, Emerson gave un mistakable evidence of an evolutionary tendency in his line of thought. Fiske pointed out how com pletely the whole essay was saturated with the evo lutionary idea of life — "the continuous adjust ment of internal relations to external relations"; and also how this idea was distinctly adumbrated in the invocatory lines: — 476 Emerson's Evolutionary Ideas "A subtle chain of countless rings The next unto the farthest brings; The eye reads omens where it goes, And speaks all languages the rose; And striving to be man, the worm Mounts through all the spires of form." On my expressing much interest in the evidences of an evolutionary tendency in Emerson's line of thought, Fiske brought out several instances in Emerson's works, and particularly in his lecture on "The Relation of Man to the Globe" and in the introduction to his essay on "Poetry and Imagination," where the doctrine of Evolution is distinctly implied, not only as the divine method of creation, but also as a key to the right understand ing of the phenomena of the cosmic universe, in cluding organic life with conscious man as its crowning feature.^ Then, too, he dwelt upon the fact that Emerson was well acquainted with the nascent evolutionary thought of the first half of 1 In the latter, Emerson's insight into the process of Evolution was so emphatic as to be in place here: — " The electric word pronounced by John Hunter a hundred years ago, arrested and progressive development, indicating the way upward from the invisible protoplasm to the highest organisms gave the poetic key to natural science, of which the theories of Geoffroy St. Hilaire, of Oken, of Goethe, of Agassiz, Owen and Darwin in Zoology and botany, are the fruits, — a hint whose power is not yet ex hausted, showing unity and perfect order in physics. . . . Natural objects, if individually described and out of connection, are not yet known, since they are really parts of a symmetrical universe like the words of a sentence; and if their true order is found, the poet can read their divine significance orderly as in a Bible. Each animal or vegetable form remembers the next inferior and predicts the next higher." 477 John Fiske the last century, particularly with the thought of Goethe and Lamarck in regard to the development of organic life; as well as with the geological re searches of Lyell and his followers, with the import of these researches upon the doctrine of special divine creations. Fiske found much evidence that Emerson dipped penetratingly into the physical and chemical sciences of his early time; and he ac counted in a measure for the vague unrelated char acter of Emerson's evolutionary ideas by the fact that until Spencer and Darwin came in i860, with their verifying evidences, positive science could not give any distinct affirmation to the evolu tionary theory. Fiske dwelt upon the fact that the really produc tive portion of Emerson 's life came at the opening of a period of readjustment In human thinking on all ultimate questions, a period when science was steadily freeing the human mind from its bondage to the idea of personal fiatistic creations in the origin of things, and was pointing the way to a nobler con ception of the vera causa of the cosmic universe with man's place in it than had hitherto prevailed; and he credited Emerson with marvellous insights, not only into this evolutionary process of creation which science was revealing, but also into the bearing of this order of creation upon all the vari ous phases of cosmic phenomena, including the life of man. I suggested that one phase of the opposition to 478 Emerson's Evolutionary Ideas Emerson was owing to the fact that his idea of God was much too impersonal, much too abstract to satisfy the demand of the time for a personal God, for a Divine Creator distinctly knowable through human experience. Fiske readily assented, and then went on to say that Emerson's first step in his departure from his Unitarian brethren consisted in his denial of the orthodox conception of God as a personality in terms of the human mind. He held that Deity represented an order of Being so far transcending everything in human experience that the human mind could not possibly form any adequate con ception of the reality. In proof of this fact Fiske read from Cabot's "Memoir" of Emerson the fol lowing passage taken from Emerson's diary in 1838, the year of the famous Divinity School address, which, by its denial of a personal God so startled the whole Unitarian denomination from its condi tion of religious complacency: — "March, 1838, What shall I answer to these friendly youths who ask of me an account of theism and think the views I have expressed of the im personality of God desolating and ghastly? I say that I cannot find, when I explore my own con sciousness, any truth in saying that God is a per son, but the reverse, I feel that there is some pro fanation in saying he is personal. To represent him as an individual Is to shut him out of my conscious ness. He is then but a great man, such as the crowd worship. The natural motions of the soul are so 479 John Fiske much better than the voluntary ones that you will never do yourself justice in dispute. The thought is not then taken hold of ' by the right handle ' ; does not show itself proportioned and in its true bear ings. It bears extorted, hoarse, and half witness. I have been led, yesterday, into a rambling exculpa tory talk on theism. I say that here we feel at once that we have no language; that words are only auxUiary and not adequate, are suggestions and not copies of our cogitation. I deny personality to God, because it is too little, not too much — Life, personal life, is faint and cold to the energy of God." ' I then asked If this was not the idea of God im plied in Spencer's "Unknowable," and precisely the Idea of God that Fiske had himself endeavored to set forth In all his writings? "Certainly," was Fiske's reply; and he also stated that because science cannot in any way positively affimi the characteristics of a personal God in terms of human understanding, it is re garded by many religious people as wholly athe istic and materialistic in character. I then enquired how Fiske accounted for the fact that Emerson, with his idea of Deity and his evo lutionary insight, was so insensible to the doctrine of Evolution when It was brought forward with such supporting evidence In i860 by Spencer and Dar win? I remarked that the concluding chapter in Darwin's "Origin of Species" alone ought to have ' Cabot's Memoir of Ralph Waldo Emerson, vol. i, p. 341. 480 Emerson's Evolutionary Ideas brought joy to Emerson's heart: yet it does not appear that he ever read it. In reply, Fiske said that Emerson's mind, with all its fine ennobling characteristics, was in many respects individual and illogical, and we must take it as we find it. In no sense was Emerson a persist ent student of cosmic phenomena in any scientific way. For the truth of a proposition he relied upon his impression regarding it, upon how he happened to feel, rather than upon a rational consideration of the facts upon which the proposition was based. This Is shown in one of his most emphatic utter ances. In his essay on "Inspiration" he says: "I believe that nothing great and lasting can be done except by inspiration, by leaning on the secret au gury." Now, in the promulgation of the doctrine of Evolution by Spencer and Darwin there was no assertion of " inspiration," no leaning upon a "secret augury," but a direct appeal to human reason with a proposition based upon a mass of well- verified facts. For some reason that appeal did not strike Emer son favorably. Fiske further said, it might be alleged, in explana tion of Emerson's silence regarding the doctrine of Evolution with an idea of Deity so closely resem bling his own, that Emerson's years of intellectual productivity had passed — he was nearly sixty years old. Cabot tells us that his decline began about this time. Certainly it Is remarkable that during the twenty years between i860 and 1880, a period when 481 John Fiske the whole scientific world was adjusting itself to the doctrine of Evolution as the rational process of cosmic creation, bringing vital changes in philo sophic, religious, and practical thinking; and when Spencer and Darwin were being widely hailed as the harbingers of a new era in the development of humanity, not a word of recognition of their signal services came from Emerson, he, who, with true poetic insight, had seen their coming from afar. In Chapter XXVII we have seen that Spencer had an evident appreciation of the evolutionary as well as the theistic insights of Emerson. In view of this fact the foregoing conversation is given as evidence that while Emerson never gave any indi cation that the doctrine of Evolution with its the istic basis as propounded by Spencer had ever been considered by him, Fiske's line of philosophico- rellgious thought set forth in these pages, consists of a happy blending of the poetic philosophico- rellgious Insights of Emerson with the profound scientific cosmic truths established by Spencer and by Darwin. In closing this philosophico-rellgious portion of Fiske's life, mention should be made of a subject to which he had given much thought, and regard ing which he was awaiting a fitting occasion to express himself. The subject was the economic value in social well-being of spiritual, ethical, and aesthetic ideas. As an illustration he referred to the immense economic value that had come from 482 Economic Values the Christmas Idea: the large capital invested, and the great number of people employed in producing and distributing articles whose main purpose is to enable people, on one day in the year to give expressions of affectionate regard and remem brance one to another. This Christmas Idea arises from a universal spiritual and ethical feeling which is entirely distinct from the practical, economic questions of daily life. Again, he dwelt upon the fact that while the producing and consuming pow ers of a nation or a people of the articles neces sary for physical existence could be approximately determined, it was utterly impossible to put a limit upon the powers of production and consump tion of the human mind along the lines of man's spiritual, ethical, and aesthetic interests. Indeed, every embodiment of spiritual and ethical truth in material form but demanded others, so that when war shall cease and the nations shall give themselves over to the arts of peace, the cultivat ing of, and the ministering to, the needs of man's spiritual nature, over and above the needs of his physical nature, will be seen to be an economic factor of the first importance in the political and social well-being of humanity. CHAPTER XXXVII LECTURES AT LOWELL INSTITUTE — PREPARING NEW HOME ON BRATTLE STREET — TO TAKE PART IN THE KING ALFRED CELEBRATION AT WINCHESTER, ENGLAND — OUTLINE OF PRO POSED ADDRESS — TRIP TO GLOUCESTER FOR FRESH SEA AIR — DEATH AT GLOUCESTER — BURIAL AT PETERSHAM I9OI The remainder of our narrative can be briefly told. It is the record of the closing days of a rich, event ful life which had rendered conspicuous service in the development of human thought on the pro foundest themes which can engage the human mind, and which was contemplating many years of continued service in setting forth the signifi cance of the doctrine of Evolution In the interpre tation of man's social and political institutions, as well as his highest religious and philosophic ideals — a life which in its ripe maturity was brought to a sudden and untimely close. The year 1901 opened with Fiske engaged in completing the missing link in the continuity of the first portion of his historic scheme, the section re lating to the colonization of New France, or Canada under the domination of France, and its transfer to Great Britain, and the colonial history of New 484 New France and New England England between 1689 and 1765, as affected largely by her proximity to her troublesome French neigh bor. This task he substantially completed during the winter of 1900-01, thus consecutively round ing out his scheme down to the inauguration of Washington as President of the United States in 1789. The substance of this portion of his history, to which he gave the title "New France and New England," he utilized in a course of twelve evening lectures before the Lowell Institute in Boston dur ing February and March of this year. The manner In which these lectures were received was an attestation to the great hold Fiske had acquired upon the public mind, not only as a his torian, but also as an interpreter of the underlying principles which impel to human organizations both socially and politically. The mere announce ment of the lectures at once brought a demand for course tickets far exceeding the seating capacity of the Institute's large hall. An afternoon repetition of the course was then announced which met with a response equally emphatic. It was particularly gratifying to Fiske to be met with such responsive audiences in his own home, as it were. It was the best of evidence that reUgious prejudices had been largely outgrown, and that he had gained in no small measure the ear of the American public for the history of the great nation he now proposed to give — a nation whose genesis 485 John Fiske in the unfolding of the modern world he had en deavored clearly and philosophically to set forth. With the completion of his Lowell Institute lec tures in March, 1901, Fiske's lecturing for the sea son came to a close. During the remainder of the spring his chief occupation was preparing for the press his lectures on "New France and New Eng land," and in superintending the remodelling of his mother's house at 90 Brattle Street, Cam bridge, that it might possess certain features nec essary as the future home of himself and his family, together with suitable conveniences for the de clining years of his mother. We have seen that Mrs. Stoughton, in building her house in 1883, had distinctly in mind the idea of its ultimately becoming the Fiske homestead; and now that ad vanced years had brought the necessity of reUef from domestic cares and responsibilities — brought in fact the need of much consideration for herself on the part of others — she became very desirous that her long-contemplated project of having her home become the Fiske homestead should be car ried into effect. This involved many changes, not only to give Mrs. Stoughton her needed conven iences, but also to provide Fiske with three fea tures essential to the proper working of his mind in the prosecution of his literary work. These fea tures were: library space, sufficient for his large collection of books, and so retired as to answer for a work-room; a good-sized conservatory to hold 486 THE LIBRARY AT 90 BRATTLE STREET Preparing a New Home his choice collection of plants; and a music-room, wherein, by himself, or with his family, or with his friends, he could find diversions in the world's great music. The remodelling of Mrs. Stoughton's house was begun in the winter of this year and was contin ued during the spring, and Fiske watched the prog ress of the work on the "new hipe," as he called it, with great Interest; and as the spacious library and the attractive music-room came into being In con formity to his desires, his mind ran out in pleasant contemplation of the utilization of the former, not only for its legitimate purpose as a library, but also as a choice gathering-place for the free discus sion with his friends and neighbors of the vital questions In philosophy, history, science, and social well-being which were daily coming forward for consideration; and also to the utUization of the latter for the interpretation, by Professor Paine, himself, and others, of the masterpieces of the great musical composers. The demands of his lecturing had made it im possible in the past for him to utilize his home for social intercourse in these two ways save to rather a limited extent. Now that his lecturing was to be greatly diminished, and his home facilities greatly enlarged, he looked forward, in addition to in creased social enjoyments, to many years of fruit ful literary work, not only in the completion of his "History of the American People," but also in 487 John Fiske being able to bring out the work which had long lain near his heart — a history of the first five cen turies of the Christian era. While thus engaged during the spring of 1901 in preparing for the press his volume on " New France and New England" and in seeing his new home come into being, Fiske realized that the most im portant part of his historic task was yet before him. With the story of the genesis of the new nation of the United States fuUy told, and Its political organ ization as a republic under a constitutional form of government clearly set forth, he realized that he had now to present the historic development of this new nationality, with its complex and untried internal features and its very complicated extemal or international relations, into one of the most powerful political organizations of the earth: and all this during the first century of its existence. The spring of this year, therefore, was given to much pondering over the main events of the first century of the United States history in the endeavor to trace out in their causes the working of certain underlying evolutionary principles common to aU forms of civilized society. What particularly interested Fiske as he con templated the task before him was not alone the fact that he had to give an account of the working 'of a form of political organization now established for the government of the United States which had been described by the eminent French critic 488 Planning Details of his Work TocqueviUe as based on "a wholly novel theory," and which might "be considered as a great dis covery in modem political science." Rather, he was impressed by the fact that while this new form of government possessed many unique features, it was in its genesis a distinct product of Evolu tion; and that in its two most striking character istics, — its provisions for local self-government and for the exercise of the power of the people as a whole, as a nation, — it was the embodiment in a political organization of the two fundamental principles of the doctrine of Evolution itself: dif ferentiation and integration. Differentiation was recognized in the widest possible provisions for individual liberty and local self-government, while integration, or the combination of the power of the people as a whole, was recognized in provisions for federated action in all matters pertaining to na tional well-being. These two series of provisions for differentiation, or for protecting individual liberty, on the one hand, and for integration or concentrating the power of the people as a whole, on the other hand, were distinctly set forth in a written Constitution which had been accepted by the people of the thir teen United States as expressive of their sovereignty and the manner of its exercise; and thus for the first time in history was instituted a well-rounded government of the people, by the people, for the people. 489 John Fiske I saw him frequently during this period and found him planning his remaining volumes in the light of the Evolutionary phUosophy, which he applied to all history. Not that this philosophy assumed that there were certain definitely estab lished laws for the social and political development of all peoples to which their history had to con form. Rather, It was a philosophy derived from a wide study of man's social and political institutions, which had established the fact that all governments, all forms of political organizations were growths, were developments, out of racial characteristics, social needs, and environing conditions, and were always changing; and that the progress of every nation was owing to the manner or degree in which its political organization secured national protec tion to all its citizens combined with provisions for the utmost personal liberty in their thought, their speech, and their Industrial activities. Fiske's conversation relative to the work he had in hand was profoundly interesting. He had the chief events of United States history so clearly in mind and so distinctly related that they seemed the incidents in a well-rounded tale; and his re marks were embellished with such pregnant obser vations regarding the actors in these events as to show not only his freedom from bias, but also his capacity of putting himself in the actors' places and giving a rational interpretation to their activ ities. 490 Hamilton and Jefferson Two topics particularly he was fond of dwelling upon which I distinctly recall. These were: the personalities of Hamilton and Jefferson, and the opposing political principles they represented ; also Chief Justice Marshall and his great services in interpreting the Constitution. Fiske was a great admirer of Jefferson. He regarded him as the deepest thinker and the most far-seeing states man among those who had a part in the formation and establishment of our Government. In his mind Jefferson stood as the representative of the liber ties of the people, of local self-government against unduly centralized power. But this admiration for Jefferson did not blind Fiske in the least to the great abilities of Hamilton as a constructive states man, as shown in his efforts to secure, under the exigency of the times, a strong government and yet one republican in character, i Fiske pointed out how inevitable it was that In the formation of our Federal Government these two strong men should be at odds; and he dwelt upon the significance of the fact that the party divisions In the subsequent political history of the United States had turned primarily upon the polit ical principles enunciated by HamUton and Jeffer son. What was more remarkable stUl was the fact that the Democratic Party which claims Jefferson as its founder has not been slow to advocate a strong centralized government when in matters of national concern it became politically expedient 491 John Fiske to champion the supremacy of the Federal Gov ernment over local or sectional interests. Fiske had the highest appreciation of Chief Jus tice Marshall and his services in construing and interpreting the Constitution of the United States during the period 1801 to 1835, In Marshall's decisions he saw individual liberty and local in terests so wisely adjusted to social well-being and to national interests that they clearly presented a new form of political organization in its process of development or evolution. Here he saw the po litical theories of the monarchist and the repub lican, of HamUton and of Jefferson, brought up for judicial determination through legal Issues growing out of experiences in the daily lives of the people. And in these decisions he found the vital points in the political theories of HamUton and of Jeffer son duly weighed, and so adjudicated under the Constitution that they have become blended as vital factors in the ever-developing political life of the American people. In other words, Marshall in his interpretation of our Constitution gave a stability and flexibility to our Government which admit the steady growth and development of the people in all that pertains to their social and politi cal well-being. In Fiske's mind the services of Chief Justice Marshall in construing and interpreting the Con stitution during the formative period of our na tional life, though different in character, were not 492 King Alfred Celebration inferior in value, to those of Washington, in giving birth to the nation itself. Thus it is seen that Fiske was richly prepared to enter upon his task of giving a history of the first century of the United States, not only with a mind strongly imbued with a philosophy based on the existence of certain underlying forces which are impelling human society in its various forms of social and political organization to some end or purpose ; but also with a mind richly stocked with a knowledge of the experiences of the race in its en deavors, on the one hand, to establish forms of gov ernment based upon political power integrated In the hands of a privileged few; and, on the other hand, forms of government based upon individual rights and liberties of the people, but without any adequate, well-defined, integrating sovereign power over the people as a whole. He was planning his history of the first century of the United States to be comprised in eight vol umes, WhUe engaged in planning the details of the re maining portion of his history, he received from the committee having charge of the miUennial celebra tion in honor of King Alfred, to be held at Win chester, England, in September, 1901, an urgent invitation to be present on the occasion as a rep resentative of the Western world and to deliver an address. His lectures before the Royal Institution of Great Britain in 1880, on "American Political 493 John Fiske Ideas viewed from the Standpoint of Universal History," especially the one on "The Manifest Des tiny of the English Race," had made him so well known to the historic scholars of Great Britain that he was unanimously chosen as the historian best qualified to speak for the Western world on an occasion of such historic Importance. He accepted the invitation as one of conspicu ous honor; and, desiring on such an occasion di rectly to identify America with Alfred's England, he gave as a title for his proposed address, "The Be ginnings of Federalism in New England, as related to the Expansion of Alfred's World." During the spring of 1901 Fiske meditated much upon this Winchester celebration, its historic sig nificance, and upon his line of thought as the rep resentative of America on so memorable an oc casion. As he meditated the character of his theme steadily broadened in his mind, until It became not simply a setting-forth of the political principle of federation as developed by a few English people in New England and as related to the expansion of Alfred's world: It assumed the character of a pres entation of some verifications in English history since King Alfred of the doctrine of Evolution as a scheme of things ever at work in the development of human society. At the same time the celebra tion seemed a fitting occasion for the presentation of some historic generalizations regarding the English people, their political ideas, and their 494 Proposed Winchester Address place in the modern world, generalizations of the utmost significance to the future political organi zations of the world. I was to accompany him, with members of his family, on this visit to England, and on the evening of June 23, 1 90 1, I dined with him for the purpose of completing plans for the trip. In the course of the evening the conversation turned to the ad dress he was to deliver at Winchester, and he ap peared well satisfied with the order of thought as he had worked it out in his mind, according to his usual custom, before putting pen to paper. He outlined to me quite fully his general line of argu ment. This was so lucid In character, was so in har mony with his general line of evolutionary thought, and flowed so logically from his evolutionary pre mises, that I have had no difficulty in holding its main points distinctly in mind. Imperfect as may be my recollection of his argument, it Is the only record we have of what he was prepared to say on this memorable occasion. As an aid, therefore, to glimpsing the profound line of thought which was engaging Fiske's mind at the very close, I will en deavor to give the substance of his proposed Win chester address without attempting to give the language in which his thought was to be expressed. In the first place, as an introduction he proposed to make a concise statement of the nature and functions of differentiation and integration as fac tors in social and political development, and then 495 John Fiske to consider the main landmarks in English history, particularly since the reign of King Alfred, as il lustrative, by their sequential order, of the Inter related play of these two factors In the social and political life of the English people, thus giving to their history a meaning and purpose. In the order of his line of thought attention was to be directed to the deplorable condition of the English people during the middle period of the ninth century, when, torn by internecine warfare between the various tribes or Teutonic nations that then inhabited England, no effective oppo sition could be made to the incursions of the pirat ical Danes who ravaged their coasts and plundered their towns. Social and political differentiation and disintegration reigned supreme. At this junc ture — the last quarter of the ninth century — Al fred appears as King of the West Saxons, one of the English tribes or nations, and by his skill as a warrior, his wisdom as a civil ruler, his promotion of literature, religion, education, and the arts, he . set in train, during his thirty years' reign, the social and political forces which, during the half-century that followed, culminated in the political integra tion of all the people of England into a common nationality, under a single sovereign or king. Thus, by the middle of the tenth century, the Kingdom of England was distinctly formed; and Alfred's con tribution to this integration of the Teutonic people inhabiting Ejigland into a distinctly English na- 496 Proposed Winchester Address tionality, with a common language, a common re ligion, a common literature, and a common law, will never pass from the grateful remembrance of the English people. In this early stage of the political integration of the English people, Fiske proposed to emphasize the persistence with which the ideas of civil liberty common to their Teutonic ancestors in Germany had survived four centuries of transplantation to England, and now appeared, in the political organ izations of Alfred and his immediate successors, more distinctly defined than under any previous political arrangement. Fiske next proposed to point out that, with the establishment of the English monarchy in the mid-' die period of the tenth century, the evolutionary forces at work in the social and political life of the English people began to take on a new character, that of an internal struggle between the sovereign rulers, who arrogated to themselves certain pre scriptive rights or privileges in the political organ ism or state, on the one hand, and the great body of the English people, who were persistent in as serting their inalienable rights, as freemen, on the other hand. At the beginning of this struggle the sovereign rulers had the upper hand, but during the seven centuries that followed a constant dif ferentiation went forward In the social and political lives of the English people, a differentiation which was marked by a steady disintegration of the power 497 John Fiske of the sovereign rulers, and by a steady increase and Integration of power into the hands of the com mon people, until in the closing period of the seven teenth century the power of the people became supreme ; and by the acceptance of the crown by William and Mary In 1689, with its famous Bill of Rights, political sovereignty passed completely into the hands of the English people — England became a Republic in all except the name. While Fiske proposed to set forth the main his toric events connected with this social and politi cal evolution of the English people from the tenth to the seventeenth century — particularly the Norman conquest, the wresting of Magna Charta from King John, Mountfort's Parliament, the struggles with the headstrong Tudors and the per fidious Stuarts, the Cromwellian insurrection, and the Great Revolution of 1688 — ¦ as having a clearly defined sequential relation to one another; and as evidencing that the evolutionary process going on in the social and political development of the Eng lish people in their own home was steadily in favor of their civil and religious liberty under a consti tutional government; he also proposed to empha size the important historic fact that during the latter stages of this development the English peo ple were brought to take a conspicuous part in two external, world-wide movements which have af fected profoundly all their subsequent history — the Reformation and the Discovery of America — 498 Proposed Winchester Address two mighty impelling forces which awakened their enterprising minds to interests outside their island home, interests which prompted to political ex pansion and led to schemes of colonization and conquest which during the eighteenth century made the English people the dominant political power in the world. This expansion of the EngUsh people, which be gan in the seventeenth century, Fiske proposed to consider as the opening of a new era in their politi cal development and one of much greater signifi cance than any portion of their past history. In fact, he regarded their island history down to the Great Revolution of 1689, whereby the sovereignty of the people under a constitutional form of government was firmly established, as but a process of inte gration into a compact nationality; as but a prep aration for the prominent part the English people were to play in the future political development of the worid. To this end he proposed succinctly to trace out the stages of colonization and conquest by which during the seventeenth, eighteenth, and nineteenth centuries the political power of the English people has been expanded over the globe, until now they greatly exceed in numbers the population of any other European nationality and hold points of vantage in the five continents, as well as posses sion of the world's political and commercial gate ways. For the purposes of his argument he pro- 499 John Fiske posed to leave out of consideration the severance of poUtical relationship between England and her American colonies, and to regard the people of the United States as still English in character and as forming an important part of the great body of English people located throughout the world, en gaged in working out the problem of man's indus trial, moral, and spiritual well-being through polit ical organizations based upon international peace and the widest recognition of man's civil and rell^ gious liberty. "^ Thus he proposed to present the differentiation, the expansion of the English people throughout the world, with their language, their literature, their arts and sciences, their forms of political or ganization, as constituting a dominating influence in world affairs at the present time — an influence which makes steadily for civil and religious liberty, and for the promotion of international peace. Having reached this point in his exposition, he was led tO' enquire as to the possibility of conditions arising which would obstruct the continued expan sion of the English people and check their peaceful Influence upon world affairs. Here he found two world-questions which, at the opening of the twen tieth century, were engaging the attention of the students of politico-economic history, and which were of particular import to the English people and their place in the modern world. The one was the awakening of China, in which is involved 500 Proposed Winchester Address the balance of political power in Asia; the other was the rise of militant Germany, in which is in volved the balance of political power in Europe, England has vital interests to maintain in both Europe and Asia, and it is not at all improbable that In the near future she may be forced into a war in defence of her interests in one or both continents. If with a strong naval power the conflict would ex tend to all her colonies; in fact, it would extend throughout the world, and the people of the United States could not remain disinterested spectators in such a conflict. Their political sympathies and their politico-economic interests would all be on the side of England, as the champion of personal liberty and of the utmost freedom in international intercourse. It was Fiske's firm belief that the early years of the twentieth century would see all the English peoples of the world moving for a much stronger political integration than had hitherto existed, not only for their own protection against militant aggression, but also as a powerful move in further ance of international comity, of universal peace among the nations. And he found in the scheme of government worked out by the English people of the United States a form of political federation which was suggestive, at least, of how a much broader political integration or federation of all the English people might be brought about. Therefore, on this occasion of a miUennial com- 501 John Fiske memoration to King Alfred, and speaking for the Western world, it was Fiske's purpose to show that the English people whose representative Alfred was, and whose nationality he did so much to es- taiblish a thousand years ago, had not only since had an eventful history In their own English home, but that they had also expanded broadly to other lands, where under new conditions they had polit ically organized themselves in conformity to their own principles of constitutional liberty, and had become the founders of mighty Commonwealths devoted to the cultivation of the peaceful arts, Commonwealths which only awaited the develop ment of a practicable form of political integration to become the dominant political power in the world in behalf of civil liberty and intemational peace. -'' It was, indeed, a noble theme, and my very im perfect outline sketch can at best but serve to sug gest what the written address would have been when enriched with his ripe knowledge and clothed in his Incomparable style. Imperfect, therefore, as is the record of what he was prepared to say at Winchester, what is here given may perhaps serve to show that, down to the very last, he saw with sublime faith the forces of Evolution as the mani festations of a Divine Power ever at work in the elevation of human society; and, as twenty years before in his lectures before the Royal Institution, London, his mind was still filled with pictures of a 502 Federation of English Peoples future " world covered with cheerful homesteads, and blessed with a Sabbath of perpetual peace." ^ The evening I spent with him he seemed in his usual health, and he was much gratified at having received notice from President Hadley, of Yale College, that in October following, Yale proposed to honor him with the degree of LL.D. There was, however, a tone of sadness in his reference to the great changes he expected to meet with In his forth coming visit to London. His dearest friends, Hux ley, Darwin, Lewes, Tyndall, Sime, Lord Arthur Russell, Macmillan, all were gone. Only Spencer remained, and in a very enfeebled condition. At 1 While this Expression of Fiske's thought, in 1901, in regard to the political future of the English race, is passing through the press- (April, 1917), there is sitting in London an " Imperial War Confer ence," called for the consideration of a plan of readjustment of the political relations between the component parts of the British Em pire: a readjustment or federation, " based on a full recognition of the Dominions as autonomous nations of an Imperial Common wealth, and India a part of the same, with an adequate voice in foreign policy and foreign relations upon all important matters of common Imperial concern": a conference called for a more com plete integration of the British Empire. That such an integration or federation of the English peoples, now dispersed over the five con tinents must immediately follow the close of the present war is a self-evident proposition. It will be the direct outgrowth of the federative principle established by the people of the United States, and it is impossible to exaggerate its significance to the future of the world's political organizations. By such political action on the part of the English peoples, by far the larger portion of the indus tries of the world will take on permanently a peaceful character. Fiske saw this point clearly, and with rare prescience he forecast that the federated integration of the English peoples would be the stepping-stone to the peaceful federation of the world ; and this was to have been the gist of his message to the English people at Winchester in 190 1. 503 John Fiske best he could but picture his London visit as one of delightful memories. He complained of feeling tired. The rearrange ment of his mother's house to meet his needs had called for his constant supervision, and this had been quite a tax upon his physical strength. Dur ing the previous few weeks, particularly, he had been deeply engrossed In preparing his large library and his many art and literary treasures for trans fer to the new home he had prepared for them with much thoughtful care. We can well understand the flood of memories that came over him, as, for a new placement, he handled tenderly, as was his wont, these treasures, many of which were identi fied with the deepest experiences of his life. This handling of his literary treasures was his last work. All was ready for the final transfer from the Berkeley Street home to the Brattle Street home, when, during the last week of June, there came a succession of exceptionally hot, muggy days that were very enervating to people with the most robust constitutions. Fiske was fairly prostrated by this depressing atmospheric condition. The early days of July brought no relief, and his phy sician advised his getting out to sea — a trip to Bar Harbor. This not being practicable, on the afternoon of July 3 a trip by boat to Gloucester was arranged. He was accompanied by his son, Herbert Fiske. His son-in-law, Grover Flint, fol lowed Immediately on hearing of his illness. 504 Death and Burial The two hours' sail to Gloucester brought no relief. He was taken to the Hawthorne Inn, East Gloucester, where he could get the fresh sea-breeze from the broad Atlantic. During the evening he seemed to be failing, losing grasp of himself. At midnight he passed into a state of coma, and a little later semi-consciousness returned, and he seemed to see a mighty, irresistible wave rolling towards him, when summoning all his energies he distinctly pronounced the name of his wife, and of each of his children, and his spirit peacefully passed to the Great Unknown. On the 7th of July, 1901, with a simple service, his body was laid at rest in the churchyard at Petersham — the Petersham he loved so well. the end MEMORIAL TO JOHN FISKE There has been placed over the grave of John Fiske a memorial symbolizing the evolution of the spiritual Idea in man. It consists of a huge mass of rough granite, sym bolizing the universe of inorganic phenomena. Out of this mass emerges a sphere, the symbol of motion, of Ufe in its development through all organic forms from plant to conscious mind in man. This mind, with its languages, its arts, its sciences, its philoso phies, is stUl further symbolized by a quadrate torchlight, which, held in a human hand, — a sym bol of conscious power, — becomes a divine illumi nation to man in his pathway to the realm of the Great Unknown. THE JOHN FISKE MONUMENT, PETERSHAM INDEX INDEX Abbot, Ezra, Assistant Librarian at Harvard, 1, 398 n., 403, 448, 454. Adams, Prof. Heniy, 2, 69. Adams, Samuel, Fiske's lecture on, 2,211-13. Adkins, John, i, 508-10; 2, 117. Agassiz, Alexander, I, 492. Agassiz, Louis, I, 144, 160; his Es say onthe Classification of the A ni- mal Kingdom, 179, 182; cham pion of special Divine creations, 182, 183, 197, 308; Fiske criti cises, 410, 411. Alcott, A. Bronson, 2, 307, 308. Alfred, King, millennial celebration in honor of, 2, 493, 494. Alger, William R., I, 374 n. Alma-Tadema, Laurence, 2, 122. American Political Ideas, Fiske pre pares syllabus of, 2, 159; a power ful peace argument,- 172, 200; lectures favorably received, 200; published, 337. American Revolution, The, pub lished, 2, 412. Angelo, Michael, Fiske's criticism of, I, 507. 508. Appleton, William, gives a dinner for Fiske, I, 397. Appleton's Journal, articles by Fiske in, I, 346. Arago, Dominique Frangois, anec dote of, I, 144. Astoria, Oregon, celebration at, 2, 439-44- Atlantic Monthly, publishes Asa Gray's articles on the^Darwinian theory, 1 , 1 80 n. ; articles by Fiske in, I, 298, 324, 378, 405; 2, 97, 98, 191, 234. 353. 384. 389- Atonement, the, I, 91; 2, 10, 11. Attucks, Crispus, memorial to, 2, 387, 388. Baldwin, Hannah, I, 10. Barnes, Rev. Jonathan Ebenezer, has religious controversy with Fiske, I, 122-25. Barnum's Circus, I, 419. Beecher, Henry Ward, 2, 262, 346. Beggars, Italian, I, 511, 512. Beginnings of New England, The, 2, 355. 356; published, 412. Bern, Switzerland, I, 521. Betts Academy, the, Fiske at, I, 57-70; revisited (in 1889), 2, Bible, the, criticism of, 2, 1^-16. Bichat, Marie Frangois Xavier, I, 213 and n. Billingsgate Fish Market, 2, 287. Bixby, William K., 2, 231 n. Blackstone's Commentaries, Fiske enraptured with, I, 271. Blarney Castle, I, 424. Body and Mind, 2, 34-38. Bolton, Charles K., 2, 67. Bound famil^i, the, I, 12, 13. Bound, Mary Fisk, see Green, Mrs. Edmund Brewster. Bowen, Prof. Francis, in charge of Department of Philosophy at Harvard, I, 161, 162; favors suspending Fiske for a year, 233 ; commends Fiske's scholarship, 261. Bradford, J. G., I, 129. Bradshaw, Henry, I, 454, 455. British Museum, The, 2, 267, 268, 282. Brooks, Abby Morgan, I, 242; a student at Prof. Agassiz's school, 243; social relations with Prof. Child, 244; first meeting with John Fiske, 244; visited by him at Petersham, 245-48; the ac quaintance ripens, 250, 251; becomes engaged, 256; married in Appleton Chapel, 299. Let ters to, I, 252-57, 271, 272, 286, 288-91. See also, Fiske, Mrs. John. Brooks, James W., I, 29 n., 243, 247; 2, 85, 91; Vice-Consul at Paris with John Bigelow, I, 250; his home in Cambridge, 2, 75, 509 Index 79; helpfulness during Fiske's absence, 76. Brooks, John, I, 245, 249, 250. Brooks, Miss Martha, i, 431, 432; 2,75- Brooks, Mrs. Martha A., 2, 75; illness and death of, 76-79. Brooks, Phillips, quoted, 2, 430. Bruce, Dr., Spencer's physician, 2, 272-75, 291. Bruges, May festival in, I, 527, 528. Brunton, Dr. Lauder, 2, 291. Bryce, James, his Holy Roman Em pire, 1, 326; Fiske meets, 2, 137. Buckle, Thomas, History of CiinU- zation, I, 113, 114, 214; Emer son's estimate of, 213; Fiske's criticism of, 215, 293, 294. Bunsen, Baron, 2, 127, 128. Bushnell, Horace, I, 112, 113. Butler, Gov. Benjamin F., refused degree by Harvard Overseers, 2, 292-94. Buzby, Ann, I, 2. Byron, Lord, quoted, I, 290, 291. Cabot, James Elliot, Memoir of Ralph Waldo Emerson, quoted, 2, 256, 476, 479, 480. Caledonian Canal, the, I, 444-46. Canterbury, England, I, 528. Carlyle, Thomas, anecdote of, I, 213; method of dealing with his tory, 2, 196; death, 209. Catacombs of Rome, I, 507, 508. Cathedrals, English, I, 451, 452. Causes of Persecution, The, 2, 191, 199. Century of Science and Other Es says, A, 2, 469-71. Certosa, La, monastery of, I, 504, 505. Channing, William Ellery, I, 172, 177. Chase, Daniel H., teacher of Fiske, I, 37-39- Chase, Pres. Thomas, 2, 201. Chester, England, I, 428, 429; 2, 176. Child, Prof. Francis J., I, 155, 156, 196; anecdote of, 244. Christian dogmas, I, 89-99, 227; their usefulness, 97. Christian Examiner, articles by Fiske in, I, 303. Christmas Idea, economic value of the, 2, 482, 483. Civil Government in the United States, 2, 400, 416, 417. Civil War, the, I, 187-92; its effect on Fiske, 235-42. Clarke, James Freeman, I, 374; 2, 294. Clay, Henry, I, 6. Clifford, Hon. John H., I, 354 n. Clifford, Prof. W. K., I, 460, 483; 2, 144. Coeducation, 2, 217, 218. Colenso, Bishop, 2, 16 n. Collier, Hon. John, 2, 142. Cologne Cathedral, I, 525, 526. Colton, Rev. Henry M., one of Fiske's teachers, I, 71-80. Columbia River, 2, 365; centennial of discovery of, 439-44. Columbus, Christopher, Fiske's sketch of, 2, 425-27. _ Comte, Auguste, Positive Philos ophy of, I, 137. 138. 217, 348, 357. 367-69; 2, 29. Comte, Auguste, classmate of Fiske, 2, 368. Concord School of Philosophy, the, 2, 307, 308; Fiske addresses, 309-20. Cone, Olive, I, 12, 25.' Confucius, Fiske's opinion of, I, 140, 141. Congregationalist, The, criticises Cosmic Philosophy, 2, 56. Conway, Rev. Moncure D., I, .463, 491, 492; encourages Fiske to lecture in London, 2, 1 11. Cooke, Prof. Josiah P., I, 158, 159, 233; anecdote of, 2, 272 ». Copernican astronomy, the, 2, 310, 311- Cornell University, Fisfce_ offered non-resident professorship at, I, 397. 398; lectures at, 2, 217- 20. Cosmic PhUosophy, Outlines of, Eng lish publication arranged for, I, 457 ; finished, 466, 467 ; published, 2, I ; dedicated to Roberts, 2; de velopment of, 27, 28; quoted, 28, 29. 34. 35. 38, 39, 40. 42. 47; re ception of, 53, 54; hostile criti cism, 55-57. Cosmic Roots of Lane and Self- Sacrifice, The, 2, 472. 510 Index Cosmic universe, the, 2, 5-8; phi losophy of, 17-24. Cotton, Eliza, I, 28-30. Cowper, William, quoted, 2, 6 n. Cranch, Christopher Pearse, 2, 91; poem by, 95, 96. Critical Period of American History, The, published, 2, 390; favor ably received, 391; commended by John Morley, 392; and by John Jay, 393. Cromwell, Frederick, 2, i6o. Curtin, Jeremiah, classmate of Fiske, I, 401, 457. Curtis, Judge Benjamin R., con sulted by Fiske, 1, 130, 131, 133; discusses theology with Fiske, 143; opposes Pres. Lincoln, 190, 191; supports Horatio Seymour, 240; letter to Mr. Stoughton about Fiske, 267; on bar exam ination, 282, 283. Curtis, George Ticknor, I, 130. Dante, Divine Comedy, 2, 309, 310. Darwin, Charles, I, 460; 2, 12 n., 54; his Origin of Species, I, 179, 184, 185, 186, 2, 17, 19; personal sketch of, I., 476-79; caricatured, 2, 57; entertains Fiske, 133, 134, 177, 178; Fiske's tribute to, 235- 38. Letters to, I, 389, 476, 2, 173; letters from, I, 391, 477, 2, 60, 178. Darwin, George, 2, 134, 135. Darwinism, I, 179-86; in Harvard College, 180. J Darwinism and other Essays, 1, 404;- 2, 98; accepted by Macmillan, „ 132. 133- Delepierre, Octave, 2, 132, 138. Dennett, Prof. John R., I, 362, 396; death of, 2, 96. Desert, an American, 2, 360. Destiny of Man, The, address at Concord School of Philosophy, 2, 308-20; published, 320. Diaz, Bartholomew, 2, 425. Dickens, Charles, Fiske's enjoy ment of, I, 83, 2, 213; his pub lic readings, I, 336, 337; Bleak House quoted, 2, 130; Oliver Twist cited, 148. Differentiation and integration, two fundamental principles of doctrine of Evolution, 2, 489. Discovery of America, The, 2, 418- 33 ; dedicated to Edward A. Free man, 433; received with great applause, 434-3;;. Dogmas of Christian theology, I, 89-99, 227; 2, 4-16. Donaldson, John W., his Varroni- anus, I, 225. Donnelly, Ignatius, his Great Cryptogram, 2, 384. Draper, Prof. John W., I, 274. Dudley, Rev. John Langdon, a broad-minded orthodox clergy man, I, IIO, 115; Fiske meets again in Milwaukee, 401 ; 2, 206, 207; Excursions of an Evolution ist dedicated to, 304, 305. Duncan, David, Life arid Letters of Herbert Spencer, cited, 2, 25, 36, 247 n. Eaton, Frank C, 2, 203, 214. Edinburgh, I, 434-38, 447-49- Edwards, Mrs. M. A., aids Fiske's journey to England, I, 406, 407. Eliot, Charles William, I, 159 »., 343. 344; chosen president of Harvard, 345; invites Emerson and Fiske to lecture on philos ophy, 346-48; his inaugural ad dress, 353-55; appoints Fiske Acting Professor of History, 373; letter about Lowell Institute, 395. 396; appoints Fiske Assist ant Librarian, 398, 399. Eliot, George, personal sketch oi, I, 482-85. Eliot, Rev. T. L., of Portland, Ore gon, 2, 367, 441. Eliot, Pres. William G., 2, 204. Ellis, Joseph Whitcomb, I, ill. Ely Cathedral, I, 452. Emerson, Ralph Waldo, I, 174, 176; some affirmations of, 177, 178; Fiske's first meeting with, 211-14; lectures at Harvard, 347; not a reader of Spencer, 2, 254; and Evolution, 256-59, 2, 476-82; his conception of the Deity, I, 257, 258, 2, 479, 480; characterization of^ Americtis Vespucius, 427. Enfield, Lord, 2, 132. Ericson, Leif, 2, 421. Ericsson, Capt. John, one of Mr. Stoughton's clients, 2, 229, 230; 5" Index receives gold model of Monitor, 230. Essays and Reviews, 1, 227; 2, 16 n. Essays Historical and Literary, 2, 469, 470. Eucken, Rudolf, quoted, I, 95. Evarts, William M., presides at Spencer dinner, 2, 260, 261. Everlasting Reality of Religion, The, 2, 472, 473- Evolution, the doctrine of, I, 179, 180, 217, 307, 308; Darwin'scon- tribution to, 180, 184, 185; ef fects of, 186, 218; Spencer's phi losophy based on, 2, 19; his law of, 24-26; and the nature of Deity, 32-34; and religion, 38- 41. 50-54; philosophic implica tions of, 41-46; two fundamental principles of, 489. Evolution of Language, The, I, 219-21. Evolutionary philosophy, I, 358, 359, 365. 458. 459; and religious faith, 2, 335. Excursions of an Evolutionist, 2, 265, 304-06. Fall of man, the, I, 91; 2, 9, 10. Felton, Cornelius Conway, presi dent of Harvard College, 1, 148, 196, 204; his Greek scholarship 226; threatens Fiske with expul sion, 233, 234. Ferney, I, 519, 520. Fields, James T., I, 323 and n.; 2, 396. Fisk, Polly (Mrs. John Bound), Fiske's maternal grandmother, 1,12. See also Lewis, Mrs. Elias. Fiske family, in England, I, 8, 9; in America, 9-12. Fiske, Bezaleel, I, 11. Fiske, Clarence Stoughton, born, I, 345. 346- Fiske, Ethel, born, I, 400. Fiske, Harold Brooks, born, 1, 329. Fiske, Herbert Huxley, I, 50 n.; born, 2, 82; with his father at the end, 504. Fiske, Rev. John (of Cotton Mather's Magnolia), 2, 182. Fiske, John (born in England), I, 9. 10. Fiske, Dr. John (1654), I, 10. Fiske, Capt. John (1693), I, 10. Fiske, John, birth, 1,1,4; his origi nal name (Edmund Fisk Green), I ; paternal ancestry, 1-7 ; ma ternal ancestry, 8-13; boyhood, 26-37; teaches himself to read, 26, 27; learns to sew, 30; person ates the minister, 30; early con ception of God, 30, 31; some early traits, 32, 69; first school, 33; his reading in childhood, 34; placed in Mr. Chase's school, 37; persecuted by schoolmates, 39; fits up a workshop, 39, 40; his economical tendencies, 43, 44, 50, 56; studies without instruc tors, 45, 49, 105; his library, 46, 135. 193, 244; enters Mr. Brew er's school, 46; translates Caesar into Greek, 48; reproduces an illustrated poster, 50, 51; changes name to John Fisk, 55; at Betts Academy, 57-70; reli gious stirrings, 65; joins Ortho dox church, 66; a pupil of Henry M. Colton, 71-80, 85; his inter est in comparative philology, 76, 80; learns to play a piano, 79; composes music, 79, 84; his wide reading, 81-83; active in reli gious work, 84, 85; passes Yale freshman examinations, 86; de cides to go to Harvard, 87; reli gious questionings, 87, 88, 100- 03, no; includes a scientific course, 106, 107, 125; reads an cient history, 107, 108, 109, 125; influenceof Humboldt, 108, 109; studies the defences of ortho doxy, 112; effect of reading Buckle, 113, 114; abandons dog matic Christianity, 115; called an infidel, 118; relations with his pastor, 120, 121; controversy with Dr. Barnes, 122-25; socially ostracized, 127; engages rooms in Cambridge, 131 ; gets a tutor, 132; makes acquaintance of George Ticknor, 133; mousing among Boston book-shops, 135, 136, 138; interested in Positivism, 137; enthusiastic over Spencer, 138, 229; progress in foreign lan guages, 140-42, 153, 195, 254; on Confucius, 140, 141; contem plates a history of early Christi anity, 142, 143; passes Harvard 512 Index freshman and sophomore en trance examinations, 145, 147. Begins his college life, 194; his collegiate work, 195; personal re lations with members of faculty, 196, 197, 206; among his class mates, 198-200, 203, 204; asso ciate editor of Harvard Magazine, 205, 221, 222; friendship with Prof. John K. Paine, 206, 299; method of reading aud study, 207; college expenses, 208; suf fers in reputation, 209, 231 ; book purchases, 210, 211; visits Emer son, 211-14; publishes review of Buckle, 215-17; publishes the Evolution of Lang-uage, 219-21, 269; his philological studies, 223- 25; on Goethe's Faust, 224; hos tility to dogmatic Christianity, 227-29; on Spencer, 229, 230; receives a "public admonition," 231-35; threatened with expul sion, 234; at first indifferent to the Civil War, 236; soon aroused, 237, 238, 241, 242; studies war strategy, 239, 240; meets Miss Brool^, 244; visits her at Peters ham, 245-47 ; presses his suit, 248-56; estimate of the German language, 253; becomes engaged, 256; graduates from Harvard, 259; college rank, 259, 260; con siders choice of a profession, 261 ; tries for position as teacher, 262- 65; personanon gratoat Harvard, 264; gets photograph of Spencer, 265, 292; turns to the law, 266; enters Harvard Law School, 268; his plan of study, 270; in love with the law, 271; called on by E. L. Youmans, 273, 277, 278; Norton asks hira to write for North American Review, 274; visits Norton, 278, 279; com pletes his legal studies in nine months, 280^-82; admitted to Boston Bar, 2S3; his side study, 284, 285, 298; reads Maine's An cient Law, 286, 287; and the Kortn, 288, 289; orderliness of his mind, 289, 290; correspondence with Spencer, 293-97, 313-18, 338, 354-57. 366, 383-88, 408 ; his raarriage, 299; begins practice of law and gets degree of LL. B . , 300 ; continues wide general reading, 301; does not like Hawthorne, 301; compares Motley and Pres cott as historians, 302; writes Problems in Language and My thology and Conflict of Reason with Bigotry and Superstition, 303, 304; birth of his daughter Maud, 304- . Gives up the law for literature, 305; inventories his intellectual property, 306, 307; champion in America of Evolution, 308, 314; writes Laws of History, 309, 310; writes on University Reform, for the Atlantic, 323-25; settles in Cambridge, 328; birth of his son Harold, 329; review writing, 331, 332, 334. 346. 378; elected a member of the American Orien tal Society, 332; his Cambridge neighbors, 332; doraestic life, 333; wide reading, 333, 334; crit icises Parton's Smoking and Drinking, 334-36; writes article for the Nation on Harvard presi dency, 342, 343; birth of his second son, 345, 346; called to lecture at Harvard, 346-50; writes Genesis of Language, 352 ; lectures on Evolutionary philos ophy, 359-62, 364, 365; Acting Professor of History at Harvard, 373. 374; his work in teaching history, 375; on the Franco- Prussian War, 379; third son born, 379; second course of Har vard lectures, 380-82 ; objects to Spencer's title, "Synthetic Phi losophy," 388; corresponds with Darwin, 389-93; lectures on Evolution, in Boston, 393, 406; not permitted to speak before Lowell Institute, 395; lectures in New York, 396; called to Cornell University, 397; appointed As sistant Librarian at Harvard, 398; settles at 4 Berkeley St., 400; second daughter born, 400; lectures in Milwaukee, 400-02; his duties as librarian, 404, 405, 2, 63-69; gets leave of absence for European trip, 407; arti cle on Agassiz, 410, 41 1 ; sails for England, 41 1 ; passion for music, 412-17, 442; composes part of a 513 Index mass, 414-16, 2, 83, 217; a do mestic man, I, 417-22; trip through Ireland, 423-28; at Chester, 428, 429; impressions of England, 429-31; in London, 432, 456-68 ; in the Lake District, 433. 434; in Edinburgh, 434-38. 447-49; first irapressions of the Scotch people, 434, 435 ; trip to the Scotch Highlands, 439-46; through sorae cathedral towns, 450-52; at Ipswich and Cam bridge, 453-55; arranges for English publication of Cosmic Philosophy, 457; cordially re ceived by English Evolutionists, 459, 460, 469; aided by many distinguished men, 460-64; occu pies M. D. Conway's pulpit, 463 ; conferences with Spencer, 463- 66; finishes Cosmic Philosophy, 466, 467; personal sketches of Spencer, Darwin, Lewes, George Eliot, Huxley, and Sir Charles Lyell, 471-92; journey on the Continent, 493-526; admiration for Gothic art and indifference to Renaissance, 496-98, 500; im pressions of Paris, 498-500; hasty run through France, 501, 502; in Florence, 502-06, 515, 516; in Rorae, 507, 508, 515; in Naples and vicinity, 508-14; in Venice, 517; trip into Switzer land, 519-24; down the Rhine, 525, 526; back to London, 527- 29; social courtesies there, 530-33. Returns home, 2, i ; publishes Cosmic Philosophy, i, 2; history of its development, 27, 28; Fiske and Spencer, 28, 30, 31; four corollaries to Spencer's argu ment, 31-46; on the nature of Deity, 32-34; on matter and spirit, 34-38; on evolution and religion, 38-41; on the philo sophic implications of evolution, 41-46; effect of the discussion on his mind, 49-52; frames cartoon of Spencer and Darwin, 57; grow ing reputation as a philosophic thinker, 62; leading evolutionist in America, 63; work in Harvard Library, 63-69; catalogue of Suraner Collection, 67; never re garded library as his proper place, 69, 70; lectures on Ameri can history in Old South Church, 71, 72, 105-10; resigns frora Har vard Library, 73; domestic and social life, 75-85; new home at 22 Berkeley St., 80-82; musical practice, 82, 83; his rausical gifts, 84; visited by the Huxleys, 85-91; mid-winter excursion to Petersham, 93, 94; literary work, 97. 98; What is Inspiration, 98- 100; The Unseen World, 97, 100- 04; lectures at Peabody Insti tute, Baltimore, 98; foundations of his religious faith, 102-04. Voyage to England, 112-15; excursion to Kenilworth and Stratford, 116, 117; second visit to London, 119; London lodg ings, 120; social courtesies, 121- 25, 129-39, 143; lectures at Uni versity College, 126-28, 129, 133, 136, 139-41 ; arranges with Mac- raillan for publication of Darwin ism and other Essays, 132, 133; visits Darwin, 133, 134; excur sions with Holt and Spencer, 134-36, 141, 142; elected to Board of Overseers of Harvard, 144; dinner at Arts Club, 145; excursions to Epping Forest and other country rarables, 146-49; farewell visits to Huxley and Spencer, 149, 150, 152-54; gives a social punch party, 151, 152; sails for home, 154; personal ap- pesu-ance, 156; lectures in Maine, 157-59; prepares syllabus of American Political Ideas, 159; lectures in Brooklyn, 160, 161 ; in Philadelphia, 163, 164; in Chick ering Hall, New York, 164, 168; in Washington, 165, 166; an eve ning with Carl Schurz, 166, 167; invited to White House by Presi dent Hayes, 167; invited to lec ture in London and Edinburgh, 169; lectures in Buffalo and in Ohio cities, 170, 171; accom panied to Europe by Mrs. Fiske, 171. 173. 174; three weeks in London, 176-80; lectures at Royal Institution, 179, 180; visits home of Fiske ancestors, 180-84; lectures at Philosophical 514 Index Institute, Edinburgh, 184; takes two Highland trips with Mrs. Fiske, 185, 186; lectures at South Place Institute, London, 187; goes to France, 187; eleven days in Paris, 188; returns to America, 189; controversy with William James, 192-99; some lecture experiences, 199-203; lectures at Haverford College, 200, 201 ; at Washington Univer sity, 204; spends a month in Wis consin, lecturing, 205-08; lec tures in Old Soutii Church, 211- 13; in Indianapolis, 214; sings in public, 214, 215; lectures at Cor nell University, 219, 220; agrees to write history of American peo ple for Harper & Brothers, 221; enlarges his plan, 222; The True Lesson of Protestantism, 224-27 ; more magazine articles, 234; tribute to Darwin, 235-38; en tertains Spencer, 245-54; ad dress at Spencer dinner, 262-65; fourth visit to London, 269 ; calls on Tyndall, 272; ill, 273-76, 284, 285; dines at Tyndall's, 277; at his old quarters, 279; dines at Billingsgate Fish Market, 287; homesick, 288-91; returns to America, 291. Opposes granting degree to Gov. Butler, 292-94; lectures in. Old South Church, to young peo ple, 297-300; course of lectures on Revolutionary War, 300-03; repeated in St. Louis, 303, 304; publishes Excursions of an Evolu tionist, 304-06; lectures at Con cord School of Philosophy, on Man's Iramortality, 308-20; and onthe Idea of God, 323-36; pub lishes The Destiny of Man, 320; dedicates The Idea of God to Mrs. Fiske, 333; publishes Afnerican Political Ideas, 337; agreement with Messrs. Harper amicably annulled, 339; misconception of his historical work, 340, 341, 462; lectures on the Critical Period of American History, 345, 346, 389; Major Pond becomes his lecture manager, 346-48; lectures on Civil War, 347-50, 461; has pneumonia, 351; assist ant editor of Cyclopcedia of Biog raphy, 352, 353; lectures on the Beginnings of New England, 355, 356; trip to the Pacific, 357-66; lectures in Portland, Oregon, 366; and in San Francisco, 368; meets Gen. Johnston, 369-71; stops at Salt Lake City, 372-75 ; lectures on Scenes and Characters in American History, 380, 385, 398; on the Bacon-Shakespeare controversy, 384; delivers ad dress at dedication of Boston Massacre memorial, 387, 388; publishes Critical Period, 389- 94; perplexed over his great his torical task, 394; relieved by his publishers, 395-98; at work on Civil Government in the United^ States, 400, 416; publishes War of Independence, 400, 401 ; personal diversions, 403-07 ; puttering with his plants, 404-07; lectures at Lowell Institute, 409, 485; re visits Betts Academy, 411; pub lishes Beginnings of Neva England, 412; publishes Civil Government, 417; The Disco/very of Amer ica, 417-37; writes Life of You mans, 438, 439, 449; delivers ad dress at centennial of discovery of Columbia River, 439-44; visits Alaska, 444, 445; orator at four hundredth anniversary of discovery of America, 446; in vited to lecture before Depart ment of University Extension at Oxford, 447; receives degrees from Harvard and University of Pennsylvania, 448; writes school history, 450-52; message from Tennyson, 453; enjoyed ex tempore speaking, 455; ground plan of his great historical under taking, 456-59 ; order of volumes, 460- 64; publishes Mississippi Valley in the Civil War, 462; largeness of his scheme, 465--68; publishes A Century of Science and Essays Historical and Liter ary, 469-71; gives historical ad dress at two hundred and fiftieth anniversary of Middletown, 471 ; publishes 'Through Nature to God, 472, 473; and Life Everlasting, 474-76; interest in Emerson, 515 Ind 476-82 ; on the economic value of spiritual, ethical, and aesthetic ideas, 482, 483; prepares New France and New England for press, 4.86, 488; superintends remodelling of his mother's house, 486, 487, 504; estimates of Jefferson, Hamilton, and Marshall, 491, 492; invited to speak at millennial celebration in honor of King Alfred, 493; sub stance of his proposed address, 495-502; Yale proposes to give him degree of LL.D., 503; pros trated by hot weather, 504; taken to East Gloucester, 504; death and burial, 505. Fiske, Mrs. John, accompanies Fiske to England, 2, 171, 174- 89; returns Five Forks flag to Mrs. Sheridan, 233; The Idea of God dedicated to, 333 ; letter frora Sir Henry Irving, 344. See also Brooks, Abby Morgan. Letters to, I, 400-02, 424, 425, 433, 435- 46, 448-55. 465. 471-75. 478-88, 491.497-515.519-33:2, 112,116, 119-42, 146, 151, 160, 201, 202, 208, 214-20, 269, 270, 279, 288, 343. 358. 370, 372, 411- Fiske, John, Jr. (1718), I, 11. Fiske, John, great-grandfather of John Fiske, I, 12, 22-24; his books, 25, 26; death, 31. Fiske, Maud, I, 333; born, 304; learning to talk, 330, 331 ; sings for Spencer, 2, 253; letter to, 406. Fiske, Nicholas (time of Charles H), 2, 183. Fiske, Nicholas, of Dennington, 2, 183, 184. Fiske, Ralph Browning, born, 1 , 379. Fiske, Robert (in Elizabeth's time), 2, 182. Flint, Grover, 2, 504. Fortnightly Review, articles by Fiske in, I, 309, 339, 340. Franco-Prussian War, the, i, 379. Free Religious Association, the, 2, 52. Freeman, Edward A., letters from, 2, 413, 415; Discovery of America dedicated to, 433 ; critical article on, 446. Frothingham, Benjamin T., I, 396, 2, 160. ex Froude, J. A., contrasted with Mommsen, 2, 197. Fuller, William Henry, 2, 116, 117. Furness Abbey, I, 434. Furness, Horace Howard, letter frora, 2, 381-83. Galton, Francis, 2, 235, 236. Gantt, Judge, 2, 204; quizzes Fiske, 205; and General John ston, 369, 370. Gardner, Francis, I, 263. Garnett, Richard, I, 225, 2, 282. Garrison, Wendell Phillips, I, 396. Gibbons, Most Reverend James, 2, 99. Giles, Rev. Chauncey, 2, 99. Gladstone, William E., his Juven tus Mundi reviewed by Fiske, I, 378. 379; meeting with, 2, 124, 125- God, the idea of, 2, 13, 14, 46, 323- 36; the nature of, 32-34. Godkin, E. L., I, 342, 362. Goethe's Faust, 2, 325, 326. Goodwin, Prof. Williara W., I, 150. Gothic architecture and art, I, 496-98, 500. Grant, Gen. U.S., 2, 348. Granville, Earl, 2, 132, 142. Graphic, The New York DaUy, cari catures Spencer and Darwin, 2, 56. 57- Gray, Prof. Asa, I, 160; a sup porter of Darwin's views, 180, 184. Gray, Capt. Robert, explores Co lumbia River, 2, 442. Great White Horse Inn, The, I, 453; 2, 180, 184. Green, Edmund Brewster, father of John Fiske, I, I, 2, 24, 36, 42; sent to Wesleyan University, 3; a journalist, 3-5; raarries Mary Fisk -Bound, 4; secretary to Henry Clay, 6; goes to Panama, 7; death, 8. Green, Mrs. Edmund Brewster (Mary Fisk Bound), first mar riage, 1,4, 12,24, 26; a teacher, 5, 13. 34; marries Mr. Stoughton, 52-54. See also Stoughton, Mrs. Edwin W. Green, Edraund Fisk, original name of John Fiske. See Fiske, John. 516 Ind ex Green, Humphrey, I, 1-3. Green, Mrs. Humphrey (Hannaih Heaton), 1,2; letter to, 36. Greg, W. R., 2, 322. Grindelwald glacier, the, i, 522, 523- ^ , . . , Grote,' George, first impression of Fiske, I, 312. Grove, Sir William Robert, I, 225, 226. Gurney, Prof. Ephraim W., I, 152; Fiske's friendship with, 197, 215, 219, 264, 398; candidate for presidency of Harvard, 342; elected Dean of the Faculty, 373; consulted by Fiske about historical work, 2, 72. Hale, Edward Everett, 1, 374. Hall, Dr. John D., classmate of Fiske, 2, 368. Hamilton, Alexander, 2, 491. Hamilton, John C, 2, 169. Hamilton, Lord Claude, 2, 272. Hammond, Dr. William A., I, 363. Harper & Brothers, contract with Fiske for a work on American history, 2, 221; amicably annul the agreeraent, 339. Harris, Dr. Williara T., 2, 308. Harrison, Frederic, debate with Spencer, 2, 323. Harvard College, in 1860-1863, I, 147-92; the faculty and courses of study, 148-63; orders and regulations, 163-66; penajties for neglect of religious services, 163-65; morning prayers, 166, 244; the dormitories, 167, 168, 193; professional schools, 169, 268; Unitarianism in, 169-72, 174, 178; Darwinism in, 180; controversy over war powers of President Lincoln, 187, 191, 192; athletics, 201, 202; influence of the Civil War, 235, 236; new era at, 319; Board of Overseers, 320, 321; Overseers elected by alumni, 327; Pres. Hill resigns, 3^1; Pres. Eliot elected, 345; his inaugural address, 353-55; and Gov. Butler, 2, 292-94; confers degrees on Fiske, 448. Harvard Law School, course of study in 1863, I, 268. Harvard Magazine, The, Fiske as sociate editor of, l, 205; his con tributions to, 221, 222. Haverford College, Pennsylvania, 2, 200, 201. Hawthorne, Nathaniel, his writ ings not liked by Fiske, I, 301. Hay, John, gives a dinner for Fiske, Il 397- Hayes, President Rutherford B., receives Fiske at White House, 2, 167. Hazeltine, Mayo W., on The Dis covery of America, 2, 434-36. Head, Franklin H., opens his Chi cago horae to Fiske for work, 2, 408, 451. Heaton, Hannah, I, 2. Hedge, Rev. Frederick H., 2, 99; criticises Harvard College, I, 167, 321. 322. Hemenway, Mrs. Mary, 2, no, in, 128; asks Fiske to lecture in Old South Church, 210, 211; asks him to lecture on Cornwallis's surrender, 227; provides lectures for young people, 296, 297. Hennell, Sara, 2, 121, 122. Hill, Dr. Frank A., aids Fiske on school history, 2, 452. Hill, Thoraas, president of Har vard College, I, 149; dissatis faction with, 327; resigns, 341. Hodges, Edward F., 1, 300. Hoffding, Prof. Harald, 2, 36. Holmes, Oliver Wendell, quoted, I, 154, 160; presides at dinner to Spencer, 2, 244; note from, 352. Holt, Henry, publishes Fiske's Tobacco and Alcohol, I, 335, 336; with Fiske in England, 2, 116, 117, 128, 132; excursions with Fiske, 134-36, 141, 142, 147. Hooker, Sir Joseph D., I, 184; 2, 143- Houghton, Henry O., head of Houghton, Mifflin & Co., 2, 395; makes favorable proposal to Fiske, 396-98. Houghton, Lord, 2, 132. Howells, William Dean, I, 378; Myths and Myth-Makers dedi cated to, 406; his Italian Jour neys cited, 509, 513, 515; asks Fiske for paper on George Eliot, 2, 208; The Undiscovered Coun try, 209. 517 Index Hughes, Thomas, 2, 132. Humboldt, Alexander von, his Cosmos, I, 83, 84, 108, 109; Fiske reads German edition, 140, 141. Hundred Greatest Men, The, 2, 199. Hunter, W. W., 2, 184, 185. Huntington, Rev. Frederick D., abandons Unitarianism, I, 170- 72, 177- Hutton, Laurence, I, 429, 431, 432. Huxley, Madge, married, 2, 142. Huxley, Thomas Henry, letters from, I, 461, 489, 2, 85, 87, 88; consulted by Fiske, I, 463, 465; personal sketch of, 486-90; visits Fiske, 2, 85-91; encourages him to lecture in London, in; se cures a room for the lectures, 126; congratulates hira on his success, 128, 129; Fiske's fare well visit to, 149, 150; entertains Mr. and Mrs. Fiske, 176, 177; made Inspector of Salraon Fish eries, 209. Idea of God, The, quoted, I, 31; de livered as a lecture, 2, 323-36; dedicated to Mrs. Fiske, 333; re ception by press and public, 334. Imraortality, Man's, address on, 2, 308-20. India, sea route to, 2, 423-25. Indians, wild, 2, 362. Industrialism and militancy, 2, 465-67. Infancy, prolongation of, deter mined the transition frora ani- mality to humanity, I, 383, 390, 471; Fiske's original contribu tion to the doctrine of Evolution, 2, 30, 31. 315- IngersoU Lectureship, at Harvard, 2, 474- I Innesf alien, I, 426-28. Interlaken, I, 522, 523. Ipswich, England, I, 453; 2, 180, 184. Irving, Sir Henry, friendship with Fiske, 2, 344, 453. Ithaca, New York, 2, 218. James, Henry, 2, 137. James, William, Fiske's criticisra of, 2, 192-99- Janauschek, Madame, I, 336, 337. Jay, John, writes Fiske in praise of the Critical Period, 2, 393. Jefferson, Thomas, greatly ad mired fay Fiske, 2, 491. Johnston, Gen. Joseph E., Fiske's meeting with, 2, 369-71. Jones, Dr. Hiram A., 2, 307. Kenilworth, 2, 116, 11.7. Kensington Gardens, 2, 125. Killarney, the Lakes of, I, 425-27. Kiraball, David P., I, 300. Lake District, the, I, 433, 434. Lane, Prof. George M., 1, 151, 152. Las Casas, Bartholomew, historic justice to, 2, 429, 430. Lathrop, George P., 2, 156. Laveleye, Emile de, 2, 188. Lavoisier, Antoine Laurent, 2, 8 n. Laxfield, 2, 181-83. Laylor's Cyclopcedia of Political Science, 2, 223. Lea Brothers & Co., publishers, 2, 376. Les ChcU-mettes, I, 519, 521. Lewes, George Henry, editor of Fortnightly Review, I, 309; per sonal sketch of, 479-82; a droll man, 532. Lewis, Elias, I, 28, 46. Lewis, Mrs. Elias, Fiske's mater nal grandmother, I, 28; her confidence in him, 119, 121, 122; death of, 2, 74; letter to, i, 58. Lewis, Sir George Cornewall, I, 290. Lewis and Clarke Expedition, 2, 364, 442. Lichfield Cathedral, 2, 269, 270. Life Everlasting, 2, 474-76. Lincoln, Abraham, his Emancipa tion Proclamation, I, 187, 189, 239; suspension of habeas corpus, 189, 190; remark on Judge Cur tis, 191 n. Linnaeus, Carolus, a remark of, 2, 407. Little, Brown & Co., I, 136. Locke, John, portrait of, 2, 94, 95. Lockyer, Norman, I, 460. Lott, Edward, corapanion of Spen cer in America, 2, 239-44, 253. Lovering, Prof. Joseph, 1, 157, 158. Lowell, James Russell, professor in Harvard College, I, 156, 157; 518 Index quoted, 175, 237, 419; becoraes an editor of North American Re view, 274. Lowell Institute, Fiske not per mitted to speak before, in 1872, l» 395; lectures at, 2, 409, 485. Lubbock, Sir John, 2, 54, 143. Luther, Martin, 2, 224. Lyell, Sir Charles, I, 184; 2, 54; personal sketch of, I, 490-92. Macaulay, T. B., quoted, 2, 342, 343. Mackenzie, Mrs. Alexander, I, 413- Macraillan, Alexander, 2, 123, 124; accepts Darwinism and other Es says, 132, 133. Maine, Sir Henry Sumner, 2, 54; his Ancient Law, I, 286, 287; quoted, 2, 417. Marble, Manton, editor of the New York World, I, 338, 362; gener ous to Fiske, 384. Marden, Francis A., 2, 160. Marsh, Prof. O. C, palaeontologist, 2, 88, 89, 90; at Spencer dinner, 261. Marshall, Chief Justice John, 2, 491, 492. Martin, Homer, I, 396. Martineau, James, Fiske spends an evening with, 2, 286; letter from, 386, 387. Masson, David, 2, 178, 184. Matter and spirit, 2, 34-38. McCarthy, Edward Dorr, I, 212. McClellan, Gen. George B., 1, 238, 241. McLennan, John F., 2, 54. Mead, Larkin G., I, 506, 517. Merrill, Polly, I, 12. Middlemore, S. G. C, 2, 143. Middletown, Connecticut, 1 , 14-22 ; Fiske's boyhood horae, 24-128; he delivers address at two hun dred and fiftieth anniversary, 2, ,471-Militancy and industrialisra, 2, 465-67. Mill, John Stuart, I, 386; The Contest in America, 240. Milwaukee, Fiske's first impres sions of, I, 400, 401; lectures there again, 2, -206-08. Mind and body, 2, 34-38. Mississippi Valley in the Civil War, The, 2, 461, 462. Mommsen, Theodor, contrasted with Froude, 2, 197. Morgan, Lewis H., 2, 54. Morley, John, I, 521; commends the Critical Period, 2, 392. Morse, James Herbert, classmate of Fiske, 2, 381. Motley, John Lothrop, Fiske's opinion of, I, 301, 302. Mount Shasta, 2, 367. Muckross Abbey, I, 426, 434. Muir, Dr. John, the Sanskrit scholar, I, 352, 436, 448, 449; 2, 169. Mystery of EvU, The, 2, 367 «., 368, 441. 445. 472. Myths and Myth-Makers, 1, 378, 400; dedicated to Howells, 406. Nation, The, articles by Fiske in, I, 342. National Quarterly Review, articles by Fiske in, I, 293, 309. New Englander, The, criticises Cosmic Philosophy, 2, 55, 56. New France and New England, 2, 485, 486. New York World, articles by Fiske in, I, 334. 346. 360-62, 378, 382. Newcomb, Prof. Simon, 2, 165, 166. Newman, Rev. J. P., 2, 99. Newton, Sir Isaac, his telescope, I, 454; discoverer of law of gravita tion, 2, 8 n. Nismes, France, I, 501, 502. North American Review, The, ar ticles by Fiske in, i, 269, 291, 293. 334. 346. 352, 410; 2, 98, 191; Norton and Lowell become editors, I, 274, 278. Northmen in America, the, 2, 420, 421. Norton, Charles Eliot, asks Fiske to write for North American Re view, I, 274, 278; visited by Fiske, 278, 279; death of, 279 «.; declines Fiske's review of You mans's Chemistry, 291, 292; asks Fiske to make changes in an other essay, 302, 303; consulted by Fiske about historical work, 2, 72; on The Discovery of Amer ica, 436, 437. Noyes, Prof. George R., 1, 152, 153. 519 Index Old South Church, Boston, 2, 71, 105, 1 10; lectures in, 2 1 1-13,297- ^ 300, 345, 353. Osgood, George L., 2, 83. Osgood, James R. & Co., publish ers, 2j I. Paine, Prof. John K., 1, 206, 415, 419, 2, 83; plays the organ at Fiske's wedding, I, 299; judg ment of Fiske's musical gifts, 2, 84; with Fiske in London, 144. Paris, Fiske's visits to, I, 498-500; 2, 188. Parker, Prof. Joel, assails President Lincoln, I, 187, 191. Parker, Theodore, 1, 174, 176, 178; and Carlyle, 213; grave of, 505. Parkman, Francis, a kinsman of Fiske, 1,13; advises him to write History of the American People, 2, 72; critical article on, 446, 447; tribute to, 467, 468. Parsons, Prof. Theophilus, sustains President Lincoln, I, 187, 188. Parton, James, Smoking and Drink ing, I, 335- Patterson, Gen. Robert, 2, 1&4. Peabody, Prof. Andrew P., I, 162, 163; befriends Fiske, 233; assists at Fiske's marriage, 299; act ing President of Harvard, 341, 342. Peckham, George William, City Librarian, Milwaukee, I, 402, 403; 2, 206-08. Peirce, Prof. Benjamin, 1, 153, 154, 196; praises Fiske, 2, 68. Peirce, Prof. James M., I, 196. Petersham, Massachusetts, Fiske's first visit to, I, 246, 42 ij Hux ley's enjoyment of, 2, 91 ; in win ter, 93; Fiske buried at, 505. Philbrick, J. D., I, 263. Phillips, Wendell, I, 78. Phrenology, Fiske's early interest in, I, 82. Plummer, Caroline, I, 170. Pollock, Sir Frederick, I, 488, 2, 58 n., 126, 277. Pollock, Walter, 2, 277. Polo, Marco, 2, 422. Pompeii, I, 509. Pond, Major J. B., Fiske's lecture raanager, 2, 346-48, 351. Popular Science Monthly, Fiske's article on Agassiz published in, I, 410, 411. Portland, Oregon, lectures in, 2, 366. Positivism, see Comte. Prescott, William Hickling, Fiske's opinion of, I, 301, 302. Putnam, George Haven, 2, 147, 148. Railroad travel in England, 1, 453. Ralston, William, assistant libra rian at the British Museum, I, 456, 457, 483; Fiske's friendship with, 2, 125, 128, 137, 287. Religion, and the doctrine of evo lution, 2, 38-4 1 ; and Cosmic Philosophy, 45, 46, 50-54; and science, 46, 47. Renaissance architecture and painting, I, 496, 497. Rhine, the, I, 525. Richmond, Henry, 2, 216. Rigi, ascent of the, I, 524, 525. Roberts, George Litch, lifelong friend of Fiske, 1 , 78, 84, 85, 1 10, 115, 118; decides to study law, 133; shares Fiske's philosophical studies, 134; letter from Fiske about Spencer, 139; proposes to Fiske an edition of the Apoc rypha, 143; chides him for in difference to Civil War issues, 236, 237; sympathy with Fiske, 257, 258. Letters to, 139, 140, 142, 144, 226, 228, 257, 326; letter from, 258. Ropes, John Codman, 2, 347. Rose, Mr. and Mrs. E. L., 2, 121, 122. Rousseau, Jean Jacques, I, 519, 521. Rubens, Peter Paul, I, 527. Russell, Lord Arthur, 1, 533; 2, 131. Sacconi, Carlo, painting by, I, 504, 505- Sadler, Michael E., invites Fiske to lecture at Oxford, 2, 447. Sage College, Cornell University, 2, 216, 219. Salt Lake City, Fiske's impres sions of, 2, 372-75. Sanborn, Frank B., 2, 308. San Francisco, Fiske's impressions of, 2, 369, 371. 520 Index Saturday Club, Boston, 2, 244. Schurz, Carl, entertains Fiske, 2, 166, 167; at Spencer dinner, 261. Science, and theology, I, 98-103; 2, 4-16; and religion, 46. Scotch Highlands, the, I, 439-46. Scott, Sir Walter, Fiske's enjoy ment of, I, 264. Serapis, Temple of, I, 510. Seymour, Horatio, I, 240, 241. Sheridan, Gen. Philip H., gives Mrs. Fiske historic flag, 2, 231- 33- Sherman, Gen. W. T., commends Fiske's knowledge of military tactics, 350, 352. Shipman, Judge William D., I, 23. Sibley, John Langdon, Harvard librarian, I, 141, 398 n., 2, 69. Sime, James, 2, 121, 122, 124; en courages Fiske to lecture in Lon don, in, 12S; dinner with Fiske, Hujdey, and Spencer, 145; takes Fiske to Epping Forest, 146; a day's ramble with Fiske, 147- 49; writes Fiske about Carlyle's death, 209; letter from, 295. Sime, William, 2, 286. Snake River, falls of, 2, 363. Sociology and Hero-Worship, 2, 191, 194-98. Sociology as a science, 2, 195, 196. Sophocles, Prof. Evangelinus A., I, 150, 151. Spencer, Herbert, Fiske's early enthusiasm over, I, 138, 139, 229, 230, 257; and Evolution, 218; Fiske secures a photograph of, 265, 292 ; Youmans describes to Fiske, 275; aided by Ameri can friends, 319 n.-, Fiske writes about the evolution of language, 354-57; indifferent toward the Christian religion, 371; dislikes Fiske's title, "Cosmic Philos ophy, "_ 387; Fiske's relations with, in London, 457, 463-66; 2, 130, 132, 136, 145; personal sketch of, I, 471-76; qualifica tions for his work, 2, 18; Dar win's influence on, 19; chief points of his philosophy, 20-24; his great undertaking completed, 25; its influence, 25,26; mutual regard of Spencer and Fiske, 28, 30, 31 ; on the relation of raatter and mind, 35, 36; caricatured, 57; excursions with Fiske and Henry Holt, 134-36, 141, 142; forgets social engagement with Fiske, 151, 152; Fiske's farewell visit to, 152-54; entertains Mr. and Mrs. Fiske, 178; visits America, 238-65; Autobiography quoted, 241, 242, 244, 254; in terviewed, 244; dinner at Sat urday Club, 244; personality, 245, 246; on American political and social probleras, 248-52; sees Harvard College and sorae Boston suburbs, 253, 254; goes to Concord, 254; interest in Era erson, 255, 256, 259; farewell dinner at Delmonico's, 260-62; doubted immortality of raan, 321, 322; debate with Frederic Harrison, 323; Life of Youmans dedicated to, 449, 450. Letters to, I, 293, 313, 338, 383, 408; let ters from, I, 295, 316, 356, 366, 385; 2, 58, 152, 263, 278, 322. St. Louis, Missouri, Fiske's lec tures in, 2, 204, 303; one of his intellectual homes, 205. Stadhaugh Manor, 2, 181. Stallo, Judge J. B., 2, 170. Stanley, Dowager Lady, of Al derly, 2, 180. Star of the West, flag of the, 2, 23 1 . Stetson, Edward G., classmate of Fiske, 2, 368. Stevens, Henry, antiquarian, 2, 128, 130, 131; letter from, 267. Stewart, Prof. Balfour, 2, 86 »., IOI. Stirling Castle, I, 439, 440. Stoker, Bram, brings raessage from Tennyson, 2, 453. Story of a New England Town, The, 2, 471- Stoughton, Edwin Wallace, Fiske's step-father, I, 52-54; supports Horatio Seymour, 240; encour ages Fiske to study law, 267, 268; assents to his concentrat ing on a literary life, 305; with Mrs. Stoughton establishes Fiske in a home of his own, 2, 79 ; Minister to Russia, 94; death of, 228, 229. Stoughton, Mrs. Edwin W., mar riage, I, 52-55; disturbed over 521 Index John's change of religious views, 115, 116; thinks him extravagant in buying books, 210, 211; letter from Pres. Felton, 234; critical of Lincoln, 240, 241; assents to Fiske's giving up the law, 305; builds him a house in Cambridge, 2, 79-82; goes to St. Petersburg, 9*; copies portrait of John Locke for Fiske, 94; letter to Mrs. Fiske, 169; her horae in New York, 229, 230; receives historic Aag irom Gen. Sheridan, 231 ; builds house in Cambridge for herself, 266, 294 ; remodels it, 486, 487. Letters to, li35, 39.41.44.47. 57.62,64,68, 72, 75, 81, 86, 130, 136, 139,200, 204, 212, 223, 241, 264-67, 269- 71, 273, 283, 292, 329-32, 349, 353. 375, 379, 394. 413-16, 418, 420, 467, 473, 479, 482, 488, 516, 532; 2, 64, 68, 81, 93, 108, 161, 190, 211, 282. Strasburg, 1, 524. Stratford-on-Avon, 2, 117. Sully, James, 2, 58 n. Sumner, Charles, leaves books to Harvard Library, 2, 67. Sumner, Prof. William G., 2, 261. Sylvester, Prof. Jaraes J., 2, 68. Tailoring, peripatetic, I, 28, 29 and n. Tait, Prof. P. G., 2, 86 n., loi. Taylor, Rev. Jeremiah, Fiske's pas tor in Middletown, I, 112, 117, 119, 120. Tennyson, Alfred, sends raessage to Fiske, 2, 453, 454. Terry, Ellen, 2, 344. Theisra, 2, 32-34, 323. Theming, Fiske's appreciation of value of, I, 80, 81. Theology, Christian, dogmas of, I, 89-99, 227; and science, I, 98- 103, 2, 4-16. Through Nature to God, 2, 473. Ticknor, George, I, 133, 134. Ticknor & Fields, publishers, I, 138; 2, 27, 255, 396. Tolstoy, Leo, his War and Peace, 2, 359. Torrey, Prof. Henry W., I, 154, 155- Treraont Teraple, lectures in, 2, 350- Trubner, Nicholas, 2, 132, 133, 138; helps Fiske pay a social debt, 150-52 ; cares for him when ill, 285, 286. True Lesson of Protestantism, The, 2, 224-27. Turgenieff, Ivan, 2, 137. Tylor, Edward B., 2, 54. Tyndall, John, cordiality to Fiske, 2, 272, 273, 277. Unitarian, an opprobrious name, I, 121. Unitarianism, and Harvard Col lege, I, 169-71, 174, 178; rise of, 172-74; soon develops heretics, 174.175.. , ^ Unseen Universe, The, by Stewart and Tait, 2, 86, 10 1. Unseen World, The, 2, 97, 100- 04. Upham, Catherine, I, 193, 243. Vespucius, Americus, vindication of, 2, 427. Vestiges of Creation, 1, 181. Vico, Giovanni Battista, his Scien- za Nuova, I, 285. Vinton, Lindley, 2, 216. Voltaire, Frangois, I, 520, 521. War of Independence, The, 2, 400, 412. Washburn, Rev. E. A., 2, 99. Washington University, St. Louis, lectures at, 2, 204, 303, 345, 352. Waverley Novels, Fiske's delight in, I, 264, 271. _ Wesleyan University, I, 3, 22. What is I-nspiration? 2, 98-100. White, Andrew D., offers Fiske a non-resident professorship at Cornell University, I, 397. 398. White, Judge George, I, 283. White, Williara A., 2, 160. Whittier, John G., 2, 353. Wilcox, Mrs. William, letter to, 2, 76-78. Willson, Rev. Edmund B., 2, 79; officiates at Fiske's marriage, i, 299; letter to, 2, 174. Winchester, England, King Alfred celebration at, 2, 493, 494: Fiske's proposed address, 494- 502. Winsor, Justin, 2, 69. 522 Index Wright, Chauncey, I, 333 »., 410; death of, 2, 96. Wyman, Prof. Jeffries, I, 160. York Cathedral, I, 451; 2, 184. Youmans, Edward L., I, 217, 221, 396; calls on Fiske, 273, 293; his own life struggle, 276; makes acquaintance of English scien tists, 277; becomes warm per sonal friend of Fiske, 277, 278; arranges for publishing Fiske's lectures, 360, 362; encourages Spencer to come to America, 2, 238; guards him from reporters, 240; arranges public dinner for hira, 243, 260-62; Fiske's life of, 438, 449, 450. Youmans, Eliza A., 2, 439. Young, Brigham, 2, 373, 374. (3Cbe Stibet^itie ^rt^^ CAMBRIDGE . MASSACHUSETTS U.S.A