Page:Dictionary of National Biography. Sup. Vol III (1901).djvu/163

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Martineau
149
Martineau

the LL.D. diploma from Harvard. The most striking sermons of his London ministry were published in 'Hours of Thought on Sacred Things' (1st ser. 1876, 8vo ; 2nd er. 1879, 8vo).

His college address (6 Oct. 1874), criticising the address (19 Aug.) of John Tyndall [q. v.] to the British Association at Belfast, led to a controversy (1875-6) with Tyndall, who wrote in the 'Fortnightly Review,' Martineau replying in the 'Contemporary.' The brilliance of his papers (reprinted, Essays, ut sup. iv. 163) culminating in his 'Ideal Substitutes for God' (1879), won him wide repute as a champion of theism. He received the diplomas of S.Th.D. Leydeu (1875), D.D. Edinburgh (1884), D.C.L. Oxon. (20 June 1888), Litt.D. Dublin (1892). In 1882 appeared his 'Study of Spinoza' (2nd ed. 1883, 8vo), in which he maintained that Spinoza's philosophy does not reach the point of theism. His college work had been lightened by the appointment (1875) of Charles Barnes Upton as joint professor of philosophy ; at Michaelmas 1885 he resigned the principalship, having passed the age of eighty. In 1886-7 he was president of the college. On his eighty-third birthday an address was presented to him bearing names of the stamp of Tennyson, Browning, Kenan, Kuenen, Jowett, and Sanday (the text, with 649 signatures, is in Knight's 'Inter Amicos,' 1901, pp. 89 sq.)

Much of Martineau's college work was incorporated in his later publications, on which his reputation as a philosophic thinker will mainly rest. His ' Types of Ethical Theory ' (Oxford, 1885, 2 vols. 8vo; 3rd ed. 1889, 8vo) has been used as a text-book at Oxford and Calcutta ; portions of an analysis, based on lectures by Henry Stephens, were published at Calcutta in 1890 (see also The Law of Duty : a Suggested Moral Text-book, based on the Ethical and Religious Writings of Dr. J. Martineau, Madras, 1889, 8vo, by T. E. Slator). His 'Way out of the Trinitarian Controversy' (a sermon of earlier date, first printed, Christian Reformer, 1886 ; reprinted, Essays, ut sup. ii. 525) is based on the theory that the real object of worship, in both creeds, is the ' Second Person ' under different names. Of his ' Study of Religion ' (Oxford, 1888, 2 vols. 8vo; 1889, 8vo) there is an 'Analysis' (1900) by Richard Acland Armstrong. The brilliant elaboration of the 'design argument' marks the recurrence of his thought to a position which he had long disparaged, if not discarded ; it was resumed with modifications made necessary by the Darwinian doctrine of evolution. To save free-will, Martineau (after Socinus) excludes the divine foreknowledge of contingencies ; but as in his view all the lines of action, between which choice lies, lead to the same goal, free-will ' only varying the track ' (ii. 279), the result seems indistinguishable from fatalism. In 1888 he introduced at Leeds a comprehensive plan of organisation and sustentation for the Unitarian body, under the character of 'English presbyterians.' The scheme, somewhat resembling that of James Yates (1789-1871) [q.v.], was not adopted, though certain of its suggestions have borne fruit. On the formation (14 May 1889) of a ' provincial assembly ' by London unitarians, Martineau resisted the proposal of Robert Spears [q. v. Suppl.] to make the term ' Christian ' a part of its title. The latest phases of his theological teaching must be sought in ' The Seat of Authority in Religion ' (1890, 8vo ; 1892, 8vo), in which, more space is given to the polemic than to the reconstructive side of his subject ; hence it has been described as 'the unseating of authorities.' Of his New Testament criticism it has been remarked as 'strange, that whenever our Lord's language is at issue with Dr. Martineau's philosophy, the evangelists have been bad reporters.' He lectured at University Hall, Gordon Square (January-March 1891), on the ' Gospel of Luke; ' and (1893) on the newly discovered ' Gospel according to Peter.' He had opposed the removal (1889) of Manchester New College to Oxford, but took part in the opening of the new buildings, conducting the communion service (19 Oct. 1893) in the chapel of Manchester College.

Till a few months before the close of his long life he showed no symptom of failing faculty, unless a slight deafness be reckoned and some defects of memory. Within a year of his death an old friend calling to see him found that 'the venerable youth had gone to a popular concert.' Always abstemious and never using tobacco, he disused alcohol in the period 1842-9, and gave it up in the sixties (Reade, Study and Stimulants, 1883, p. 97) ; he had previously been troubled with hereditary gout, Till 1898 he spent the summer and autumn at his highland residence, The Polchar, Aviemore, Inverness-shire, where he proved himself an experienced mountaineer. His strenuous character and aesthetic sense marked every detail of his work ; he was an excellent man of business, and his most ordinary correspondence had distinction and a high finish. Old age gave grandeur to his countenance, and a refined gentleness to his demeanour. In his conversation as in his letters there was a rare combination of dignified modesty and