Sutherland was in the front rank of Australian men of letters. A stimulating teacher, he was equally successful in the preparation of school books. His 'History of Australia from 1606 to 1876' (Melbourne, 1897) (in which his brother George collaborated) had a very large circulation. He was a poet of taste and a scientific investigator, acting for some years as secretary of the Royal Society of Victoria. His published books include, besides the works noticed:
- 'A New Geography,' Melbourne, 1885.
- 'Victoria and its Metropolis,' 2 vols. Melbourne, 1888.
- 'Thirty Short Poems,' Melbourne, 1890.
- 'Geography of British Colonies,' London, 1892.
- 'A Class Book of Geography,' London, 1894.
- 'History of Australia and New Zealand, 1606-1890,' London, 1894.
- Lives of Kendall and Gordon in the 'Development of Australian Literature,' Melbourne, 1898.
- 'Origin and Growth of the Moral Instinct,' London, 1898.
- 'The Praise of Poetry in English Literature,' Melbourne, 1901.
An India-ink sketch of Sutherland at the age of twenty-two, drawn by his father, is in the possession of his sister. Miss Sutherland, of 4 Highfield Grove, Kew, Melbourne. A photographic copy is in the library of the colonial office, London.
[Alexander Sutherland, M.A.: his Life and Work, by Henry Gyles Turner, 1908; Johns's Notable Australians, 1908; Melbourne Argus, 11 Aug. 1902; The Times, 16 Sept. 1902; Athenæum, 11 Oct. 1902; Nature, 23 Nov. 1911; Mennell's Dictionary of Australasian Biography, 1892; information from Mr. Henry Gyles Turner.]
SUTTON, HENRY SEPTIMUS (1825–1901), author, born at Nottingham on 10 Feb. 1825, was seventh child in a family of seven sons and three daughters of Richard Sutton (1789-1856) of Nottingham, bookseller, printer and proprietor of the 'Nottingham Review,' by his wife Sarah, daughter of Thomas Salt, farmer, of Stanton by Dale, Derbyshire. A sister, Mrs. Eliza S. Oldham, was author of 'The Haunted House' (1863) and 'By the Trent' (1864). From childhood he spent his time among the books in his father's shop, and early acquired literary tastes. He was educated at a private school in Nottingham and at Leicester grammar school. A study of medicine was soon abandoned for literature and journalism. Among early literary friends were his fellow townsman, Philip James Bailey [q. v. Suppl. II], and Coventry Patmore, with whom an intimacy was formed soon after the publication of Patmore's first volume of poems in 1844, and continued till Patmore's death in 1896. The two friends long corresponded on literary and religious subjects (see Basil Champneys, Coventry Patmore, vol. ii. ch. lx. pp. 142-65).
Sutton, who was through life a vegetarian and total abstainer, developed a strong vein of mysticism with an active interest in social and religious problems. Emerson's writings greatly influenced his early thought and style. His first book in prose, 'The Evangel of Love' (1847), which closely echoed Emerson, was welcomed by Patmore with friendly encouragement, while his master Emerson, to whom the book had been shown by J. Neuberg, Carlyle's friend and admirer, declared it to be 'worthy of George Herbert.' When Emerson visited Manchester in 1847 he invited Sutton from Nottingham to meet him, and a lifelong friendship was begun. Emerson visited Sutton at Nottingham next year; they met again in Manchester in 1872. In 1849, on Emerson's recommendation, Alexander Ireland [q. v.] found for Sutton, who became an expert shorthand writer, journalistic employment in Manchester, and in 1853 he became chief of the 'Manchester Examiner and Times' reporting staff. Soon after he met George MacDonald [q. v. Suppl. II] in Manchester; they became lifelong friends, and mutually influenced each other's spiritual development (Letters to William Allingham, 1911, pp. 44-8).
In 1848 his first poetical work, a tiny volume of mystical tone entitled 'Clifton Grove Garland,' came out at Nottingham. In 1854 there appeared his 'Quinquenergia: Proposals for a New Practical Theology,' including a series of simply phrased but subtly argued poems, 'Rose's Diary,' on which his poetic fame rests. The volume was enthusiastically received. Emerson's friend, Bronson Alcott, writing on 15 Oct. 1854, detected in Sutton's 'profound religious genius' a union of 'the remarkable sense of Williham Law with the subtlety of Behmen and the piety of Pascal' (F. G. Sanborn and William T. Harris, A. Bronson Alcott, 1893, ii. 484–5). The book became Frances Power Cobbe's constant companion. James Martineau rated it very highly. Francis Turner Palgrave included 'How beautiful it is to be alive' from 'Rose's Diary' and two other of Sutton's poems in his 'Golden Treasury of Sacred Poetry.' Carlyle, however, scornfully wondered that 'a lad in a provincial
