Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 23.djvu/303

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Grote
295
Grove

more was ready, though he worked till the last. His health had always been uncertain, and there was another reason for the fragmentary and unfinished state in which he left the results of his thought: with a highly nervous temperament that made him swift rather than persistent in work, he had none of his brother's ingrained methodical habit. Much has been done to make up for the short-coming by his literary executor the Rev. J. B. Mayor, husband of his adopted niece. Besides a selection of his 'Sermons' (1872) and a number of detached essays, Mr. Mayor has carefully edited 'An Examination of the Utilitarian Philosophy' (1870) and 'A Treatise on Moral Ideals' (1876). The 'Examination' is an elaborate criticism of J.S. Mill's 'Utilitarianism,' written down for his own satisfaction on the appearance of Mill's essay in 'Fraser's Magazine' (1861), and partly prepared for publication on its separate appearance as a book in 1862. The 'Moral Ideals' (left by himself without title) is an uncontroversial exposition of the results of his own ethical thought, which he had resolved to publish first after partly printing the 'Examination' in 1863; till he turned aside to bring out the 'intellectual views' of the 'Exploratio,' originally to have been appended to the controversial 'Examination.' In all these works, as in his lectures, he resorted on principle to a free (but always scholarly) invention of new terms. That he had deeply meditated on the philosophy of language was proved by a remarkable series of papers 'On Glossology,' printed some years after his death in the 'Journal of Philology' (1872, 1874, conclusion unfortunately not given). He had no desire to impose his new words on others, being only anxious to convey his own ideas with perfect accuracy; yet some of his formations—'felicific,' 'hedonics,' 'relativism,' and others—have begun to find their way into current philosophical use. As a thinker he combined a singular openness of mind with steadfast adherence to carefully grounded convictions of his own. When he first appeared as a philosophical writer, he made a definite advance beyond his English predecessors of all schools in the clearness with which he apprehended the distinction between psychology and philosophy. This enabled him, while making due allowance for the part to be accorded to positive inquiry in ethical thought, to claim, with a novel emphasis, the character of philosophical doctrine for ethics. In private his moral sensitiveness and fervour, joined with dialectic subtlety, gave him great influence over the minds of others; he was especially consulted by friends in cases of conscience. He did not marry.

He had studied history so much in earlier years that he was urged by his eldest brother to apply for the chair of modern history at Cambridge in 1849, when it fell to Sir James Stephen. The width of his intellectual range is shown by his writings. Besides those already mentioned there appeared in his lifetime: 1. 'Dating of Ancient History' and 'Origin and Meaning of Roman Names' ('Journ. of Class. and Sac. Philology,' 1854-1855). 2. 'A Few Words on Criticism,' 1861 (an exposure of a 'Saturday Review' attack on Whewell's 'Platonic Dialogues'). 3. 'An Examination of some Portions of Dr. Lushington's Judgment' in cases arising out of 'Essays and Reviews,' 1862. 4. 'A Few Words on the New Education Code, 1862. Mr. Mayor has published since his death: 5. 'What is Materialism?' ('Macmillan's Mag.,' 1867). 6. 'On a Future State' and 'Montaigne and Pascal' ('Contemp. Review,' 1871, 1877). 7. 'Thought v. Learning' ('Good Words,' 1871). 8. 'Discussion on the Utilitarian Basis of Plato's Republic' ('Classical Review,' 1889). Other writings may still see the light.

[Biographical particulars in introductions or prefaces to the philosophical volumes; manuscript notes; information from relatives.]

GROVE, HENRY (1684–1738), dissenting tutor, was born at Taunton, Somersetshire, on 4 Jan. 1684. His grandfather was the ejected vicar of Pinhoe, Devonshire, whose son, a Taunton upholsterer, married a sister of John Rowe, ejected from a lectureship at Westminster Abbey; Henry was the youngest of fourteen children, most of whom died early. His constitution was naturally delicate. Grounded in classics at the Taunton grammar school, he proceeded at the age of fourteen (1698) to the Taunton Academy, 'which sent out men of the best sense and figure among the ministers of this county in the dissenting way' (Fox). Here he went through a course of philosophy and divinity under Matthew Warren, a presbyterian divine, included (perhaps erroneously) among the ejected of 1662. Warren was a moderate Calvinist, who lectured on old lines, but encouraged a broad course of reading. The text-books were Derodon, Burgersdyck, and Eustache; Grove devoted himself to Le Clerc, Cumberland, and Locke. In 1703 he removed to London to study under his cousin, Thomas Rowe, in whose academy he remained two years. Rowe was 'a zealous Cartesian;' Grove became an equally zealous disciple of Newton. He studied Hebrew, and formed his style of preaching on Richard Lucas, D.D.