dealing with some of the topics omitted in ‘Ecce Homo.’ But ‘Natural Religion,’ published in 1882, cannot in this sense be regarded as a sequel to the former work. ‘Natural Religion’ avoids discussing the supernatural basis of faith, but does not therefore deny its existence. It endeavours to widen the conception of the word ‘religion,’ which the author declares unduly narrowed, and to establish the possibility of a reasonable religion without the supernatural element. The work was not so well received as ‘Ecce Homo.’ The style is equally vigorous, the argument as lucid, but the subject is devoid of that personal interest and association possessed by the earlier book, while the view of religion which it advocates appeals only to the few.
In 1869 Seeley became professor of modern history at Cambridge in the place of Charles Kingsley, and at Cambridge he remained for the rest of his life. He had as yet published nothing historical beyond some short papers, but historical speculation had interested him from early years. His lectures at once made a great impression. They were carefully prepared, epigrammatic in style, animated in delivery, attractive and stimulating from the originality, width, and suggestiveness of their views. For many years his classes were large, and were by no means confined to those who were making history a special study. Besides lecturing, he held weekly classes for the purpose of discussing historical and political questions with advanced students. These gatherings were called ‘conversation classes,’ but they became, at least latterly, a sort of monologue, in which the professor took his class through a regular course of political science.
In the inaugural lecture which he delivered when appointed professor he defined his view of the connection between history and politics, and laid down the lines on which his teaching was consistently to run throughout his tenure of the professorship. He insisted on the principle that a knowledge of history, but especially of the most recent history, is indispensable to the politician. And by history he meant political history—not biography, nor the history of religion, art, or society, but the history of the state. With this view, when the historical tripos was established at Cambridge in 1873, he infused into it a strong political element. He would indeed have preferred to call it a political tripos, and to make history subordinate to politics. His lectures were, with few exceptions, confined to the history of the last two centuries, and his attention was mainly given to international history, to the action and reaction of states upon each other. The history of Great Britain as a member of the European system was, he maintained, a subject strangely and unduly neglected in favour of domestic or constitutional history by British historians.
For some time Seeley's labours were not restricted to Cambridge. The income of his chair was at first very small, and he was compelled to supplement it by giving lectures in the large towns of the north and in Scotland, where he achieved a high reputation as a lecturer. Some of his public addresses and other papers were collected in a volume entitled ‘Lectures and Essays,’ and published in 1870. The most important of these are perhaps the essays on the ‘Fall of the Roman Empire’ and on ‘Milton,’ and his inaugural lecture at Cambridge.
While still professor of Latin Seeley had, at the request of the Oxford University Press, begun an edition of the first decade of Livy. A volume containing the first book of Livy was published in 1871. The introduction is original and suggestive, and displays his capacity for forming clear and positive conclusions on complicated historical problems. But such antiquarian research was not very congenial to him, and he never continued the edition.
Some years after he became professor of history an anonymous benefactor made an addition to the income of the chair, while about the same time the Cambridge University Press gave a practical illustration of the endowment of research by paying in advance for a work on which Seeley was engaged. He was thus enabled to give up extraneous employment, and to devote himself to his professorial lectures and to the book in question. This book, ‘The Life and Times of Stein,’ is probably Seeley's most solid and lasting contribution to historical knowledge, but it was not one of his most successful productions. He had little taste for personal detail or for simple narrative, and the character of Stein hardly lends itself to attractive biographical treatment. But as an elucidation of the anti-Napoleonic revolution, and of the share taken by Stein and Prussia in the revival of Germany, the book has no rival in the English language. ‘The Expansion of England,’ published in 1883, was a greater success so far as public reputation is concerned. This little volume consists of lectures delivered in the university, very slightly altered or amplified for publication. It sketches with a remarkable unity of view and vigour of treatment the great duel with France which began with the revolution of 1688 and ended with
