Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 11.djvu/228

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216
GROTE

ssventieth year. This work, he remarks, was "intended as a sequel and supplement to his History of Greece." After giving an exhaustive review of early Greek philosophy, from Thales to Democritus, and an account of the life of Plato, of the Platonic Canon, and of Platonic compositions generally, he analyses at great length each of the dialogues, with illustrative remarks, unfolding a number of his own philosophical views. The work concludes with two chapters, one on the " Other Companions of Sokrates," and another on " Xenophon." On the completion of this work. Grote wrote in the Westminster Review (1866) an elaborate criticism of John Stuart Mill s Examination of /Sir William Hamilton s Philosophy." At the same time, though in his seventy-first year, he set to work upon Aristotle, hopeful in the continu ance of those powers which he thus described three years later : " My power of doing work is sadly diminished as to quantity, as my physical powers in walking are ; but as to quality (both perspicacity, memory, and suggestive association bringing up new communications), I am sure that my intellect is as good as it ever was," and all who knew him well can attest the accuracy of this judgment. But he did not live to complete the third portion of his l{ trilogy," though he had been studying the Aristotelian treatises from his earliest manhood. The fragment of his Aristotelian labours was published in 1872, the year after his death, in two volumes, edited by Professors Bain and Robertson. Besides the life of Aristotle and the canon of his works, these volumes are chiefly occupied with an examination of the logical treatises of the great philosopher; bat the editors have been able to give, from the MSS. of the author and from the contributions which he made to Professor Bain s Manual of Mental and Moral Science, some account of Aristotle s other works. There are also two valuable essays on the ethics and politics of Aristotle, found among the author s MSS. after the publication of Aristotle, which were printed in 1876 in the Fragments on Ethical Subjects by the late George Grote. During the composition of the Plato and the Aristotle Grote resided in London, at 12 Savile Row, and in two country houses, which he occupied in succession, first at Barrow Green in Kent from 1859 to 1863 (where Jeremy Bentham had once lived), and afterwards at Shiere among the Surrey hills, in which places his day was divided between regular work, exercise as regular, and the society of con genial friends. Many a work of social duty and benevolence found prompt performance ; and he paid unremitting atten tion to the business of his three favourite institutions the University of London, University College, and the British Museum, of which last he became a trustee on the death of Henry Hallam in 1859. But his connexion with the two former bodies was so close, and he made their adminis tration so completely the chief business of his life after his literary works, that a few words upon the subject are necessary. It has been already mentioned that he took an active part in the foundation of the university of London in Gower Street. He was a member of the original council of that institution from 1827 to 1831, from which he retired upon entering parliament. This institution exchanged its name for that of " University College " before the foundation in 1836 of the " University of London," which now conducts its business in Burlington House. Grote joined again the council of University College in 1849, and from that time till his death he took a leading part in the adminis tration of its affairs. He became treasurer in 1860, and president in 1868, on the death of Lord Brougham. Grote was one of the seven new members added by the crown to the senate of the "University of London" in 1850. From 1862, when he was elected vice-chancellor, on the resignation of Sir John Shaw Lefevre, he became the leading spirit of the university. In both University College and the university of London he was the constant advocate of the threefold cord of know ledge literature, philosophy, science, which he held to be ruined by tampering with any one of them, earnestly up holding what he regarded as sound metaphysics, supporting the establishment of degrees in science, and opposing, to the last of his life and strength, the omission of Greek from the examination for matriculation. He left his library to the university ; and he showed his attachment to the college and to metaphysical studies by bequeathing to it a sum of 6000 for the endowment of a professorship of mental philosophy. He continued to labour in the discharge of his duties to these institutions, even when far gone in the malady which appeared in 1870, and carried him off on the 18th of June 1871, in his seventy-seventh year. He found his fit resting-place in Westminster Abbey, just beneath Camden s monument, and near Macaulay s grave. His portrait by Mr Millais, taken the year before his death, is preserved in the senate-room of the university of London. Grote s great literary merits received due and fitting acknowledgment from his contemporaries. He was elected a fellow of the Royal Society, received from the university of Oxford the honorary degree of D.C.L., and from that of Cambridge the honorary degree of LL.D., was made a foreign member of the French Institute in the place of Macaulay, and lastly was offered a peerage by Mr Gladstone in 1869, an honour which he declined. His personal character cannot be better described than in the words of his friend Professor Bain : " In the depths of his character there was a fund of sympathy, generosity, and self-denial rarely equalled among men ; on the exterior, his courtesy, affability, and delicate consideration for the feelings of others were indelibly impressed upon every beholder ; yet this amiability of demeanour was never used to mislead, and in no case relaxed his determination for what he thought right. Punctual and exact in his engagements, he inspired a degree of confidence and respect which acted most beneficially on all the institutions and trusts that he took a share in administering ; and his loss to them was a positive calamity."

The authorities for Grote s life are The Personal Life of Georijc Grote, by Mrs Grote, 1873, and the Critical Remarks on Ids Intellectual Chan-acter, Writings, and Speeches (170 pages), by Professor Bain, prefixed to Grote s Minor Works, 1873.

The following is a list of Grote s works, most of which have been noticed in the course of the preceding memoir : A History of Greece, in 12 vols. 8vo, 1846-1856, reprinted in 1862 in 8 vols. 8vo, in 1869 in 12 vols. 12mo, and lastly in 1871 in 10 vols. 8vo; Plato and the other Companions of Sokrates, in 3 vols. 8vo, 1865, reprinted in the same form in 1867, and a third time in 1874; Aristotle, edited by Alexander Bain and G. Croom Robertson, 2 vols. 8vo, 1872; The Minor Works of George Grote, edited by Professor Bain, 1873, con taining (1) "Essentials of Parliamentary Reform;" (2) "Notice of Sir William Molesworth s edition of the Works of Hobbes;" (3) "Grecian Legends and Early History;" (4) " Review of Boeckh on Ancient Weights, Coins, and Measures;" (5) "Presidential Address, in commemoration of the twenty-first Anniversary of the London Scientific Institution;" (6) "Address on delivering the prizes at University College ;" (7) " Review of Sir G. C. Lewis on the Credibility of Early Roman History;" (8) "Plato s Doctrine respecting the Rotation of the Earth, and Aristotle s Comment upon that Doctrine;" (9) "Review of John Stuart Mill on the Philo sophy of Sir William Hamilton;" (10) "Papers on Philosophy ;" Seven Letters concerning the Politics of Switzerland, pending the Outbreak of the Civil War in 1847, 1847, reprinted in 1876, with the addition of an unpublished letter written by the author to M. de Tocqueville shortly after the termination of the war ; Frag ments on Ethical Subjects, 1876 (a selection from his posthumous papers).

Mrs Grote survived her husband upwards of seven years, and died on the 29th of December 1878, at her residence in Shiere. She was one of the most remarkable