THE HINTONS: FATHER AND SON 



187 



ters that he belonged to the Mystics; but he 

 never made up his mind to take his stand on 

 either one side or the other of the sharp lines 

 which divide Mystics from both rationalizing and 

 traditionalizing interpretations. He adapted to 

 his purpose as much of the Christianity of his 

 childhood as he could not let go ; but if he ever 

 cleared up his early confusions, he nowhere shows 

 that he had done so. 



The mind of James Hinton moved, we must 

 repeat, mainly upon lines of analogy. He did 

 not seem to care to foresee the ultimate stress 

 of any opinion ; to test it by its extreme necessa- 

 ry consequence. Of course, this is an essential 

 process, and when it is not adopted we look for 

 inconsistency. James Hinton, like some others, 

 endeavored to make up for the want of this test- 

 ing process by casting about for " reconciling " 

 or " compensating " ideas ; at all events, he was 

 always ready to admit them, and the result was, 

 what it could not fail to be, anomalous and vague. 

 He was, above all things, a morphologist. In 

 ethics and metaphysics he pursued the same in- 

 stinctive method as in physical science; but, as 

 the same checks were not at his service, the re- 

 sults were not so clear. His biographer speaks 

 with much admiration of writings of his which 

 have not yet been published, and these will be 

 looked for w*ith serious and respectful curiosity. 

 We can make a whole of the views maintained in 

 "Life in Nature," and the value of the great 

 generalization which he first published in the 

 Medico- Chirurgical Review is admitted on all 

 hands ; it will be a very glad surprise to find that 

 Mr. Hinton had succeeded in marshaling his ethi- 

 cal and metaphysical theories at last in forms as 

 clear and commanding. But this we cannot say 

 we think likely. 



Mr. Hinton was never happy in his practice 

 as a medical man, though he did high-class work 

 as an aurist. His natural vocation as a teacher 

 and inspirer of men was strong upon him ; it tare 

 him. In 1852 he married, and had children in 

 rapid succession ; but in 1858 we find him out 

 of the profession and settled down in a very 

 small house at Tottenham, writing books and 

 articles, and making a living as a man of letters. 

 " Man and his Dwelling-Place " was published by 

 the late Mr. Parker, and had, for such a book, a 

 large success. But, of course, Mr. Hinton had 

 none of the qualities of the working journalist, 

 and he had in a short time to return to medicine. 

 Eventually, he succeeded to the business of Mr. 

 Toynbee ; and then began, over again, the strug- 

 gle with himself which never ended till it slew 



him. In his family-life he was exceedingly happy, 

 though the book contains some amusing illustra- 

 tions of the difficulties which came to Mrs. Hin- 

 ton sometimes from her husband's love of help- 

 ing persons who could not be helped without 

 causing serious inconvenience to the home, and 

 sometimes from other causes. He could never 

 get on without her sympathy ; so he used to read 

 his books to her in fragments as he was com- 

 posing them. This — especially in the small house 

 at Tottenham — led to odd results. The biogra- 

 pher relates all this in detail with true and sweet 

 humor. She is a scholarly and accomplished 

 writer, who enjoyed a close friendship with Mr. 

 Hinton ; and though she gives us too little narra- 

 tive, and too many letters for easy reading, this, 

 too, may be lor the best. 



One interesting fact we may insert in this 

 place. Mr. James Hinton was as fond of music 

 as his father was, and his favorite composers 

 were Beethoven and Mozart. Mrs. Hinton ap- 

 pears to be a lady of considerable artistic abili- 

 ties. The illustrations to Mr. Hinton's book on 

 " The Questions of Aural Surgery " are from her 

 accomplished hand ; and her husband seems to 

 have caught from her an interest in pictures, and 

 even to have speculated in them. Dr. Wilks told 

 a quaint anecdote about him, when he was at 

 Birmingham once: 



"His predilections" (in art matters) "might 

 be anticipated from his turn of mind. When the 

 British Medical Association met at Birmingham 

 I went into the town museum, and there saw Hin- 

 ton gazing rapturously at a misty sunrise of Tur- 

 ner, when, seeing me, he exclaimed, ' Good God ! 

 how did he do it 1 ' It was in the afternoon of the 

 same day when, not having met him at any of the 

 medical sections, I asked him how it was, and he 

 told me that he had been having a most interesting 

 two hours' conversation with Father Newman." 



All this is most characteristic — the eagerness, the 

 love of novelty, the longing for sympathy, the 

 childlike way of showing it, and the endless ver- 

 satile curiosity of the man. 



For many years Mr. Hinton wrought with 

 earnestness in his profession, making all the 

 money he could, in order that he might be able 

 to retire from it while yet comparatively young, 

 and devote himself to his natural work as an in- 

 spired teacher of men. In 1875 he withdrew from 

 practice, and went out to a little property which 

 he had bought in the Azores, and on which he 

 relied for a modest income for all the rest of his 

 life. The letters which he wrote to his wife, to 

 his children, to the lady who now writes this 



