JOHN FISKE. 671 



Fellow of the Academy and a Member of the Massachusetts Historical 

 Society. 



The character of the thoughts which occuj^ied his mind for nearly 

 twenty years after his graduation is shown by the publications which 

 rapidly followed. In 1872 we have " Myths and Myth Makers;" in 

 1874, " Outlines of Cosmic Philosophy ; " in 1876, " The Unseen World 

 and Other Essays;" in 1879, "Darwinism and Other Essays ; " in 1884, 

 " Excursions of an Evolutionist and the Destiny of Man viewed in the 

 Light of his Origin ; " and in 1885, "• The Idea of God as affected by 

 Modern Knowledge." 



It will be noticed that during his career as an Instructor at Harvard 

 his time was divided between philosophy and history. It is generally 

 understood that a professorship there would have been grateful to him. 

 In that event, if he had found a place in the philosophical department, 

 we should probably never have had from his pen his contributions to 

 American History. Two reasons have been assigned for his failure to 

 secure this appointment, — each of which may have had weight. One 

 was the attack u[)on Harvard by the religious press after the publication 

 of his Cosmic Philosophy, and the other was his ic-onoclasm. Harvard 

 had its idols. Of these Agassiz was one, and him the aggressive young 

 evolutionist did not spare. 



His position as Assistant Librarian was not .worthy of him, nor was 

 the work congenial. He therefore resigned from the library corps. He 

 had previously, as we have seen, cut adrift from the law. In which of 

 the two fields of literary labor, philosophy or history, for which he 

 was specially fitted, was there the best chance for a young man with the 

 growing responsibilities of a family on his hands to find the means of 

 support? Such, to a person glancing at his career, would seem to have 

 been the problem which was submitted to him when he severed his con- 

 nection with Harvard. Yet, if we may accept his own statement, the 

 wondei'ful amount of learning displayed in the pages of his Cosmic 

 Philosophy was simply acquired as a formative process by way of prep- 

 aration for his future historical woi'k. " The absorbing and overmastering 

 passion for the study of history," he says, "first led me to study evolu- 

 tion in order to obtain a correct method." 



Professor Royce, whose analysis of Fiske's contributions to philo- 

 sophical and religious discussions is very thorough and far reaching, 

 gives him credit for being entirely in earnest in making this statement. 

 "Any critic," he says, "who lacks his [Fiske's] range of reading must 

 be easily tempted to regard his literary activities as too miscellaneous, 



