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MILMAN, HENEY H. 



MINNESOTA. 



day, and took his first degree in 1809, proceed- 

 ing M. A. in 1812. In the university he gained 

 first-class honors, both in classics and mathe- 

 matics, and carried off all the four annual prizes 

 open to the competition of all undergraduates 

 and bachelors respectively the "Newdigate," 

 the "Latin Verse," the "Latin Essay," and 

 the " English Essay." The subject of his New- 

 digate prize, "The Apollo Belvedere," was so 

 ably handled, that the essay has been a tradi- 

 tion of the university from that time to the 

 present. Soon after taking his second degree 

 he was elected a Fellow of Brasenose College. 

 In 1815 he published "Fazio, a Tragedy," 

 which was successfully brought upon the stage 

 at Oovent Garden, and has been reproduced 

 with fair success at intervals ever since. In 



1817 he took orders, and was shortly after ap- 

 pointed Yicar of St. Mary's, Eeading. In 



1818 appeared his " Samor, Lord of the Bright 

 City, an Heroic Poem," which was followed, in 

 1820, by " The Fall of Jerusalem," a beautiful 

 dramatic poem, with* some fine sacred lyrics 

 interspersed. In 1821 he was appointed Pro- 

 fessor of Poetry at Oxford, and in the course 

 of the same year published three other poems 

 "The Martyr of Antioch," "Belshazzar," 

 and " Anne Boleyn." He was already a valued 

 and frequent contributor to the Quarterly Re- 

 view, and his criticisms on authors were looked 

 for with interest. In 1826 this young and bril- 

 liant clergyman and professor, now in his 

 thirty-fifth year, was appointed Bampton Lec- 

 turer, that honor to which so many ripe schol- 

 ars among the English clergy aspire, and to 

 which so few of them attain. The lectures 

 were delivered and published the next year. 

 The subject he had chosen was, "The Charac- 

 ter and Conduct of the Apostles considered as 

 Evidences of the Christian Faith," and, to the 

 surprise of all his hearers, it was treated some- 

 what dramatically, beginning with a tableau 

 of the apostolic company. The young Oxford 

 professor had not thus far found, with all he 

 had accomplished and attained, his true voca- 

 tion, but he was drawing toward it. John 

 Murray, his publisher, had projected a series 

 of works under the title of " The Family Li- 

 brary," which were to comprise, in their wide 

 scope, history, poetry, science, fiction, and ad- 

 venture. To Professor Milman he assigned 

 " The History of the Jews," expecting, probably, 

 a safe, though somewhat dull, manual of Old 

 Testament history. But the brilliant author 

 was not satisfied with appearing as a dull, 

 hackneyed compiler, and he produced a work, 

 readable enough, and fascinating from its ele- 

 gance of style, but so liberal and tolerant in 

 its spirit as to offend the stricter school of 

 ecclesiastics, and withal defective in its state- 

 ments of important facts in the realm of biblical 

 criticism. The book was, nevertheless, popu- 

 lar, and, nearly forty years later, its author re- 

 vised and almost entirely rewrote it, introdu- 

 cing the wealth of biblical lore which he had 

 been all those years engaged in accumulating. 



Mr. Murray's next commission to Professor 

 Milman was the editing and annotating of Gib- 

 bon's " Decline and Fall of the Eoman Em- 

 pire." The research into Gibbon's authorities, 

 which he found necessary in this undertaking, 

 developed the latent historical genius in Mil- 

 man, and gave him the first impulse toward 

 the preparation of those great historical works 

 which are alike the evidences of his profound 

 research, his extraordinary impartiality, and 

 his great critical powers. The elegance and 

 finish of his style, its stately grandeur, and its 

 unsurpassed lucidity and simplicity, make his 

 works models of "English undented." The 

 gorgeous exuberance of his earlier writings dis- 

 appears, but the brilliancy remains to embel- 

 lish the solid substratum of fact, carefully 

 ascertained and collated, which it serves to 

 adorn. His first really historical work, "The 

 History of Christianity from the Birth of 

 Christ to the Abolition of Paganism in the 

 Eoman Empire," in three volumes, was not 

 published till 1840, after more than ten years 

 of diligent study. / The same year he published 

 also a collected edition of his " Poetical Works," 

 containing some pieces besides those already 

 mentioned. In 1831 Lord Melbourne had 

 given him the crown living of St. Margaret's, 

 Westminster, and in 1849 Lord John Eussell 

 conferred on him the deanery of St. Paul's, 

 which he held till his death. After the publi- 

 cation of his "History of Christianity," heap- 

 plied himself with great assiduity to the work 

 which was to be the crowning labor of his life ; 

 and, though possessing that rare faculty, for a 

 historian, of knowing just where to put his 

 hand upon the facts he needed, it was four- 

 teen years before he had completed his " His- 

 tory of Latin Christianity, including that of 

 the Popes to the Pontificate of Nicholas V.," 

 in six volumes. This work is one of learning, 

 and chastened eloquence; it displays a grasp 

 of human nature in its religious workings and 

 its wide sympathies, and aspires at impartiality, 

 which entitle its author to take rank with the 

 prominent English historians. Besides the 

 works we have named, Dean Milman also 

 published a "Memoir of Lord Macaulay," a 

 "Life of John Keats," an exquisite illustrated 

 edition of Horace, with notes, translations of 

 the "Agamemnon" of JEschylus, the "Bac- 

 chaa " of Euripides, and some of his favorites 

 among the minor Greek poets, and " Hebrew 

 Prophecy, a Sermon," the two latter published 

 in 1865. He had also at the time of his death 

 completed for publication his " History of St. 

 Paul's Cathedral." In breadth of learning, in 

 dignified but not stilted eloquence as a writer, 

 and in brilliancy and geniality in social life, 

 it will be long ere we shall find the equal of 

 the gifted Dean of St. Paul's. 



MINNESOTA. The number of the inhab- 

 itants of this vast State has not reached half a 

 million yet, though it has been steadily and 

 largely increasing; her vote cast on Novem- 

 ber 2, 1868, amounted to 71,824, but in 



