HAOKETT, JAMES H. 



379 



brated "History of Greece." Although Mit- 

 ford's work had by this time been superseded 

 by the scholarly production of Bishop Thirl- 

 wall, the merits of Mr. Grote were speedily 

 recognized, and the work became what it will 

 probably long remain, the standard history of 

 Greece. The remaining volumes followed in 

 rapid succession volumes iii. and iv. in 1847, 

 v. and vi. in 1849, vii. and viii. in 1850, ix. and 

 x. in 1852, xi. in 1853, and the twelfth and 

 concluding volume in 1856. Mr. Grote did not 

 carry his work down to the burning of Cor- 

 inth, the point at which most histories of 

 Greece stop. An ardent lover of Hellas, he 

 could not, it would seem, bear to tell the story 

 of her gradual decay ; nor has he cared to de- 

 scribe the influence her civilization exercised 

 on the countries conquered by Alexander. 

 The work, however, has its own unity, and 

 may rightly be placed as an historical master- 

 piece by the side of Gibbon. Doubtless it is not 

 with out its defects; occasionally, like Gibbon, 

 the writer's style is a little heavy ; in a few 

 instances, his views may be open to question ; 

 in still fewer the niceties of scholarship may 

 have been overlooked in some earnest defence 

 of the Greek demos, yet these shortcomings do 

 not detract from the greatness of the work. 

 To an industry and learning worthy of a Ger- 

 man, Mr. Grote added a breadth of view and a 

 knowledge of men and affairs which no Ger- 

 man historian has ever shown. No sooner 

 had Mr. Grote completed his great work, the 

 result of more than thirty years of careful and 



assiduous toil, than he undertook to supple- 

 ment one of the most celebrated chapters in 

 it, that upon Socrates, by an exhaustive ac- 

 count of the post-Socratic philosophy. The 

 first three volumes of the now work appeared 

 in 1865, under the title of "Plato and the 

 other Companions of Socrates," and the la- 

 mented author was engaged, at the time of his 

 death, upon an equally elaborate treatise on 

 Aristotle and the Peripatetics. Although we 

 can hardly consider Mr. Grote as great a phi- 

 losopher as he was an historian, still his Plato 

 was an extremely important addition to the 

 literature of the subject of w^hich it treats. 

 There is nothing in the English language, with 

 the exception of Prof. Jowett's recent work, 

 that can at all compare with it. Of Mr. Grote's 

 other contributions to philosophy we need 

 only instance his learned notes to Mr. Bain's 

 "Mental and Moral Science." But, with all 

 his delight in these abstract studies, Mr. Grote 

 was an eminently practical man. In matters 

 of finance he was not a whit behind the ablest 

 bankers of his time ; in politics, he was per- 

 fectly at home ; and in the details of the man- 

 agement of a great educational institution he 

 had exhibited the versatility of his talents by 

 his able administration, during many years, of 

 the affairs of "University College and tbe Uni- 

 versity of London, as vice-chancellor. He had 

 received from the University of Oxford the 

 honorary degree of D. C. L., had been elected, 

 in 1858, a corresponding member of the Insti- 

 tute of France, and in 1864 a foreign associate. 



H 



HACKETT, JAMES HEXRT, an American 

 actor of great merit, born in New York City, 

 March 15, 1800; died at Jamaica, Long Island, 

 December 21, 1871. Pie was of Dutch an- 

 cestry, his father being a Hollander, who had 

 been a lieutenant in the Prince of Orange's 

 Life-Guards, and his mother the daughter of 

 Eev. Abraham Keteltas, the Reformed (Dutch) 

 clergyman of Jamaica. While yet a little child 

 his parents removed to Jamaica, where, in 

 1805, he became a pupil at the Union Hall 

 Academy, then directed by Mr. Eigenbrodt, 

 a teacher of much local repute. He remained 

 here ten years. In 1815 he entered Columbia 

 College, where, however, he studied but one 

 year. In 1817 he was a law-student in the 

 office of General Eobert Bogardus; and it is 

 obscurely intimated that at this time he first 

 dabbled in theatrical pursuits. In 1818 he 

 engaged his services as a clerk in the grocery 

 business. In 1819 he married Miss Catharine 

 Leesugg, a singing actress at the Park Theatre, 

 whom he withdrew from the stage. From 

 1820 to 1826 he remained in mercantile pur- 

 suits, living part of the time in Utica, and part 

 in New York. Unsuccessful speculations, 

 during 1825, led to bankruptcy, and he there- 



upon reverted to his early taste for the drama. 

 Mrs. Hackett reappeared on the 27th of Febru- 

 ary, 1826, at the Park Theatre, as the Countess, 

 in "The Devil's Bridge," and as Marian Ram- 

 say. On the 1st of March following, Mr. 

 Hackett made his first appearance at the same 

 house, and in the character of Justice Wood- 

 cock. The effort was a failure. On the 10th, 

 however, he made a second endeavor, enact- 

 ing Sylvester Daggerwood, and introducing 

 imitations of Matthews, Kean, and other actors. 

 These were remarkably clever, and they at 

 once drew attention to the actor, who there- 

 upon determined to persevere in the newly- 

 chosen calling. His third appearance, on tho 

 19th of June, was made in the Yankee char- 

 acter of Uncle Ben, and the French charactei 

 of Morbleau, in "Monsieur Tonson." Suc- 

 cess continued to attend him. His Dromio, 

 first seen on the 25th of October, 1826, made 

 an emphatic hit. Toward the end of that year 

 he went to England, making his first profes- 

 sional appearance in London at Covent Gar- 

 den, April 6, 1827. A little later he acted at 

 the Surrey Theatre, and gave a very success- 

 ful imitation of Edmund Kean's Richard III. 

 Upon his return to America he appeared in 



