OF THE SPIRIT. 



375 



who, in the interest of free academic teaching, opposed 

 all religious tests ; * whilst the fact that he belonged to 

 one of the smaller Nonconformist sects stigmatised his 

 teaching as opposed to the prevalent religious philosophy 

 both in England and Scotland. He therefore gained full 

 hearing and appreciation neither from those who took a 

 purely philosophical interest nor from those who were 

 brought up in the older universities. It is, however, 

 quite possible that his speculations, which were em- 



1 This became strikingly mani- 

 fest when, in the year 1866, the 

 chair of Mental Philosophy and 

 Logic at University College, Lon- 

 don, became vacant. "A discus- 

 sion arose as to the true interpreta- 

 tion of the principle of religious 

 neutrality avowedly adopted by 

 the college. One party held that 

 it should exclude Mr James Mar- 

 tineau, who, as a Unitarian minis- 

 ter, was pledged to maintain the 

 creed of a particular sect. De 

 Morgan [the eminent mathemati- 

 cian], on the other hand, held that 

 any consideration of a candidate's 

 ecclesiastical position or religious 

 creed was inconsistent with the 

 principle. He thought that the 

 refusal to appoint Mr Martineau 

 was in reality an act of intolerance 

 dictated by a dislike to the candi- 

 date's religious philosophy. De 

 Morgan had always been exceed- 

 ingly sensitive upon this question 

 of religious neutrality. . . . He 

 now resigned his office in a letter 

 dated 10th November 1866." Some- 

 time after, De Morgan said, " Our 

 old college no longer exists. It 

 lived only so long as it refused all 

 religious disqualifications " (see 

 article " De Morgan," by Leslie 

 Stephen, ' Dictionary of National 

 Biography '). From the ' Life of 

 Martineau ' (Estlin Carpenter, 

 1905, p. 432) it appears that at the 



meeting of the Senate the votes 

 for and against Martineau as 

 candidate were equal, but the cast- 

 ing vote was given by the chair- 

 man against the candidate. In a 

 letter to F. W. Newman, one of 

 the professors of the college, Mar- 

 tineau says, inter alia: "In a 

 curious letter to me, J. S. Mill 

 avows that his preference for Mr 

 Robertson [the other candidate] 

 arises from his desire to plant a 

 thorough-going disciple in a seat 

 of influence, and not from any 

 consideration of superior personal 

 qualifications. He excuses this 

 sort of philosophical sectarianism 

 by saying that it is a necessary 

 retaliation on the exclusion of his 

 opinions from places of authorita- 

 tive instruction." The designation 

 as a thorough-going disciple of Mill 

 is curious and not consistent with 

 the impression which friends of 

 Groom Robertson formed of his 

 philosophical position. Nothing 

 was more marked than his wide 

 sympathies, which enabled Mar- 

 tineau himself to include him in 

 the circle of his friends ; and his 

 fairness and impartiality, in addi- 

 tion to his learning, qualified him 

 to render a great service to the 

 culture of philosophical studies in 

 this country as editor of the 

 first English philosophical Review, 

 ' Mind.' 



