338 LIFE OF PROFESSOR HUXLEY chap, xxiii 



tions in life. The largest group was that of churchmen : — 

 ecclesiastical dignitaries such as Thompson, the Archbishop 

 of York, Ellicott, Bishop of Gloucester and Bristol, and 

 Dean Alford ; staunch laymen such as Mr. Gladstone, Lord 

 Selborne, and the Duke of Argyll ; while the liberal school 

 was represented by Dean Stanley, F. D. Maurice, and Mark 

 Pattison. Three distinguished converts from the English 

 Church championed Roman Catholic doctrine — Cardinal 

 Manning, Father Dalgairns, and W. G. Ward, while Uni- 

 tarianism claimed Dr. James Martineau. At the opposite 

 pole, in antagonism to Christian theology and theism gener- 

 ally, stood Professor W. K. Cliiiford, whose youthful bril- 

 liancy was destined to be cut short by an untimely death. 

 Positivism was represented by Mr. Frederic Harrison ; and 

 Agnosticism by such men of science or letters as Huxley 

 and Tyndall, Mr. John Morley, and Mr. Leslie Stephen. 



Something was gained, too, by the variety of callings 

 followed by the different members. While there were pro- 

 fessional students of philosophy, like Prof. Henry Sidgwick 

 or Sir Alexander Grant, the Principal of Edinburgh Univer- 

 sity, in some the technical knowledge of philosophy was 

 overlaid by studies in history or letters ; in others, by the 

 practical experience of the law or politics ; in others, again, 

 medicine or biology supplied a powerful psychological in- 

 strument. This fact tended to keep the discussions in touch 

 with reality on many sides. 



There was Tennyson, for instance, the only poet who 

 thoroughly understood the movement of modern science, a 

 stately but silent member; Mr. Ruskin, J. A. Froude, 

 Shadworth Hodgson, R. H. Hutton of the Spectator, James 

 Hinton, and the well-known essayist, W. R. Greg; Sir 

 James Fitzjames Stephen, Sir F. Pollock, Robert Lowe 

 (Lord Sherbrooke), Sir M. E. Grant Duflf, and Lord Arthur 

 Russell ; Sir John Lubbock, Dr. W. B. Carpenter, Sir Wil- 

 Ham Gull, and Sir Andrew Clark. 



Of contemporary thinkers of the first rank, neither John 

 Stuart Mill nor Mr. Herbert Spencer joined the society. 

 The letter of the former declining the invitation to join 

 (given in the Life of W^ G. Ward, p. 299) is extremely 



