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MORLEY, HENRY (1822-1894)

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Originally appearing in Volume V18, Page 840 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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MORLEY, See also:HENRY (1822-1894) , See also:British See also:man of letters, was See also:born in See also:London on the 15th of See also:September 1822. After unhappy experiences at See also:English See also:schools, he was sent to the Moravian school at Neuwied, whose See also:system strongly influenced his subsequent theories of See also:education. It was intended that he should follow his See also:father's profession of See also:medicine, and in 1844 he bought a See also:share in a practice at See also:Madeley, See also:Shropshire. Plunged into See also:debt by his partner's dishonesty, he set up a small school for See also:young See also:children at Liscard, near See also:Liverpool. His principle was to abolish all See also:punishment, to make his pupils regard their See also:work as interesting instead of repellent, and to See also:form their See also:character by appealing exclusively to higher motives. This See also:scheme, carried out with much ingenuity, proved a See also:complete success. Mean-while he had devoted his spare See also:time to See also:writing. His contributions to magazines attracted the See also:notice of See also:Charles See also:Dickens, on whose invitation in 1851 he settled in London as a See also:regular contributor to See also:Household Words. He was also on the See also:staff of the Examiner, which he edited from 1861 to 1867. Meanwhile he had devoted much See also:research to a See also:life of See also:Palissy the See also:Potter (1852), which was at the same, time a picture of life in See also:medieval See also:France. Encouraged by its favourable reception, he followed it up with lives of See also:Jerome Card an (1854) and See also:Cornelius See also:Agrippa (1856), and subsequently of See also:Clement See also:Marot (187o). His dramatic criticisms were reprinted in 1866 under the See also:title of The See also:Journal of a London Playgoer, 1851-1866.

In 1857 he was appointed evening lecturer in English literature at See also:

King's See also:College, and in 1865 became, in See also:succession to See also:David See also:Masson, See also:professor of English literature at University College, London. His First See also:Sketch of English Lit era-See also:ture (1873), a comprehensive and useful See also:manual, reached its 34th thousand during the author's lifetime. He published in 1864 the first See also:volume of a monumental See also:history of English literature entitled English Writers, which he eventually carried in eleven volumes down to the See also:death of See also:Shakespeare. He was . indefatigable as a popularizer of See also:good literature. After editing a See also:standard See also:text of See also:Addison's Spectator, he brought out a vast number of See also:classics at See also:low prices in Morley's Universal Library, See also:Cassell's See also:National Library, and the See also:Carisbrooke Library. His ready speech, retentive memory, See also:earnest purpose, and See also:bright See also:style made him perhaps the most popular lecturer of his See also:day. His teaching work at University College was marked by equally extraordinary success. In 1882 he accepted a See also:post that made See also:great calls on his time and See also:energy-the principalship of University See also:Hall. This institution was partly a See also:place of See also:residence for students of University College, and partly the See also:home of See also:Manchester New College. During this time he rendered further services to the cause of education in London not only by his work on the See also:council of University College, but by his advocacy of a teaching university for London. In 1889 he resigned the principalship of University Hall and his professorship at University College, and retired to Carisbrooke, Isle of See also:Wight, intending to devote his leisure to the completion of the great task of his life, English Writers. But with his work only See also:half achieved he died on the 14th of May 1894.

End of Article: MORLEY, HENRY (1822-1894)

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