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OLIPHANT, LAURENCE (1829–1888)
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See also:OLIPHANT, LAURENCE (1829–1888) , See also:British author, son of See also:Anthony Oliphant (1793-1859),' was See also:born at Cape See also:Town.
i The See also:family to which Oliphant belonged is old and famous in Scottish See also:history. See also:Sir Laurence Oliphant of Aberdalgie, See also:Perthshire, who was created a See also:lord of the Scottish See also:parliament before 1458, was descended See also:iron' Sir See also: In 1851 he accompanied See also:Jung Bahadur from See also:Colombo to Nepaul. He passed an agreeable See also:time there, and saw enough that was new to enable him to write his first See also:book, A See also:Journey to See also:Katmandu (1852). From Nepaul he returned to Ceylon and thence to England, dallied a little with the English See also:bar, so far at least as to eat dinners at See also:Lincoln's See also:Inn, and then with the Scottish bar, so far at least as to pass an examination in See also:Roman See also:law. He was more happily inspired when he threw over his legal studies and went to travel in See also:Russia. The outcome of that tour was his book on The See also:Russian Shores of the See also:Black See also:Sea (1853). Between 1853 and '86' he was successively secretary to Lord See also:Elgin during the negotiation of the See also:Canada See also:Reciprocity treaty at See also:Washington, the See also:companion of the See also:duke of See also:Newcastle on a visit to the Circassian See also:coast during the See also:Crimean See also:War, and Lord Elgin's private secretary on his expedition to See also:China. Each of these experiences produced a pleasant book of travel. In 1861 he was appointed first secretary in See also:Japan, and might ,have made a successful See also:diplomatic career if it had not been interrupted, almost at the outset, by a See also:night attack on the See also:legation, in which he nearly lost his See also:life. It seems probable that he never properly recovered from this affair. He returned to England and resigned the service, and was elected to parliament in 1865 for the Stirling Burghs.
Oliphant did not show any conspicuous See also:parliamentary ability, but made a See also:great success by his vivacious and witty novel, Piccadilly (187o). He See also:fell, however, under the See also:influence of the spiritualist See also:prophet See also: Harris obtained so See also:strange an ascendancy over Oliphant that the latter left parliament in 1868, followed him to Brocton, and lived there the life of a See also:farm labourer, in obedience to the imperious will of his spiritual See also:guide. The cause of this painful and See also:grotesque See also:aberration has never been made quite clear. It was See also:part of the Brocton regime that members of the community should be allowed to return into the See also:world from time to time, to make See also:money for its See also:advantage. After three years this was permitted to Oliphant, who, when once more in Europe, acted as correspondent of The Times during the Franco-See also:German War, and spent afterwards several years at See also:Paris in the service of that See also:journal. There he met See also:Miss Alice le Strange, whom he married. In 1873 he went back to Brocton, taking with him his wife and See also:mother. During the years which followed he continued to be employed in the service of the community and its See also:head, but on See also:work very different from that with which he had been occupied on his first sojourn. His new work was chiefly See also:financial, and took him much to New See also:York and a See also:good See also:deal to England. As See also:late as See also:December '878 he continued to believe that Harris was an incarnation of the Deity. By that time, however, his mind was occupied with a large project of colonization in See also:Palestine, and he made in 1879 an extensive journey in that See also:country, going also to See also:Constantinople, until the See also:death of See also:Francis, the loth lord; in See also:April 1748. It has since been claimed by several persons, but without success. Another member of the family was Laurence Oliphant (169'–1767) the Jacobite, who belonged to a See also:branch settled at Gask in Perthshire. He took part in the rising of 1715, and both he and his son Laurence (d. 1792) were actively concerned in that of 1745, being See also:present at the battles of See also:Falkirk and See also:Culloden. After the ruin of the See also:Stuart cause they escaped to See also:France, but were afterwards allowed to return to See also:Scotland. One of this Oliphant's descendants was Carolina, Baroness See also:Nairne (q.v.). ' It should be mentioned that the unfavourable view of Harris taken by Oliphant's own biographer, and certainly not shaken by subsequent See also:evidence, has been strongly repudiated by some who knew him. Mr J. Cuming Walters, for instance, in the See also:Westminster See also:Gazette (See also:London, See also:July 28, 1906) defends the purity of his See also:character. It is difficult to arrive at the exact truth as to Oliphant's relations with him, or the financial See also:scandal which ended them; and it must be admitted that Oliphant himself was at least decidedly cranky.in the vain See also:hope of obtaining a See also:lease of the See also:northern See also:half of the See also:Holy See also:Land with a view to settling large See also:numbers of See also:Jews there. This he conceived would be an easy task from a financial point of view, as there were so many persons in England and See also:America " anxious to fulfil the prophecies, and bring about the end of the world." He landed once more in England without having accomplished anything definite; but his wife, who had been banished from him for years and had been living in California, was allowed to rejoin him, and they went to See also:Egypt together. In 1881 he crossed again to America. It was on this visit that he became utterly disgusted with Harris, and finally split from him. He was at first a little afraid that his wife would not follow him in his renunciation of " the prophet," but this was not the See also:case, and they settled themselves very agree-ably, with one See also:house in the midst of the German community at See also:Haifa, and another about twelve See also:miles off at Dalieh on See also:Mount See also:Carmel. It was at Haifa in 1884 that they wrote together the strange book called Sympneumata: Evolutionary Forces now active in See also:Man, and in the next See also:year Oliphant produced there his novel Meacham, which may be taken to contain its author's latest views with regard to the personage whom he See also:long considered as " a new See also:Avatar." One of his cleverest See also:works, Altiora See also:Peto, had been published in 1883. In 1886 an attack of See also:fever, caught on the shores of the Lake of See also:Tiberias, resulted in the death of his wife, whose constitution had been undermined by the hardships of her See also:American life. He was persuaded that after death he was in much closer relation with her than when she was still alive, and conceived that it was under her influence that he wrote the book to which he gave the name of Scientific See also:Religion. In See also:November '887 he went to England to publish that book. By the Whitsuntide of 1888 he had completed it and started for America. There he determined to marry again, his second wife being a granddaughter of Robert See also:Owen the Socialist. They were married at See also:Malvern, and meant to have gone to Haifa, but Oliphant was taken very See also:ill at See also:Twickenham, and died on the 23rd of December 1888. Although a very See also:clever man and a delightful companion, full of high aspiration and See also:noble feeling, Oliphant was only partially sane. In any case, his education was ludicrously inappropriate for a man who aspired to be an authority on religion and See also:philosophy. He had gone through no philosophical discipline in his See also:early life, and knew next to nothing of the subjects with regard to which he imagined it was in his See also:power to pour a See also:flood of new See also:light upon the world. His shortcomings and eccentricities, however, did not prevent his being a brilliant writer and talker, and a notable figure in any society. See Mrs (See also:Margaret) Oliphant, Memoir of the Life of Laurence Oliphant and of Alice Oliphant his Wife (1892). (M. G. Additional information and CommentsThere are no comments yet for this article.
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