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SEELEY, SIR JOHN ROBERT (1834–1895)

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Originally appearing in Volume V24, Page 581 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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SEELEY, See also:SIR See also:JOHN See also:ROBERT (1834–1895) , See also:English essayist and historian, was See also:born in See also:London in 1834. His See also:father, R. B. Seeley, was a publisher, and author of several religious books and of The See also:Life and Times of See also:Edward I., which was highly esteemed by historians. From his father Seeley doubtless derived his See also:taste for religious and See also:historical subjects. He was educated at the See also:City of London School and at See also:Christ's See also:College, See also:Cambridge, where he was See also:head of the classical tripos and See also:senior See also:chancellor's medallist, was elected See also:fellow and became classical See also:tutor of his college. For a See also:time he was a See also:master at his old school, and in 1863 was appointed See also:professor of Latin at University College, London. His See also:essay Ecce Homo, published anonymously in 1866, and afterwards owned by him, was widely read, and called forth See also:Sedum See also:acre (Stonecrop). (After See also:Curtis.) See also:Flora Lindinensis. 1, See also:Diagram of See also:flower; 2, flower enlarged. many replies, being held to be an attack on See also:Christianity. Dealing only with Christ's humanity, it dwells on his See also:work as the founder and See also:king of a theocratic See also:state, and points out the effect which this society, his See also:church, has had upon the See also:standard and active practice of morality among men.

Some who comdemned the See also:

book seem to have forgotten that it was avowedly " a fragment," and that the author does not deny the truth of doctrines which he does not discuss. Its See also:literary merit is unquestionable; it is written with vigour and dignity; its See also:short and pointed sentences are never jerky, and there is a certain stateliness in the admirable See also:order of their sequence. His later essay on Natural See also:Religion, which, premising that supernaturalism is not essential to religion, maintains that the negations of See also:science tend to purify rather than destroy Christianity, satisfied neither the See also:Christian nor the scientist, and though well written excited far less See also:interest than his earlier work. In 1869 he was appointed professor of See also:modern See also:history at Cambridge. His See also:influence as a teacher was stimulating; he prepared his lectures carefully and they were largely attended. In historical work he is distinguished as a thinker rather than a See also:scholar. Avoiding See also:research and disliking all attempts at a picturesque See also:representation of the past, he valued history solely in its relation to politics, as the science of the state. He maintained that it should be studied scientifically and for a See also:practical purpose, that its See also:function was the See also:solution of existing See also:political questions. Hence he naturally devoted himself mainly to See also:recent history, and specially to the relations between See also:England and other states. His Life and Times of See also:Stein, a valuable narrative of the See also:anti-See also:Napoleonic revolt, led by See also:Prussia mainly at Stein's instigation, was written under See also:German influence, and shows little of the See also:style of his short essays. Its length, its colourlessness, and the space it devotes to subsidiary matters render it unattractive. Far otherwise is it with his Expansion of England (1883).

Written in his best manner, this essay answers to his theory that history should be used for a practical purpose; it points out how and why See also:

Great See also:Britain gained her colonies and See also:India, the See also:character of her See also:empire, and the See also:light in which it should be regarded. As an historical essay the book is a See also:fine See also:composition, and as a See also:defence of the empire is unanswerable and inspiring. It appeared at an opportune time, and did much to make Englishmen regard the colonies, not as See also:mere appendages, but as an expansion of the See also:British state as well as of British See also:nationality, and to remind them of the value of Great Britain's empire in the See also:East. Seeley was rewarded for this public service by being made K.C.M.G., on the recommendation of See also:Lord See also:Rosebery. His last book, The Growth of British Policy, written as an essay and intended to be an introduction to a full See also:account of the expansion of Great Britain, was published posthumously. Seeley died on the 13th of See also:January 1895. He married in 1869 See also:Miss See also:Mary See also:Agnes Phillott, who survived him. See G. W. Prothero, Memoir prefixed to Growth of British Policy (London, 1895). (W.

End of Article: SEELEY, SIR JOHN ROBERT (1834–1895)

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