THE MASTER OF BALLIOL. T HE newspapers have given as much
biographical infor- mation about the Master of Balliol as if he had been a great General or a great statesman, and so have testified in the strongest possible way to his influence on the present generation of cultivated Englishmen. In their eulogy, as in their criticism, they have, however, hardly contrived to convey the secret of the man's character, or to make his personality really intelligible. The Master was, and regarded himself as, first of all, a human gardener,—one whose desire and duty it was to train and develop the mind and character of those with whom he came in contact, either immediately at Oxford, or more distantly in those marvellous interpretations of the great writers of antiquity which he gave to the world. His business was education in the widest and best sense of the word. He wanted to make the young men who came under his influence strong and healthy in intellect, and virtuous— we use the word in no restricted sense—in character. The aim of education, as he understood it, was to make not saints or pedants, but good citizens,—men of sense and prudence and capability, in whom the qualities of reason and wisdom should not be sacrificed to mere dexterity of brain. He would not call education either the production of perfect thinking- machines from whom knowledge of the world and men was absent, or of men learned but without character and balance. No doubt there was little, indeed nothing, original in this view of education. That the object of education is the production of the good citizen rather than of the learned and characterless man, is a commonplace. It is, however, one of those common- places which are much of toner stated than applied. It was the Master of Balliol's service to his generation that he was for ever insisting, by precept and example, on its application. In practice, there are so many excuses for forgetting the true noticed this defect, most were deceived into thinking that end of education, that, unless the object of education is the Master's ideals of conduct were less noble than they always being challenged and kept to the front, it is apt to be really were. The great majority, however, of the Master's forgotten. pupils never noticed this defect, and were inspired by The human gardener, the man who works in the nursery of him with the strongest sense of admiration and devotion. human plants and helps to give them the highest development Those who were brought into intimate relations with him, of which they are capable, works in two ways. He acts upon found him the best, the firmest, and the most sincere of the world at large by the abstract views he propagates and friends. He possessed that fine trait in friendship which the ideal he sets up, and be acts upon those who stand in a makes a man refuse to desert a friend under fire. The personal relation to him by means of his own personality. In Master's instinct was not to abandon a friend, even when he the first of these ways Professor Jowett confessedly succeeded. bad got into trouble owing to his own fault, but rather to stick He unquestionably profoundly influenced the way in which to him all the closer. He helped people when they needed it education was regarded both in Oxford and in the rest of the most, not when help was a superfluous act. country. The personal influence he exercised, though often extremely powerful, was by the necessity of the case less We have dwelt at such length on the prime defect certainly successful. He suffered from a defect of character in the Master's mental attitude, not because we are blind which, though often ;nocuous, sometimes made his personal to his many great qualities of heart and head, but influence produce an effect exactly the opposite of what because those have been sufficiently proclaimed already, he intended. This defect wants a name, and can only be and because the tendency to strike a false note in regard clumsily defined as a tendency to give an altogether diapro- to what is called " a proper knowledge of the world " portionate value and importance to what, for want of a better seems to have escaped notice. The Master's was, in phrase, we must call " worldly wisdom." Professor Jewett its essentials, a noble character. His kindliness, his was by nature, by inclination, by early training, by habit, a generosity, his devotion to duty, were beyond all praise, and shy little scholar—a man who might, but for a certain touch rendered him the object of a real enthusiasm to hundreds of of shrewd common-sense, have become the mere man of men and women. The help which he gave, and gave in the best possible way, to poor scholars, would alone be enough to learning, the world-blind pedant whom the Master of Balliol so heartily despised. Before, however, he had become irre- keep his memory green at Oxford. For a lad to be poor, and vocably committed to the scholar's view of life, accident ill, and going under in the struggle for life at Oxford, was a or his native shrewdness taught him that men could not be safe passport to the Master's favour. If he was a member of educated into being good citizens in the full sense, unless Balliol it was, as often as not, enough to get him taken into the they were endowed with some share of worldly wisdom. Master's own house to be nursed and eared for. Again, we Worldly wisdom, then, must be sought out and studied by realise how admirable a Head of a House he was, and how those who would be successful human gardeners. Hence singular was his capacity for getting work out of unlikely a strong reaction in the mind of the Master of Balliol, men, and for giving a stimulus to those whose brains were —a reaction that carried him, like most reactions, a great powerful enough, but somehow seemed clogged with mental deal too far. It is a matter of perpetual observation that if a fat. If, again, we have not said anything of Professor man takes to being " a man of the world " in his old age, he Jowett's position as a scholar, it is not because we do not greatly overdoes the part. It was so with the Master. His realise the splendid work he did for learning. The Master's sudden awakening to the need for worldly wisdom, made him attitude towards scholarship was a very wise one. In effect, attach thereto far too much importance. It became to him it was this :—The duty of the modern scholar is to use his not a matter of rational regard, but a sort of fetish-worship. knowledge of the tongues of antiquity to interpret the great The convert's excess of zeal, indeed, often made him confuse books of the old world for the present time. Scholarship was, in worldly wisdom and mere worldliness, and the real men of a word, merely a means, not an end,—the conduit-pipe through the world were at once shocked and amused to see the Oxford which Plato and Aristotle should flow to the world of to-day, Don who was always at heart a saint, parading the common- not an independent object of research. The Master followed places of a somewhat faded and conventional cynicism. No out this ideal. He made it part of his life-work to obtain doubt the Master's ideal was to occupy the position held by the best possible rendering of Plato, of Aristotle, and of Dr. Johnson in regard to the lore of the world and of men Thucydides, and to present the meaning of those writers in and things. To be as clear of cant and as full of a corn- the form which would be most intelligible to people who did mon-sense knowledge of life as Dr. Johnson, and yet as not know Greek. Judged by their readability and intelligi- absolutely incapable as he of upholding the baser and bility, his translations must be pronounced among the more insignificant worldliness,—of paying homage to the very best in existence. It is possible to read them and forget Chesterfieldian view of life,—that was Professor Jowett's they are translations—the true test—so vigorous and lifelike aim. Unfortunately for the Master, he only succeeded in is the style, and so clear the rendering. Grammarians may attaining to an imitation, we had almost said a travesty, discover this or that mistranslation of a particle, and may, of Dr. Johnson's attitude. Nor could it have been otherwise. if they choose, correct them in a note ; but henceforth the He had not, lilse Johnson, tramped the streets of London hundred millions of men who speak the English tongue with Savage, or had the strange secrets of existence opened will read Plato, Thucydides, and the Politics of Aristotle in up for him by bitter poverty. Johnson passed through the Jowett's translations, and will honour him as their guide to fire of life "with unsinged hair," and became one of the "men those fountains of knowledge. That, in itself, is no mean of the world who know the world like men." The Master had achievement. It may happen, therefore, that the Master's only heard the roar of the furnace at a distance, and learned fame will live longest in his translations, and that when its nature at second-hand. Hence he never knew that one of the the memory of the great influence he exercised on his first things which a man of the world learns is, not to give an pupils, and on Oxford as a whole, has died out, the undue importance to merely worldly wisdom. He looks upon English-speaking world will still remember him with reverence it with no awe, and knows how to make that convenient rule and gratitude as the man who brought the great books of of thumb for life take its proper place. The Master first Greece within its reach. The human gardener, the man who works in the nursery of him with the strongest sense of admiration and devotion.
extremely powerful, was by the necessity of the case less We have dwelt at such length on the prime defect certainly successful. He suffered from a defect of character in the Master's mental attitude, not because we are blind which, though often ;nocuous, sometimes made his personal to his many great qualities of heart and head, but influence produce an effect exactly the opposite of what because those have been sufficiently proclaimed already, he intended. This defect wants a name, and can only be and because the tendency to strike a false note in regard clumsily defined as a tendency to give an altogether diapro- to what is called " a proper knowledge of the world " portionate value and importance to what, for want of a better seems to have escaped notice. The Master's was, in phrase, we must call " worldly wisdom." Professor Jewett its essentials, a noble character. His kindliness, his was by nature, by inclination, by early training, by habit, a generosity, his devotion to duty, were beyond all praise, and r shy little scholar—a man who might, but for a certain touch rendered him the object of a real enthusiasm to hundreds of of shrewd common-sense, have become the mere man of men and women. The help which he gave, and gave in the best possible way, to poor scholars, would alone be enough to learning, the world-blind pedant whom the Master of Balliol keep his memory green at Oxford. For a lad to be poor, and vocably committed to the scholar's view of life, accident ill, and going under in the struggle for life at Oxford, was a or his native shrewdness taught him that men could not be safe passport to the Master's favour. If he was a member of educated into being good citizens in the full sense, unless Balliol it was, as often as not, enough to get him taken into the they were endowed with some share of worldly wisdom. Master's own house to be nursed and eared for. Again, we Worldly wisdom, then, must be sought out and studied by realise how admirable a Head of a House he was, and how those who would be successful human gardeners. Hence singular was his capacity for getting work out of unlikely a strong reaction in the mind of the Master of Balliol, men, and for giving a stimulus to those whose brains were —a reaction that carried him, like most reactions, a great powerful enough, but somehow seemed clogged with mental deal too far. It is a matter of perpetual observation that if a fat. If, again, we have not said anything of Professor man takes to being " a man of the world " in his old age, he Jowett's position as a scholar, it is not because we do not greatly overdoes the part. It was so with the Master. His realise the splendid work he did for learning. The Master's sudden awakening to the need for worldly wisdom, made him attitude towards scholarship was a very wise one. In effect, attach thereto far too much importance. It became to him it was this :—The duty of the modern scholar is to use his not a matter of rational regard, but a sort of fetish-worship. knowledge of the tongues of antiquity to interpret the great The convert's excess of zeal, indeed, often made him confuse books of the old world for the present time. Scholarship was, in worldly wisdom and mere worldliness, and the real men of a word, merely a means, not an end,—the conduit-pipe through the world were at once shocked and amused to see the Oxford which Plato and Aristotle should flow to the world of to-day, Don who was always at heart a saint, parading the common- not an independent object of research. The Master followed places of a somewhat faded and conventional cynicism. No out this ideal. He made it part of his life-work to obtain doubt the Master's ideal was to occupy the position held by the best possible rendering of Plato, of Aristotle, and of Dr. Johnson in regard to the lore of the world and of men Thucydides, and to present the meaning of those writers in and things. To be as clear of cant and as full of a corn- the form which would be most intelligible to people who did mon-sense knowledge of life as Dr. Johnson, and yet as not know Greek. Judged by their readability and intelligi- absolutely incapable as he of upholding the baser and bility, his translations must be pronounced among the more insignificant worldliness,—of paying homage to the very best in existence. It is possible to read them and forget Chesterfieldian view of life,—that was Professor Jowett's they are translations—the true test—so vigorous and lifelike aim. Unfortunately for the Master, he only succeeded in is the style, and so clear the rendering. Grammarians may attaining to an imitation, we had almost said a travesty, discover this or that mistranslation of a particle, and may, of Dr. Johnson's attitude. Nor could it have been otherwise. if they choose, correct them in a note ; but henceforth the He had not, lilse Johnson, tramped the streets of London hundred millions of men who speak the English tongue with Savage, or had the strange secrets of existence opened will read Plato, Thucydides, and the Politics of Aristotle in up for him by bitter poverty. Johnson passed through the Jowett's translations, and will honour him as their guide to fire of life "with unsinged hair," and became one of the "men those fountains of knowledge. That, in itself, is no mean of the world who know the world like men." The Master had achievement. It may happen, therefore, that the Master's only heard the roar of the furnace at a distance, and learned fame will live longest in his translations, and that when its nature at second-hand. Hence he never knew that one of the the memory of the great influence he exercised on his first things which a man of the world learns is, not to give an pupils, and on Oxford as a whole, has died out, the undue importance to merely worldly wisdom. He looks upon English-speaking world will still remember him with reverence it with no awe, and knows how to make that convenient rule and gratitude as the man who brought the great books of of thumb for life take its proper place. The Master first Greece within its reach. exaggerated the importance of worldly wisdom, and then One word, before we close this notice, on the Master's ser- applied its teachings to conduct with all the pedant's un- irons. They were absolutely mi generis. No such sermons reasonable fervour. Hence he was for ever losing touch, for manner or matter were ever preached by any other man. and sacrificing the essential quality of worldly wisdom. But They were, as a rule, either essays on conduct, or else obituary young men are quick-witted ; and many of the Master's notices of the great men 'whom England mourned. One of pupils noted the flounderings of their teacher in a quagmire the most remarkable was that preached on Dean Stanley,— of petty worldlinesses. Hence a feeling of contempt, that the Master's friend of friends. A sentence in it had so quaint, terrible non-conductor of the sympathy which ought to exist so pathetic, and withal so noble and inspired a ring, and was between pupil and teacher. No doubt, if they had looked so characteristic of the Master's habit of discourse, that it has deeper, they would have seen that the affectation they had rung in the present writer's ears ever since. The Master detected (for such was all it was) was but skin-deep, and that spoke of the Dean's lack of any desire for preferment ; "and below were many of the highest qualities which a man can even," he added, "if it bad rained mitres from Heaven, his possess. Unfortunately, however, young men who look head was of such a shape that not one would have been found below the surface are not common ; and hence of those who to fit it." A conceit if you will, but it was such conceits as these that made the Balliol sermons an intellectual delight even to the least sympathetic listeners. But these verbal felicities were not all the Master had to give. Sometimes a note of such deep impressiveness was struck, that those who heard felt the inspiration and the awe which wisdom and sincerity, fused by the passion of duty, never fail to call forth.
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