BOOKS.
LIFE AND LETTERS OF SEDGWICK.*
So great and varied an interest attaches to the personality of Adam Sedgwick, to the surroundings of his life, and to the work to which he devoted himself, that even these two stout volumes, with their nearly twelve hundred pages, do not seem too liberal an allowance of space for his biography. In fact, we are well content with the book now that it is come. We only regret that it has been so long in coming. There in
a difficulty in writing an adequate Life of a man who attains a great age, because the personal reminiscences of earlier contemporaries are very seldom attainable. Sedgwick was nearly eighty-eight when he died. Add to this seventeen years more—for so much time has elapsed since his death— and we seem to be getting into ancient history.
Our account of the book must necessarily pass over with but the briefest mention of many noteworthy matters. We can only refer our readers, for instance, to the account, as given by Sedgwick himself, of life in the Yorkshire Dales,— he was born at Dent, a village at the foot of the northern slopes of Whernside. It has a melancholy interest, for time has changed things greatly, and not for the better. In 1804, Sedgwick, who had been educated at Sedbergh School, went up to Cambridge, entering as a sizar at Trinity. Henry Kirke White was his junior by a year, and Sedgwick, who had inti- • The Life and Letters of the Iter. Adam Sedgwick. By John Willis Clark,. MA., and Thomas MeXenny Hughes, M.A. 2 vols. Cambridge: University? Press. 1890.
mate friends at his College, St. John's, saw something of him : "A tall, thoughtful-looking young man, with fine feature; and with a complexion that seemed to indicate a life of severe
study He had the look of a man of genius." In the College Examinations of 1805 and 1806, Sedgwick was placed in the first class, a place commonly significant, at Trinity, of success in the Tripos. Some relics of the old " Disputations " still survived; and "Acts," as they were called, "were often performed," says Mr. Clark, "with great spirit." Henry Bicker- steth, afterwards Lord Langdale, was long remembered for the triumphant way in which he overthrew his opponents. In 1808, Sedgwick took his degree. Bickersteth was Senior Wrangler; Bland, a Sedbergh boy like himself, and recognised already as his superior in mathematics, was second ; Blomfield, after- wards Bishop of London, third ; and White, of Caitts, fourth. Then came Sedgwick, somewhat below his true place, it would seem, for Blomfield used to say that Sedgwick was a "much better mathematician than himself." His own inclination, with regard to a life-career, was for the Bar ; but circumstances determined him towards Holy Orders. He was ordained in 1817. Meanwhile he had got his fellowship at Trinity (in 1810, at his second trial), and had been made assistant-tutor, by the choice of C. J. Monk, afterwards Bishop of Gloucester and Bristol. In 1818, the Woodwardian Pro- fessorship of Geology became vacant, and Sedgwick became a candidate for it. Professors nowadays are supposed to be acquainted with the subject which they profess, and to be ready to teach it. But it has not always been the practice to- demand either qualification. Bishop Watson, quoted by Mr. Clarke, confesses that when appointed Professor of Chemistry, "‘ he had never read a syllable on the subject, or seen a single experiment in it," his only qualification being that "he was tired with mathematics and natural philosophy." As to the Woodwardian Professors, some may have known something of geology ; some, one may conjecture, did not. None of them lectured,—that is, attempted to give a systematic source of instruction in the subject. As far as lecturing was concerned, the University determined to make a change when the vacancy of 1818 was declared. It was made a rule that, if there were no lectures, there should be no stipend. The election took place in May, Sedgwick polling 180 votes against his opponent's. (G. C. Gorham's) 59. He had 67 out of the 70 Trinity votes, and a majority in all the Colleges but five, one being equally divided. Probably, if the election had been in the hands of a Board, his opponent would have been successful, for he did know something of the subject. For once, the vicious system of a popular election had a happy result. The Senate preferred Sedgwick on account of his general capacity, and the result justified its preference.
He lost no time in setting to work. A large part of his first vacation after the election was devoted to an experimental trip, as it may be called, in which he took his first practical lessons in the science which he had resolved to make his own. And as he began, so he went on. He never ceased to learn, and he went on teaching to almost the very end of his life. He gave fifty-two courses of lectures. It was not till he had passed his eighty-sixth year that he employed a deputy. Such devotion, backed up by such energy, is certainly uncommon. Nor is it usual to find a man continuing to attract audiences as Sedgwick attracted them to the last. The fact is, that his enthusiasm was contagious, because it was genuine. And to inspire enthusiasm is the highest function which the supreme teacher—i.e., the Professor—can perform. If he can make his hearers eager to learn, it is of comparatively little moment how much knowledge he actually communicates to them. It was here that Sedgwick obtained an eminent success. Some most interesting accounts of him as a teacher are given at the end of the biography; on this point all are agreed.
To go through the contributions which Sedgwick made to the science of geology, and the honours by which these con- tributions were recognised, is more than is possible in our space. Professor Hughes, who has undertaken the scientific
• side of the biography, could not but enter upon the painful subject of the controversy between Sedgwick and Murchison. He has handled it with good taste and moderation ; but he has no hesitation in pronouncing judgment in favour of Sedgwick. Probably few will be found to differ from him • here. The saddest tiling about it is that the scientific dif- ference was accompanied by a personal alienation. But it is the ruling study of the age that always excites the fiercest
controversy. Men of -science have feuds as bitter as those which divided the humanists of a former day. Even the odium theologicum is less bitter than the animosity which separates the champions of rival theories. It is a conifort to know that, before the end, the two men were reconciled. In 1870, Sedgwick sent his "Christian love and best greetings' to his old friend. Murchison died in the following year.
The recognition of his work was neither tardy nor deficient. In 1829 the Presidentship of the Geological Society was offered to him (he had been made Fellow of the Royal Society eight years before). In 1833 he was President of the British Association at Cambridge. His crowning honour was the Copley medal, which was awarded to him in 1863. It was enhanced by the fact that he was preferred to Darwin. Doubtless his advanced age—he was in his seventy-eighth year—and the fact that his comlietitor might reasonably wait for another year, had something to do with the decision.
Of substantial rewards he had no very great share. His income from academical sources was not more than respectable. Had he proceeded in due course to what would probably have fallen to his lot, a tutorship at Trinity, he would 'certainly have been a richer man than he was. In 1834, Lord Brougham, who was on the point of giving up the Great Seal, gave him a Prebendal stall at Norwich. This was the only public recog- nition of his scientific services that he received. Probably, if he had not been in orders, he would have been offered a baronetcy. The authorities were not blind to his merits ; but a clergyman can seldom be honoured in this country except by promoting him to some dignified office the duties of which he is not competent to perform.
At Norwich, Sedgwick seems to have had, on the whole, a happy life. In later years, he felt there, as he felt at Cam- bridge, the loneliness of his life. He had deliberately held aloof from matrimony, though he was not by any means insusceptible to the charms of women's society. He had his gain in a life singularly free from cares, and his loss in a desolation which, as age grew on him, he often pathetically lamented. His life was shadowed, curiously enough, con- sidering the great age to which he attained, by frequent ill- health. While he was an undergraduate, he nearly died of typhoid, and in his twenty-eighth year he broke a blood- vessel, and became so ill that his life was despaired of. It is curious that another Cambridge veteran, Dr. Corrie, went through a similar experience, and lived after it to an age still more patriarchal than Sedgwick's. From beginning to end, the Life is illustrated by a series of letters, which are as delightful to read as any that we remember to have come across. Sedgwick was the very prince of letter-writers,—when, that is to say, he could be got to write. From a business point of view, he seems to have been a bad correspondent. We find Dr. Whewell on one occasion inscribing on a letter, "To be opened imme- diately," a fact which speaks volumes. Not only are the letters charming in tone, but they are full of interesting matter. Some day, we have no doubt, these volumes will be found a storehouse full of many valuable things. The future historian of Cambridge will draw much from them, for they cover a continuous period of More than two-thirds of a century.
Sedgwick was a convinced believer, and he could not tolerate anything like an attack on Revelation from the side of science. His language about a book which made no little stir at one time, . but is now presumably forgotten, Vestiges of the Natural History of Creation, is almost amusing in its violence. Doubtless the author of it was but half-acquainted with his subject, but nowadays he would probably be asked to read a paper at a Church Congress. In politics, Sedgwick was a Whig. He was strong for Catholic Emanci- pation, and for the Reform Bill of 1832. But in 1867, when the right divine of the ten-pound householder seased to be, he was in despair. "I am certain," he wrote, "that we are taking a most dangerous leap in the dark." He goes on to enumerate a number of other dreadful things which he sees about him, "Popish apery " among them, and is compelled, he says, to think "that God is turning us into a nation of fools and madmen, because He means to crush us utterly in the end." Probably his mind was touched by the reflex action of some physical distress. To such, as has been said before, he was frequently liable. His long life had much happiness in it, but it was not one that contradicted the Psalmist's words : "Though nien be so strong that they come to four- score years, yet is their strength then but labour and sorrow."
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