MRS. T. H. GREEN—AN APPRECIATION
[To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.] SIR,—The death of Mrs. T. H. Green, though at the age of eighty-seven, will make a gap in the lives of many who, charmed by the freshness of her mental outlook, and gently amused at that youthful figure hurrying almost to the last along the streets of Oxford scorning the mechanical aid of 'buses or of motor-cars, thought of her as ageless and tireless. They will remember the perennial freshness with which she encountered each new intellectual adventure and the inex- haustible spring of affectionate understanding which was at the service of every friend.
There were three main influences which dominated her life. There was the close sisterly association with that over-sensitized man of genius, John Addington SymOnds, whose companion and confidante she was, that quickened
her humanity ; there was the artistic influence of their cultivated home at Clifton which developed her artistic sensibilities and early made her a lover of the good, the true, the beiutiful ; there was that ideally happy marriage with Thomas Hill Green, whose passion for social justice guided and stimulated her love of service, so that her life became, as it were, a living memorial to his teaching. The influence of that teaching, the doctrine of the " good neighbour and honest citizen," set out in the terms of a philosophy which had made him a figure of European importance amongst philosophers, when he died at the early age of forty-six, has influenced the social history of our time through the medium of distinguished pupils such as Asquith, Milner, Gore, but nowhere was it more clearly exemplified, on a somewhat smaller stage, than in the life of her who died last week.
This trinity of influences, unified by a strong and gracious personality, was perhaps the secret of an attraction which enabled her to number people of all classes, all creeds, all ages, amongst her friends.
Living for fifty-seven years in Oxford on equal terms with the leaders of its intellectual life, she never became a blue-stocking, or sank into any intellectual rut. The mental iconoclasm of each generation found her in sympathy with its ardour, though not necessarily in agreement with its particular manifestation. Whenever there was enthusiasm that could give a rational account of itself and that was not without a sense of humour, Mrs. Green's instinctive sympathy was never overweighted with the maturity of her wisdom. Her bias indeed was always towards youth, and the writer remembers her reference as recently as two years ago to a " tiresome old gentleman " of seventy who wanted his grandson to think as he did about some matter of current politics.
With all this kindliness and sympathy there- was a stern sense of duty, a discipline rigid with itself though not making the same demands on others. One felt that she was one who kept " the eye clear by a kind of exquisite personal alacrity ; but no one in any sort of trouble or difficulty _came away without feeling a lightening of the burden.
Though she had no children, and outlived both her con- temporaries and many younger people whom she had admitted to her affection, she was not lonely, because of the constant accession of new friendships within each succeeding generation. Her family was not a domestic but a spiritual entity, and there are many to whom the memory of that gravely beautiful face, fit tabernacle of the harmonious mind, will be an abiding incentive to live with courage, to grow old with grace, and to pass with quiet gladness, when the time comes, eager for the newest and greatest adventure.—I am, Sir, &c.,
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