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Using MIS
David M. Kroenke
Randall J. Boyle
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Kroenke, David M.
Using MIS / David M. Kroenke, Randall J. Boyle.—Eighth edition.
pages cm
ISBN 978-0-13-391986-8—ISBN 0-13-391986-2
1. Management information systems. I. Boyle, Randall. II. Title.
HD30.213.K76 2016
658.4'038011—dc23
2014036602
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
ISBN 10: 0-13-391986-2
ISBN 13: 978-0-13-391986-8
To C.J., Carter, and Charlotte
—David Kroenke
To Courtney, Noah, Fiona, and Layla
—Randy Boyle
Brief Contents
Describes how this course teaches four key
skills for business professionals. Defines MIS,
information systems, and information.
Part 1: Why MIS? 1 Describes characteristics, criteria for success,
and the primary purposes of collaboration.
Discusses components of collaboration IS and
1 The Importance of MIS 3 describes collaboration for communication and
content sharing. Illustrates use of Google Drive,
SharePoint, and other collaboration tools.
2 Collaboration Information Systems 35
Describes reasons why organizations create
and use information systems: to gain
3 Strategy and Information Systems 81 competitive advantage, to solve problems, and
to support decisions.
Describes the manager’s essentials of
Part 2: Information Technology 111 hardware and software technology. Discusses
mobile device operating systems, mobile USX,
and BYOD policies.
4 Hardware, Software, and Mobile Systems 113 Explores database fundamentals, applications,
modeling, and design. Discusses the entity-
relationship model. Explains the role of Access
5 Database Processing 161
and enterprise DBMS products. Defines
BigData and describes nonrelational and
6 The Cloud 205 NoSQL databases.
Explains why the cloud is the future. Describes
basic network technology that underlies
the cloud, how the cloud works, and how
Part 3: Using IS for Competitive Advantage 247 organizations, including AllRoad Parts, can
use the cloud. Explains SOA and summarizes
fundamental Web services standards.
7 Processes, Organizations, and Information Systems 249
Discusses workgroup, enterprise, and inter-
enterprise IS. Describes problems of information
8 Social Media Information Systems 291 silos and cross-organizational solutions. Presents
CRM, ERP, and EAI. Discusses ERP vendors and
implementation challenges.
9 Business Intelligence Systems 337
Describes components of social media IS
(SMIS) and explains how SMIS can contribute
to organizational strategy. Discusses the theory
Part 4: Information Systems Management 385 of social capital and the role of SMIS in the
hyper-social organization. Explains the ways
organizations manage the risks of SMIS.
10 Information Systems Security 387 Describes business intelligence and knowledge
management, including reporting systems,
11 Information Systems Management 427 data mining, and social media–based
knowledge management systems.
12 Information Systems Development 455 Describes organizational response to
information security: security threats, policy,
and safeguards.
Describes the role, structure, and function of
The International Dimension 501 the IS department; the role of the CIO and CTO;
outsourcing; and related topics.
Application Exercises 519
Discusses the need for BPM and the BPM
Glossary 537 process. Introduces BPMN. Differentiates
between processes and information systems.
Index 553 Presents SDLC stages. Describes agile
technologies and scrum and discusses their
advantages over the SDLC.
ConTenTS
Part 1: Why MIS?
1: The IMPorTanCe of MIS 3
Q1 Why Is Introduction to MIS the Most Important Class in the
Business School? 5
What Are Cost-Effective Business Applications of Facebook or Twitter or Whatever Else
Will Soon Appear? 6
How Can I Attain Job Security? 6
How Can Intro to MIS Help You Learn Nonroutine Skills? 7
What Is the Bottom Line? 10
Q2 What Is MIS? 10
Components of an Information System 11
Management and Use of Information Systems 11
Achieving Strategies 12
Q3 How Can You Use the Five-Component Model? 13
The Most Important Component—You 13
All Components Must Work 13
High-Tech Versus Low-Tech Information Systems 15
Understanding the Scope of New Information Systems 15
Components Ordered by Difficulty and Disruption 16
Q4 Why Is the Difference Between Information Technology and
Information Systems Important? 16
Q5 What Is Information? 16
Definitions Vary 17
Where Is Information? 17
Q6 What Are Necessary Data Characteristics? 18
Accurate 18
Timely 19
Relevant 19
xii Contents
Just Barely Sufficient 19
Worth Its Cost 19
• Ethics Guide: Ethics and Professional Responsibility 20
Q7 2025? 22
• Security Guide: Passwords and Password Etiquette 24
• Guide: Five-Component Careers 26
Case Study 1: zulily 31
2: CollaboraTIon InforMaTIon SySTeMS 35
Q1 What Are the Two Key Characteristics of Collaboration? 37
Importance of Effective Critical Feedback 38
Guidelines for Giving and Receiving Critical Feedback 39
Warning! 39
Q2 What Are Three Criteria for Successful Collaboration? 40
Successful Outcome 40
Growth in Team Capability 41
Meaningful and Satisfying Experience 41
Q3 What Are the Four Primary Purposes of Collaboration? 41
Becoming Informed 42
Making Decisions 42
Solving Problems 44
Managing Projects 44
Q4 What Are the Requirements for a Collaboration Information
System? 46
The Five Components of an IS for Collaboration 46
Primary Functions: Communication and Content Sharing 47
Q5 How Can You Use Collaboration Tools to Improve Team
Communication? 47
Q6 How Can You Use Collaboration Tools to Manage Shared
Content? 51
Shared Content with No Control 53
Shared Content with Version Management on Google Drive 53
• Ethics Guide: I Know What’s Better, Really 56
Shared Content with Version Control 58
Q7 How Can You Use Collaboration Tools to Manage Tasks? 60
Sharing a Task List on Google Grid 62
Sharing a Task List Using Microsoft SharePoint 62
Q8 Which Collaboration IS Is Right for Your Team? 63
Three Sets of Collaboration Tools 63
Contents xiii
Choosing the Set for Your Team 65
Don’t Forget Procedures and People! 66
Q9 2025? 67
• Security Guide: Securing Collaboration 68
• Guide: Egocentric Versus Empathetic Thinking 70
Case Study 2: Eating Our Own Dog Food 75
3: STraTeGy and InforMaTIon
SySTeMS 81
Q1 How Does Organizational Strategy Determine Information
Systems Structure? 83
Q2 What Five Forces Determine Industry Structure? 84
Q3 How Does Analysis of Industry Structure Determine
Competitive Strategy? 85
• Ethics: Yikes! Bikes 86
Q4 How Does Competitive Strategy Determine Value Chain
Structure? 88
Primary Activities in the Value Chain 88
Support Activities in the Value Chain 89
Value Chain Linkages 90
Q5 How Do Business Processes Generate Value? 90
Q6 How Does Competitive Strategy Determine
Business Processes and the Structure of Information
Systems? 92
Q7 How Do Information Systems Provide Competitive
Advantages? 94
Competitive Advantage via Products 95
Competitive Advantage via Business Processes 95
How Does an Actual Company Use IS to Create Competitive
Advantages? 96
How Does This System Create a Competitive Advantage? 97
Q8 2025? 99
• Security Guide: Differentiating on Security 100
• Guide: Your Personal Competitive Advantage 102
Case Study 3: The Amazon of Innovation 106
xiv Contents
Part 2: Information Technology
4: hardWare, SofTWare, and MobIle
SySTeMS 113
Q1 What Do Business Professionals Need to Know About
Computer Hardware? 115
Hardware Components 116
Types of Hardware 116
Computer Data 117
Q2 How Can New Hardware Affect Competitive
Strategies? 119
Internet of Things 119
Self-driving Cars 121
3D Printing 124
Q3 What Do Business Professionals Need to Know About
Software? 125
What Are the Major Operating Systems? 126
Virtualization 129
Own Versus License 130
What Types of Applications Exist, and How Do Organizations Obtain Them? 131
What Is Firmware? 132
Q4 Is Open Source Software a Viable Alternative? 132
Why Do Programmers Volunteer Their Services? 134
How Does Open Source Work? 134
So, Is Open Source Viable? 135
Q5 What Are the Differences Between Native and Web
Applications? 135
Developing Native Applications 136
Developing Web Applications 137
Which Is Better? 139
Q6 Why Are Mobile Systems Increasingly Important? 139
• Ethics Guide: Showrooming : The Consequences 140
Hardware 142
Software 142
Data 143
Procedures 144
People 144
Q7 What Are the Challenges of Personal Mobile Devices
at Work? 145
Advantages and Disadvantages of Employee Use of Mobile Systems at Work 145
Survey of Organizational BYOD Policy 146
Contents xv
Q8 2025? 147
• Security Guide: Anatomy of a Heartbleed 150
• Guide: Keeping Up to Speed 152
Case Study 4: The Apple of Your i 157
5: daTabaSe ProCeSSInG 161
Q1 What Is the Purpose of a Database? 163
Q2 What Is a Database? 164
Relationships Among Rows 165
Metadata 167
• Ethics Guide: Querying Inequality? 168
Q3 What Is a Database Management System (DBMS)? 170
Q4 How Do Database Applications Make Databases More
Useful? 172
Traditional Forms, Queries, Reports, and Applications 174
Browser Forms, Reports, Queries, and Applications 175
Multiuser Processing 178
Q5 How Are Data Models Used for Database
Development? 178
What Is the Entity-Relationship Data Model? 179
Q6 How Is a Data Model Transformed into a Database Design? 182
Normalization 182
Representing Relationships 184
Q7 What Is the Users’ Role in the Development of
Databases? 187
Q8 2025? 187
• Security Guide: Theft by SQL Injection 190
• Guide: Immanuel Kant, Data Modeler 192
Case Study 5: Searching for Pianos . . . 198
6: The CloUd 205
Q1 Why Is the Cloud the Future for Most Organizations? 207
What Is the Cloud? 207
Why Is the Cloud Preferred to In-House Hosting? 210
Why Now? 211
When Does the Cloud Not Make Sense? 211
xvi Contents
Q2 What Network Technology Supports the Cloud? 211
• Ethics Guide: Cloudy Profit? 212
What Are the Components of a LAN? 214
Connecting Your LAN to the Internet 216
Q3 How Does the Cloud Work? 217
An Internet Example 217
Carriers and Net Neutrality 217
Internet Addressing 218
Processing on a Web Server 219
Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA) 222
Protocols Supporting Web Services 224
Q4 How Do Organizations Use the Cloud? 227
Cloud Services from Cloud Vendors 227
Content Delivery Networks 228
Using Web Services Internally 228
Q5 How Can AllRoad Parts Use the Cloud? 230
SaaS Services at AllRoad 230
PaaS Services at AllRoad 230
IaaS Services at AllRoad 231
Q6 How Can Organizations Use Cloud Services Securely? 231
Virtual Private Networks (VPNs) 231
Using a Private Cloud 232
Using a Virtual Private Cloud 233
Q7 2025? 234
• Security Guide: Storm Clouds 238
• Guide: Is It Spying or Just Good Management? 240
Case Study 6: FinQloud Forever . . .Well, at Least for the Required
Interval . . . 245
Part 3: Using IS for Competitive
advantage
7: ProCeSSeS, orGanIzaTIonS, and
InforMaTIon SySTeMS 249
Q1 What Are the Basic Types of Processes? 251
How Do Structured Processes Differ from Dynamic Processes? 252
How Do Processes Vary by Organizational Scope? 253
Q2 How Can Information Systems Improve Process Quality? 255
How Can Processes Be Improved? 256
How Can Information Systems Improve Process Quality? 257
Contents xvii
Q3 How Do Information Systems Eliminate the Problems of
Information Silos? 257
What Are the Problems of Information Silos? 258
How Do Organizations Solve the Problems of Information Silos? 259
An Enterprise System for Patient Discharge 259
Q4 How Do CRM, ERP, and EAI Support Enterprise
Processes? 261
The Need for Business Process Engineering 261
Emergence of Enterprise Application Solutions 261
Customer Relationship Management (CRM) 262
Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) 263
• Ethics Guide: Dialing for Dollars 266
Enterprise Application Integration (EAI) 269
Q5 What Are the Elements of an ERP System? 270
Hardware 271
ERP Application Programs 271
ERP Databases 271
Business Process Procedures 272
Training and Consulting 272
Industry-Specific Solutions 272
Which Companies Are the Major ERP Vendors? 274
Q6 What Are the Challenges of Implementing and Uprading
Enterprise Information Systems? 274
Collaborative Management 275
Requirements Gaps 275
Transition Problems 276
Employee Resistance 276
Q7 How Do Inter-enterprise IS Solve the Problems of Enterprise
Silos? 276
Q8 2025? 277
• Security Guide: One-Stop Shopping 280
• Guide: ERP and the Standard, Standard Blueprint 282
Case Study 7: A Tale of Two Interorganizational IS 288
8: SoCIal MedIa InforMaTIon SySTeMS 291
Q1 What Is a Social Media Information System (SMIS)? 294
Three SMIS Roles 294
SMIS Components 297
Q2 How Do SMIS Advance Organizational Strategy? 299
Social Media and the Sales and Marketing Activity 299
Social Media and Customer Service 300
xviii Contents
Social Media and Inbound and Outbound Logistics 301
Social Media and Manufacturing and Operations 301
Social Media and Human Resources 301
Q3 How Do SMIS Increase Social Capital? 302
What Is the Value of Social Capital? 302
How Do Social Networks Add Value to Businesses? 303
Using Social Networking to Increase the Number of Relationships 305
Using Social Networks to Increase the Strength of Relationships 306
Using Social Networks to Connect to Those with More Resources 307
Q4 How Do (Some) Companies Earn Revenue from Social
Media? 308
You Are the Product 308
Revenue Models for Social Media 308
• Ethics Guide: Social Marketing ? Or Lying? 310
Does Mobility Reduce Online Ad Revenue? 312
Q5 How Do Organizations Develop an Effective SMIS? 313
Step 1: Define Your Goals 313
Step 2: Identify Success Metrics 314
Step 3: Identify the Target Audience 314
Step 4: Define Your Value 315
Step 5: Make Personal Connections 315
Step 6: Gather and Analyze Data 316
Q6 What Is an Enterprise Social Network (ESN)? 316
Enterprise 2.0 317
Changing Communication 318
Deploying Successful Enterprise Social Networks 318
Q7 How Can Organizations Address SMIS Security Concerns? 319
Managing the Risk of Employee Communication 319
Managing the Risk of Inappropriate Content 321
Q8 2025? 323
• Security Guide: Securing Social Recruiting 326
• Guide: Developing Your Personal Brand 328
Case Study 8: Sedona Social 332
9: bUSIneSS InTellIGenCe SySTeMS 337
Q1 How Do Organizations Use Business Intelligence (BI)
Systems? 340
How Do Organizations Use BI? 341
What Are Typical BI Applications? 342
Q2 What Are the Three Primary Activities in the BI Process? 343
Using Business Intelligence to Find Candidate Parts at AllRoad 344
Contents xix
Q3 How Do Organizations Use Data Warehouses and Data Marts
to Acquire Data? 349
Problems with Operational Data 350
• Ethics Guide: Unseen Cyberazzi 352
Data Warehouses Versus Data Marts 354
Q4 How Do Organizations Use Reporting Applications? 355
Basic Reporting Operations 355
RFM Analysis 355
Online Analytical Processing (OLAP) 356
Q5 How Do Organizations Use Data Mining Applications? 359
Unsupervised Data Mining 359
Supervised Data Mining 360
Market-Basket Analysis 360
Decision Trees 362
Q6 How Do Organizations Use BigData Applications? 363
MapReduce 365
Hadoop 365
Q7 What Is the Role of Knowledge Management Systems? 366
What Are Expert Systems? 367
What Are Content Management Systems? 368
What Are the Challenges of Content Management? 368
What Are Content Management Application Alternatives? 369
How Do Hyper-Social Organizations Manage Knowledge? 369
Hyper-Social KM Alternative Media 370
Resistance to Hyper-Social Knowledge Sharing 371
Q8 What Are the Alternatives for Publishing BI? 371
Characteristics of BI Publishing Alternatives 371
What Are the Two Functions of a BI Server? 372
Q9 2025? 372
• Security Guide: Semantic Security 374
• Guide: Data Mining in the Real World 376
Case Study 9: Hadoop the Cookie Cutter 381
Part 4: Information Systems
Management
10: InforMaTIon SySTeMS SeCUrITy 387
Q1 What Is the Goal of Information Systems Security? 390
The IS Security Threat/Loss Scenario 390
What Are the Sources of Threats? 391
What Types of Security Loss Exist? 392
Goal of Information Systems Security 394
xx Contents
Q2 How Big Is the Computer Security Problem? 395
Q3 How Should You Respond to Security Threats? 397
Q4 How Should Organizations Respond to Security Threats? 400
Q5 How Can Technical Safeguards Protect Against Security
Threats? 401
Identification and Authentication 401
• Ethics Guide: Securing Privacy 402
Single Sign-on for Multiple Systems 404
Encryption 404
Firewalls 406
Malware Protection 407
Design for Secure Applications 408
Q6 How Can Data Safeguards Protect Against Security
Threats? 409
Q7 How Can Human Safeguards Protect Against Security
Threats? 409
Human Safeguards for Employees 410
Human Safeguards for Nonemployee Personnel 412
Account Administration 412
Systems Procedures 413
Security Monitoring 414
Q8 How Should Organizations Respond to Security
Incidents? 415
Q9 2025? 416
• Security Guide: A Look through NSA’s PRISM 418
• Guide: Phishing for Credit Cards, Identifying Numbers, Bank Accounts 420
Case Study 10: Hitting the Target 424
11: InforMaTIon SySTeMS
ManaGeMenT 427
Q1 What Are the Functions and Organization of the IS
Department? 429
How Is the IS Department Organized? 430
Security Officers 431
What IS-Related Job Positions Exist? 432
Q2 How Do Organizations Plan the Use of IS? 433
Align Information Systems with Organizational Strategy 433
Communicate IS Issues to the Executive Group 435
Contents xxi
Develop Priorities and Enforce Them Within the IS Department 435
Sponsor the Steering Committee 435
• Ethics Guide: Using the Corporate Computer 436
Q3 What Are the Advantages and Disadvantages of
Outsourcing? 438
Outsourcing Information Systems 438
International Outsourcing 439
What Are the Outsourcing Alternatives? 440
What Are the Risks of Outsourcing? 441
Q4 What Are Your User Rights and Responsibilities? 443
Your User Rights 443
Your User Responsibilities 444
Q5 2025? 445
• Security Guide: Are We Protecting Them from Me or Me from Them? 446
• Guide: Is Outsourcing Fool’s Gold? 448
Case Study 11: iApp$$$$ 4 U 452
12: InforMaTIon SySTeMS
develoPMenT 455
Q1 How Are Business Processes, IS, and Applications
Developed? 457
How Do Business Processes, Information Systems, and Applications Differ and
Relate? 458
Which Development Processes Are Used for Which? 459
Q2 How Do Organizations Use Business Process Management
(BPM)? 461
Why Do Processes Need Management? 461
What Are BPM Activities? 462
Q3 How Is Business Process Modeling Notation (BPMN) Used to
Model Processes? 464
Need for Standard for Business Processing Notation 464
Documenting the As-Is Business Order Process 464
Q4 What Are the Phases in the Systems Development
Life Cycle (SDLC)? 466
Define the System 468
• Ethics Guide: Estimation Ethics 470
Determine Requirements 472
Design System Components 474
System Implementation 475
Maintain System 476
xxii Contents
Q5 What Are the Keys for Successful SDLC Projects? 477
Create a Work Breakdown Structure 477
Estimate Time and Costs 478
Create a Project Plan 479
Adjust Plan via Trade-offs 481
Manage Development Challenges 482
Q6 How Can Scrum Overcome the Problems of the SDLC? 483
What Are the Principles of Agile Development Methodologies? 485
What Is the Scrum Process? 486
How Do Requirements Drive the Scrum Process? 488
Q7 2025? 490
• Security Guide: Psst. There’s Another Way, You Know . . . 492
• Guide: The Final, Final Word 494
Case Study 12: When Will We Learn? 499
The International Dimension 501
Application Exercises 519
Glossary 537
Index 553
PrefaCe
Chapter 1 claims that MIS is the most important class in the business curriculum. That’s a bold
statement, and every year I ask whether it remains true. Is there any discipline having a greater
impact on contemporary business and government than IS? I continue to doubt there is. Every
year brings important new technology to organizations, and many of these organizations re-
spond by creating innovative applications that increase productivity and otherwise help them
accomplish their strategies. In the past year, security problems have come to the forefront.
Corporations, individuals, and governments have all endured extensive information systems
losses. This need is in addition to normal revisions needed to address emergent technologies
such as cloud-based services, sophisticated mobile devices, innovative IS-based business mod-
els like that at zulily, changes in organizations’ use of social media, and so on.
More sophisticated and demanding users push organizations into a rapidly changing fu-
ture, one that requires continual adjustments in business planning. To participate, our gradu-
ates need to know how to apply emerging technologies to better achieve their organizations’
strategies. Knowledge of MIS is critical.
As I wrote in the preface to earlier editions, these developments, and the organizational re-
sponses to them, redouble my gratitude to Pearson for publishing this text as an annual edition.
And this pace continues to remind me of Carrie Fisher’s statement, “The problem with instanta-
neous gratification is that it’s just not fast enough.”
Why This Eighth Edition?
The changes in this eighth edition are listed in Table 1. The biggest change concerns security and
it runs throughout all the chapters in this revision. As you know, computer crime and related
security threats have become major factors in commerce today. Dealing with those threats is an
important part of every business professional’s education. While I have a great interest in com-
puter security, I do not have deep security expertise. Consequently, I asked Randy Boyle, author
of Corporate Computer Security 4e, Applied Information Security 2e, and Applied Networking Labs
2e and a national expert on computer security, to join me as a coauthor on this text. Thankfully,
Randy agreed. You will see numerous examples of his expertise throughout this revision, in new
and revised security guides and in revisions to Chapter 10 (Chapter 12 in the prior edition).
In addition to new security material, every chapter of this edition includes a new feature
called So What? that will ask students to apply what they have learned in the chapter directly to
their own interests and prospects. Chapters 7 through 12 begin with a new discussion of PRIDE
Systems, a cloud-based virtual exercise competition and healthcare startup. Chapters 1–6 con-
tinue to be introduced by AllRoad Parts, an online vendor of off-road parts that is considering
3D printing and ultimately rejects that idea because of the effect it would have on business
processes and IS. In addition to motivating the chapter material, both case scenarios provide
numerous opportunities for students to practice one of Chapter 1’s key skills: “Assess, evaluate,
and apply emerging technology to business.”
This edition continues the change from the seventh edition that concerns the teaching of
ethics. Every Ethics Guide asks students to apply Immanuel Kant’s categorical imperative, utili-
tarianism, or both to the business situation described in the guide. I hope you find the ethical
xxiii
Another Random Scribd Document
with Unrelated Content
present established in the University with regard to Candidates for
Honours in the Mathematical Tripos’; and proceeded to advocate the
establishment of a Theological Tripos, and the concession, with
reference to the Classical Tripos, the Moral Sciences Tripos, and the
Natural Sciences Tripos, that in and after 1857 students who
obtained Honours in them should be entitled to admission to the
degree of Bachelor of Arts. We may therefore claim Whewell as one
of the founders of the modern system of University education.
Whewell’s wish to develop Professorial tuition has been already
alluded to. It may be doubted if he would have been so earnest on
the subject had he foreseen the development of teaching by the
University as opposed to teaching by the colleges, which a large
increase in the number of Professors was certain to bring about. So
far back as 1828, he had brought before the University the want of
proper lecture-rooms and museums; and, as a matter of course, he
promoted the erection of the present museums in 1863. We are
justified, therefore, in claiming for him no inconsiderable share in
that development of natural science which is one of the glories of
Cambridge; and when we see the crowds which throng the classes
of the scientific professors, lecturers, and demonstrators, we often
wish that he could have been spared a few years longer to enter into
the fruit of his labours.
As regards the constitution of the University he earnestly
deprecated the interference of a Commission. He held that
‘University reformers should endeavour to reform by efforts within
the body, and not by calling in the stranger.’ He therefore worked
very hard as a member of what was called the ‘Statutes Revision
Syndicate,’ first appointed in 1849, and continued in subsequent
years. His views on these important matters have been recorded by
him in his work on a Liberal Education. It is worth remarking that
while he was in favour of so advanced a step as making College
funds available for University purposes, he strenuously maintained
the desirability of preserving that ancient body, the Caput. One of
the most vexatious provisions of its constitution was that each
member of it had an absolute veto on any grace to which he might
object. As the body was selected, the whole legislative power of the
University was practically vested in the Heads of Houses, who are
not usually the persons best qualified to understand the feeling of
the University. Dr Whewell has frequently recorded, in his
correspondence, his vexation when graces proposed by himself were
rejected by this body; and yet, though he knew how badly the
constitution worked, his attachment to existing forms was so great,
that he could not be persuaded to yield on any point except the
mode of election.
We have spoken first of Whewell’s work in his College and
University, because it was to them that he dedicated his life. We
must now say a word or two on his literary and scientific
attainments. He wrote an excellent English style, which reflects the
personality of the writer to a more than usual extent. As might be
expected from his studies and tone of mind, he always wrote with
clearness and good sense, though occasionally his periods are rough
and unpolished, defects due to his habit of writing as fast as he
could make the pen traverse the paper. But, just as it was not
natural to him to be grave for long together, we find his most serious
criticisms and pamphlets—nay, even his didactic works—lightened by
good-humoured banter and humorous illustrations. On the other
hand, when he was thoroughly serious and in earnest, his style rose
to a dignified eloquence which has rarely been equalled, and never
surpassed. For an illustration of our meaning we beg our readers to
turn to the final chapters of the Plurality of Worlds. He was always
fond of writing verse; and published more than one volume of
poems and translations, of which the latter are by far the most
meritorious. Nor must we forget his valiant efforts to get hexameters
and elegiacs recognized as English metres. Example being better
than precept, he began by printing a translation of Goethe’s
Hermann und Dorothea, in the metre of the original, which he at
first circulated privately among his friends; but subsequently he
discussed the subject in several papers, in which he laid down the
rules which he thought were required for successful composition of
the metre. His main principle is to pay attention to accent, not to
quantity, and to use trochees where the ancients would have used
spondees; in other words, where according to the classical
hexameter we should have two strong syllables, we are to have a
strong syllable followed by a weak one. Here is a short specimen
from the Isle of the Sirens:
‘Over the broad-spread sea the thoughtful son of Ulysses
Steered his well-built bark. Full long had he sought for his father,
Till hope, lingering, fled; for the face of the water is trackless.
Then rose strong in his mind the thought of his home and his island;
And he desired to return; to behold his Ithacan people,
Listen their just complaints, restrain the fierce and the lawless.’
Mrs Stair Douglas has acted wisely in reprinting the elegiacs
written after the death of Mrs Whewell. We cannot believe that the
metre will ever be popular; but in the case of this particular poem
eccentricities of style will be forgiven for the sake of the dignified
beauty of the thoughts. With the exception of In Memoriam, we
know of no finer expression of Christian sorrow and Christian hope.
We will quote a few lines from the first division of the poem, in
which the bereaved husband describes the happiness which his wife
had brought to him:
‘Blessed beyond all blessings that life can embrace in its circle,
Blessed the gift was when Providence gave thee to me:
Gave thee, gentle and kindly and wise, calm, clear-seeing,
thoughtful,
Thee to me as I was, vehement, passionate, blind:
Gave me to see in thee, and wonder I never had seen it,
Wisdom that shines in the heart dearer than Intellect’s light;
Gave me to find in thee, when oppressed by loneliness’ burden,
Solace for each dull pain, calm from the strife of the storm.
For O, vainly till then had I sought for peace and contentment,
Ever pursued by desires, yearnings that could not be still’d;
Ever pursued by desires of a heart’s companionship, ever
Yearning for guidance and love such as I found them in thee.’
It is painful to be obliged to record that Whewell’s executors found
that the copyright of his works had no mercantile value. He perhaps
formed a true estimate of his own powers when he said that all that
he could do was to ‘systematize portions of knowledge which the
consent of opinions has brought into readiness for such a
process[14].’ His name will not be associated with any great discovery,
or any original theory, if we except his memoir on Crystallography,
which is the basis of the system since adopted; and his researches
on the Tides, which have afforded a clear and satisfactory view of
those of the Atlantic, while it is hardly his fault if those of the Pacific
were not elucidated with equal clearness[15]. It too often happens
that those who originally suggest theories are forgotten in the credit
due to those who develop them; and we are afraid that this has
been the fate of Whewell. Even as a mathematician he is not
considered really great by those competent to form a judgment. He
was too much wedded to the geometrical fashions of his younger
days, and ‘had no taste for the more refined methods of modern
analysis[16].’ In science, as in other matters, his strong conservative
bias stood in his way. He was constitutionally unable to accept a
thorough-going innovation. For instance, he withstood to the last
Lyell’s uniformity, and Darwin’s evolution[17]. Much, therefore, of
what he wrote will of necessity be soon forgotten; but we hope that
some readers may be found for his Elements of Morality, and that
his great work on the Inductive Sciences may hold its own. It is
highly valued in Germany; and in England Mr John Stuart Mill, one of
the most cold and severe of critics, who differed widely from
Whewell in his scientific views, has declared that ‘without the aid
derived from the facts and ideas contained in the History of the
Inductive Sciences, the corresponding portion of his own System of
Logic would probably not have been written.’
We have felt it our duty to point out these shortcomings; but it is
a far more agreeable one to turn from them, and conclude our essay
by indicating the lofty tone of religious enthusiasm which runs
through all his works. As Dr Lightfoot pointed out in his funeral
sermon, ‘the world of matter without, the world of thought within,
alike spoke to him of the Eternal Creator the Beneficent Father; and
even his opponent, Sir David Brewster, who more strongly than all
his other critics had denounced what he termed the paradox
advanced in The Plurality of Worlds, that our earth may be ‘the oasis
in the desert of the solar system,’ was generous enough to admit
that posterity would forgive the author ‘on account of the noble
sentiments, the lofty aspirations, and the suggestions, almost divine,
which mark his closing chapter on the future of the universe.’
CONNOP THIRLWALL[18].
Until a few years ago biographies of Bishops were remarkable for
that decent dullness which Sydney Smith has noted as a
characteristic of modern sermons. The narrative reproduced, with
painful fidelity, the oppressive decorum and the conventional dignity;
but kept out of sight the real human being which even in the
Georgian period must have existed beneath official trappings. But in
these matters, as in others, there is a fashion. The narratives which
describe the lives of modern Bishops reflect the change that has
come over the office. As now-a-days ‘a Bishop’s efficiency is
measured, in common estimation, by his power of speech and
motion[19],’ his biography, if he has overtopped his brethren in
administration, or eloquence, or statesmanship, becomes an
entertaining, and sometimes even a valuable, production. It reflects
the ever-changing incidents of a bustling career; it is spiced with
good stories; and it reveals, more or less indiscreetly, matters of
high policy in Church and State, over which a veil has hitherto been
drawn. In a word, it is the portrait of a real person, not of a lay
figure: and, if the artist be worthy of his task, a portrait which
faithfully reproduces the original. The life of Bishop Thirlwall could
not have been treated in quite the same way as the imaginary
biography we have just indicated; but, in good hands, it might have
been made quite as entertaining, and much more valuable. Dr
Perowne has told us that his life was not eventful. It was not, in the
ordinary sense of that word. He rarely quitted his peaceful retreat at
Abergwili; but, paradoxical as it sounds, he was no recluse. He took
part in spirit, if not in bodily presence, in all the important events,
political, religious, and literary, of his time; and when he chose to
break silence, in speech or pamphlet, no one could command a more
undivided attention, or exercise a more powerful influence.
What manner of man was this? By what system of education had
his mind been developed? What were his tastes, his pursuits, his
daily life? To these questions, which are surely not unreasonable, the
editors of the five volumes before us vouchsafe no adequate reply,
for the meagre thread of narrative which connects together the
Letters Literary and Theological, may be left out of consideration.
Thirlwall’s life, as we understand the word, has yet to be written;
and we fear that death has removed most of those who could
perform the task in a manner worthy of the subject. For ourselves,
all that we propose to do is to try to set forth his talents and his
character, by the help of the materials before us, and of such
personal recollections as we have been able to gather together.
Connop Thirlwall was born February 11, 1797. His father, the Rev.
Thomas Thirlwall, minister of Tavistock Chapel, Broad Court, Long
Acre, Lecturer of S. Dunstan, Stepney, and chaplain to the
celebrated Thomas Percy, Lord Bishop of Dromore, resided at Mile
End. We can give no information about him except the above list of
his preferments; and of Connop’s mother we only know that her
husband describes her as ‘pious and virtuous,’ and anxious to
‘promote the temporal and eternal welfare’ of her children. She had
the satisfaction of living long enough to see her son a bishop[20].
Connop must have been a fearfully precocious child. In 1809 the
fond father published a small duodecimo volume entitled ‘Primitiæ;
or, Essays and Poems on Various Subjects, Religious, Moral, and
Entertaining. By Connop Thirlwall, eleven years of age.’ The first of
these essays is dated ‘June 30, 1804. Seven years old’; and in the
preface the father says:
‘In the short sketch which I shall take of the young author, and his performance,
I mean not to amuse the reader with anecdotes of extraordinary precocity of
genius; it is, however, but justice to him to state, that at a very early period he
read English so well that he was taught Latin at three years of age, and at four
read Greek with an ease and fluency which astonished all who heard him. From
that time he has continued to improve himself in the knowledge of the Greek,
Latin, French, and English languages. His talent for composition appeared at the
age of seven, from an accidental circumstance. His mother, in my absence, desired
his elder brother to write his thoughts upon a subject for his improvement, when
the young author took it into his head to ask her permission to take the pen in
hand too. His request was of course complied with, without the most remote idea
he could write an intelligible sentence, when in a short time he composed that
which is first printed, “On the Uncertainty of Life.” From that time he was
encouraged to cultivate a talent of which he gave so flattering a promise, and
generally on a Sunday chose a subject from Scripture. The following essays are
selected from these lucubrations.’
We will quote a passage from one of these childish sermons,
written when he was eight years old. The text selected is, ‘Behold, I
will add unto thy days fifteen years’ (Isaiah xiii. 6); and, after some
commonplaces on the condition of Hezekiah, the author takes
occasion from the day, January 1, 1806, to make the following
reflections:
‘I shall now consider what resolutions we ought to form at the beginning of a
new year. The intention of God in giving us life was that we might live a life of
righteousness. The same ever is His intention in preserving it. We ought, then, to
live in righteousness, and obey the commandments of God. Do we not perceive
that another year is come, that time is passing away quickly, and eternity is
approaching? and shall we be all this while in a state of sin, without any
recollection that the kingdom of heaven is nearer at hand? But we ought, in the
beginning of a new year, to form a resolution to be more mindful of the great
account we must give at the last day, and live accordingly: we ought to form a
resolution to reform our lives, and walk in the ways of God’s righteousness; to
abhor all the lusts of the flesh, and to live in temperance; and resolve no more to
offend and provoke God with our sins, but repent of them. In the beginning of a
new year we should reflect a little: although we are kept alive, yet many died in
the course of last year; and this ought to make us watchful[21].’
There is not much originality of thought in this; indeed, it is
impossible to avoid the suspicion that the paternal sermons, to
which the author doubtless listened every Sunday, suggested the
form, and possibly the matter, of these essays. What meaning could
a child of eight attach to such expressions as ‘the lusts of the flesh,’
or ‘repentance,’ or ‘eternity’? Still, notwithstanding this evident
imitation of others in the matter, the style has a remarkable
individuality. Indeed, just as the portrait of the child which is
prefixed to the volume recalls forcibly the features of the veteran
Bishop at seventy years of age, we fancy that we can detect in the
style a foreshadowing of some of the qualities which rendered that
of the man so remarkable. There is the same orderly arrangement of
what he has to say, the same absence of rhetoric, the same logical
deduction of the conclusion from the premisses. As we turn over the
pages of the volume we are struck by the extent of reading which
the allusions suggest. The best English authors, the most famous
men of antiquity, are quoted as if the writer were familiar with them.
The themes, too, are singularly varied. We find ‘An Eastern Tale,’
which, though redolent of Rasselas, is not devoid of originality, and
has considerable power of description; an ‘Address’ delivered to the
Worshipful Company of Drapers at their annual visit to Bancroft’s
School, which is not more fulsome than such compositions usually
are; and, lastly, half a dozen poems, which are by far the best things
in the book. Let us take, almost at random, a few lines from the last:
‘Characters often Seen, but little Marked: a Satire.’ A young lady,
called Clara, is anxious to break off a match, and lays her plot in the
following fashion:
‘The marriage eve arrived, she chanced to meet
The unsuspecting lover in the street;
Begins an artful, simple tale to tell.
“I’m glad to see your future spouse so well,
But I just heard—” “What?” cries the curious swain.
“You may not like it; I must not explain.”
“What was the dear, delusive creature at?”
“Oh! nothing, nothing, only private chat.”
“A pack of nonsense! it cannot be true!
As if, dear girl, she could be false to you[22]!”’
Here, again, there may not be much originality of thought, but the
versification is excellent, and the whole piece of surprising merit,
when we reflect that it was written by a child of eleven. Yet,
whatever may be the worth of this and other pieces in the volume
before us as a promise of future greatness, we cannot but pity the
poor little fellow, stimulated by the inconsiderate vanity of his
parents to a priggish affectation of teaching others when he ought
to have been either learning himself or at play with his
schoolfellows; and we can thoroughly sympathize with the Bishop’s
feelings respecting the book. The lady to whom the Letters to a
Friend were written had evidently asked him for a copy, and
obtained the following answer:
‘I am sure that if you knew the point in my foot which gives me pain you would
not select that to kick or tread upon; and I am equally sure that if you had been
aware of the intense loathing with which I think of the subject of your note you
would not have recalled it to my mind. When Mrs P——, in the simplicity of her
heart, and no doubt believing it to be an agreeable topic to me, told me at dinner
on Thursday that she possessed the hated volume, it threw a shade over my
enjoyment of the evening, and it was with a great effort that, after a pause, I
could bring myself to resume the conversation. If I could buy up every copy for
the flames, without risk of a reprint, I should hardly think any price too high. Let
me entreat you never again to remind me of its existence[23].’
In 1809 young Thirlwall was sent as a day-scholar to the
Charterhouse, the choice of a school having very likely been
determined by the fact that his father resided at the east end of
London. The records of his school days are provokingly incomplete;
nay, almost a blank. We should like to know whether he was ever a
boy in the ordinary sense of the word; whether he played at
games[24], or got into mischief, or obtained the distinction of a
flogging. As far as his studies were concerned, he was fortunate in
going to the Charterhouse when that excellent scholar Dr Raine was
head master, and in being the contemporary of several boys who
afterwards distinguished themselves, among whom may be specially
mentioned his life-long friend, Julius Charles Hare, and George
Grote, with whom, in after years, he was to be united in a common
field of historical research. His chief friend, however, at this period
was not one of his schoolfellows, but a young man named John
Candler[25], a Quaker, resident at Ipswich. Several of the letters
addressed to him during the four years spent at Charterhouse have
fortunately been preserved. When we remember that these were
written between the ages of twelve and sixteen, they must be
regarded as possessing extraordinary merit. They are studied and
rather stilted compositions, evidently the result of much thought and
labour, as was usual in days when postage cost eightpence; but they
reveal a wonderfully wide extent of reading, and an interest in
passing events not usual in so ardent a student as the writer
evidently had even then become. Young Candler was ‘a friend to
liberty,’ and an admirer of Sir Francis Burdett. His correspondent
criticizes with much severity the popular hero and the mob, who,
‘after having broken the ministerial windows and pelted the soldiers
with brickbats, have gone quietly home and left him to his
meditations upon Tower Hill.’ Most thoughtful boys are fond of laying
down the lines of their future life in their letters to their
schoolfellows; but how few there are who do not change their
opinions utterly, and end by adopting some profession wholly
different from that which at first attracted them! This was not the
case with Thirlwall. We find him writing at twelve years old in terms
which he would not have disdained at fifty. ‘I shall never be a bigot
in politics,’ he says; ‘whither my reason does not guide me I will
suffer myself to be led by the nose by no man[26].’ ‘I would ask the
advocates for confining learning to the breasts of the wealthy and
the noble, in whose breasts are the seeds of sedition and discontent
most easily sown? In that of the unenlightened or well-informed
peasant? In that of a man incapable of judging either of the
disadvantages of his station or the means of ameliorating it?...
These were long since my sentiments[27].’ And, lastly, on the burning
question of Parliamentary Reform: ‘Party prejudice must own it
rather contradictory to reason and common sense that a population
of one hundred persons should have two representatives, while four
hundred thousand are without one. These are abuses which require
speedy correction[28].’ He had evidently been taken to see
Cambridge, and was constantly looking forward to his residence
there. His anticipations, however, were not wholly agreeable. At that
time he did not care much for classics. He thought that they were
not ‘objects of such infinite importance that the most valuable
portion of man’s life, the time which he passes at school and at
college, should be devoted to them.’ In after-life he said that he had
been ‘injudiciously plied with Horace at the Charterhouse,’ and that,
in consequence, ‘many years elapsed before I could enjoy the most
charming of Latin poets[29].’ He admits, however, that he is looking
forward ‘with hope and pleasing anticipation to the time when I shall
immure myself’ at Cambridge; and he makes some really admirable
reflections, most unusual at that period, on University distinctions
and the use to be made of them:
‘There is one particular in which I hope to differ from many of those envied
persons who have attained to the most distinguished academical honours. Several
of these seem to have considered the years which they have spent at the
University, not as the time of preparation for studies of a more severe and
extended nature, but as the term of their labours, the completion of which is the
signal for a life of indolence, dishonourable to themselves and unprofitable to
mankind. Literature and science are thus degraded from their proper rank, as the
most dignified occupations of a rational being, and are converted into instruments
for procuring the gratification of our sensual appetites. This will not, I trust, be the
conduct of your friend. Sorry indeed should I be to accept the highest honours of
the University were I from that time destined to sink into an obscure and useless
inactivity[30].’
An English translation of the Pensées of Pascal had fallen in his
way; and, in imitation of that great thinker, he had formed a
resolution, of which he begs his friend to remind him in future years,
to devote himself wholly to such studies (among others to the
acquisition of a knowledge of Hebrew) as would fit him for the
clerical profession. We shall see that he never really faltered from
these intentions; for, though he was at one time beset with doubts
as to his fitness to perform the practical duties of a clergyman, he
was from first to last a theologian, and only admitted other studies
as ancillary to that central object.
Thirlwall left Charterhouse in December 1813, and proceeded to
Trinity College, Cambridge, in October of the following year. How he
spent the interval has not been recorded: possibly, like many other
boys educated at a purely classical school, he was doing his best to
acquire an adequate knowledge of mathematics, to his deficiency in
which there are frequent references. He was so far successful in his
efforts that he obtained the place of 22nd senior optime in 1818,
when he proceeded in due course to his degree. Meanwhile,
however great his distaste for the classics might have been at
school, he had risen to high distinction in them; for he obtained the
Craven University scholarship when only a freshman, as well as a
Bell scholarship, and in the year of his degree the first Chancellor’s
medal[31]. In the autumn of the same year he was elected Fellow of
his college. It is provoking to have to admit that our history of what
may be termed the first part of his Cambridge career must begin and
end here. Of the second portion, when he returned to his college
and became assistant tutor, we shall have plenty to say hereafter;
but of his undergraduate days no record has been preserved. He had
the good fortune to know Trinity College when society there was
exceptionally brilliant; among his contemporaries were Sedgwick,
Whewell, the two Waddingtons, his old friend Hare, who gained a
Fellowship in the same year as himself, and many others who
contributed to make that period of University history a golden age.
We can imagine him in their company ‘moulding high thought in
colloquy serene,’ and taking part in anything which might develop
the general culture of the place; but beyond the facts that he was
secretary to the Union Society in 1817, when the ‘debate was
interrupted by the entrance of the proctors, who laid on its members
the commands of the Vice-Chancellor to disperse, and on no account
to resume their discussions[32],’ and that he had acquired a high
reputation for eloquence as a speaker there[33], we know nothing
definite about him. He does not appear to have made any new
friends; but as Julius Hare was in residence during the same period
as he was, the two doubtless saw much of each other; and it is
probably to him that Thirlwall owed the love of Wordsworth which
may be detected in some of his letters, his fondness for
metaphysical speculation, and his wish to learn German. The only
letters preserved are addressed to his old correspondent Mr Candler,
and to his uncle Mr John Thirlwall, and they give us no information
relevant to Cambridge. In writing to the latter he dwells on his
fondness for ancient history, on his preference for that of Greece
over that of Rome; he records the addition of the Italian and
German languages to his stock of acquirements; and he describes
with enthusiasm his yearning for foreign travel, which each year
grew stronger:
‘I certainly was not made to sit at home in contented ignorance of the wonders
of art and nature, nor can I believe that the restlessness of curiosity I feel was
implanted in my disposition to be a source of uneasiness rather than of
enjoyment. Under this conviction I peruse the authors of France and Italy, with the
idea that the language I am now reading I may one day be compelled to speak,
and that what is now a source of elegant and refined entertainment may be one
day the medium through which I shall disclose my wants and obtain a supply of
the necessaries of daily life. This is the most enchanting of my day dreams; it has
been for some years past my inseparable companion. And, apt as are my
inclinations to fluctuate, I cannot recollect this to have ever undergone the
slightest abatement[34].’
The letter from which we have selected the above passage was
written to his uncle in 1816; in another, written a few months later
to his friend Mr Candler, he enters more fully into his difficulties and
prospects. The earlier portion of the letter is well worth perusal for
the insight it affords into the extent of his reading and the originality
of his criticisms; but it is the concluding paragraph which is specially
interesting to a biographer. We do not know to what influences the
change was due, but it is evident that his mind was passing through
a period of unrest; his old determinations had been, at least for the
moment, uprooted, and he looked forward with uncertain eyes to an
unknown future. ‘My disinclination to the Church,’ he says, ‘has
grown from a motive into a reason.’ The Bar had evidently been
suggested to him as the only alternative, and on that dismal
prospect he dilates with unwonted bitterness. It would take him
away from all the pursuits he loved most dearly, and put in their
place ‘the routine of a barren and uninteresting occupation,’ in which
not only would the best years of his life be wasted, but—and this is
what he seems to have dreaded most—his loftier aspirations would
be degraded, and, when he had become rich enough to return to
literature, he would feel no inclination to do so.
The Fellowship examination of 1818 having ended in Thirlwall’s
election, he was free to go abroad, and at once started alone for
Rome. At that time Niebuhr was Prussian Envoy there, and Bunsen
his Secretary of Legation. Thirlwall was so fortunate as to bring with
him a letter of introduction to Madame Bunsen, who had been a
Miss Waddington, cousin to Professor Monk, and had married
Bunsen about a year before Thirlwall’s visit. The following amusing
letter from Madame Bunsen to her mother gives an interesting
picture of Thirlwall in Rome:
‘March 16, 1819.—Mr Hinds and Mr Thirlwall are here.... My mother has, I know,
sometimes suspected that a man’s abilities are to be judged of in an inverse ratio
to his Cambridge honours; but I believe that rule is really not without exception,
for Mr Thirlwall is certainly no dunce, although, as I have been informed, he
attained high honours at Cambridge at an earlier age than anybody except, I
believe, Porson. In the course of their first interview Charles heard enough from
him to induce him to believe that Mr Thirlwall had studied Greek and Hebrew in
good earnest, not merely for prizes; also, that he had read Mr Niebuhr’s Roman
History proved him to possess no trifling knowledge of German; and, as he
expressed a wish to improve himself in the language, Charles ventured to invite
him to come to us on a Tuesday evening, whenever he was not otherwise
engaged, seeing that many Germans were in the habit of calling on that day. Mr
Thirlwall has never missed any Tuesday evening since, except the moccoli night
and one other when it rained dogs and cats. He comes at eight o’clock, and never
stirs to go away till everybody else has wished good night, often at almost twelve
o’clock. It is impossible for any one to behave more like a man of sense and a
gentleman than he has always done—ready and eager to converse with anybody
that is at leisure to speak to him, but never looking fidgety when by necessity left
to himself; always seeming animated and attentive, whether listening to music, or
trying to make out what people say in German, or looking at one of Goethe’s
songs in the book, while it is sung. And so there are a great many reasons for our
being very much pleased with Mr Thirlwall; yet I rather suspect him of being very
cold, and very dry; and although he seeks, and seeks with general success, to
understand everything, and in every possible way increase his stock of ideas, I
doubt the possibility of his understanding anything that is to be felt rather than
explained, and that cannot be reduced to a system. I was led to this result by
some most extraordinary questions that he asked Charles about Faust (which he
had borrowed of us, and which he greatly admired nevertheless, attempting a
translation of one of my favourite passages, which, however, I had not pointed out
to him as being such), and also by his great fondness for the poems of
Wordsworth, two volumes of which he insisted on lending to Charles. These books
he accompanied with a note, in which he laid great stress upon the necessity of
reading the author’s prose essays on his own poems, in order to be enabled to
relish the latter. Yet Mr Thirlwall speaks of Dante in a manner that would seem to
prove a thorough taste for his poetry, as well as that he has really and truly
studied it; for he said to me that he thought no person who had taken the trouble
to understand the whole of the Divina Commedia would doubt about preferring
the “Paradiso” to the two preceding parts, an opinion in which I thoroughly
agree[35].
‘As Mr Thirlwall can speak French sufficiently well to make himself understood,
and as he has something to say, Charles found it very practicable to make him and
Professor Bekker acquainted, though Professor Bekker has usually the great defect
of never speaking but when he is prompted by his own inclination, and of never
being inclined to speak except to persons whom he has long known—that is, to
whose faces and manners he has become accustomed, and whose understanding
or character he respects or likes.... In conclusion, I must say about Mr Thirlwall,
that I was prepossessed in his favour by his having made up in a marked manner
to Charles, rather than to myself. I had no difficulty in getting on with him, but I
had all the advances to make; and I can never think the worse of a young man,
just fresh from college and unused to the society of women, for not being at his
ease with them at first[36].’
It is vexatious that Thirlwall’s biographers should have failed to
discover—if indeed they tried to discover—any information about his
Roman visit, to which he always looked back with delight,
occasioned as much by the friends he had made there as by ‘the
memorable scenes and objects’ he had visited[37]. So far as we know,
the above letter is the only authority extant. We should like to have
heard whether Thirlwall had, or had not, any personal intercourse
with Niebuhr, whom we have reason to believe he never met; and to
what extent Bunsen influenced his future studies. We find it stated in
Bunsen’s life that he determined Thirlwall’s wavering resolutions in
favour of the clerical profession[38]. This, as we shall presently shew,
is clearly a mistake; but, when we consider the strong theological
bias of Bunsen’s own mind, it does seem probable that he would
direct his attention to the modern school of German divinity. We
suspect that Thirlwall had been already influenced in this direction
by the example, if not by the direct precepts, of Herbert Marsh, then
Lady Margaret’s Professor of Theology at Cambridge[39], who had
stirred up a great controversy by translating Michaelis’ Introduction
to the New Testament, and by promoting a more free criticism of the
Gospels than had hitherto been thought permissible. However this
may be, it is certain that the friendship which began in Rome was
one of the strongest and most abiding influences which shaped
Thirlwall’s character, and just half a century afterwards we find him
referring to Bunsen as a sort of oracle in much the same language
that Dr Arnold was fond of employing.
We must pass lightly and rapidly over the next seven years of
Thirlwall’s life. He entered as a law student at Lincoln’s Inn in
February 1820, and in 1827 returned to Cambridge. In the
intervening period he had given the law a fair trial; but the more he
saw of it the less he liked it. It is painful to think of the weary hours
spent over work of which he could say, four years after he had
entered upon it, ‘It can never be anything but loathsome to me[40]’;
‘my aversion to the law has not increased, as it scarcely could, from
the first day of my initiation into its mysteries’; or to read his
pathetic utterances to Bunsen, describing his wretchedness, and the
delight he took in his brief excursions out of law into literature,
consoling himself with the reflection that perhaps he gained in
intensity of enjoyment what he lost in duration. With these feelings
it would have been useless for him to persevere; but we doubt if the
time spent in legal work was so entirely thrown away as he
imagined. It might be argued that much of his future eminence as a
bishop was due to his legal training. As a friend has remarked, ‘he
carried the temper, and perhaps the habit, of Equity into all his
subsequent work’; and to the end of his life he found a special
delight in tracking the course of the more prominent causes célèbres
of the day, and expressing his judgment upon them[41]. Even in these
years, however, law was not allowed to engross his whole time.
From the beginning he had laid this down as a fixed principle. He
spent his vacations in foreign travel, and every moment he could
snatch from his enforced studies was devoted to a varied course of
reading, of which the main outcome was a translation of
Schleiermacher’s Critical Essay on the Gospel of S. Luke[42], to which
his friend Hare had introduced him. Why should Thirlwall have
selected, as a specimen of the new school of German theology, a
work which, at this distance of time, does not appear to be specially
distinguished for merit or originality[43]? It is evident, from what he
says in his Introduction, that he had a sincere admiration for the
talents of Dr Schleiermacher, whom he describes as ‘this
extraordinary writer,’ whose fate it has been ‘to open a new path in
every field of literature he has entered, and to tread all alone.’ But
the real motive for the selection is to be found, we think, in the
opportunity it afforded him for studying the whole question of the
origin and authorship of the synoptic Gospels, and, as the title page
informs us, for dealing with the contributions to the literature of the
subject which had appeared since Bishop Marsh’s Dissertation on the
Origin and Composition of our three first Canonical Gospels,
published in 1801. In this direct reference to Marsh’s work we find a
confirmation of our theory that Thirlwall owed to him his position as
a critical theologian, though we can hardly imagine a greater
difference than that which must have existed in all other matters
between the passionate Toryism of the one and the serene
Liberalism of the other.
Thirlwall’s gallant attempt to follow an uncongenial profession
could have but one termination; and we can imagine his friends
watching with some curiosity for the moment and the cause of the
final rupture. The moment was probably determined by the prosaic
consideration that his fellowship at Trinity College would terminate in
October 1828, unless he were in Priest’s Orders. We do not mean
that he became a clergyman in order to secure a comfortable yearly
income; but, that having decided in favour of the clerical profession,
joined to those literary pursuits which his position as a fellow of
Trinity College would allow, he took the necessary steps in good
time. He returned to Cambridge in 1827, and, having been ordained
deacon in the same year, and priest in the year following, at once
undertook his full share of college and University work[44]. His friend
Hare had set the example in 1822 by accepting a classical
lectureship at Trinity College at the urgent request of Mr Whewell,
then lately appointed to one of the tutorships[45], and Thirlwall had
paid visits to him in the Long Vacations of 1824 and 1825. It is
probable that at one of these visits the friends had planned their
translation of Niebuhr’s History of Rome, for the first volume was far
advanced in 1827, and was published early in 1828. The second did
not appear until 1832. The publication of what Thirlwall rightly terms
‘a wonderful masterpiece of genius’ in an English dress marked an
epoch in historical and classical literature in this country. Yet,
notwithstanding its pre-eminent excellence, the work of the
translators was bitterly attacked in various places, and particularly in
a note appended to an article in the Quarterly Review, a criticism
which would long ago have been forgotten if it had not called forth a
reply which we have heard described as ‘Hare’s bark and Thirlwall’s
bite[46].’ The pamphlet consists of sixty-three pages, of which sixty
belong to the former, and a ‘Postscript,’ of little more than two, to
the latter. It is probable that Hare’s elaborate vindication of his
author, his brother translator, and himself, had but little effect on any
one; Thirlwall’s indignant sarcasms—worthy of the best days of that
controversial style in which he subsequently became a master—are
still remembered and admired. We will quote a few sentences, of an
application far wider than the criticism to which they originally
referred. The reviewer had expressed pity that the translators should
have wasted ‘such talents on the drudgery of translation.’ Thirlwall
took exception to the phrase, and pointed out that their intellectual
labour did not deserve to be so spoken of.
‘On the other hand, intellectual labour prompted and directed by no higher
consideration than that of personal emolument appears to me to deserve an
ignominious name; nor do I think such an employment the less illiberal, however
great may be the abilities exerted, or the advantages purchased. But I conceive
such labour to become still more degrading, when it is let out to serve the views
and advocate the opinions of others. It sinks another step lower in my estimation,
when, instead of being applied to communicate what is excellent and useful, it
ministers to the purpose of excluding from circulation all such intellectual
productions as have not been stampt with the seal of the party to which it is itself
subservient. But when I see it made the instrument of a religious, political, or
literary proscription, forging or pointing calumny and slander to gratify the malice
of hotter and weaker heads against all whom they hate and fear, I have now
before me an instance of what I consider as the lowest and basest intellectual
drudgery. I leave the application of these distinctions to the Quarterly Reviewer.’
In 1831 the two friends started the publication of the Philological
Museum. It had a brief but glorious career. Only six numbers were
published, but they contained ‘more solid additions to English
literature and scholarship’ than had up to that time appeared in any
journal. We are glad to see that seven of Thirlwall’s contributions
have been republished, and that among them is the well-known
essay On the Irony of Sophocles. Those who read these articles, and
still more those who turn to the volumes from which they have been
extracted, and look through the whole series of Thirlwall’s
contributions, will be as much impressed by the writer’s erudition as
by his critical insight; and, if a translation from the German should
fall under their notice, they will not fail to remark the extraordinary
skill with which he has turned that difficult language into sound
English. Thirlwall would have smiled with polite incredulity had any
one told him that he was setting an example in those writings of his
which would bear fruit in years to come; but we maintain that this is
what really happened. More than one of his successors in the field of
classics at Cambridge was directly stimulated by what he had done
to undertake an equally wide course of reading; and it may be
argued with much probability that the thoroughness and breadth of
illustration with which classical subjects are treated by the lecturers
in Trinity College is derived from his initiative.
In 1832, when Hare left Cambridge, his friend succeeded him as
assistant tutor, to give classical lectures to the undergraduates on
Whewell’s ‘side.’ For a time all went well. His lectures were
exceedingly popular with those capable of appreciating them, as was
shown by the large attendance not only of undergraduates, but of
the best scholars in the college, men who had already taken their
degrees, and who were working for the Fellowship Examination or
for private improvement. They were remarkable for translations of
singular excellence, and for an exhaustive treatment of the subject,
as systematic as Hare’s had been desultory, as we learn from
traditions of them which still survive, and from two volumes of notes
which now lie before us, taken down at a course on the Ethics of
Aristotle. Moreover Thirlwall was personally popular. He was the
least ‘donnish’ of the resident Fellows, and sought the society of
undergraduates, inviting the men who attended his lectures to walk
with him or to take wine at his rooms after Hall. He delighted in a
good story, and used to throw himself back in his chair, his whole
frame shaking with suppressed merriment, when anything struck his
fancy as especially humorous. He had one habit which, had it been
practised with less delicacy, might have marred his popularity. He
was fond of securing an eager but inconsiderate talker, whom he
drew out, by a series of subtle questions, for the amusement of the
rest. So well known was this peculiarity among his older friends that
after one of his parties a person who had not been present has been
heard to inquire from another who had just left his rooms, ‘Who was
fool to-day?’
In 1834 Thirlwall’s connection with the educational staff of the
college was rudely severed by a controversy respecting the
admission of Dissenters to degrees. This debate has been long since
forgotten in the University; but the influence which it exercised on
Thirlwall’s future career, as well as its own intrinsic interest, point it
out for particular notice. We had occasion in a recent article[47] to
sketch the changes which took place in the University between 1815
and 1830. It will be remembered that the stormy period of our
political history which is associated with the first Reform Bill fell
between those dates. It was hardly to be expected that Cambridge
should escape an influence by which the country was so profoundly
affected. Indeed, it may be cited as a sign of the absorbing interest
of that question, that it did affect the University very seriously; for
there is ample evidence that in the previous century external events,
no matter how important, had made but little impression. In 1746
we find the poet Gray lamenting that his fellow academicians were
so indifferent to the march of the Pretender; and even the French
Revolution excited but a languid enthusiasm, though Dr Milner, the
Vice-Chancellor, and his brother Heads, did their best to draw
attention to it by expelling from the University Mr Frend, of Jesus
College, for writing a pamphlet called Peace and Union, which
advocated the principles of its leaders. With the Reform Bill of 1830,
however, the case was very different. Sides were eagerly taken;
discussions grew hot and angry; old friends became estranged; and,
years afterwards, when children of the next generation asked
questions of their parents about some one whose name was
mentioned in their hearing, but with whom they were not personally
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