John Morrison Davidson

“ Morley, on nearly every one of the great questions—political and ethical—which agitate modern society, should never yet have found a place at St. Stephen's is a standing impeachment of the political sagacity of popular constituencies. And it would be an additional cause for rejoicing if a scholar and a gentleman like Mr. Morley could be made to replace one or other of the corrupt ring of ignorant, vainglorious, aldermanic gluttons who have taken so many of the London constituencies captive. ”

“ Morley's article on the death of Mill. It is the very poetry of a manly sorrow. "The nightingale which he longed for fills the darkness with music, but not for the ear of the dead master: he rests in the deeper darkness where the silence is unbroken forever. We may console ourselves with the reflection offered by the dying Socrates to his sorrowful companions: He who has arrayed the soul in her own proper jewels of moderation and justice and courage and nobleness and truth is ever ready for the journey when his time comes. ”

“ Morley belongs to the latter category, and the fact is not inexplicable. At a certain period of youth, when the passions are strong and reflection is weak, religious emotions very frequently come in—and come in opportunely—to supply the restraining influence of reason. When they are no longer needed, they die out; and, if they have been very fervid, the more ingenuous order of minds is but too apt to resent them as idle delusions, and to rush into opposite extremes. Weaker and less ingenuous natures profess to feel them after they have ceased to influence, and so become religious hypocrites. ”

“ Such a spectacle of mutual toleration is among the most hopeful signs of English public life. But it is at home in his literary workshop that the editor of "The Fortnightly" will be seen to most advantage. The appointments of Berkeley Lodge, Putney, are such as to make the mouths of more obscure journalists water. The ample library looks out on a beautifully embowered lawn, while every domestic detail is perfect. A man who cannot write well with such happy surroundings has hopelessly mistaken his calling. ”

“ Man will ponder the strange problem of his destiny; and those who believe that religion is a mere mental infirmity must be prepared boldly to sum it up in the terrible words of Richter: "Of the world will become a world-machine, of God a force, and of the second world a coffin." ”

“ We have lost a great teacher and example of knowledge and virtue; but men will long feel the presence of his character about them, making them ashamed of what is indolent or selfish, and encouraging them to all disinterested labor, both in trying to do good and in trying to find out what the good is, which is harder."
Ever ready to do battle in the front rank of Liberalism, Mr. Morley chivalrously undertook to edit "The Morning Star" at a time when, for reasons chiefly connected with the commercial management, success was no longer possible. ”

“ In no other civilized country except England could such a man have been excluded for any length of time from the national councils. In France half a dozen signed articles would probably have brought him about as many offers of seats in the legislature, while in the United States he would, to a certainty, have been made an ambassador of the first rank. Even Spain values her Castelars and Pi y Margalls. England alone keeps on, if not absolutely stoning the prophets, at least studiously neglecting them. ”

“ Morley's attitude, as might be expected in so courageous a political thinker, is clearly defined. He recognizes that, until the republican banner is boldly unfurled, we who are Radicals are condemned to strike at phantoms. ”

“ Morley has written on Voltaire, Rousseau, Diderot, Turgot, and the French Revolution, I cordially concur. To Robespierre alone I think he has done scant justice, while to Burke he has been more than kind. With the impartiality of a judge, and the insight of a statesman rather than of a man of letters, he has succeeded in dispelling much of the obscurity in which Mr. Carlyle is chiefly responsible for having involved the greatest movement of the mind of modern Europe. Carlyle's "French Revolution" is undoubtedly a work of genius ”

“ Yet John Stuart Mill, if he had lived much longer, was apparently bidding fair to take a high place, not, certainly, among orthodox believers, but among the worthies of the Unitarian calendar. Most powerful intellects are either religious or religiously anti-religious, superstitious or superstitiously anti-superstitious. ”

“ Morley has strenuously exerted himself to secure two great objects,—to level down the Church politically, and to level up the working-class socially, with a view to unite the whole people in the pursuit of national as distinguished from sectional ideals. ”

“ The result we see in the heavy arrears of domestic legislation, the helplessness and criminality of our diplomacy abroad, and, worse than all, the disgust with representative institutions which a Parliament of intellectual imbeciles is sure, sooner or later, to inspire. ”

“ The idea of a Great Being who watches over oppressed innocence and punishes triumphant crime is essentially the idea of the people."
Mr. Morley's admiration for Burke I am wholly unable to comprehend. To bracket him with Milton is like comparing a penny whistle to an organ. Nay, those who thought only of dining when he thought of convincing were not so culpable as has been insinuated. It would have been greatly to the advantage of England and of Europe if Burke had never crossed St. ”