John Lubbock

“ In science, Lubbock's main interest lay in the study of the habits, life history, and ancestry of living things throughout the kingdom of plants and animals up to man himself. His studies covered a wide range of topics and bore fruit in many contributions to the proceedings of learned societies. Notwithstanding its range, Lubbock's scientific work was by no means superficial, and it is noteworthy that eleven years after his death several distinguished scientists combined to testify to its value [The Life-Work of Lord Avebury (Sir John Lubbock) , 1924] . ”

“ As a magistrate and country gentleman, Sir John Lubbock also takes an active part in most of the varied duties incumbent on an English landowner. He has contributed to political literature, though not so voluminously as to scientific, and he has taken an active part in measures to promote the extension and improvement of science-teaching in the schools. The amount of work that he has done could have been accomplished at his age only by means of the most indefatigable industry, and the most economical use of time. ”

“ Science was one of the earliest of Sir John Lubbock's pursuits, and it was one of those that he has most constantly followed up. He knew practically nothing of banking till he was fourteen years old, while his name was not on the rolls of Parliament till he was a man of thirty-six. ”

“ SIR JOHN LUBBOCK is one of that class of men of whom each age can present only a few brilliant specimens, who are at home, and masters, in pursuits of the most diversified character. He is almost equally distinguished as a banker and man of business, as a zoölogist, ethnologist, and archæologist, and as a publicist and parliamentarian. He stands in the front rank among bankers, while he occupies a prominent position among naturalists, and "is a standing proof that an industrious man of active mind may at once be diligent in business while serving science." ”

“ It is right, however, to say at once that Sir John Lubbock (to whose uniform courtesy we have been greatly indebted) wrote soon after our list had been published that he did not in his lecture mention quite the whole Hundred Best Books, of which he subsequently gave a complete list in the Contemporary Review. "I did, however," he added, "recommend 'Don Quixote' and Epictetus. I shall be glad also if you will allow me to observe that I excluded (1) works by living authors, (2) science, and (3) history, with a very few exceptions which I mentioned rather in their literary aspect." ”

“ If Sir John Lubbock, in the hurry of a busy life, has not fallen under this common temptation, then one knows not how to explain the extraordinary fact that one of the keenest minds in the English scientific world has so persistently left undone what he ought to have done, and done what he ought not to have done, as he gave to the public quotations from other writers. ”

“ LUBBOCK, Sir JOHN, fourth baronet, and first Baron Avebury (1834–1913) , banker, man of science, and author, was the eldest son of Sir John William Lubbock [q.v.] , third baronet, of Lammas, Norfolk, by his wife, Harriet, daughter of Lieutenant-Colonel George Hotham, of York. His father was a banker of distinguished mathematical ability and was for many years treasurer of the Royal Society. John Lubbock was born at 29 Eaton Place, London, 30 April 1834; six years later, on his father's succession to the baronetcy, the family moved to High Elms, Down, Kent. ”

“ Sir John Lubbock first suggested, that it would be an interesting thing to pick out the ten books which, if one were to be confined for life, should be thought the most likely to be of enduring interest. If this favorite game were to be played with the selection limited to the authors of a single century, it is reasonably sure that most educated people would pick out the thirteenth century group of ten for their exclusive reading for the rest of life, rather than any other. ”

“ When one considers the influence that Sir John Lubbock's Prehistoric Times has had on the reading public, and the shock that his statements as to the utter irreligiousness of certain tribes gave many of his readers, one feels inclined to question his authority as a teacher, when his quotations are submitted to the simple test of verification. One wonders how such a man as Sir John Lubbock could gather into the compass of a few concluding pages of a really great work suck a tissue of misguiding information. ”

“ But the errors of choice made from carelessness are even greater than those made in ignorance; and hence no doubt it was that Sir John Lubbock, in giving the Working Men's College his list of the Best Hundred Books, added that "if a few good guides would draw up similar lists it would be most useful." Sir John Lubbock, like every other seriously minded and methodic man, had "often been astonished to see how little care people devoted to the selection of what they read." Ars longa, vita brevis ”

“ Sir,—You have proposed that I should recommend to inexperienced readers some of the books which are necessary for a liberal education; and you have kindly sent a list of works drawn out by Sir John Lubbock with this object in view, and recently published in your journal.
I am sincerely sensible of the compliment to myself which is implied in your suggestion; but I am at the same time afraid that you have addressed yourself to the wrong man. Let me own the truth. ”

“ We must not, however, forget that some savage peoples can not count beyond four or five. Sir John Lubbock tells in his paper an anecdote of Mr. Galton, who, on one occasion, made a comparison of the arithmetical comprehension of a Damara savage of South Africa and a little dog. According to Mr. Galton, the comparison was not to the advantage of the man.
Let us now examine Sir John Lubbock's experiments. He wrote on his cards such words as go, bone, water, food, etc., in phonetic orthography, so as not to trouble his dog's head with the difficulties of English spelling ”

“ To peruse the former work is education; to read the latter work is recreation, not absolutely injurious, perhaps, but scarcely beneficial. Sir John Lubbock on an ant-hill has the sublimity of the scientist: Alphonse Daudet on human nature is a mere trumpery trifler.
It does not appear even to occur to Sir John Lubbock that a fine novel contains intellectual qualities of the highest kind, and combines in itself [Pg 115] the widest effects and the most delicate minutiæ of creative art. ”

“ Unfortunately, I did not read Sir John Lubbock's lecture or address recently delivered on the subject of books, but I have seen the list of books that he appears to think would form an adequate collection for a man of culture to keep near him for the purpose of study and intellectual refreshment. The selection in some respects is very good, but I venture to say that it is not adequate o the requirements of the majority of thinking men in the present day. ”

“ Here Sir John Lubbock plainly means to teach, on the authority of Caillie, that the Foulahs were not even fetich-worshipers; that they were positively without any religion of their own. But if he had read Caillie more carefully—read the context as well as the text—he would have discovered that the Foulahs and kindred tribes were idolaters; for that well-known explorer goes on to say: "Wassoula is a country inhabited by idolatrous Foulahs; they carry on little traffic, and never travel; their idolatry would indeed expose them to the most dreadful slavery if they did. ”

“ A majority has not yet been gained, but the opposition is giving way, and the end sought will undoubtedly soon be attained. Upon the last and recent defeat of Sir John Lubbock's measure, the London Times came out with a leading editorial on the right side, and which is chiefly remarkable for the advanced and unqualified position which it takes. ”

“ L.—The Kjökkenmöddings: recent Geologico-Archæological Researches in Denmark. By John Lubbock, Esq., F.R.S. Denmark occupies a larger space in the history, than in the map, of Europe. The nation is greater than the country; and even if with the growth of physical power in surrounding populations, she has lost somewhat of her influence in political councils, still the Danes of today are no unworthy representatives of their ancestors. Many a larger nation might envy them the position they hold in Science and in Art, and few have contributed more to the progress of human knowledge. ”

“ The Kentish rustics may know that the 'Squire' is fond of looking at queer things, and the bankers may have sometimes listened to him at the Royal Institution or in Parliament; but each set of men judge their many-sided friend by their own standard, and in each department he has rendered services which ought to command the respect in which he is indubitably held."
Sir John Lubbock derives his versatility in a very large measure by inheritance. ”

“ I see that Sir John Lubbock excludes living authors from his list:—
THE HEAD MASTER OF HARROW,
Dr. J. E. C. Welldon, in sending us his list, prefaced it with the following remarks:—
I wish to apologize for my delay in replying to your courteous request of the 12th inst. I have been absent from home until to-day. You will do society a great service if by drawing attention to the best books of all the ages you can succeed in making young people believe there is something very much better worth reading than the newspapers and magazines of to-day. ”

“ The real test, it might well be urged, of a man's fondness for his books is the selection he would make for his travelling library. There can be no question, therefore, about the sincerity of the following lists.
MR. H. M. STANLEY.
Dear Sir,—If the list of books which you have sent me are really the favourite books of Sir John Lubbock, I should be inclined, without further knowledge of him, to set him down as being partial to classics, philosophy, and theology. Out of his list of non-Christian moralists we might, for the use of busy men, altogether exclude Confucius and Mohammed. ”

“ It seems to me not easy to lay out a course of reading that shall be of universal application. So much depends upon the cast of the reader's mind, his taste (if he has any) , and the line of study he wishes to follow, that "the best laid scheme" may still "gang aft a-gley."
Sir John Lubbock's list already published is excellent, and perhaps cannot be improved. It is difficult to take from it, and, in trying to add, one encounters the embarrassment of riches. ”

“ Mendenhall touches a very important point when he speaks of the unfortunate absence of the scientific element from our political life. There may be, doubtless there are, causes for this for which men of science are not to be blamed; but still it is a fact that a man of science is commonly looked upon as a man inapt for affairs. In the British Parliament science is represented by such men as Sir Henry Roscoe, Sir John Lubbock, Sir Lyon Playfair ”

“ The world we live in is a fairyland of exquisite beauty, our very existence is a miracle in itself, and yet few of us enjoy as we might, and none as yet appreciate fully, the beauties and wonders which surround us. ”

“ See, God has sent a man to show you that it is possible. Look at me, who am without a city, without a house, without possessions, without a slave; I sleep on the ground; I have no wife, no children, no praetorium, but only the earth and heavens, and one poor clock. And what do I want? Am I not without sorrow? ”

“ In early spring the woods are bright with the feathery catkins of the Willow, followed by the soft green of the Beech, the white or pink flowers of the Thorn, the pyramids of the Horse-chestnut, festoons of the Laburnum and Acacia, and the Oak slowly wakes from its winter sleep, while the Ash leaves long linger in their black buds. ”

“ And scarce any two days are alike. At times a sea-fog covers everything. Again the sea which sleeps to-day so peacefully sometimes rages, and the very existence of the bay itself bears witness to its force. ”

“ I seem as if I could feel all the glowing life the sunshine gives and the south wind calls to being. The endless grass, the endless leaves, the immense strength of the oak expanding, the unalloyed joy of finch and blackbird ”

“ There, mingled with the taller gentians and the white narcissus, the grass grows deep and free, and as you follow the winding mountain paths, beneath arching boughs all veiled and dim with blossom,—paths, that for ever droop and rise over the green banks and mounds sweeping down in scented undulation, steep to the blue water, studded here and there with new mown heaps, filling all the air with fainter sweetness,—look up towards the higher hills, where the waves of everlasting green roll silently into their long inlets among the shadows of the pines ”

“ As the sun declines, its thousand shadows lengthen, pure as the cold green azure in the depth of a glacier's crevasse, and the illuminated snow takes first the tender colour of a white rose, and then the flush of a red one, and the sky turns to a pale malachite green, till the rare strange vision fades into ghastly gray, but leaves with you a permanent recollection of its too transient beauty. ”

“ But much as we may admire the majestic grandeur of a mighty river, either in its eager rush or its calmer moments, there is something which fascinates even more in the free life, the young energy, the sparkling transparence, and merry music of smaller streams. ”

“ Birds chirp and flutter about, parrots scream, monkeys chatter, bees hum among the flowers, and gorgeous butterflies flutter lazily along or sit with full expanded wings exposed to the warm and invigorating rays. The first hour of morning in the equatorial regions possesses a charm and a beauty that can never be forgotten. ”

“ Resting quietly under an ash tree, with the scent of flowers, and the odour of green buds and leaves, a ray of sunlight yonder lighting up the lichen and the moss on the oak trunk, a gentle air stirring in the branches above, giving glimpses of fleecy clouds sailing in the ether, there comes into the mind a feeling of intense joy in the simple fact of living. ”