Sir Leslie Stephen (1832 1904), the founding editor of the Dictionary of National Biography, and a writer on philosophy, ethics, and literature, was educated at Eton, King's College London and Trinity College, Cambridge, where he remained as a fellow and a tutor for a number of years. Though a sickly child, he later became a keen and successful mountaineer, taking part in first ascents of nine peaks in the Alps. In 1871 he became editor of the Cornhill Magazine. During his eleven-year tenure, he wrote two successful books on ethics, including The Science of Ethics in 1892, which was widely...

Although James Fitzjames Stephen (1829 94) was a successful barrister, he also had a prolific journalistic and literary output throughout his legal career. He contributed more than three hundred essays on subjects such as law and ethics to the Saturday Review within the space of a decade, and more than eight hundred articles for the Pall Mall Gazette. This biography was written by his younger brother, the equally successful critic and editor Leslie Stephen (1832 1904), and published in 1895. Stephen paints an affectionate portrait of this leading Victorian legal and literary figure. He begins...

Sir Leslie Stephen (1832 1904) was founding Editor of the Dictionary of National Biography (NBD). Also a writer on philosophy, ethics, and literature, he was educated at Eton, King's College, London, and Trinity Hall, Cambridge, where he remained as a Fellow and a tutor for a number of years. Though a sickly child, he later became a keen and successful mountaineer, taking part in first ascents of nine peaks in the Alps. These biographical essays and critiques were written originally for the National Review and published as two two-volume sets in 1898 and 1902. These vignettes show that,...

At the age of eighty-four, Thomas Hobbes (1588 1679) wrote an autobiography in Latin elegaics. Unsurprisingly, it was not as widely read as his two great philosophical works, Leviathan and Behemoth, in which he laid out a set of sociopolitical theories that enraged many of the philosophers and moralists of Europe. In this comprehensive biography, first published in 1904, Sir Leslie Stephen (1832 1904) charts the character and changes of Hobbes' thinking, from the scholasticism of his early Oxford education, to his later devotion to geometry and deductive science. With an emphasis on personal...

Sir Leslie Stephen (1832 1904), the founding Editor of the Dictionary of National Biography and writer on philosophy, ethics, and literature, was educated at Eton, King's College, London, and Trinity Hall, Cambridge, where he remained as a Fellow and tutor until 1864, becoming an ordained priest in 1859. Doubt concerning his religious convictions set in rapidly, although it was not until 1875 that he formally renounced his orders. First published in book form in 1873, these closely argued essays challenging the philosophy of religious doctrine were written originally for Fraser's Magazine and...

This three-volume set brings together a diverse selection of essays by Sir Leslie Stephen (1832 1904), author, philosopher and literary critic. Educated at Eton and Cambridge, he was the founding editor of the Dictionary of National Biography and father of Virginia Woolf and Vanessa Bell. He wrote critiques of many authors and works, which were published in periodicals such as the Cornhill Magazine (of which he was editor from 1871), Fraser's Magazine and the Fortnightly Review. The Third Series, first published in 1879, includes commentaries on the works of Henry Fielding, Charlotte Bronte,...

This three-volume set brings together a diverse selection of essays by Sir Leslie Stephen (1832 1904), author, philosopher and literary critic. Educated at Eton and Cambridge, he was the founding editor of the Dictionary of National Biography and father of Virginia Woolf and Vanessa Bell. He wrote critiques of many authors and works, which were published in periodicals such as the Cornhill Magazine (of which he was editor from 1871), Fraser's Magazine and the Fortnightly Review. The First Series, published in 1874, includes commentaries on the works of Daniel Defoe, Samuel Richardson, Sir...

This three-volume set brings together a diverse selection of essays by Sir Leslie Stephen (1832 1904), author, philosopher and literary critic. Educated at Eton and Cambridge, he was the founding editor of the Dictionary of National Biography and father of Virginia Woolf and Vanessa Bell. He wrote critiques of many authors and works, which were published in periodicals such as the Cornhill Magazine (of which he was editor from 1871), Fraser's Magazine and the Fortnightly Review. The Second Series, first published in 1876, includes commentaries on the works of Sir Thomas Browne, Samuel...

The term 'agnostic' was probably coined by T. H. Huxley during a speech to the Metaphysical Society in 1869. From the Greek 'agnostos', 'unknown', it was derived from St Paul's mention of an Athenian altar inscribed 'to the unknown god'. With these overtones of ancient philosophy, agnosticism became the tag of an emergent school of thought which posited that the existence of anything beyond the material and measurable should be considered unknowable. In this collection of seven essays, first published as one volume in 1893, Leslie Stephen (1832 1904) makes a study of the 'unknown'. Across the...

This 1902 book, originally intended for private circulation, is a memoir of George Smith (1824 1901), founder, proprietor and publisher of The Cornhill Magazine and later the Dictionary of National Biography. The small volume, compiled by Smith's wife, consists of a memoir of Smith by Sidney Lee, followed by four short autobiographical pieces that Smith wrote for The Cornhill. He recalls his years at the publishing house of Smith, Elder and Co.; his encounters with Charlotte Bronte, who stayed with the Smiths in London; his idea of founding a magazine; and the 'lawful pleasures' of court...