STEPHEN
STEPHEN
In his leisure Stephen was an industrious
journalist, writing in the Saturday Bevieiv
and other periodicals ; and from 1865
onward he was one of the chief writers on
the Pall Mall Gazette. His General View
of the Criminal Law was published in
1863. He took silk in 1868, and from
1869 to 1872 was in India as legal member
of the Council, In 1875 he became pro
fessor of common law at the Inns of Court,
and in 1879 was raised to the bench. He
resigned his judgeship in 1891 on account
of failing health, and was created a baronet.
Sir James, who was opposed to aggression
arid thought religion a social need, suffi
ciently betrayed his Eationalism in two
articles on Seeley s Ecce Homo in Fraser s
Magazine (June and July, 1866), and in
his Liberty, Equality, Fraternity (1873).
We have, however, the assurance of his
brother, Sir Leslie Stephen, who writes
the sketch of Sir James in the Dictionary
of National Biography, that he had by
1879 "entirely abandoned his belief in the
orthodox dogmas." See also Sir Leslie s
Life of Sir J. F. Stephen (1895). For a
judge Sir James cannot be described as
reticent ; and his conservative attitude
made him sincerely apprehensive about
what he thought to be social requirements.
D. Mar. 11, 1894.
STEPHEN, Sir Leslie, LL.D., Litt.D., brother of preceding, writer. B. Nov. 28, 1832. Ed. Eton, King s College (London), and Cambridge (Trinity Hall). He devoted himself particularly to mathematics at Cambridge, and was twentieth wrangler in the mathematical tripos. In 1854 he became a fellow of his college, and was obliged by the conditions to take orders within a year. As he was still orthodox and much influenced by F. D. Maurice, though never keen about religion, he did so. He was ordained priest in 1859, and was junior tutor. He rarely preached, and was much better known to Cambridge as an ardent athlete with a robust vocabulary. From 1865 to 1868 he was President of the Alpine Club ; from 1868 to 1871 he 761
edited the Alpine Journal; and in 1871 he
published his Playground of Europe. Cam
bridge was so liberal at the time that (as
Sir Leslie once told the compiler) a dinner
got up on the private understanding that it
was for heretics only was crowded beyond
anticipation. But Stephen was quietly
studying religion and philosophy, and in
1862 he refused to take further part in
chapel-services. He said later that he had
not lost his faith, but discovered that he
had never had any. He resigned his
tutorship, and in 1875 divested himself of
his orders under the new Act. In 1867
he entered as a student of Inner Temple ;
but he preferred writing, and his brother
introduced him to London journalism. In
1871 he was appointed editor of the Corn-
hill, and in that magazine, as well as
Fraser s and the Fortnightly, he wrote many
Rationalist articles. (Matthew Arnold s
Literature and Dogma appeared in the
Cornhill.) His articles were republished as
Essays on Freethinking and Plain Speak
ing (1873). Three years later he issued
An Agnostic s Apology. His wife, a daughter
of Thackeray, had died in 1875, and he
had more deeply realized the hollowness of
the Christian message. He married Mrs.
Duckworth in 1878. His chief literary
works, which gave him one of the highest
positions in English letters, appeared after
1875 (History of English Thought in the
Eighteenth Century, 2 vols., 1876 ; John
son, 1878 ; Pope, 1880 ; Swift, 1882 ; The
English Utilitarians, 3 vols., 1900 ; etc.).
His Science of Ethics was published in
1882. He edited twenty-six volumes of
the Dictionary of National Biography, in
which no less than 378 articles came from
his own pen. He was knighted, and made
a Fellow of the British Academy in 1902.
Stephen was one of the most outspoken of
the prominent literary men of the last
generation. He was a pure Agnostic (from
lack of evidence, not on a priori principles),
and his high culture and deeply respected
personality were a great asset to British
Eationalism. See Professor F. W. Mait-
land s Life and Letters of Leslie Stephen
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