1873. The book constituted him a leader of the agnostic school, and a chief challenger of the popular religion, which he charged with inability to satisfy genuine spiritual needs. But Stephen was not content to dissipate his energy in journalism or periodical writing. His leisure was devoted to an ambitious 'History of English Thought in the Eighteenth Century' (1876, 2 vols.), in which he explained the arguments of the old English deists and the scepticism of Hume. In June 1876 his article called 'An Agnostic's Apology,' in the 'Fortnightly Review,' further revealed his private convictions and went far to familiarise the public with the term 'agnostic,' which had been invented in 1870 by Huxley, but had not yet enjoyed much vogue.
In spite of his unpopular opinions, Stephen's critical powers were generally acknowledged, and although somewhat distant and shy in manner he was an honoured figure in the best intellectual society. He had married in 1867 the younger daughter of Thackeray, and settled with his wife and her sister (now Lady Richmond Ritchie) at 16 Onslow Gardens, South Kensington; thence he moved in 1872 to a newly built residence at 8 Southwell Gardens, and in 1876 to 11 (now 22) Hyde Park Gate, where 'he remained till death. A second visit to America in 1868 (with his wife) greatly extended his American acquaintance and confirmed his sympathies with the country and its people. He there met Emerson, 'a virtuous old saint,' who was never one of his heroes, but Charles Eliot Norton and Oliver Wendell Holmes the younger were, like Lowell, thenceforth reckoned for life among his dearest friends and most faithful correspondents. In England he came to be on affectionate terms with George Meredith, whom he first met by chance at Vienna in 1866 on a holiday tour, and with Mr. John Morley. Carlyle, whom he often visited, equally repelled and attracted him, and he usually felt dazed and speechless in his presence. In 1877 the committee elected Stephen to the Athenæum under Rule II. In 1879 he formed among his literary friends a society of Sunday walkers which he called 'The Tramps'; he remained its 'leader' till 1891, making his last tramp in 1894, when the society dissolved. 'The Tramps,' with Stephen at their head, were from time to time entertained on their Sunday expeditions by Darwin at Down, by Tyndall at Hindhead, and by George Meredith at Box Hill.
Stephen's literary fertility was exceptional, and seemed little affected by the domestic crises of his career, his first wife's sudden death in 1875 and his second marriage in 1878. During 1876-1877 he wrote fourteen articles for the 'Cornhill' and four for the 'Fortnightly.' On 7 Aug. 1877 Mr. John Morley invited him to inaugurate with a volume on Johnson the projected series of monographs called 'English Men of Letters.' The manuscript was delivered on 4 Feb. 1878 and was soon published. It was, Stephen wrote, 'the cause of more compliments than anything he had done before.' The book satisfied the highest requirements of brief literary biography. To the same series Stephen subsequently contributed with little less success memoirs of Pope (1880) and Swift (1882), and towards the close of his life for a new series of 'English Men of Letters' he wrote on 'George Eliot' (1902) and on Hobbes (1904). But again his deepest thought was absorbed by philosophical questions. He had joined in 1878 the Metaphysical Society on the eve of its dissolution, and read two papers at its meetings, but he spoke with impatience of the society's debates. In 1882 he produced his 'Science of Ethics,' in which he summed up, in the light of his study of Mill, Darwin, and Herbert Spencer, his final conclusions on the dominant problems of life.
In the summer of 1881 George Smith broached to Leslie Stephen a project, which he then first contemplated, of a great Dictionary of Biography. The discussion continued through great part of the next year (1882) and ended in the evolution of the plan of this 'Dictionary of National Biography.' Stephen urged that the scheme should be national rather than universal, the scope which was originally suggested. George Smith entrusted Stephen with the editorship, and he entered on its duties in November 1882. At the same time he resigned the editorship of the 'Cornhill,' which had failed pecuniarily of late years, and was succeeded there by his friend, James Payn [q. v. Suppl. I].
Stephen possessed obvious qualifications for the control of George Smith's great literary design. His wide reading, his catholic interests in literary effort, his tolerant spirit, his sanity of judgment, and his sense of fairness, admirably fitted him for the direction of an enterprise in which many conflicting points of view are entitled to find expression. On the other hand, though familiar with the general trend of history, he was not a trained historical student, and was prone to impatience with mere antiquarian research. But he recognised that archaeological details within
