Metaphysical Society
Encyclopedia
The Metaphysical Society was a British society, founded in 1869 by James Knowles
. Many of its members were prominent clergymen.
Papers were read and discussed at meetings on such subjects as the ultimate grounds of belief in the objective and moral sciences, the immortality of the soul, etc. A description of one of the meetings was given by Magee (then Bishop of Peterborough) in a letter of February 13, 1873:
The last meeting of the society was held on May 16, 1880. Huxley said that it died "of too much love"; Tennyson, "because after ten years of strenuous effort no one had succeeded in even defining metaphysics." According to Dean Stanley, "We all meant the same thing if we only knew it."
James Knowles
Sir James Knowles was an English architect and editor.-Life:He was born in London, the son of architect James Thomas Knowles and himself trained in architecture at University College and in Italy...
. Many of its members were prominent clergymen.
Papers were read and discussed at meetings on such subjects as the ultimate grounds of belief in the objective and moral sciences, the immortality of the soul, etc. A description of one of the meetings was given by Magee (then Bishop of Peterborough) in a letter of February 13, 1873:
"Archbishop Manning in the chair was flanked by two Protestant bishops right and left; on my right was Hutton, editor of the Spectator, an Arian; then came Father Dalgairns, a very able Roman Catholic priest; opposite him Lord A. Russell, a Deist; then two ScotchScottish peopleThe Scottish people , or Scots, are a nation and ethnic group native to Scotland. Historically they emerged from an amalgamation of the Picts and Gaels, incorporating neighbouring Britons to the south as well as invading Germanic peoples such as the Anglo-Saxons and the Norse.In modern use,...
metaphysical writers, Freethinkers; then Knowles, the very broad editor of the Contemporary; then, dressed as a layman and looking like a country squire, was Ward, formerly Rev. Ward, and earliest of the perverts to Rome; then Greg, author of The Creed of Christendom, a Deist; then Froude, the historian, once a deacon in our Church, now a Deist; then Roden Noël, an actual Atheist and red republican, and looking very like one! Lastly Ruskin, who read a paper on miracles, which we discussed for an hour and a half! Nothing could be calmer, fairer, or even, on the whole, more reverent than the discussion. In my opinion, we, the Christians, had much the best of it. Dalgairns, the priest, was very masterly; Manning, clever and precise and weighty; Froude, very acute, and so was Greg. We only wanted a Jew and a Muslim to make our Religious Museum complete" (Life, i. 284).
The last meeting of the society was held on May 16, 1880. Huxley said that it died "of too much love"; Tennyson, "because after ten years of strenuous effort no one had succeeded in even defining metaphysics." According to Dean Stanley, "We all meant the same thing if we only knew it."
Members
The members from first to last were as follows:- Dean StanleyArthur Penrhyn StanleyArthur Penrhyn Stanley was an English churchman, Dean of Westminster, known as Dean Stanley. His position was that of a Broad Churchman and he was the author of works on Church History.-Life and times:...
, of Westminster AbbeyWestminster AbbeyThe Collegiate Church of St Peter at Westminster, popularly known as Westminster Abbey, is a large, mainly Gothic church, in the City of Westminster, London, United Kingdom, located just to the west of the Palace of Westminster. It is the traditional place of coronation and burial site for English,... - John Robert SeeleyJohn Robert SeeleySir John Robert Seeley, KCMG was an English essayist and historian.-Life:He was born in London, the son of R.B. Seeley, a publisher. Seeley developed a taste for religious and historical subjects...
, English essayist and historian. - Roden NoëlRoden NoelRoden Berkeley Wriothesley Noel, also known as Noël , was an English poet.The son of Charles Noel, Lord Barham, afterwards 1st Earl of Gainsborough, he was educated at Trinity College, Cambridge, where he obtained his M.A. in 1858. He then spent two years travelling in the East...
, poet - James MartineauJames MartineauJames Martineau was an English religious philosopher influential in the history of Unitarianism. For 45 years he was Professor of Mental and Moral Philosophy and Political Economy in Manchester New College, the principal training college for British Unitarianism.-Early life:He was born in Norwich,...
, English philosopher - William Benjamin CarpenterWilliam Benjamin CarpenterWilliam Benjamin Carpenter MD CB FRS was an English physician, invertebrate zoologist and physiologist. He was instrumental in the early stages of the unified University of London.-Life:...
, physiologist and naturalist - James Hinton, surgeon and author
- Thomas Henry Huxley, Darwinist biologist
- John TyndallJohn TyndallJohn Tyndall FRS was a prominent Irish 19th century physicist. His initial scientific fame arose in the 1850s from his study of diamagnetism. Later he studied thermal radiation, and produced a number of discoveries about processes in the atmosphere...
, physicist - Charles PritchardCharles PritchardCharles Pritchard was a British astronomer.He was born at Alberbury, Shropshire. At sixteen he was enrolled as a sizar at St John's College, Cambridge, graduating in 1830 as fourth wrangler. In 1832 he was elected a fellow of his college, and in the following year he was ordained, and became head...
, astronomer - Richard Holt HuttonRichard Holt HuttonRichard Holt Hutton was an English writer and theologian.The son of Joseph Hutton, Unitarian minister, he was born at Leeds. His family moved to London in 1835, and he was educated at University College School and University College, London, where he began a lifelong friendship with Walter...
, writer and theologian. - William George WardWilliam George WardWilliam George Ward was an English Roman Catholic theologian and mathematician whose career illustrates the development of religious opinion at a time of crisis in the history of English religious thought....
, Catholic theologian - Walter BagehotWalter BagehotWalter Bagehot was an English businessman, essayist, and journalist who wrote extensively about literature, government, and economic affairs.-Early years:...
, economist and editor - James Anthony FroudeJames Anthony FroudeJames Anthony Froude , 23 April 1818–20 October 1894, was an English historian, novelist, biographer, and editor of Fraser's Magazine. From his upbringing amidst the Anglo-Catholic Oxford Movement, Froude intended to become a clergyman, but doubts about the doctrines of the Anglican church,...
, historian - Alfred Tennyson, Poet Laureate
- Alfred BarryAlfred BarryDr. Alfred Barry was the Third Bishop of Sydney, who over the course of his career served as headmaster of several independent schools, Principal of King's College London, and founded several prominent Anglican schools....
- Lord Arthur Russell, British politician
- William Ewart GladstoneWilliam Ewart GladstoneWilliam Ewart Gladstone FRS FSS was a British Liberal statesman. In a career lasting over sixty years, he served as Prime Minister four separate times , more than any other person. Gladstone was also Britain's oldest Prime Minister, 84 years old when he resigned for the last time...
, LiberalLiberal Party (UK)The Liberal Party was one of the two major political parties of the United Kingdom during the 19th and early 20th centuries. It was a third party of negligible importance throughout the latter half of the 20th Century, before merging with the Social Democratic Party in 1988 to form the present day...
Prime MinisterPrime Minister of the United KingdomThe Prime Minister of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is the Head of Her Majesty's Government in the United Kingdom. The Prime Minister and Cabinet are collectively accountable for their policies and actions to the Sovereign, to Parliament, to their political party and... - Henry Edward Manning, Archbishop and Cardinal
- James KnowlesJames KnowlesSir James Knowles was an English architect and editor.-Life:He was born in London, the son of architect James Thomas Knowles and himself trained in architecture at University College and in Italy...
, architect and editor - John Lubbock, 1st Baron AveburyJohn Lubbock, 1st Baron AveburyJohn Lubbock, 1st Baron Avebury PC , FRS , known as Sir John Lubbock, 4th Baronet from 1865 until 1900, was a polymath and Liberal Member of Parliament....
- Henry AlfordHenry AlfordHenry Alford was an English churchman, theologian, textual critic, scholar, poet, hymnodist, and writer.-Life:...
, churchman, scholar, and poet - Alexander GrantAlexander GrantAlexander Grant was a Royal Navy officer, businessman, and politician in Upper Canada. During his service with the Royal Navy Grant saw action in the Seven Years' War before becoming a naval superintendent. He then embarked on a career in the ship building industry before losing much of his wealth...
- Connop ThirlwallConnop ThirlwallConnop Thirlwall was an English bishop and historian.-Early life:Thirlwall was born at Stepney, London, of a Northumbrian family. He was a prodigy, learning Latin at three, Greek at four, and writing sermons at seven.He went to Charterhouse School, where George Grote and Julius Hare were among...
- Frederic HarrisonFrederic HarrisonFrederic Harrison was a British jurist and historian.Born at 17 Euston Square, London, he was the son of Frederick Harrison, a stockbroker and his wife Jane, daughter of Alexander Brice, a Belfast granite merchant. He was baptised at St...
- Father DalgairnsJohn Dobree DalgairnsJohn Dobree Dalgairns , English Roman Catholic priest, was born in Guernsey.He attended Elizabeth College, Guernsey, from where he was awarded an Open Scholarship to Exeter College, Oxford....
- Sir George GroveGeorge GroveSir George Grove, CB was an English writer on music, known as the founding editor of Grove's Dictionary of Music and Musicians....
- Shadworth HodgsonShadworth HodgsonShadworth Hollway Hodgson was an English philosopher.He worked independently, without academic affiliation. He was acknowledged by William James as a forerunner of Pragmatism, although he viewed his work as a completion of Kant's project...
- Henry SidgwickHenry SidgwickHenry Sidgwick was an English utilitarian philosopher and economist. He was one of the founders and first president of the Society for Psychical Research, a member of the Metaphysical Society, and promoted the higher education of women...
- Edmund Lushington
- Bishop Charles EllicottCharles EllicottCharles John Ellicott was a distinguished English Christian theologian, academic and churchman. He briefly served as Dean of Exeter, then Bishop of the sees of Gloucester and Bristol.-Early life and family:...
- Mark PattisonMark PattisonMark Pattison was an English author and a Church of England priest. He served as Rector of Lincoln College, Oxford.-Life:...
- George Campbell, 8th Duke of ArgyllGeorge Campbell, 8th Duke of ArgyllGeorge John Douglas Campbell, 8th Duke of Argyll KG, KT, PC, FRS, FRSE , styled Marquess of Lorne until 1847, was a Scottish peer, Liberal politician as well as a writer on science, religion, and the politics of the 19th century.-Background:Argyll was born at Ardencaple Castle, Dunbartonshire, the...
- John RuskinJohn RuskinJohn Ruskin was the leading English art critic of the Victorian era, also an art patron, draughtsman, watercolourist, a prominent social thinker and philanthropist. He wrote on subjects ranging from geology to architecture, myth to ornithology, literature to education, and botany to political...
- Robert Lowe, 1st Viscount SherbrookeRobert Lowe, 1st Viscount SherbrookeRobert Lowe, 1st Viscount Sherbrooke PC , British and Australian statesman, was a pivotal but often forgotten figure who shaped British politics in the latter half of the 19th century. He held office under William Ewart Gladstone as Chancellor of the Exchequer between 1868 and 1873 and as Home...
- Sir Mountstuart Elphinstone Grant-Duff
- William Rathbone GregWilliam Rathbone GregWilliam Rathbone Greg was an English essayist.Born in Manchester, the son of Samuel Greg, the creator of Quarry Bank Mill, he was brother to Robert Hyde Greg and the junior Samuel Greg. He was educated at the University of Edinburgh. For a time, he managed a mill of his father's at Bury, and in...
- Alexander Campbell FraserAlexander Campbell FraserAlexander Campbell Fraser was a Scottish philosopher.Born at Ardchattan, Argyll, the son of the parish minister, he was educated at the universities of Glasgow and Edinburgh, where, from 1846 to 1856, he was professor of Logic at New College...
- Henry Acland
- John Frederick Denison Maurice
- Archbishop ThomsonWilliam Thomson (archbishop)William Thomson was an English church leader, Archbishop of York from 1862 until his death.He was born at Whitehaven, Cumberland, and educated at Shrewsbury School and at The Queen's College, Oxford, of which he became a scholar. He took his B.A. degree in 1840, and was soon afterwards made fellow...
- Thomas Mozely
- Richard William ChurchRichard William ChurchRichard William Church was an English churchman and writer. He was son of Christopher Church, brother of Sir Richard Church, a merchant, was born in Newport, his early years being mostly spent in Bulwark, part of Chepstow, Monmouthshire...
- William Connor MageeWilliam Connor MageeWilliam Connor Magee was an Irish clergyman of the Anglican church, Archbishop of York for a short period in 1891.-Life:...
- George Croom RobertsonGeorge Croom RobertsonGeorge Croom Robertson was a Scottish philosopher.He was born in Aberdeen. In 1857 he gained a bursary at Marischal College, and graduated MA in 1861, with the highest honours in classics and philosophy. In the same year he won a Fergusson scholarship of £100 a year for two years, which enabled...
- James Fitzjames StephenJames Fitzjames StephenSir James Fitzjames Stephen, 1st Baronet was an English lawyer, judge and writer. He was created 1st Baronet Stephen by Queen Victoria.-Early life:...
- James Joseph SylvesterJames Joseph SylvesterJames Joseph Sylvester was an English mathematician. He made fundamental contributions to matrix theory, invariant theory, number theory, partition theory and combinatorics...
- John Charles BucknillJohn Charles BucknillSir John Charles Bucknill FRS English mental health reformer. Father of judge Sir Thomas Townsend Bucknill QC MP.-Biography:Bucknill was born in Market Bosworth, Leicestershire, and educated at Rugby School and at University College, London...
- Andrew ClarkAndrew ClarkSir Andrew Clark, 1st Baronet , was a Scottish physician and pathologistHe was born in Aberdeen, the illegitimate son of Amelia Anderson and Andrew Clark. His father, who also was a physician, died when he was only a few years old...
- William Kingdon CliffordWilliam Kingdon CliffordWilliam Kingdon Clifford FRS was an English mathematician and philosopher. Building on the work of Hermann Grassmann, he introduced what is now termed geometric algebra, a special case of the Clifford algebra named in his honour, with interesting applications in contemporary mathematical physics...
- St George MivartGeorge Jackson MivartSt. George Jackson Mivart PhD M.D. FRS was an English biologist. He is famous for starting as an ardent believer in natural selection who later became one of its fiercest critics. Trying to reconcile Darwin's theory of evolution with the beliefs of the Catholic Church, he ended up being condemned...
- Matthew BoultonMatthew BoultonMatthew Boulton, FRS was an English manufacturer and business partner of Scottish engineer James Watt. In the final quarter of the 18th century the partnership installed hundreds of Boulton & Watt steam engines, which were a great advance on the state of the art, making possible the...
- William Waldegrave Palmer, 2nd Earl of Selborne
- John Morley
- Leslie StephenLeslie StephenSir Leslie Stephen, KCB was an English author, critic and mountaineer, and the father of Virginia Woolf and Vanessa Bell.-Life:...
- Frederick Pollock
- Francis Aidan Gasquet
- C Barnes Upton
- William Withey Gull
- Robert Clarke
- Arthur James Balfour
- James SullyJames SullyJames Sully was an English psychologist.He was born at Bridgwater, and was educated at the Independent College, Taunton, the Regent's Park College, University of Göttingen, where he studied under Lotze, and at Humboldt University, Berlin where he studied under DuBois-Reymond and Helmholtz...
- Alfred Barratt