Constance Naden: 
 
 A Memoir: 
 
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Cornell University Library 
 PR5102.N18Z7 
 
 Constance Naden, a memoir; 
 
 3 1924 013 529 213 
 
Cornell University 
 Library 
 
 The original of tliis book is in 
 tlie Cornell University Library. 
 
 There are no known copyright restrictions in 
 the United States on the use of the text. 
 
 http://www.archive.org/details/cu31 92401 352921 3 
 
WORKS BY MISS NADEN. 
 
 "SONGS AND SONNETS OF SPRINGTIME." 
 
 Small Crown 8v0y Js. 
 
 "A MODERN APOSTLE ; THE ELIXIR 
 
 OF LIFE ; THE STORY OF CLARICE ; 
 
 And other Poems.'' 
 
 Small Crown Svo., ^s. 
 
 "INDUCTION AND DEDUCTION: 
 
 A Historical and Critical Sketch of 
 SUCCESSIVE PHILOSOPHICAI. CONCEPTIONS re- 
 specting the RELATIONS between Inductive 
 AND Deductive Thought, and other 
 Essays." 
 
 Royal Svo, ys. 6d. 
 
CONSTANCE NADEN 
 
 A MEMOIR. 
 
 lo TE SOPRA TE CORONA E MITRIO.'' 
 
 Dante, Del Purgatorio, Canto xxvii., last line. 
 
c/Ia-^^I^ />Oo 
 
CONSTANCE NADEN 
 
 A MEMOIR. 
 
 BY 
 
 WILLIAM R. HUGHES, F.L.S., 
 
 LATK PRESIDENT OF THE BIRMINGHAM NATURAL HISTORY AND MICROSCOPICAL 
 SOCIETY. 
 
 WITH AN INTRODUCTION 
 BY 
 
 PROFESSOR LAP WORTH, LL.D., F.R.S. 
 
 AND ADDITIONS 
 
 BY 
 
 PROFESSOR TILDEN, D.Sc, F.R.S., 
 
 ANI> 
 
 ROBERT LEW INS. M.D., 
 
 ARMY MEOICAI, DEPARTMENT. 
 
 BICKERS & SON. 
 
 ^iriuinglmm : 
 
 CORNISH BROTHERS. 
 1890. 
 
(\ . ■K'o'? W^l^ 
 
 Es gluhte ikre Wange roth und rother 
 
 Von jener Jiigend die uns nie verfliegt, 
 
 Von jenem Miith, der friiher oder spater 
 
 Den Widerstand der stumpfen Welt besiegt; 
 
 Von jenem Glauben, der sich stets erhoh'ter, 
 
 Bald kiihn hervor drangt, bald geduldig schmiegt, 
 
 Damit das Gute wirke, wackse, fromme ! 
 
 Daviit der Ta^ des Edlen endlich koninie. — Goethe. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 PAGE. 
 
 Introduction . . Professor Lapworth xi. 
 
 Memoir, Part I. . . W. R. Hughes 3 
 
 „ II. .. „ 41 
 
 Additions . . . . Professor Tilden 67 
 
 ,, . . .. Dr. Lewins 71 
 
 Appendix — Lettek from Mr. Herbert 
 
 Spencer to Du. Lewins .. .. .. 89 
 
PKINTKD BY WHIGHT, UAIN, PEYTON, AND CO., 
 
 AT THE HEIiflLD PRESS, BIRMINGHAM. 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 The ground-work of this volume is a 
 reprint of three articles which appeared in the 
 pages of the Midland Naturalist during the 
 months of April, May, and June, 1890. The 
 larger section (Parts I. and II.) has been con- 
 tributed by Mr. W. R. Hughes, F.L.S., a friend 
 and admirer of Miss Naden, and one who was 
 intimately associated with her during the last six 
 years of her life, in a Society which has for 
 its object the study and promulgation of Mr. 
 Herbert Spencer's system of Synthetic Philo- 
 sophy. 
 
 In his memoir Mr. Hughes endeavours to 
 give a general view of the life of Miss Naden 
 from her earliest years, and many of the links 
 which go to make up the complete chain of 
 facts were obtained by him from her personal 
 friends and associates. In the present reprint 
 the memoir has been greatly amplified, and 
 several paragraphs — in consequence of additional 
 information — have been introduced, and others 
 partly rewritten. 
 
XU. INTRODUCTION. 
 
 The remaining section (Parts III. and IV.) 
 has not been materially altered. Part III. was 
 contributed by one of Miss Naden's friends and 
 teachers, my colleague, Professor W. A. Tilden, 
 F.R.S. Part IV. is the work of Dr. Robert 
 Lewins, Miss Naden's life-long friend and philo- 
 sophical mentor, to whose loving and generous 
 regard for the memory of his former friend and 
 pupil the public owe the publication of Miss 
 Naden's posthumous works, and the Mason 
 College the institution of the Constance Naden 
 Medal, and the gift of a marble bust for its 
 Library. 
 
 As no other memoir is likely to appear — 
 at all events in a separate form — it is thought 
 that the friends and admirers of Miss Naden 
 would like to possess this little souvenir. 
 
 My own share in the symposium has been 
 confined to penning these few lines of intro- 
 duction ; my friend. Dr. Lewins, having asked 
 me to preface this little work with some words 
 of my own. 
 
 I fulfil his kindly request with some 
 reluctance and no little pain. Miss Constance 
 Naden was, of all my geological pupils, from the 
 first not so much a student, as an interested 
 and sympathetic fellow-worker, and in her early 
 death I have lost one of the best and dearest 
 of my personal friends. I was acquainted with 
 
INTRODUCTION. Xlll. 
 
 her some time before she joined my department 
 in 1884, but it was during her attendance at my 
 classes — from 1884 to 1887 — that I slowly grew 
 to recognise what a rich and well-balanced mind 
 my pupil possessed. Thrown repeatedly together 
 as we were in class, in the laboratory, and in 
 frequent excursions, I learnt perhaps as much 
 from her as she gained from me, and felt con- 
 stantly that intellectual stimulus which always 
 arises from association with the highest minds. 
 
 In her geological work Miss Naden shunned 
 none of the so-called drier details, but went as 
 earnestly, as steadily, and as carefully through 
 them all as the student whose future wholly 
 depends upon his accurate knowledge. But while 
 she grasped and easily retained the facts of geo- 
 logy, I soon recognised that it was in reality the 
 principles and the far-reaching conclusions of the 
 science which attracted her — the awful immensity 
 of past time — the slow but irresistible effects of 
 natural causes — the gradual evolution of the 
 geography of the globe — the upward sweep and 
 elaboration of organic forms. In the quiet 
 marshalling of hard facts and in rigid inference 
 therefrom, she seemed to be in her natural 
 element. There was never any need to point 
 out to her a deduction : she made it in her 
 own mind directly the premises were stated. 
 Between the settled and the unsettled — the 
 
XIV. INTRODUCTION. 
 
 established and the disputed — regions in our 
 science, she at once made instinctive separation. 
 At the same time her sympathetic nature gave 
 her a deep interest in those ambiguous and 
 doubtful points where knowledge is small and 
 authority great, points which exasperate and 
 worry the ordinary student anxious to get on. 
 In the past history and struggles of the science 
 she was especially interested, and before her 
 studies in geology came to an end, the science 
 could claim her, if not as a devotee, yet certainly 
 as one who knew and understood its facts and 
 its principles, and had a deep and hearty sym- 
 pathy with its methods and its conclusions. 
 
 But it was always perfectly clear to my mind 
 that Miss Naden studied geology mainly as a 
 source of actual knowledge, and as a means of 
 mental culture. I never expected that she 
 would become an original worker. But poet and 
 philosopher as she was, the science was more or 
 less a necessity to her. It gave her that infinitude 
 of past time, in which she could trace for herself 
 the numberless relationships which bind man to 
 the earth and to his fellow-creatures, organic and 
 inorganic ; and it spread out before her mind's 
 eye that limitless theatre of evolution, in which 
 she could watch for herself the forging of the 
 great chain of life, of which man is the final and 
 the crowning link. 
 
INTRODUCTION. XV. 
 
 For I take it, distinctly, that Miss Naden's 
 study of geology, as that of other sciences, was 
 only as a means to an end. She was above all 
 things a student of man and of mind. But she 
 wished to know all that was known, not that 
 which was asserted or believed : to get down to 
 the solid facts themselves, and to draw her own 
 conclusions for herself alone. Her love of a fact, 
 her horror of an opinion, was a bye-word 
 amongst us. The old question — Man, whence 
 and whither? — had for her the old irresistible 
 fascination, and she came to science and not to 
 authority for the answer. Whether that be the 
 wrong or the right path, let others decide ; but 
 one thing was always clear — her love of absolute 
 truth, of uprightness of mind, of goodness of 
 heart, and of all that makes for nobleness of soul, 
 was as natural to her as the air she breathed. 
 
 Her studies never seemed to be in any sense 
 laborious to her. She enjoyed her work, and 
 found it interesting and natural, and therefore 
 easy. In fact, I used frequently to tell her that 
 she never studied at all, in the accepted sense of 
 the word, and I doubt if — while I knew her — 
 she ever did. She listened, she read, she 
 selected, and she assimilated ; and the new 
 ideas, the novel views, grew to be her own. 
 In this way the range of her knowledge, the 
 breadth of her views, and the originality of her 
 
XVI. INTRODUCTION. 
 
 conceptions, gave a freshness, and an unexpected- 
 ness to her conversation, that endowed it with a 
 curious fascination. To the listener unfamiliar 
 with her training, her knowledge seemed to be, 
 what it really had become, a part of herself: as 
 in the case of her own Clarice, 
 
 "As though what others con with aching head 
 This maiden knew by right inherited.'' 
 
 Scientific as was the bent of Miss Naden's 
 mind, and absorbed as she always was, more or 
 less, in scientific and literary work, there was 
 nothing of the sexless " blue stocking " about 
 her. She was always womanly, with many of 
 the instinctive proclivities, and all the tender 
 sympathies of her sex. Keen to see the foibles 
 and peculiarities of her associates, she had an 
 arch and quiet mode of ridiculing them in 
 confidential moments, which was exceedingly 
 comical and captivating. It was never malicious, 
 but filled with the pure girlish spirit of fun and 
 playfulness. Into the loves and sorrows of her 
 own personal friends she entered with the deepest 
 ardour, and it was a standing joke between her 
 and my wife, that, of all women, Constance 
 Naden was the most romantic. 
 
 Her love of art was almost as great as her 
 love of poetry ; and her knowledge of the great 
 painters and their individualities, deep and 
 thorough. A walk with her through a good 
 
INTRODUCTION. XVll. 
 
 picture gallery was delightful. But it was more 
 in the direction of form than of color that her 
 sympathies tended. Sculpture, perhaps, even 
 more than painting, attracted her fancy. 
 
 Of music she knew little or nothing. She 
 often told me that neither melody nor harmony 
 had the slightest power to move her, and that 
 she recognised no distinction worth mentioning 
 between the mental effects of the discordant 
 strains of a German band and Hallo's masterly 
 interpretation of one of the sonatas of Beethoven. 
 But the innate appreciation of those delicate 
 gradations of tone, of colour, of form and feeling, 
 proper to the gifted musician, was just as 
 unquestionably hers ; though shown in a some- 
 what different direction. No one could listen to 
 her conversation without frankly acknowledging 
 the fact. And it was equally apparent in her 
 exquisite appreciation of the delicacies of 
 literary form and style, as evidenced in her own 
 literary work — her papers and her poems. 
 
 But excellent as is Miss Naden's poetry, 
 I doubt greatly whether she ever regarded 
 poetry as the serious business of her life. It 
 may be that she misunderstood her vocation, 
 and that had she lived she would have stood in 
 the first rank of our British poets. But with all 
 her love for poetry, as being the noblest form 
 of literature, and the highest medium for the 
 
XVUl. INTRODUCTION. 
 
 expression of the emotions ; iier natural clear- 
 sightedness, and the scientific set of her mind, 
 intensified as they were by her later training, 
 led her, I suspect, to accord to it a secondary 
 place in her regard, because of its natural 
 tendency to substitute phrases for things, the 
 fascination of beauty for the dignity of truth. 
 Certainly, for many years past, her great aim 
 was to become, not a poet, but a student in 
 philosophy, a teacher of ethics. Poetry had 
 gradually become to her more or less a 
 recreation. " Clarice," she told me, was written 
 during her convalescence, after a sharp attack 
 of illness, in 1886, and other poems in similar 
 hours of enforced leisure, when real work, as she 
 termed it, was irhpossible. Had she lived, it 
 would have been in the direction of philosophical 
 research — of the evolution of mind — that she 
 hoped to make her mark. All her self-training 
 was directed instinctively to this end. It was to 
 her mind the goal of the sciences, the lodestar 
 of poetry. How much philosophy and literature 
 have lost in her early death we now can never 
 know. 
 
 She was, I think, at her best, in a quiet 
 evening spent in the society of her intimate and 
 sympathetic friends. My wife and myself have 
 vivid recollections of her on many such occasions. 
 Leaning in her chair, with her fine head thrown 
 
INTRODUCTION. XIX. 
 
 back in a characteristic attitude, she joined in 
 the give and take of the conversation with quiet 
 but deep enthusiasm. Never monopolizing the 
 talk, she generally took, however, the largest 
 share. She wandered on easily from grave to 
 gay, from serious to sentimental : now discussing 
 the latest scientific discovery — now reciting some 
 fine passage from the poets — now deep in some 
 philosophical theory — now laughing over the 
 comical idiosyncrasies of some great authority — 
 now telling, with sweet sympathy and dewy eyes, 
 of the loves and sorrows of her friends. Poet, 
 student, philosopher as she was, she was ever a 
 true and tender-hearted woman ; and those who 
 knew her best, only know how staunch, how 
 dear a friend they have lost in Constance 
 Woodhill Naden. 
 
 That the originality implied in the poems 
 and scientific papers of iVIiss Naden, the work 
 needed for that self-culture which was incessant, 
 and the stress of self-repression that grew more 
 or less habitual with her, should all entail a 
 constant strain, too great for mind and body to 
 bear without danger, is certainly probable. But 
 that she was fully aware of the existence of such 
 a strain herself, I doubt very much. She was 
 distinctly an enthusiast in all she did, but she 
 gave one the impression of being a quiet 
 enthusiast, holding herself in easy and complete 
 
XX. INTRODUCTION. 
 
 control. I never saw her look wearied or 
 exhausted during the whole of her College 
 career. She always seemed to work, as I have 
 said, far less than other students, and yet to 
 accomplish more, and to be always ready and 
 fresh for some intellectual novelty, How much 
 of this was real, and how much due to her 
 instinctive habit of self-repression, it is impossible 
 to say. 
 
 But the change after her return from India 
 was great. She left us in youthful health and 
 strength. She returned a confirmed invalid. 
 
 Mr. Spencer, in his kindly and appreciative 
 letter, printed in the Appendix, suggests, indeed, 
 that Miss Naden's remarkable mental powers 
 " were developed at a physiological cost, which 
 her feminine organization was unable to bear." 
 It may be so. But she gave no evidence of this 
 while she was at College, nor do I imagine that 
 she would herself have acknowledged that this 
 was the case, even at the last. A few weeks 
 before her death she spent some hours with me 
 among the Natural History Collections and in 
 the Art Galleries of South Kensington. Bright 
 and sparkling as ever — keenly interested in all 
 the old work and the new opinions — her 
 enthusiastic and powerful mind over-mastered 
 her weakly frame, and to a stranger she must 
 have appeared refreshingly young and blooming 
 
INTRODUCTION. XXI. 
 
 beside those pale, spectacle-eyed enthusiasts who 
 occasionally wander through these neglected 
 shades. It was the last time I saw her. Less 
 than a month later that eager soul was stilled 
 in death, the exhausted frame resting for ever 
 
 " In utter silence and in perfect peace.'' 
 
 Chas. Lapworth. 
 
MEMOIR. 
 
• Not less swift souls that yearn for light, 
 Rapt after Heaven's starry flight, 
 Would sweep the tracts of day and night." 
 
 The Two Voices, Tennyson. 
 
 Miss Naden is dead ! Such were the sorrowful 
 words spoken with bated breath, and sympathetically 
 passed on by the circle of intimate friends who received 
 them about mid-day on Tuesday, the 24th of December, 
 i88g, with a feeling akin to that hoping against hope 
 which mortals are prone to cling to, peradventure they 
 might by any possibility be afterwards contradicted. 
 Alas ! they were but too true, for their verification 
 appeared in the evening journals, 
 
 " And sadly fell our Christmas-eve," 
 
 as we realised the full force of the sudden and un- 
 expected blow that had deprived the world of a fine 
 and original thinker, Birmingham of its most gifted 
 daughter, progressive Science of a most distinguished 
 worker, and the writer of these lines of a warmly 
 attached friend. 
 
 It is an exceptionally rare privilege to record the 
 higher intellectual, and especially the philosophical, 
 achievements of women, although our present 
 
 B 
 
4 PRELIMINARY. 
 
 educational system — in wliich, thanks largely to the 
 influence of Mr. Herbert Spencer's world-renowned 
 work on education, and to the persistent and devoted 
 labours of Professor Huxley, science has now a place — 
 will doubtless develop more numerous instances in the 
 future ; but those who were privileged to know and 
 understand Constance Naden and her aims and 
 writings and powers best, presaged for her a future 
 equal to George Eliot herself. A comparison, how- 
 ever, between the two Warwickshire ladies is scarcely 
 possible — the latter died at the matured age of sixty- 
 one, having completed her work — the former at the 
 early age of thirty-one, having scarcely begun it. Miss 
 Naden had certainly the advantage of a much better 
 education, as well as a juniority of thirty years, which 
 count largely on the raised plane of intellectual 
 thought ; and she gave substantial evidence in the 
 good work which she left behind her of even better 
 that might have been forthcoming in the future. 
 The late Mr. Bray, of Coventry, who knew both 
 ladies, was an immense admirer of Miss Naden. 
 He considered her genius quite equal to that of 
 George Eliot, and he told a mutual friend that he 
 regularly read her " Pantheist's Song of Immortality " 
 as his Sunday morning's Psalm. One point is very 
 interesting to record : — the early Evangelical training 
 of both ladies was somewhat similar, and they both 
 subsequently exchanged the old for the new stand- 
 point. 
 
 The cause of evolution has suffered severely by 
 her premature dissolution, for she brought to bear on 
 
PRELIMINARY. 5 
 
 its promulgation, not only a woman's sympathy and 
 a poet's instinct, but also a philosopher's acumen. 
 And now, indeed just at the commencement of her 
 literary career, and enriched as she was with the rare 
 combinations of genius, will, leisure, and ample means, 
 one of its ablest and most devoted exponents is 
 abruptly silenced for ever I 
 
 It is impossible within the brief limits of space 
 of this con amore, but otherwise inadequate memoir, to 
 do full justice to the merits of such a many-sided and 
 beautiful character. It is also not too much to say 
 that no woman of the century, or indeed of any 
 century, was better educated than Miss Naden — and 
 to prevent misconception I use the word educated in 
 the largest sense, as defined by Mr. Herbert Spencer 
 — and as will hereafter be shown from her versatility 
 of genius and talent, with a mind corrected and enlarged 
 by travel, no woman at her age ever gave such 
 abundant promise of brilliant and successful fruition. 
 
 The writer's experience of his lost and highly 
 valued friend only extended from the spring of 1884, 
 during the time of her later studentship at the Mason 
 College, and subsequently until the end came in 1889 ; 
 but a few details of her early school life — and later 
 student life — have been supplied from several trust- 
 worthy sources ; and such particulars relating to her 
 collegiate career, from a professorial point of view, as 
 are of public interest, have been most kindly and 
 sympathetically written by Professor Tilden, D.Sc, 
 F.R.S., Professor of Chemistry at the college, who was 
 one of her teachers. Dr. Lewins has also contributed 
 
BIRTH : DEATH OF MOTHER. 
 
 a very valuable chapter containing an exposition of her 
 hylo-idealistic standpoint as a supplement to this 
 memoir. 
 
 Constance Caroline Woodhill Naden was born at 
 No. 15, Francis Road (formerly Francis Street), 
 Edgbaston, the West-End suburb of Birmingham, 
 January 24th, 1858, and was the only child of 
 Mr. Thomas Naden, the present President of the Bir- 
 mingham Architectural Association, and Caroline Anne, 
 only daughter by his second wife (Miss Field) of Mr. 
 J. C. Woodhill, Pakenham House, Charlotte Road, 
 Edgbaston. Mrs. Naden died on the sth of February 
 following, and it is touchingly recorded that when the 
 final parting came between her mother and the young 
 wife, the latter said, " You will have baby ! " That 
 sacred trust was at once acknowledged and faithfully 
 kept, for the little infant was taken and adopted by the 
 grand-parents (Mr. and Mrs. Woodhill) when only 
 twelve days old, and with them she lived until their 
 decease, and for both ever entertained the most 
 loving and devoted affection. Mr. Naden, on the 
 death of his wife, left Francis Street, and also resided 
 at Pakenham House for some considerable time. 
 Twenty-three years afterwards Miss Naden's first 
 volume of poems. Songs and Sonnets of Springtime, 
 was dedicated in a sonnet to her grand-parents : 
 and it may be doubted if the English language 
 contains a much more beautiful or tender memorial 
 of filial gratitude. 
 
 It was a happy home at Pakenham House. 
 "Little Consie," the pet child-name by which she was 
 
MEMORY : VERACITY. 7 
 
 endearingly called in early days, was perfectly idolised 
 by the grand-parents, who religiously kept every scrap 
 of her writing and drawing, but they never spoiled 
 her. Doubtless, as has been pointed out, partly in con- 
 sequence of living this retired life with elderly people, 
 she grew up, in the words of her cousin. Miss 
 Woodhill, "a quaint, retiring, meditative, and silent 
 child." Nothing remarkable is remembered of her 
 uneventful childhood, except her extremely retentive 
 memory and her absolute veracity. A writer in a 
 local publication truly says: — "So intense was her love 
 of truth that deception or prevarication were simply 
 impossible to her." She was baptized in St. Mary's 
 Church, Birmingham, but while she resided with her 
 grand-parents she attended — as I am informed by a 
 relative — the Wycliff, Mount Zion, and Church of the 
 Redeemer Baptist places of worship. The future 
 genius was first taught to read by her grandmother, 
 a lady of refined culture, and of a generous nature — who 
 many years afterwards endowed a bed at the Jaffray 
 Convalescent Hospital at a cost of _;^i,2oo, the cheque 
 for which Miss Naden presented to H.R.H. the Prince 
 of Wales on the occasion of the opening of that valuable 
 institution in 1885 — the method adopted being that of a 
 little book called "Reading without Tears," where she 
 learned the words at sight without first learning her 
 letters. The method commends itself as being in 
 harmony with that procedure, "from the simple to the 
 complex," laid down by Mr. Herbert Spencer in his 
 Education, as illustrated by "the modern course of 
 placing grammar, not before language, but after it." 
 
a CHILDHOOD. 
 
 Her old nurse and foster-mother (Mrs. Pratt), 
 whom she did not fail to remember in her will, affec- 
 tionately treasures (and recently exhibited to me with 
 natural pride) a series of seven photographs taken at 
 various periods during the life of her "dear lamented 
 darling," from that of a lovely baby in arms of twelve 
 months until the age of thirty-one years, which show 
 most interestingly the evolution of the features from 
 the earliest commencement up to the highly intel- 
 lectual face brought out by the well-known Whitlock 
 portrait, taken in 1887, which has been beautifully 
 engraved by Mr. G. J. Stodart, and a copy of which 
 forms the frontispiece to this memoir. The friends 
 and admirers of Miss Naden owe a debt of gratitude 
 to Dr. R. W. Dale, who advised Mr. Whitlock to 
 ask her to sit before her Indian journey, and this 
 life-like photograph was the result. The signature 
 and holograph are facsimiles from the last letter which 
 she wrote to me, October 23rd, 1889. 
 
 Miss Maude Michell, of Elvetham Road, Edg- 
 baston, a beloved friend from her earliest years, until 
 the close of life, has been so kind as to supply me with 
 many interesting particulars. She writes: — "In refer- 
 ence to Miss Naden's childhood, may I suggest 
 that her poem, 'Six Years Old,' is almost literally 
 autobiographical. It cannot have been long after this 
 time that the solitary child was joined by a companion, 
 who, though three years younger than herself, distinctly 
 remembers the wall of imaginary antiquity ! the lime 
 tree, whose boughs and twigs were converted into bows 
 and arrows ; and the 'talks' with the trees, birds, and 
 
EAULY YEARS : EDUCATION. 9 
 
 butterflies, out of which grew questionings as to 
 'How?' and 'Why?' these were; what was our relation 
 to them, and theirs to us; questionings to the solution 
 of which the elder of the two devoted her life. In 
 looking back to the last meeting of these friends, on 
 October 26th, 1889, it seems almost prophetic that 
 she dwelt specially upon the beauty of Rossetti's 
 poem, 'Sea Limits,' feeling — but only for the time — 
 as if life was still shrouded in 'The same desire 
 and Mystery' that had baffled the questionings of 
 childhood." 
 
 When eight years old she was sent to a small 
 private day school in Frederick Road, Edgbaston, 
 kept by the Misses Martin, two Unitarian ladies of 
 considerable culture, with whom she remained until 
 the age of sixteen or seventeen years, about which 
 period her intellect began to make rapid progress. 
 
 Mrs. F. T. S. Houghton, of The Woodlands, 
 Stanmore Road, Edgbaston, another life-long and dear 
 friend, a schoolfellow, and subsequent fellow-student at 
 the Mason College, to whom I am greatly indebted, thus 
 writes to me of these early days: — "The teaching was 
 thorough as far as it went, but entirely lacking in 
 incentives to mental effort. There were no examina- 
 tions and little competition, so that, although in 
 many subjects Miss Naden enjoyed the distinction of 
 a class to herself, her schoolfellows scarcely realised 
 that there was anything remarkable about the quiet, 
 unassuming girl, who never paraded her talents, and 
 entered with simple enjoyment into all school games 
 and interests. Much time and enthusiasm were given 
 
lO FLOWER-PAINTING, ETC. 
 
 in the school to flower-painting, and Miss Naden's 
 first laurels were won in this art, her patient brush 
 producing the most wonderfully delicate and accurate 
 studies of flowers from the life — [one of these 
 studies, a convolvulus, is lovingly preserved by Miss 
 Dodd, of The Briars, Hagley Road, Edgbaston, 
 another old friend of early days ; and an examination of 
 the specimen, which was courteously allowed me, and 
 a second specimen, consisting of a group of pansies, 
 since kindly presented to me by her cousin. Miss 
 Woodhill, amply confirm the truth of the above 
 description] — studies which show little of the freedom 
 and vigour which characterise her treatment of 
 intellectual subjects in later life, but which clearly 
 indicate unusual powers of observation, and an infinite 
 capacity for taking pains. 
 
 "At one time circumstances threw Miss Naden 
 much into the society of girls younger than herself, 
 and to them she proved a singularly delightful and 
 sympathetic companion. She possessed the fascinat- 
 ing gift of a Princess Scheherazade, or an Andrew 
 Lang, and used day after day to beguile the tedium 
 of the walk to school with marvellous fairy tales, in 
 which fun and fancy, beautiful imaginations, and 
 grotesque impossibilities were skilfully intermingled, 
 and the most delicate consideration shown for youth- 
 ful tastes and prejudices. For example, her good 
 fairies were invariably lavish of chocolate!" 
 
 Miss Maude Michell also writes : — " It is interest- 
 ing to fill in still further the outline of 'the few years 
 after leaving school.' At first, general reading and 
 
TRAINING IN SCIENCE. II 
 
 flower-painting occupied almost her whole time. A 
 picture was accepted by the Birmingham Society of 
 Artists; the following year two, without any apparent 
 cause, were rejected. This was a slight disappoint- 
 ment, but it was the means of directing her thoughts 
 into other channels. French, German, Latin, and 
 Greek were studied in turn, and in 1879, her training 
 in science began." 
 
 Among the many books which Miss Naden read 
 in her early years, those relating to Mysticism had 
 a great attraction for her, especially the writings of 
 James Hinton and the Rev. R. A. Vaughan. The 
 " Hours with the Mystics," of the last-mentioned, was 
 always an immense favourite with her, and as its 
 talented author resided in Birmingham for some time, 
 it may not be inappropriate to introduce the following 
 notice of him, which has been kindly contributed by 
 my friend, Mr. E. W. Badger, F.R.H.S., and which 
 has something more than local interest: — "The Rev. 
 Robert Alfred Vaughan, B.A., was a Congregational 
 minister in Birmingham, and resided in Calthorpe Road 
 Edgbaston, a short distance from the Five Ways, on 
 the left hand side going towards Edgbaston Old 
 Church. He was a very noticeable man, and his 
 sermons, which were remarkable in many way.s, 
 attracted numbers of the most intellectual people in 
 Birmingham to Ebenezer Chapel, in Steelhouse Lane, 
 during the time he was minister there, viz., from 1850 
 to 1855. Two years later he died at the early age 
 of thirty-four. He had a handsome and picturesque 
 presence, and in the pulpit often had a seraphic 
 
12 "HOURS WITH THE MYSTICS." 
 
 expression of countenance. His sermons were most 
 polished productions, full of thought and refined 
 suggestiveness. They were preached extempore, but 
 every sentence was as polished and as carefully con- 
 structed as though it had heen laboriously written in 
 his study. These sermons were full of imagery and 
 graphic illustrations drawn from all sorts of sources. 
 There was nothing in the slightest degree extravagant 
 about them, and they had a charm ' of ballad-like 
 simplicity of language ' which was utterly unlike 
 anything we are familiar with in most other sermons. 
 'Hours with the Mystics' was begun and nearly 
 completed during Mr. Vaughan's residence at 
 Birmingham, and was written within a short distance 
 of what was Miss Naden's home for the larger part of 
 her life. ' Hours with the Mystics ' was published 
 in two small foolscap 8vo volumes by Messrs. John AV. 
 Parker and Son, London, in 1856, and a new edition 
 (the fifth) has recently been issued. It is described 
 on the title page as 'A Contribution to the History 
 of Religious Opinion.' What it aims at doing, and 
 what was actually achieved, may be in some degree 
 gathered from the following extract from the preface: — 
 ' In the religious history of almost every age and 
 country we meet with a certain class of minds, 
 impatient of mere ceremonial forms and technical 
 distinctions, who have pleaded the cause of the heart 
 against prescription, and yielded themselves to the 
 most vehement impulses of the soul, in its longing to 
 escape from the sign to the thing signified — from the 
 human to the divine. The story of such an ambition, 
 
DETERMINING FACTORS. 1 3 
 
 with its disasters and its glories, will not be deemed by 
 any thoughtful mind less worthy of record than the 
 career of a conqueror. Through all the changes of 
 doctrine and the long conflict of creeds, it is interesting 
 to trace the unconscious unity of mystical tempera- 
 ments in every communion. It can scarcely be 
 without some profit that we essay to gather together 
 and arrange this company of ardent natures ; to account 
 for their harmony and their differences, to ascertain 
 the extent of their influence for good and evil, to point 
 out their errors, and to estimate even dreams impossible 
 to cold or meaner spirits.'" 
 
 In searching for the factors other than those just 
 alluded to, which gave the bias to her mind in favour 
 of literature, science, and philosophy, one is certainly 
 impressed (first) with the important fact, as has been 
 pointed out to me, that "Miss Naden inherited many 
 of her mental characteristics from her mother, who 
 was a woman of no ordinary powers ; her keen 
 sense of humour, often finding vent in witty rhymes, 
 her impatience of dogmatism, her mind always open 
 to new modes of thought, and her habit of voracious 
 reading, all lived again in her child;" (second) with 
 the ever-present example of her grandfather, Mr. 
 Woodhill, an intelligent and warm-hearted gentleman, 
 a great book-lover in his retirement, who possessed 
 a large miscellaneous library, and of whom the writer 
 of these lines entertains many pleasant recollections 
 of "bookish chat " in days gone by. Another friend, 
 with whom I have conferred, expresses her belief 
 that Miss Naden "not only read every one of 
 
14 THE CONSTANCE NADEN MEDAL. 
 
 these books, but that she mastered their contents;" 
 (third) with the important influence exercised by 
 her devoted friend and accomplished mentor, Dr. 
 Robert Lewins, of the Army Medical Department, 
 who has been justly described as "a man of great 
 culture, of wide travel, and worldly experience," whom 
 she first met at Southport in the year 1876. En 
 passant, it is gratifying to record that this loyal friend 
 has generously founded a gold medal, to be called 
 "The Constance Naden Medal,"* in her honour at the 
 Mason College, the subjects of the competitive essay 
 to vary from year to year, but, when possible, the 
 preference to be given to philosophical rather than 
 to special subjects ; and he intends to place a 
 marble bust of her — which is a chef d'auvre of 
 the sculptor, Mr. William Tyler, of Kensington, by 
 whom it was exhibited at the Royal Academy this 
 year — in the library of the College, and to offer a 
 replica, or a picture of her, to the National Portrait 
 Gallery. Dr. Lewins has also edited, and recently 
 published, at his own cost, a first volume. Induction 
 and Deduction (London: Bickers and Son, i, Leicester 
 Square, 1890), a historical and critical sketch of 
 successive philosophical conceptions respecting the 
 relations between inductive and deductive thought, 
 
 * Since these lines were written, it is interesting to record 
 that the first award of the Constance Naden Gold Medal, founded 
 by Dr. Lewins, was made by the Council of the Mason College 
 at their Meeting on Monday, September 30th, 1890, the recipient 
 being Mr. Frederick Daniel Chattaway, now of Christ Church, 
 Oxford. Mr. Chaltaway's contribution was a poem entitled 
 " Persephone— a myth re-set.'' 
 
THE DEDICATORY SONNET. 1$ 
 
 and other essays, being a selection from Miss Naden's 
 philosophical writings, to which is prefixed an admir- 
 able and sympathetic memoir, written by her friend 
 and companion, Mrs. Daniell. A fourth minor factor 
 of influence may have been the late Mr. William Bates, 
 B.A., sometime classical tutor of Queen's College, 
 Birmingham, a great bibliophile, an indefatigable 
 collector, and author of a memoir of George Cruik- 
 shank, and other works, who was her instructor in the 
 classics. 
 
 But, in spite of a somewhat restricted environment, 
 the primary germs of love of knowledge were indubit- 
 ably obtained from the grand-parents, whom she thus 
 recognises in the beautiful dedicatory sonnet previously 
 referred to : — 
 
 Ye who received me, when your hearts were sore, 
 With double welcome, since I came in lieu 
 Of one whose fond embrace I never knew — 
 
 Your child, my mother, dear for evermore — 
 
 Who scarce had time to greet the babe she bore. 
 But, dying in her spring, bequeathed to you. 
 Her father and her mother, guardians true, 
 
 One little life, to tend when hers was o'er : 
 
 Ye who have watched me from my infant days 
 With tenderest love and care, who treasure yet 
 
 Quaint sayings, sketches rude, and childish lays, 
 Accept this wreath, entwined in April hours : 
 
 Yours was the garden where the seed was set, 
 To you I dedicate the opening flowers. 
 
 The uneventful routine of home life was first 
 broken by a little visit to her old friends and former 
 governesses, the Misses Martin, who had removed to 
 Clevedon, and subsequently by an annual trip to the 
 
1 6 TRAVELS. 
 
 sea-side and other watering-places. In the summer 
 of 1881, in company with her friend, Miss Ellen 
 Brown, she visited Belgium, went up the Rhine, and 
 through Switzerland, returning home by way of Paris. 
 Her fellow-traveller thus writes to me : — " I look back 
 upon the long summer weeks spent in her sweet society 
 as one of the brightest spots in an altogether happy 
 period of my life." In the spring of 1883 she 
 travelled for some months in Italy, in company with 
 Miss Rock, and her letters graphically describe the 
 beauties of the Riviera, Genoa, Rome, Venice, 
 Naples, etc. During this tour I am informed that "she 
 acquired a knowledge of Italian, and very soon after 
 her return was able to translate Dante with ease." 
 But this by the way. 
 
 For a time Miss Naden taught at the Home for 
 Friendless Girls, in Bristol Street, Birmingham, an 
 institution in which she took some interest. 
 
 And now we are approaching the most important 
 epoch in her career. " For a few years," writes 
 Mrs. Houghton, " after leaving school. Miss 
 Naden led a quiet secluded life, devoting herself to 
 the systematic study of languages, and mastering in 
 turn French, German, Latin, and the elements of 
 Greek. To this period belong the Songs and Sonnets 
 of Springtime, most of which were composed at odd 
 moments, for Miss Naden believed with Goethe that 
 'nothing is so precious as time.'" 
 
 Another writer (Miss Evans, a friend and former 
 fellow-student), in an interesting biography in the 
 Mason College Magazine, -for February, 1890, states 
 
THE MIDLAND INSTITUTE. 1 7 
 
 that the charming dedicatory sonnet above quoted " was 
 composed while the poetess was occupied with 
 domestic duties to relieve her grandmother!" and 
 Miss Naden told the same friend " that most of her 
 poems were composed while she was dressing in 
 the morning, and most of her thinking done on her 
 way to college.'' 
 
 During the sessions of 1879-80 and 1880-1 Miss 
 Naden attended the Botany Classes and the Field 
 Classes in connection therewith, at the Birmingham 
 and Midland Institute, under Mr. J. W. Oliver, the 
 present lecturer on Botany, and took first-class certifi- 
 cates at the examinations of the Science and Art 
 Department. Mr. Oliver speaks with admiration of 
 his modest and unassuming, but diligent and clever 
 pupil — always punctual, as his attendance book shows 
 — ever working with growing enthusiasm, who answered 
 his questions promptly, and the answers were generally 
 correct. She also attended the German and French 
 classes at the Institute, under the late lamented Dr. 
 Dammann ; and Mr. W. H. Cope, the courteous 
 librarian of the Mason College, favours me with the 
 following interesting anecdote, which he heard from 
 the doctor, of her proficiency in the German language. 
 Dr. Dammann was conducting his class at the 
 Institute one evening, when the students were going 
 through one of the German authors, each student 
 taking it in turn to read and translate a passage into 
 Knglish. The passage under consideration contained a 
 lengthy quotation from one of the Greek writers. Upon 
 reaching this, the student translating suddenly came 
 
l8 THE MASON COLLEGE. 
 
 to a dead stop. Dr. Dammann thought he would like 
 to see if anyone in the class could give a translation 
 of the Greek quotation in modem German, although, 
 as he told my informant, he fancied there was only 
 one student who would be likely to attempt it — and 
 that was Miss Naden — so he asked her to give them 
 a German rendering, feeling that she would be able to 
 get through it somehow; but he confessed himself 
 surprised and delighted at the ease and rapidity with 
 which she attacked the passage, and gave her hearers 
 a masterly translation of the quotation in modern 
 German. Dr. Dammann told Mr. Cope that he 
 looked upon her as the most brilliant pupil he had 
 ever had in his professional career. The Midland 
 Institute are naturally proud of their distinguished 
 student, (ox, mihe Institute Magazine oi March, 1890, 
 the editor says : — "We are glad to find that we may 
 regard her rare gifts as in some measure nourished by 
 our Alma Mater, and herself as one of us." 
 
 Her attendance at the Botany Classes came to 
 an end in 1881, but her thirst for knowledge was 
 unappeased, as she had already been struck by the 
 relation of one science to all, and she grew eager to 
 master them all one by one. An opportunity of a 
 rare kind soon presented itself. 
 
 In the autumn of 1881 she entered as a student of 
 the Mason College, to which noble institution she was 
 indebted for a thoroughly sound scientific training. 
 Of this "momentous event" Mrs. Houghton thus 
 writes: — "Not only did it open out to her immeasurably 
 wider fields of knowledge, but it brought the hitherto 
 
THE MASON COLLEGE. I9 
 
 solitary student into the midst of a bright, active little 
 intellectual world, and gave her those companionships 
 and interests which were a positive need of her 
 essentially genial and sociable mind. In this congenial 
 atmosphere Miss Naden developed like a plant brought 
 out of semi-darkness into sunshine — not so strikingly, 
 perhaps, in intellect as in character. It was at Mason 
 College, in the lively debates of the Union, the pleasant 
 but not always peaceful discussions of the Poesy Club, 
 and the learned disquisitions of the various scientific 
 societies, that Miss Naden first became conscious of 
 the full extent of her powers, and assumed that leader- 
 ship which was her birthright. When she rose to 
 speak there was always a thrill of expectation ; her 
 audience knew that however 'thrashed out' by previous 
 speakers the subject might be, it would exhibit fresh 
 vitality and present a new aspect under her skilful 
 treatment ; and the hearts of her opponents sank as 
 they thought of the weak points and hidden sophistries 
 in their arguments. Miss Naden had a terrible sixth 
 sense for such things, and dealt with them with a 
 satire which was playful or severe as occasion 
 demanded. Needless to say that this gift did not 
 tend to make her popular with those in whom amour 
 propre was more largely developed than the sense of 
 humour. But if Miss Naden was swift to detect error 
 and absurdity (and perhaps the Union debates afforded 
 exceptional scope for destructive criticism), she was 
 equally prompt to recognise a good point or a fine 
 thought, and gave unstinted honour where honour was 
 due." 
 
 c 
 
20 THE NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY. 
 
 It will be fitting in this place to enter a little into 
 detail in explaining another factor — anew environment 
 — which, coming just as it did towards the end of her 
 college career, had a profound influence in the future 
 on Miss Naden's conceptions of the science of life, 
 and its correlative, the science of society. During the 
 spring of the year 1883 an important departure from 
 its ordinary work was resolved upon by the Birmingham 
 Natural History and Microscopical Society — the 
 oldest existing scientific society in the town. On the 
 requisition of fifteen members, the Council unanimously 
 resolved to establish a Sociological Section for the 
 study of Mr. Herbert Spencer's system of " Synthetic 
 Philosophy." The Society already had Geological, 
 Biological, and Microscopical Sections, and this last 
 addition was naturally the complement of its operations. 
 The project was inaugurated with the hearty approval 
 of Mr. Spencer himself, who addressed a valuable 
 letter to the President on the occasion ; the first 
 hon. sec. being Mr. Alfred Hayes, M.A., the present 
 accomplished Secretary of the Birmingham and Mid- 
 land Institute, and author of that exquisite poem, 
 The Last Crusade, and other works. Since the 
 establishment of the Section, nearly the whole of the 
 works of " our great philosopher" have been considered 
 and subjected to an exhaustive and searching exposition 
 and criticism, in which most of those students in the 
 town and neighbourhood actively interested in the 
 spread of the doctrine of evolution have at times 
 taken part ; the proceedings whereof have been pub- 
 lished from time to time in the Midland Naturalist, 
 
THE SOCIOLOGICAL SECTION. 21 
 
 the organ of the parent Society. To this Section, 
 over which the writer of these lines has had the 
 honour of presiding since its formation, Miss Naden 
 was attracted in the year 1884, and she continued to 
 be a regular member of it until she left Birmingham. 
 Of the many diligent and enthusiastic students of the 
 doctrine of evolution who have assisted at our meetings 
 in discussions, and by readings, criticisms, and exposi- 
 tions, from learned professors and local scientists down 
 to tyros who were just beginning to understand and 
 appreciate Herbert Spencer, not one was so highly 
 valued as Miss Naden. 
 
 It may be interesting to place on record the 
 names of some of the members and friends who have 
 chiefly rendered assistance to the Section by reading 
 papers, and in other ways, most of whom were Miss 
 Naden's colleagues: — Professor F. J. Allen, M.A., 
 Mr. C. H. Allison, Mr. J. O. W. Barratt, B.Sc, Mr. 
 Alfred Browett, Mrs. Alfred Browett, Mr. Harold W. 
 Buncher, Miss Byett, Mr. F. J. Cullis, F.G.S., Miss 
 Dalton, Miss Jane Kerr Davies, Mr. W. Greatheed, 
 Mr. W. B. Grove, M.A., Miss Goyne, Professor 
 Haycraft, M.A., F.R.S. Ed., Dr. Hiepe, Dr. Alfred 
 Hill, F.I.C., Mr. Edwin Hill, Mr. J. Alfred Hill, 
 F.R.M.S., Professor Hillhouse, M.A., F.L.S., Mr. L. 
 J. Major, Mr. William Mathews, M.A., F.G.S., Mr. W. 
 Kineton Parkes, Professor Poynting, D.Sc, F.R.S. , 
 Mr. Herbert Stone, F.L.S., and Mr. Colbran J. 
 Wainwright. 
 
 At these meetings, held in the Society's room at 
 the Mason College, she was an immense favourite — the 
 
2 2 THE SYNTHETIC PHILOSOPHY. 
 
 genius loci in fact — and from the wide range of her 
 knowledge, the lucidity and force of her intellect, and 
 the richness of her illustrations, she never failed when 
 speaking to impress her audience and carry complete 
 conviction. But, although a scientist and a philosopher 
 as well, her womanly grace and her womanly sympathy 
 were always dominant. Even on removal to a distant 
 home, her interest in the Section and her friendships 
 with her old colleagues did not cease, for she 
 specially came down from London twice to take a 
 prominent part in its proceedings, and, as one of the 
 speakers happily remarked at a subsequent meeting, 
 "helped it in crises of its history." 
 
 Thoroughly equipped as she had been at the 
 Mason College with a sound knowledge of the 
 sciences — physics, chemistry, botany, zoology, physi- 
 ology, and geology — with refined literary, artistic, and 
 poetical tastes that were pursued as mere diversion, 
 and following the example of the Master by not 
 striving for the honours of a college degree, her 
 broad sympathies lay beyond the somewhat exclusive 
 work in the domain of the specialist, and thus 
 the first determination of her bias for the philosophy 
 of evolution, as embraced in the " Synthetic 
 Philosophy," was doubtless manifested in her address 
 on Special Creation and Evolution, delivered before a 
 meeting of the Section, held January 22nd, 1885, in 
 which year she was subsequently awarded the "Panton 
 Prize" at the Mason College, for the best essay on 
 " the Geology of the District." Her second address 
 on The Data of Ethics was given before the Section, 
 February 22nd, 1887. 
 
THE HESLOP GOLD MEDAL. 23 
 
 In the same year, and while still a student of the 
 College, she wrote her brilliant essay, Induction and 
 Deduction, which gained the "Heslop Gold Medal," 
 founded and endowed by the late Dr. Heslop, and 
 which is the highest prize that has ever been offered 
 to the past and present students of the Mason College. 
 
 A few words may be interesting respecting the 
 nature of this prize. It is awarded annually by the 
 Council for the best dissertation or essay upon a subject 
 which the candidate has the privilege of selecting. 
 The Academic Board of the College issues annually, 
 before the 25 th December, a list of subjects in 
 divisions, thus classified : — {a) Language, Literature, 
 and Philosophy ; (i) Mathematical and Physical 
 Sciences, including Metallurgy and Engineering ; 
 (c) Biological and Geological Science, including 
 Mining. One of these divisions only is selected for 
 each year, and in 1887, the philosophical division 
 was chosen, and Miss Naden's thesis obtained 
 the prize. 
 
 It was a natural sequence from analysis to 
 synthesis, and these contributions and others were the 
 rich fruits of that determination. In further illustra- 
 tion of this mental attitude, it is pleasant to relate, on 
 the authority of her friend, Dr. Lewins, an incident of 
 her Eastern tour. She told Lord Dufferin, in India, 
 when he complimented her on her poems, that she 
 meant her real mission to be philosophy, "not harsh 
 and crabbed as dull fools suppose, but musical as is 
 Apollo's lute," to which the Governor General replied, 
 "Ah! I am no judge of that.'' 
 
24 AN EVOLUTIONIST. 
 
 Ever since her connection with the Section, she 
 brought to bear on her criticism the canons of the 
 "Synthetic Philosophy," which are simply that the laws 
 of evolution affecting inorganic phenomena are common 
 also to organic and super-organic phenomena, and 
 from this standpoint she rightly viewed society as 
 an organism — a vast organism — as regards its genesis 
 and many-phased development. 
 
 An appreciative and valuable memoir of her in 
 Edgbastonia for February, 1890, by her friend and 
 former teacher. Professor Lapworth, LL.D., F.R.S., 
 Professor of Geology at the Mason College, confirms 
 this view, and justly says : — " Looking back over her 
 college work as a whole, it appears tolerably clear that 
 her choice of scientific subjects was involuntarily 
 dictated by the special bent of her mind. For from 
 the scientific point of view she was distinctly an 
 evolutionist. She had a mind dominated with an 
 idea of the essential unity of nature, and of man's 
 intimate relationship to all the members of the 
 animate and inanimate worlds. To natural science 
 (and by this term we would include all the sciences 
 she personally studied) she looked for our actual 
 knowledge of man's relationship to nature in 
 general, that she might have firm ground upon 
 which to stand when she worked at her own 
 favourite subject — the relationship of men to each 
 other. This training, acting upon a well-balanced 
 mind, gave her conversation a striking air of origin- 
 ality and freedom of thought. She had a habit of 
 referring everything to first principles, and of utterly 
 
HER OWN PRACTICAL PHILOSOPHY. 25 
 
 ignoring the views of the authoritative specialists. 
 Intensely sympathetic as was her mind for what was 
 novel, wonderful, or strange, it was impatient of every- 
 thing that was dogmatic or authoritative. The chief 
 enquiry was always not 'What do the specialists say?' 
 but, ' Is it true, and why?' " 
 
 Her own practical estimate of her philosophy is 
 thus aptly described in a letter to a friend, quoted in 
 the Mason College Magazine, previously referred to : — 
 "My 'philosophy' is to get all the good out of life 
 that it will give, under all circumstances, which 
 involves making the best of trouble, and bearing it so 
 as to gain moral strength ; and even if we can't always 
 live up to this ideal, it is good to keep it in sight." 
 
 Also, in another letter addressed to Miss Michell, 
 she further emphasises this estimate : — " I do quite 
 agree with you about bodily and mental suffering. 
 It does, in many cases, give us added insight into 
 our own nature, and therefore into human nature 
 in general, with wider and deeper sympathies. It 
 often, too, helps us to cling more closely to our 
 highest ideal, as the only certain refuge from pain 
 and sorrow, and so gives added strength, not only 
 for endurance, but for action. . . . The greatest 
 possible consolation in any sort of suffering is that its 
 effect on you, and therefore upon others, depends 
 largely on yourself; that is the chief moral I have got 
 from life, and it has been a helpful one to me." 
 
 And again, in another letter to the same friend : — 
 " So soon as I can feel that I have done anything 
 worth doing, I shall be as happy as anyone can 
 
26 SKLF-EXPANSION. 
 
 reasonably hope to be. Even if that time never 
 comes, there is much in my life to soften and render 
 bearable the sense of failure." 
 
 Further, in a letter written from Calcutta, on 
 February 5th, 1888, to the same friend, she says: — 
 " I know so well that feeling of which you speak — the 
 longing to get rid of all the fetters of self, and to 
 merge one's being in the universe. . . . The true 
 escape from selfishness is reached by self-expansion. 
 I mean that we can never serve humanity in the best 
 way. or completely realise its unity, and our unity with 
 it, unless we have cultivated our own nature to the full, 
 with all its varied powers and sympathies. Only this 
 must be done not for any petty personal ambition, but 
 with a great object in view. I can't cast aside 
 personal ambition and passions, perhaps never shall, 
 till they are either fulfilled, or finally disappointed, but 
 I do try not to let them dominate me. . . What you 
 say, while it humiliates me, yet encourages and 
 strengthens me to try to live a braver life, nearer to 
 my ideal of what is good and true." 
 
 In all. Miss Naden delivered a series of three 
 addresses or lectures on the doctrine of evolution before 
 the Sociological Section, namely. Special Creation and 
 Evolution, The Data of Ethics (previously mentioned), 
 and The Principles of Sociology (the last of which, 
 recently published in the Midland Naturalist, has 
 mournful memories connected with it, and will be 
 presently referred to), which constitute, in an essential 
 form, much of the pith and marrow of the five great 
 divisions of the "Synthetic Philosophy,'' as originally 
 
A SYNTHETIC TRILOGY. 27 
 
 grouped by Mr. Spencer, in his Prospectus of June sth, 
 1862, and to which he has systematically adhered 
 ever since. As a matter of fact these addresses were 
 not delivered in consecutive order. That on The 
 Data of Ethics should, of course, have come last; 
 but this is of little moment. Combined, they form a 
 miniature synthetic trilogy, which presents many of 
 the main features of the evolution philosophy, and 
 they may be read with equal profit and advantage 
 either by the tyro or by the advanced student. 
 Speaking generally, they express throughout the 
 highest truth developed by Mr. Spencer's system, that 
 "evolution can end only in the establishment of the 
 greatest perfection and the most complete happiness." 
 The attention of Mr. Spencer was directed to these 
 papers, in which he took much interest, and frequently 
 expressed his approval of them. They were reprinted 
 by the Section, and well circulated among students of 
 the doctrine of evolution in England and America. 
 
 To those who accept the Hypothesis of Evolution 
 it will not be necessary to refer in detail for arguments 
 in favour of Miss Naden's thesis on Special Creation 
 and Evolution, but it may be interestmg to quote a 
 few lines from that on The Data of Ethics. After 
 minutely defining the relative claims of egoism and 
 altruism, she thus concludes : — 
 
 " But if egoism is essential, and altruism also 
 essential, and yet the two conflict ; ^Yllat is our hope? 
 Will the weary battle go on for ever ? Is there no 
 prospect of a final peace ? 
 
28 "the data of ethics.'' 
 
 "There is such a prospect. We have already seen 
 that evolution works towards perfect adaptation to the 
 environment. Pleasures and pains are not fixed and 
 absolute ; they are relative to structures, and to the 
 states of structures ; and as organisms adjust them- 
 selves physically to the conditions of their life, they 
 must at the same time adjust themselves psychically. 
 That is, every mode of action demanded by social 
 conditions must eventually become pleasurable to 
 social beings, and as parental love is already an instinct, 
 so the broader love, not only of country, but of the 
 race, will in time become instinctive. Sympathy, 
 hitherto stunted by adverse conditions, will develop ; 
 and as human nature improves, the natural language 
 of feeling will be less restrained ; looks, words, tones 
 will all grow more expressive, and the power of interpret- 
 ing them will strengthen and sharpen by use. As 
 the sphere of sympathetic gratification widens, the 
 sphere of self-sacrifice will diminish ; for with growing 
 efficiency and increasing welfare there will be fewer 
 ' troubles to assuage, fewer pangs to partake. No one 
 will be willing to accept benefits at the cost of pain or 
 privation to others. . . . It is this conception of 
 the completely adapted man in the completely 
 evolved society with which moral science must deal, 
 just as physics and astronomy must assume in the first 
 place certain ideal conditions, making allowance 
 subsequently for actual incidental conditions. The 
 rigid and weightless lever is a fiction ; the ideal man 
 is a fiction ; but both are fictions which have a direct 
 and practical bearing on reality. Only, while the 
 
A PROLIFIC PROSE WRITER. 29 
 
 physicist's lever can never become a reality, the 
 moralist's man may yet tread the earth in flesh and 
 blood ; ethically adult, having outgrown that sense 
 of self-control and self-compulsion, which is so often 
 painful to the best of us ; no more conscious of 
 the demands of duty than he is conscious of the 
 beatings of his own heart. Here philosophy and 
 poetry meet and clasp hands; for the picture drawn by 
 Mr. Spencer cannot be distinguished from that drawn 
 by Wordsworth in his ' Ode to Duty : ' 
 
 ' Serene will be our days and bright, 
 
 And happy will our nature be 
 When love is an unerring light, 
 
 And joy its own security. 
 And they a blissful course may hold, 
 Even now, who not unwisely bold, 
 Live in the spirit of this creed. 
 Yet find that other strength, according to their need.' " 
 
 Miss Naden was a prolific prose writer in other 
 departments, and as she sometimes wrote under her 
 full name, and oftener by modestly abbreviated initials 
 (C.N. only), and sometimes under the nom de plume of 
 "Constance Arden," or the initials (C.A.), it is not 
 an easy matter to compile a bibliography, but among 
 philosophical and other contributions, the following 
 may be specially mentioned, viz. : — In the Journal of 
 Science : — " Hylozoisra v. Animism," 1881 (C.N.) ; 
 "Theldentity of Vital and Cosmical Energy" (C.N.); 
 " Animal Automatism " (Constance Arden) ; and 
 "The Philosophy of Thomas Carlyle" (Constance 
 Arden), 1882; "The Brain Theory of Mind and 
 Matter " (Constance Arden) ; and " Paracelsus " 
 
30 THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 
 
 (Constance C. W. Naden), 1883 ; " Hylo-idealism " 
 (C. A.); and "Hylo-idealism: a Defence" (C. N.), 
 
 1884. In Knowledge -.—"The Sentient World" (C.N.); 
 " Hylo-idealism : Does a Universe Exist Exterior to 
 Ourselves?" (C. N.) ; "The Evolution of the Sense 
 of Beauty " (Constance C. W. Naden); "Conceptions 
 and Images" (C. N.); "Idealism" (C. N.) ; "The 
 Weak Point of Darwinism " (Constance C. W. Naden), 
 
 1885. In the Agnostic Annual: — "Pessimism and 
 Physiology," 1885; and "Are Miracles Credible?" 
 1890. In London Society : — " The Lady Doctor," 
 1877. So far back as 1883 she published, under 
 initials (C. N.), a pamphlet, "What is Religion?" a 
 vindication of freethought ; and in 1887, also under 
 initials (C. N.), a preface to a series of letters in a 
 pamphlet by her friend Dr. Lewins, entitled " Hylo- 
 idealism, the Creed of the Coming Day." Writing to a 
 friend subsequently on the subject of orthodox belief, 
 she says : — " The religion of the future will be a more 
 vivid feeling of life — not of one's ovfn life, but of life 
 in general — a sort of extended sympathy. So that 
 we shall shrink from doing anything that is against 
 the general laws of happiness, even when it seems to 
 make for our own happiness. At least, that is the 
 ideal which seems to me the true one." An elaborate 
 paper by her, on "Volition," was read at the meeting 
 of the Mason College Physiological Society, February 
 8th, 1887, and appears in Vol. XI. of the Midland 
 Naturalist, 1888. Referring to this paper, she vcrote 
 to a friend : — " It is very dry, I believe. Several 
 people spoke afterwards to the effect that they had 
 
THE ladies' debating SOCIETY. 3 1 
 
 profited extremely, but hadn't understood a word." 
 In the Scottish Art Review, for April, 1889, there 
 appeared an interesting review by her of Mr. Robert 
 Buchanan's epic poem, " The City of Dream." Space 
 only permits the bare mention of these numerous articles 
 to indicate the depth, the boldness, and the versatility 
 of her talent. Her contributions to the Mason College 
 Magazine, which she edited for a time, are referred to 
 elsewhere. 
 
 It may be mentioned, for the encouragement of 
 future authors, that the first prose essay which Miss 
 Naden sent to a publisher was rejected; and that an 
 eminent firm of publishers in London declined 
 her second volume of poems — although she ofifered 
 to defray the whole cost of publication, as is usual 
 with most young poets — fearing it would discredit 
 their establishment ! 
 
 Miss Naden was a member of the Ladies' Debat- 
 ing Society in Birmingham, and succeeded Mrs. R. W. 
 Dale and Mrs. Crosskey as president. Her address 
 for the session 1882-3 — a most finished performance — 
 is founded on a belief that "the watchword of the 
 coming day is Unity, built up from Diversity," and 
 thus concludes: — "Every utterance of a true and 
 lofty idea, in word or deed, helps to render possible 
 a new heroic age — an age which shall find its chief 
 glory, not in commerce or manufactures, not in 
 discoveries and inventions, but in a life moulded to 
 that higher expediency, which we call Truth and 
 Justice, instead of the lower expediency, which may 
 take the shape of Justice or Injustice, Truth or False- 
 hood." 
 
32 "songs and sonnets of springtime. 
 
 Miss Naden published two volumes of poems. 
 The first of these Songs and Sonnets of Springtime, 
 1881, of which mention has already been made, 
 contains beautiful specimens of the "opening flowers'' 
 which subsequently developed into rich fruit. Next 
 to the " Dedication,'' which has been previously 
 referred to, the masterpiece is undoubtedly " The 
 Pantheist's Song of Immortality,'' described by Mr. 
 Gladstone as " a short but singularly powerful pro- 
 duction." It is so beautiful that her admirers will, 
 I am sure, be pleased to read it in this place : — 
 
 THE pantheist's SONG OF IMMORTALITY. 
 
 Bring snow-white lilies, pallid heat-flushed roses, 
 Enwreathe her brow with heavy-scented flowers ; 
 
 In soft undreaming sleep her head reposes, 
 While, unregretted, pass the sunlit hours. 
 
 Few sorrows did she know — and all are over ; 
 
 A thousand joys — but they are all forgot : 
 Her life was one fair dream of friend and lover ; 
 
 And were they false — ah, well, she knows it not. 
 
 Look in her face, and lose thy dread of dying ; 
 
 Weep not, that rest will come, that toil will cease: 
 Is it not well, to lie as she is lying, 
 
 In utter silence, and in perfect peace? 
 
 Canst thou repine, that sentient days are numbered? 
 
 Death is unconscious Life, that waits for birth : 
 So didst thou live, while yet thine embryo slumbered, 
 
 Senseless, unbreathing, e'en as heaven and earth. 
 
THE pantheist's SONG. 33 
 
 Then shrink no more from Death, though Life be 
 gladness, 
 
 Nor seek him, restless in thy lonely pain : 
 The law of joy ordains each hour of sadness, 
 
 And firm or frail, thou canst not live in vain. 
 
 What though thy name by no sad lips be spoken, 
 And no fond heart shall keep thy memory green ? 
 
 Thou yet shalt leave thine own enduring token, 
 For earth is not as though thou ne'er hadst been. 
 
 See yon broad current, hasting to the ocean. 
 Its ripples glorious in the western red : 
 
 Each wavelet passes, trackless ; yet its motion 
 Has changed for evermore the river bed. 
 
 Ah, wherefore weep, although the form and fashion 
 Of what thou seemest, fades like sunset flame ? 
 
 The uncreated Source of toil and passion. 
 Through everlasting change abides the same. 
 
 Yes, thou shalt die : but these almighty forces. 
 That meet to form thee, live for evermore : 
 
 They hold the suns in their eternal courses. 
 And shape the tiny sand-grains on the shore. 
 
 Be calmly glad, thine own true kindred seeing 
 In fire and storm, in flowers with dew impearled ; 
 
 Rejoice in thine imperishable being, 
 
 One with the Essence of the boundless world." 
 
 I am indebted to my friend, Mr. E. C. Copas, 
 M.A., of the Handsworth Bridge Trust Grammar 
 
34 A MODERN APOSTLE, ETC. 
 
 School, for pointing out to me what in my judgment 
 appears to be highly significant of the growing 
 appreciation of Miss Naden's writings in high quarters. 
 At the Examination at Oxford, for the Jesus College 
 Scholarships and Exhibitions, April, 1890, the first three 
 verses of this poem were selected by the authorities 
 as the passage set for Latin Elegiacs. 
 
 The charming little poem, "Six Years Old," indi- 
 cates her early and remarkable powers of observation, 
 and as already has been pointed out, is mostly auto- 
 biographical. Her second volume, A Modern Apostle, 
 The Elixir of Life, The Story of Clarice, and other 
 Poems, 1887, unmistakably shows an advance on her 
 earlier publication, influenced, no doubt, by her 
 studies in evolution, and especially in physiology 
 and psychology. As regards the "Evolutional 
 Erotics " — -one of the divisions of the book — we 
 must go to Dr. Wendell Holmes if we want 
 similar expositions of the marvellous blending of 
 science with poetry as those gems which Miss 
 Naden here presents. One of them " Solomon 
 Redivivus, 1886," which illustrates the development 
 of life "from Darwin and from Buddh," astonished 
 us by the remarkable spontaneity of her genius. At 
 one of our sectional meetings the subject had been 
 discussed in the evening, and the next morning the 
 President received a copy of the poem by post. 
 As a contrast in style to the "Pantheist's Song," 
 and as showing Miss Naden's capability to handle 
 some of the most recondite speculations of modern 
 
SOLOMON REDIVIVUS, 1 886. 35 
 
 philosophy in a sprightly and satirical, yet thoughtful, 
 vein, I cannot resist the tepnptation to present this 
 poem in full : — 
 
 Solomon Redivivus, 1886. 
 
 What am I ? Ah, you know it, 
 I am the modern Sage, 
 
 Seer, savant, merchant, poet — 
 I am, in brief, the Age. 
 
 Look not upon my glory 
 Of gold and sandal-wood. 
 
 But sit and hear a story 
 
 From Darwin and from Buddh. 
 
 Count not my Indian treasures, 
 All wrought in curious shapes, 
 
 My labours and my pleasures, 
 My peacocks and my apes ; 
 
 For when you ask me riddles, 
 And when I answer each. 
 
 Until my fifes and fiddles 
 
 Burst in and drown our speech, 
 
 Oh then your soul astonished 
 Must surely faint and fail, 
 
 Unless, by me admonished. 
 You hear our wondrous tale. 
 
36 SOLOMON REDIVIVUS, 1 886. 
 
 We were a soft Amoeba 
 In ages past and gone, 
 
 Ere you were Queen of Sheba, 
 And I King Solomon. 
 
 Unorganed, undivided, 
 We lived in happy sloth, 
 
 And all that you did I did, 
 One dinner nourished both : 
 
 Till you incurred the odium 
 Of fission and divorce- — 
 
 A severed pseudopodium 
 
 You strayed your lonely course. 
 
 When next we met together 
 
 Our cycles to fulfil. 
 Each was a bag of leather. 
 
 With stomach and with gill. 
 
 But our Ascidian morals 
 
 Recalled that old mischance, 
 
 And we avoided quarrels 
 By separate maintenance. 
 
 Long ages passed — our wishes 
 Were fetterless and free, 
 
 For we were jolly fishes, 
 A-swimming in the sea. 
 
 We roamed by groves of coral, 
 We watched the youngsters play- 
 
 The memory and the moral 
 Had vanished quite away. 
 
HER BIRMINGHAM FRIENDS- 37 
 
 Next, each became a reptile, 
 With fangs to sting and slay ; 
 
 No wiser ever crept, I'll 
 Assert, deny who may. 
 
 But now, disdaining trammels 
 
 Of scale and limbless coil, 
 Through every grade of mammals 
 
 We passed with upward toil. 
 
 Till, anthropoid and wary 
 
 Appeared the parent ape, 
 And soon we grew less hairy 
 
 And soon began to drape. 
 
 So, from that soft Amoeba, 
 
 In ages past and gone, 
 You've grown the Queen of Sheba, 
 
 And I, King Solomon. 
 
 Those friends who were present at a social 
 gathering of the Section, held in the autumn of the 
 year 1885 at Handsworth Wood, will not easily forget 
 the bright and playful humour with which she recited 
 '• Scientific Wooing," another poem in the same series. 
 On its publication, the author of this memoir sent a short 
 critical notice of this beautiful volume to the Midland 
 Naturalist for July, 1887, and he treasures among 
 other letters and relics of his beloved friend the 
 following appreciative acknowledgment, which it is 
 most interesting to record as showing her feelings 
 generally towards her Birmingham friends : — 
 
38 DEATH OF GRAND-PARENTS. 
 
 Pakenham House, Edgbaston, June 29th, 1887. 
 Dear Mr. Hughes, 
 Thank you very much for your kind review of my book. It is 
 much more than kind, because it emphasises those aspects of my 
 writing which I have more especially at heart. 
 
 Thank you also for your sympathy. I can scarcely as yet realise 
 all that this loss means to me. I shall travel for some time, and 
 finally settle in London ; but I do not mean to let this change of 
 abode sever any of ray old friendships and interests. I shall 
 always feel grateful to the Sociological Section and to its 
 President. 
 With very kind regards to Mrs. Hughes and to yourself. 
 Believe me, yours sincerely, 
 
 CONSTANCE C. W. NADEN. 
 
 The loss above alluded to veas the death of her 
 grandmother, Mrs. J. C. Woodhill, June 21st, 1887, 
 which happened on Her Majesty's Jubilee, and while 
 all England was rejoicing, Miss Naden was plunged in 
 deep sorrow in her lonely home. Her grandfather 
 died December 27th, 1881. 
 
 Her first volume contains an original poem in 
 German of great beauty and power, " Das Ideal," 
 expressive of her hylo-ideal rationale of existence, and 
 both volumes have a few translations from the German 
 and Italian, the most noteworthy of which are " The 
 Knight of Toggenburg," from Schiller, in her first 
 volume, and "Ideals," from the same author, and 
 the "Fragments from Faust," in her second volume. 
 The pretty cloth cover to these volumes was from a 
 design of her own, founded on that rare and exquisite 
 little plant, the ivy-leaved bell-flower, Campamda 
 hedencea. On its publication, she sent copies of her 
 second volume to several poets, and I recollect her 
 
MR. GLADSTONES OPINION. 39 
 
 showing me with great satisfaction the kindly acknow- 
 ledgments which she received from the late Matthew 
 Arnold and Mr. Andrew Lang. 
 
 The Birmingham Weekly Mercury for January 
 25th, 1890, printed some unpublished verses of Miss 
 Naden's, entitled "Night" and "Morning," from a 
 MS. collection entitled "Songs of the Heart and 
 Mind," written eleven years ago, when the authoress 
 was scarcely twenty-one. The Opeti Court (Chicago) 
 for March 27 th and April 3rd, i8go, also published 
 two posthumous sonnets by Miss Naden — (i) " Un- 
 discerned Perfection," and (2) " The Pessimist's 
 Vision.'' 
 
 In a survey of the " British Poetry of the Nine- 
 teenth Century,'' published in the second number of 
 The Speaker for ]a.n\iary It, 1890, that accomplished 
 critic, the Right Hon. W. E. Gladstone, M.P., places 
 the name of Miss Naden in a list of eight leading 
 poetesses having claims to high distinction, Mrs. 
 Barrett Browning being placed first, while he denies 
 the title of " Poet" to George Eliot, to Mrs. Hemans, 
 Joanna Baillie, and indeed all prior to Mrs. Browning, 
 and thus concludes a very comprehensive article : — 
 " Upon the whole it may perhaps be allowable to say 
 not only that the British poetesses of the last sixty 
 years have developed in numerous instances splendid 
 powers, but even that they are as a whole without a 
 parallel in literary history." It is a very high estimate 
 coming from such a competent authority, but from 
 subsequent evidence it is probable from the letter 
 which he addressed to her friend, Mrs. Daniell, who 
 
40 CEASED TO WRITE POEMS. 
 
 afterwards sent him a copy of The Modern Apostle, that 
 Mr. Gladstone had not had under his notice Miss 
 Naden's second volume, which, as before stated, is a 
 marked advance on her first publication. She ceased 
 to write poems in 1887, but, after all, poetry was mere 
 amusement to her, for she had, as we know, deeper 
 and more exalted work for her intellectual powers. 
 
VISIT TO INDIA. 41 
 
 II. 
 
 "O life as futile, then, as frail ! 
 
 O for thy voice to soothe and bless ! 
 What hope of answer, or redress ? 
 Behind the veil, behind the veil." 
 
 In Memoriam, TENNYSON. 
 
 After leaving Birmingham, on the death of her 
 grandmother, from whom she inherited a very hand- 
 some fortune, Miss Naden started, September 29th, 
 1887, with her friend, Mrs. Daniell, for an extended 
 tour, proceeding across Germany and down the Danube, 
 stopping at Vienna, Buda-Pesth, and other interesting 
 places, on their way to Constantinople — -the approach 
 thereto by the Bosphorus, in the early morning, being 
 described as "one of the sensations which are not often 
 repeated in this life " — where a pause was made ; 
 then on to Broussa, Cyprus, Smyrna, Baalbec, 
 Damascus, Palestine, and Cairo. After a trip 
 up the Nile to Assouan, they returned to Cairo, and 
 from thence proceeded to Bombay and Calcutta, their 
 furthest stage being Darjeeling, close to the highest 
 Himalaya range, and they subsequently made the tour 
 of the principal towns of the north-west Provinces, 
 including Agra, Delhi, Benares, Lucknow, Cawnpore, 
 Jeypur, &c. In her interesting memoir, previously 
 referred to, Mrs. Daniell has given a graphic picture of 
 
42 HOSPITALITY IN INDIA. 
 
 this delightful tour, and she specially mentions, among 
 other reminiscences, that " Miss Naden thoroughly 
 enjoyed and appreciated that never-to-be-forgotten 
 three weeks voyage to Assouan and back, commencing 
 with the Pyramids of Gheezeh, ascending that of 
 Cheops and penetrating into its central sepulchral 
 chamber. Of all the marvels on the Nile, including 
 Thebes, Luxor, Phylae, &c., the great temple and 
 avenues of the Sphinxes, at Karnak, as seen by 
 moonlight, seemed to impress her most. Their 
 grandeur, solemnity, and associations, actually made 
 her kneel, from an over-mastering impulse of reverential 
 awe." 
 
 The ladies were received with courtesy and 
 hospitality, both by Lord Dufferin, the Governor 
 General, and by Lord and Lady Reay. In a letter to 
 a friend. Miss Naden says: — "We had a few intro- 
 ductions in Bombay, and I was decidedly amused to 
 find myself plunged into ' the best society,' and 
 meeting the Duchess of Connaught quite informally 
 at a dinner party. She asked me about Mason College, 
 and I had to explain to her the mode of conducting 
 an impromptu debate. Then we were passed on to the 
 Viceroy in Calcutta, and he liked my poems very much, 
 and amused me by saying that he himself ' couldn't 
 write verse, but could do poetical prose very well.'" 
 Professor Max Miiller had kindly given them introduc- 
 tions to several of the native pundits, notably to Mr. 
 Malabari, the great Indian reformer of Bombay, now in 
 England, who explained his ideas on the necessary social 
 reforms, especially regarding infant marriages, and the 
 
FEVER IN INDIA : HOME. 43 
 
 marriage of child-widows. These were alluded to in her 
 subsequent address to the Sociological Section, and in the 
 same paper she records with gratification the fact "that 
 Mr. Spencer's works are known and appreciated among 
 the more highly educated of the native gentlemen." 
 In another letter to a friend, she says : — '' We went 
 up to a stupid place, called Mount A boo, for two days, 
 and the Indian-demon, fever, kept me a prisoner there 
 for seven weeks." Poor lady ! it was the last long 
 holiday she ever took, and, although it must have been 
 eminently rich in experiences, reading between the 
 lines, one sees the beginning of the end. The friends 
 returned to London in June, 1888. 
 
 On settling down in town after her Indian tour, 
 she resided in apartments, first at 14, Half Moon Street, 
 afterwards at ig. Old Quebec Street, for a time; and 
 subsequently purchased, in October, 1888, an elegant 
 newly-built house, No. 114, Park Street, Grosvenor 
 Square, in the furnishing and fitting-up of which she 
 took much interest, and her affectionate disposition and 
 intellectual power soon attracted an appreciative circle 
 of cultured and like-minded friends. Of these days, so 
 full of brightness and hope, she thus writes to a 
 friend : — "I am writing, and buying furniture, and going 
 to lectures, and indulging sometimes in mild dissipation, 
 andlearningthe value of money — I meanhow far it won't 
 go — which I never had the slightest idea of before. 
 It is all very interesting." She scarcely does herself 
 justice in this latter respect, for I am credibly informed 
 that she had the command of other private means in the 
 
44 LIFE IN LONDON. 
 
 lifetime of her grand-parents, out of which the cost of 
 her publications was defrayed, as well as her expenses 
 of travel. 
 
 Philosophy still had the greatest fascination for 
 her ; she became a member of the Aristotelian Society, 
 and was much valued by her fellow-members, and 
 took an active part in its meetings ; indeed, two 
 papers of hers, "On Rationalist and Empiricist Ethics " 
 and "On Mental Physiology and its Place in 
 Philosophy," were announced in the list of papers for 
 January 20th, 1890, and were, since her decease, 
 vicariously read at this Society during the present 
 year. That she was in her element in this learned 
 Society, and could hold her own, is evidenced 
 by an extract from a letter addressed to me, 
 December 22nd, 1888 : — " I had a little discussion 
 
 with [naming a distinguished evolutionist] the 
 
 other day at the Aristotelian Society, to which I belong, 
 and made him confess that he didn't know his ' Data 
 of Ethics.' The point was, whether Herbert Spencer 
 acknowledges 'the influence of the religious, as well as 
 of the political and social controls, in the evolution of 
 the moral control.'" Professor Dunstan has since 
 published in the " Proceedings of the Aristotelian 
 Society,'' 1889-90, a brief but very appreciative memoir 
 of his friend and colleague; which, in conclud- 
 ing, states that "by her death the Society loses one of 
 its most valuable members." She was also a member 
 of the Royal Institution, and in the season 1888-9 
 attended most of its Friday evening lectures, her 
 scientific training enabling her to thoroughly appreciate 
 the subjects introduced. 
 
A SPENCER SOCIETY. 45 
 
 In the Pall Mall Gazette of 7th March, 1889, 
 there appeared an editorial note with some compli- 
 mentary references to our Sociological Section in 
 Birmingham, and suggesting the formation of a Spencer 
 Society in London. This was promptly followed next 
 day by a letter from Sir Philip Magnus, which it is 
 interesting to record : — 
 
 A SPENCER SOCIETY. 
 To THE Editor of the Pall Mall Gazette. 
 
 Sir, — Your suggestion about a ' ' Spencer Society" is too valuable 
 to remain unnoticed. As a very humble student of philosophy and 
 science, I know how much these two great branches of learning 
 owe, in their mutual relation and dependence, to the great thinker 
 of the present century ; but to Herbert Spencer more than to any 
 other writer are undoubtedly due the recent advance of practical 
 education and such improvements as have been introduced into our 
 methods of instruction. His influence is now being felt in all our 
 boys' and girls' schools. His advocacy of science-teaching has 
 partially succeeded in revolutionizing our system of education from 
 the elementary school to the University. What remains to be done 
 can best be done by giving effect to the views expressed in his four 
 articles, which appeared in the Westminster Review in the years 
 1854-9. If our scientists, philosophers, and educationists unite, a 
 Spencer Society may be formed, which may do honour to the 
 author of " First Principles," and may perpetuate his influence. 
 I believe there are many who, like myself, would be glad to assist 
 in the formation of such a Society. 
 
 Yours obediently, 
 
 PHILIP MAGNUS. 
 Atheneeum, March "jth, i88g. 
 
 Miss Naden took immense interest in the pro- 
 position, and, with the hearty co-operation of Sir 
 Philip Magnus, exerted herself among her friends in 
 order to establish a Spencer, or Evolution Society 
 
46 AN EVOLUTION SOCIETY. 
 
 in London. I had the pleasure of meeting Sir Philip 
 Magnus at her house at Easter following, and had 
 many chats and some correspondence with her on the 
 subject. She expressed her intention to act as 
 Honorary Secretary to the proposed Society, and 
 suggested that the preliminary meetings might be 
 held in her drawing room ; but for her untimely death 
 there is no doubt that she would have, with her usual 
 energy and devotion to the cause of evolution, 
 succeeded in carrying into effect the object suggested. 
 The following letter, which I received some weeks 
 afterwards, explains to what extent she had progressed 
 in the development of her plans: — 
 
 114, Park Street, 
 
 Grosvenor Square, W., 
 
 May 25th, 1889. 
 
 Dear Mh. Hughes, — I have delayed writing to you till I had 
 some progress to report, and now I have not much. But first I 
 must thank you for the Birmingham Faces and Places, with its 
 excellent portrait and biography of yourself. I was very much 
 interested in the sketch of your life, which does, as you say, help to 
 account for your " Synthetic sympathies." 
 
 Sir Philip Magnus called on me yesterday, in response to 
 another letter which I had written, and we had a talk about the plan 
 — not altogether an encouraging talk, but still I think something may 
 be arranged, though not exactly in the form which we originally con- 
 templated. Sii Philip's experience is precisely the same as mine — 
 that people are strongly disinclined to join a society which calls itself 
 by the name of any one philosopher, however eminent as a scientific 
 thinker. It seems both to him and to me that this feeling is too 
 strong to permit the formation of a ''Spencer Society," which 
 would have any real vitality. But it occurred to me that by a 
 change of name we might overcome the difficulty — that we might 
 adopt the title, say, of the " Evolution Society," and. while bringing 
 Mr. Spencer's works prominently forward, might thus be able to 
 
"reply to a libel. 47 
 
 invite the co-operation of Evolutionists of different shades of 
 thought. Sir Philip also thinks this a practicable idea. I think 
 I can secure the support of Mr. Clodd — who unfortunately is just 
 now weak and ill after a bad attack of congestion of the lungs — 
 and Professor Rhys Davids, who, of course, is a great authority 
 on the evolution of religions. He was dining with us [i.e., 
 Mrs. Daniell and herself] a few days ago, and I spoke to him on 
 the subject. To-morrow we are dining with some clever people 
 —Dr. and Mrs. Philpot, who, I think, would also be acquisitions. 
 He is the author of the //e7v Judgment of Paris, but I fancy he 
 is more than a mere novelist, (I use the word "mere" only as 
 regards our present purposes). 
 
 I hope soon to have further progress to report. I thought a 
 preliminary meeting might be held here about the middle of 
 June, but Sir Philip considers that too early, and suggests the 
 second week in July. However, I hope we shall at last get the 
 idea into something like practical shape. 
 
 With very kind regards to Mrs. Hughes and to yourself, 
 
 Believe me, 
 
 Yours very sincerely, 
 
 CONSTANCE C. W. NADEN. 
 
 In the summer of 1889, writing to me in a letter, 
 dated 4th August, from Ilkley Wells, where she had 
 gone for a little rest, she mentioned, with evident 
 gratification, that she had, at the request of Mr. 
 Herbert Spencer, written " a reply to Mr. Lilly's libel 
 on Utilitarianism in the Fortnightly," but, from what 
 she said in a subsequent letter, Mr. Spencer thought 
 it too long for publication in a magazine, but considered 
 the "main point good when reached." It is satis- 
 factory to announce, that this paper will hereafter be 
 published by Dr. Lewins, in a second volume of Miss 
 Naden's posthumous writings. In explanation of its 
 non-appearance in the Fortnightly, Dr. Lewins, in a 
 
48 INDUCTION AND DEDUCTION. 
 
 letter to me, says "that she was abreast, and indeed 
 ahead, to some extent, of the epoch, and all 
 successful reviews must be rather behind it to cater 
 for the vast majority of readers who are in a like 
 predicament." Her main energies, however, were 
 devoted to an important work on " Evolutionary 
 Ethics" (includedin Dr. Lewins' first volume, previously 
 mentioned), the nucleus of which was the paper read 
 before the Sociological Section on the " Data of 
 Ethics," already referred to, and on the 20th July, 
 in the same year, she thus wrote to me, in reply to a 
 letter : — " My book gets on slowly, but I hope surely. 
 I cannot say when it will be finished, though it won't 
 be a ' mag. op. ' at all, for ideas have an uncomfortable 
 habit of developing as one writes, and of requiring 
 alterations in their clothing." 
 
 Many complimentary editorial notices have 
 appeared respecting this volume {Induction and 
 Deduction) in the magazines and newspapers during 
 the current year, but none more just and appre- 
 ciative than that contained in an article entitled 
 "Philosophy and Theology" in the Westminster 
 Review for November, 1890, which says : — " There 
 is a pathetic interest attaching to Miss Naden's Essays, 
 as the gifted writer is already beyond the reach 
 of criticism, having died last December, in only her 
 thirty-second year. The readers of these papers will 
 not hesitate to endorse the unstinted praise her friends 
 lavish on her powers, as they are the most unquestion- 
 able evidence of an exceptionally gifted and cultivated 
 mind." 
 
" EVOLUTIONARY ETHICS, ETC. 49 
 
 In a "Summary of Results " of the first and most 
 important essay in her volume, which does not attempt 
 to give a sketch of the history of philosophy in general, 
 but only such portions of it as bear upon her subject, 
 ranging from the Greek Cosmologists to the great 
 thinkers of our own day, Miss Naden says : — " Briefly 
 all induction which passes (in common phrase) from 
 the 'known to the unknown,' does so by 'parity of 
 reasoning.' 
 
 "The new formula for the mutual relations of 
 induction and deduction must run as follows : — Induc- 
 tion is a process of cognition involving recognitions. 
 Deduction is a process of recognition involving cogni- 
 tions." 
 
 As supplementary to the three "primary controls " 
 of Mr. Herbert Spencer in the evolution of morality, 
 viz., the "religious control," the "political control," 
 and the "social control,'' Miss Naden ventures, in 
 " Evolutionary Ethics," the second essay in her volume, 
 to add a fourth — the Natural control. 
 
 "I mean [she says] that self-guidance which follows 
 from a more or less definite knowledge of natural pro- 
 cesses and consequently of the natural or ' intrinsic ' 
 effects of human actions." 
 
 Furthermore she says : — " There is a power within 
 ourselves 'making for righteousness'; but it is not 
 omnipotent, and is frequently held in check by adverse 
 forces." 
 
 The other essays in this important volume com- 
 prise :— The "Philosophy of Thomas Carlyle," " The 
 Brain Theory of Mind and Matter ; or Hylo-Idealism," 
 
50 WORK IN LONDON. 
 
 " Hylo-Idealism : the Creed of the Coming Day," " The 
 Principles of Sociology," and "Animal Automatism — 
 A Criticism of Dr. Huxley's Essays on 'Science and 
 Culture.'" 
 
 But to return to the narrative. Later on, during 
 the summer of 1889, in company with Mrs. Daniell, 
 Miss Naden visited the Paris Exhibition, which was 
 a source of much pleasure to them both. 
 
 The claims of sweet charity — that "voluntaryism," 
 so incessantly urged by Mr. Herbert Spencer, as 
 opposed to the " State-aid compulsion," which he 
 everywhere as strongly deprecates — also appealed to 
 her sympathies; and shortly before her death she was, 
 as a member of the Working Ladies' Guild, in corre- 
 spondence with Lady Mary Feilding (the founder of 
 the guild) with regard to taking the entire charge and 
 responsibility of the Campden Houses, a block of 
 houses on Campden Hill, arranged for the reception 
 of ladies of limited means. On April ist of the year 
 above mentioned, she held a drawing-room meeting at 
 her house, in aid of the new Hospital for Women, in 
 Marylebone Road, which was largely attended, and at 
 which her friend, Mrs. Garrett Anderson, M.D., 
 delivered an address on the subject of the hospital 
 and its relations to the training of medical women for 
 India. At the close of the meeting several hundred 
 pounds were obtained in aid of the funds. Miss 
 Naden was most generous in her private charities ; 
 poor ladies being a special subject of interest to her, 
 and she agreed with Mrs. Daniell, one day when they 
 were chatting over the subject together, that " she had 
 
LAST VISIT TO BIRMINGHAM. 51 
 
 SO many private cases to help that she had little money 
 to subscribe to public charities.'' 
 
 Progress, emancipation, and social reforms 
 naturally had a large share of Miss Naden's active 
 energies. She was a Liberal in politics, and canvassed 
 for Mr. G. Leveson-Gower (the present Member for 
 Stoke-upon-Trent), when he was an unsuccessful 
 candidate for Marylebone. She was a member of the 
 Denison Club, principally composed of members of 
 the Charity Organization Society, who met monthly to 
 discuss questions connected with the condition of the 
 poor. She was also a member of the Somerville Club 
 (only for women), and of the National Indian 
 Association, in which she took much interest after her 
 Indian tour, and attended several of its meetings and 
 conversaziones. She was also a member of the Norwood 
 Ladies' Debating Society, and at one meeting argued 
 against Miss Grover, who took the Socialist side. 
 Miss Naden was in favour of the extension of the 
 suffrage to women, and, under the auspices of the 
 Women's Liberal Association, gave a lecture at 
 Deptford, November 19th, 1889, on the subject, which 
 has been described by one of her audience as having 
 been delivered " in that matured and commanding 
 strain of oratory which only the very highest gifts could, 
 at her age, either impart or justify." 
 
 Miss Naden's last public appearance in Birming- 
 ham was at the Mason College, on Tuesday evening, 
 22nd October, 1889, on the occasion of the opening 
 meeting for the session of the Sociological Section, in 
 which she took such deep interest. With her usual 
 
 E 
 
52 A CORDIAL RECEPTION. 
 
 generously altruistic nature, she had some weeks 
 before promptly complied with the request of the 
 President that she would deliver an address as a 
 preliminary to the subsequent exposition by her 
 fellow-members of the first volume of Mr. Herbert 
 Spencer's Principles cf Sociology. The meeting was 
 held in the large Examination Hall of the College, 
 and the attendance, which included many ladies, was 
 numerically and intellectually strong, numbering nearly 
 a hundred. Among the audience were all the members 
 of the Section, and some of the members of the 
 other sections of the parent Society, a few of her old 
 companions of College days, several of her near 
 relatives and intimate friends, and three or four 
 of the learned professors, her former teachers in the 
 College. Her address was read in a remarkably clear 
 and impressive voice — the intonation being so perfect 
 that it penetrated into every corner of the hall — and 
 was listened to with rapt attention during the period 
 of upwards of an hour which it occupied in delivery. 
 During the pauses, which naturally fell here and there, 
 hearty and sympathetic applause was accorded. Her 
 finely-cut and highly intellectual face never seemed so 
 bright and earnest. Many friends remarked on her 
 apparent good health and spirits, and that all traces 
 of her Indian illness had disappeared. At the 
 conclusion, a cordial vote of thanks to the able Socio- 
 logist for her valuable address, accompanied by a 
 request that she would allow it to be, printed, was 
 moved by Mr. W. B. Grove, M.A., President of the 
 Society, and seconded by Professor Tilden, D.Sc, 
 
HER ADDRESS ON "THE PRINCIPLES OF SOCIOLOGY." 53 
 
 F.R.S. In his subsequent remarks, the learned 
 professor paid her the high compliment of saying that 
 she had acted wisely in undertaking original work 
 rather than striving for a degree — a compliment, we 
 believe, that has rarely been paid before, except by 
 Professor Michael Foster in the case of the late 
 F. M. Balfour. Her staunch friend and former teacher, 
 Professor Lapworth, LL.D., F.R.S. , J. A. Langford, 
 LL.D. (whose Century of Birmingham Life she had 
 referred to in her address), and her old fellow-student, 
 Mr. F. J. Cullis, F.G.S., the first president of the 
 College Union Debating Society, also spoke in the 
 warmest terms, and the motion was carried with 
 acclamation. 
 
 The address — which was soon after published in 
 the Midland Naturalist, and subsequently included by 
 Dr. Lewins in his volume of her posthumous works, 
 previously mentioned, but the proofs, alas! were never 
 touched by the " vanished hand "—commenced with 
 a plea in favour of the new science of Sociology, and 
 a subsequent definition of the nature and scope of 
 its aims and objects, with some account of the various 
 complicated factors which regulate its inter-dependence 
 and progress, together with comparative illustrations 
 from primitive and other races, and, after a picture of 
 a contrast between the Birmingham of the present day 
 and that of one hundred and forty years ago, thus 
 concluded : — 
 
 " A society like ours ought to find its ideal in 
 that 'possible future social type,' which, in Mr. 
 Spencer's words, 'will use the products of industry 
 
54 APPRECIATION. 
 
 neither for maintaining a militant organization, nor 
 exclusively for material aggrandisement, but will devote 
 them to the carrying on of higher activities, — a type 
 which, instead of believing that 'life is for work,' will 
 hold the inverse belief that 'work is for life.' " These 
 were the impressive last words spoken in Birmingham 
 by Constance Naden. 
 
 It was a distinct triumph both for the author and 
 the cause, and the memory of the meeting will for 
 ever be treasured by those who had the privilege of 
 being present. That the gifted lady herself appreciated 
 her reception is confirmed by the following brief 
 extract from a letter addressed to the President the 
 next day: — "I felt rather overwhelmed last night, 
 and am beginning to consider myself a sort of Solar 
 Myth; but I did feel everyorie's kindness very much. 
 I am afraid 1 shall not be fit for' the Saturday 
 Excursion, but I suppose I need not decide till 
 to-morrow. How many do you think were present 
 last night? It was a much better audience than I 
 expected." Happily for once, as we now see it — for 
 it might have hastened her end — the indifferent weather 
 prevailing at this time proved a blessing, for we 
 abandoned our intended excursion to Sutton Coldfield, 
 to the disappointment of many, as her friend, Dr. 
 Showell Rogers, had promised to read an interesting 
 paper, which, however, he afterwards gave at the 
 Mason College. Miss Naden called on the writer of 
 these lines for the last time, for a few minutes, on 
 Friday, October 25th, and, although she did not utter 
 a word of complaint, her intelligent face looked antemic. 
 
"THE UNSEEN FUTURE.' 55 
 
 anxious, and careworn, so very different from its radiant 
 appearance only three nights before. Her energy, 
 however, seemed unabated, and even at this time, so 
 bravely did she bear up, that, with but little persuasion 
 — which, however, was not attempted — she would have 
 joined the contemplated excursion. Reference was 
 made to her address, which was shortly to appear in 
 the Midland Naturalist, and she expressed herself 
 pleased at the notice of it in the day's Daily Post. 
 Little thinking that we should never meet again, 
 the writer bade a cordial good-bye to the cherished 
 friend whom he saw no more. 
 
 As read by the light of subsequent events, how 
 inexpressibly sad seems a passage in this address 
 alluding to the incomplete knowledge of our own 
 times: — "What are we ourselves, viewed as social 
 units ? Whither are we moving, and what is the 
 curve of our line of progress ? What is the goal 
 towards which we are really working ? — for it may be, 
 and probably is, far other than that which we set 
 before our imagination. Not possessing the solution 
 of these enigmas, we cannot know the full sociological 
 significance of our own day or of any previous day, 
 since part of that significance lies in the unseen 
 future. The future is, without doubt, as rigorously 
 predetermined by past and present, as the nature of 
 the harvest is predetermined by the nature of the 
 seed that is sown. If we really knew the crop, we 
 could both predict the harvest and could trace its 
 past history from the formation of the ovule to the 
 liberation of the seed when mature. No child of the 
 
56 FATAL ILLNESS. 
 
 century can truly understand himself or his age, or 
 can solve the problems in which he himself is a 
 factor. If he could, he would be a child not of this 
 century, but of all centuries. As our knowledge 
 advances, and as our apprehension of principles 
 becomes more definite and coherent, we may learn to 
 distinguish many of the ' streams of tendency ' which 
 flow around us or bear us onward ; but the inter- 
 actions even of those which are seen are far too 
 complex to be worked out by the clearest intellect. 
 And we can never be certain that the most important 
 currents have not remained unobserved, just because 
 we are moving with their motion." 
 
 What happened after the Birmingham visit may 
 be briefly told. Symptoms of severe internal illness 
 were discovered, and, as the result of several medical 
 consultations, presided oyer by Sir Spencer Wells, an 
 operation was decided upon, and performed by Dr. 
 Lawson Tait, at her residence, 114, Park Street, 
 Grosvenor Square, on Thursday, the sth December. 
 The public were then informed of the critical state 
 of the patient. For some little time it was hoped 
 that she would have sufficient vitality to recover, and 
 on the i8th December, only a few days before the 
 fatal termination of the illness, Mrs. Daniell wrote : — 
 " I am very happy to tell you that our dear friend is 
 now getting on very well. She is very weak, but I trust 
 that will soon be overcome by the kind care of Dr. 
 Grigg and nurses, and she is able to take a fair amount 
 of nourishment. We hope to-morrow to remove her 
 to another room." Sorrowful to say, the improvement 
 
COURAGE : REGRETS. 57 
 
 was not maintained, and, after a fainting fit, which 
 occurred about eleven o'clock in the forenoon of 
 Sunday, December 22nd, she became extremely weak, 
 and on the following day, December 23rd — ere she 
 had fully completed her thirty-second year, and retain- 
 ing perfect consciousness — she gradually sank, and at 
 a quarter to two o'clock in the morning quietly passed 
 " to where beyond these voices there is peace." 
 
 Necessarily, her medical attendants are extremely 
 reticent as to the details of her illness, but such as 
 could be given strongly impress one with the extra- 
 ordinary courage and powers of endurance she must 
 have had. Practically, her illness had taken a fatal 
 form as early as June or July, 1889, from which only an 
 operation of the most desperate character afforded 
 the slightest chance of relief. Yet, in spite of 
 this delay, her marvellously placid temperament 
 enabled her to pull through so as almost to make a 
 recovery. So far indeed was this recovery effected 
 that she was almost able to leave her sick-bed, and 
 her sudden death could be entirely attributed to 
 conditions which had arisen long antecedent to the 
 operation. 
 
 Only so recently as the last meeting of the 
 Sociological Section, held in the month of December, 
 1889, a resolution was passed congratulating Miss 
 Naden on her progress towards convalescence, and 
 on the first meeting in January following, when her 
 death was announced, the Section recorded " the 
 deep sense of regret at the irreparable loss which the 
 cause of Evolution had sustained by the early death 
 
S8 PERSONAL CHARACTERISTICS. 
 
 of their gifted friend and colleague, who for many 
 years had advocated the doctrine of the Synthetic 
 Philosophy with a genius, ability, and enthusiasm 
 rarely equalled." At a meeting of the committee 
 of the Central National Society for Women's 
 Suffrage, held in London, in January last, presided 
 over by Lady Sandhurst, the following resolution, 
 upon the motion of Mrs. Ashton Dilke, seconded by 
 Miss F. Pennington, was unanimously passed : — 
 "That the committee have heard with profound regret 
 of the death of Miss Constance Naden, who had 
 evinced her warm interest in women's suffrage by 
 entering the ranks of those who publicly advocate 
 the question. They deplore the loss of one who, by 
 her ability and zeal, would have done so much to 
 advance the cause of women, and they would respect- 
 fully tender to the members of her family their most 
 sincere sympathy." 
 
 A few words may be devoted to personal 
 characteristics, which are very pleasant to dwell upon. 
 It was impossible to be in Miss Naden's company 
 without the unmistakable feeling that one was in the 
 presence of a superior intelligence. To a stranger 
 there appeared at first a kind of deep seriousness or 
 natural shyness in the slim and fair unaffected girl, 
 who from her youth and freshness seemed so little 
 qualified to enter into recondite subjects, but this 
 feeling was immediately dispelled when her bright 
 smile showed sympathy with any matter of passing 
 interest. And when her conversation warmed with 
 enthusiasm, as it often did in discussions on the 
 
PERSONAL CHARACTERISTICS. 59 
 
 subject of evolution, one always felt that it was better 
 to listen than to talk. In speaking, her voice, which 
 was usually of high pitch — and had a slight natural 
 peculiarity in the pronunciation of the letter " r," 
 rather pleasing than otherwise — was remarkably clear, 
 impressive, and penetrating, and she was equally 
 confident either before a small or a large audience. 
 
 Her friend, Mrs. Daniell, describes her as "tall, 
 slender, pale, with dark hair; a delicate, yet powerful 
 face, with singularly clear blue-grey eyes. . . . She 
 had especially small white hands, but was not at all 
 fond of needlework. She used to write for some 
 hours almost every morning, but was very fond of 
 walking, and never failed to take out-door exercise 
 once or twice every day, till told by her medical 
 attendant. Dr. Grigg, that she must remain in the 
 house." Mrs. Daniell, speaking of her before her 
 fatal illness, also says: — "Every function, bodily and 
 mental, seemed to be in just balance, so that she was 
 never unduly elated by fortune, nor overwhelmingly 
 depressed by misfortune, common to all mankind. 
 It was the vigour and sound sanity of her brain which 
 gave her this self-mastery, and to it she owed the ease 
 with which she could pass from the lightest topics of 
 daily life to the highest regions of abstruse thought, 
 and vice versa." 
 
 Music had little attraction for her, but her poems 
 exhibit a skilled knowledge of the laws of rhythm. 
 For gardening she had no taste, though so fond of 
 flowers and botanical studies. Her sense of humour 
 was decidedly keen. This came out sometimes in 
 
6o PERSONAL CHARACTERISTICS. 
 
 conversation, and is conspicuous in several of her 
 poems, and occasionally appears in her prose writings. 
 To her friends, her manner was undeviatingly kind, 
 cordial, and affectionate. Her letters, in very dainty 
 hand-writing, of which a few brief extracts have been 
 given, were singularly frank and genial. Her fine and 
 sweet temper was especially remarkable. 
 
 Mr. Naden, her father, thus writes : — " My dear 
 daughter was a great admirer of energy and determina- 
 tion, and especially took an interest in the doings of 
 her half-brother, George F. S. Naden, who, seeing no 
 immediate field for his exertions here, wished to try 
 what he could do abroad; accordingly he went to the 
 State of Minnesota, U.S.A., and eventually became 
 located in a sea-port on the Pacific coast, and proved 
 very successful in his efforts. Constance corresponded 
 with him, and asked what books he would like. The 
 result was that she forwarded to him some treatises 
 on geology and other books, selected, I believe, by 
 Professor Lapworth. Her half-brother, Percy T. 
 Naden, and her relative, Mr. A. D. Brooks, are named 
 as executors in her will.'' 
 
 " It may be of interest to note " — says a valued 
 correspondent — "that many years ago Miss Naden was 
 taken by Dr. Lewins to visit his friends, the late Mr. and 
 Mrs. Bray, and Miss Hennell, at Coventry. She sub- 
 mitted, not without some amusement, to a phrenological 
 examination by Mr. Bray, who was much struck 
 by the resemblance of her head to that of George 
 Eliot. The only estimate of her character, from this 
 external study of it, which I can remember, is ' strong 
 
PERSONAL CHARACTERISTICS. 6 1 
 
 tenacity in friendship.' That this was true to a 
 remarkable degree, her many friends can testify ; while 
 her poem ' Friendship,' shows how high was her own 
 standard of its possibilities." 
 
 Miss Maude Michell, the beloved friend whom 
 I have already quoted, favours me with a few observa- 
 tions. She says: — "I should like to add my testimony 
 to that of Mrs. Daniell, that mental strain, at least as 
 far as study was concerned, bore no part in the develop- 
 ment of the disease from which Miss Naden died. 
 Study was never an effort to her, but was as easy and 
 natural as novel reading is to most girls. During the 
 period in which most of her literary work was accom- 
 plished, i.e., between 1881 and 1887, I saw her 
 constantly, and although a very considerable portion 
 of her time was spent daily at the Mason College, I 
 never once remember her confessing or showing the 
 least trace of strain from overwork. Indeed, she 
 did not even feel the necessity of a study, but wrote in 
 a room where she was subject to constant interruptions, 
 and where she was always ready to break off her train 
 of thought, to answer a question from Mrs. Woodhill, 
 who always sat with her, or to entirely set aside her 
 work to receive her friends.'' 
 
 " An important note in Miss Naden's character,'' 
 continues the same friend, "is struck by a sentence 
 in her criticism of ']fohn Ward, Preacher. 'I believe' 
 (she says, in a letter dated September 12th, 1889) 
 'you will agree with me that Helen shows a 
 strange lack of perception in treating her husband's 
 views so lightly. She should have seen that to 
 
62 PERSONAL CHARACTERISTICS. 
 
 him they were vital.' In this spirit she ever 
 
 regarded the opinions of those who differed from her, 
 
 when she was convinced that their aim was 'truth 
 
 at any cost.' Thus she writes, ' Don't let difference 
 
 of opinion make the least change in our friendship,' 
 
 and when time had proved that it could not do so, 
 
 'I always feel certain, with you, that our deepest 
 
 feelings are in sympathy. Without that, no agreement 
 
 of mere opinion is worth anything — as I have often 
 
 felt — and with it, even the interchange of thought 
 
 sometimes seems unnecessary; and yet it is good to 
 
 interchange thought, and to speak sometimes of what 
 
 is most sacred to us.' " 
 
 Mrs. F. T. S. Houghton, the other life-long friend 
 
 previously alluded to, also thus writes to me her 
 
 impressions: — "No one had a keener appreciation of 
 
 fun, or entered more readily into a frolic than Miss 
 
 Naden in her college days. She shared in all the 
 
 frivolities of the ladies' room — the afternoon teas, at 
 
 which 
 
 The cups were every shape and size 
 That chance or purpose could devise ; 
 But one and all the self-same hue. 
 And that was like the maidens — blue ; — 
 
 and the very occasional gossip. In conversation a deux, 
 Miss Naden had a special charm. She not only gave 
 of her best, but extracted the best that was in one. 
 To talk to her was, indeed, to drink in inspiration; 
 to receive a letter from her brilliant, facile pen, was 
 to know a joy which falls to the lot of few. It is 
 difficult for one who has grown up with Miss Naden 
 from childhood, and known her primarily as a tenderly 
 
THE FINAL SCENE. 63 
 
 affectionate and deeply sympathetic friend, to at all 
 realise the impression of hardness and reserve which 
 she is said to have sometimes produced upon strangers. 
 Like George Eliot, she had the intellect of a man, but 
 the heart of the most womanly of women, and though 
 science and literature were much to her, love and 
 friendship were infinitely more. What we have lost, 
 whom she loved and who loved her, no words can say; 
 the grief is still so recent that as yet we scarcely dare 
 to gauge it." 
 
 And now there remains but the final scene to 
 record. On Saturday, 28th December, 1889, under 
 leaden-coloured skies, in a bitter north-east wind, and 
 with "rime in the air, sucking the vital warmth 
 out of every living thing," all that was mortal of the 
 gifted poetess and philosopher was consigned to its 
 resting place at the Old Cemetery, Warstone Lane, 
 Birmingham, on the south side, and in the grave where 
 repose the mother whom she never knew, and those 
 "guardians true" who had watched her from her 
 infant days 
 
 "With tenderest love and care." 
 
 The ceremony was singularly quiet and unosten- 
 tatious, "bestowing peace for grief," the mourners 
 being the father and other sorrowing relatives, together 
 with her fellow-traveller and companion, Mrs. Daniell. 
 A few friends beyond this sacred circle reverentially 
 attended to pay a last tribute of respect to the beloved 
 one for whose sterling work in the past they had such 
 profound admiration, and of whose potentiality in the 
 future they had formed a still higher estimate. They 
 
64 FAREWELL. 
 
 included Miss Charles, B.Sc, and Miss Edwards, B.A., 
 on behalf of the lady students of the Mason College ; 
 and the following as principally representing the 
 Sociological Section, namely: — Alfred Browett, W. B. 
 Grove, M.A., Alfred Hayes, M.A., W. R. Hughes, 
 F.L.S., W. Showell Rogers, LL.D., and Ernest C. 
 Rogers, LL.D. 
 
 The solemn service of the Church of England 
 for the burial of the dead was read by the Rev. W. E. 
 Ivens, M.A., Vicar of St. James's, and as we mourn- 
 fully left the deep open grave in the soft red 
 sandstone, wherein were placed by loving hands 
 wreaths of fresh green maiden-hair fern, intermingled 
 with camellias and other white flowers, our thoughts 
 turned to the bright spirit whose course had been so 
 brief here, but who had nevertheless left her impress, 
 as unconsciously foreshadowed in her ever-memorable 
 lines in "The Pantheist's Song of Immortality" — 
 
 "Thou yet shalt leave thine own enduring token, 
 For earth is not as though thou ne'er hadst been." 
 
 And SO, in the closing words of that other lofty poem, 
 the merits of which she was among the first to 
 recognise, 
 
 "The Dewdrop slips into the shining Sea." 
 
 WILLIAM R. HUGHES. 
 
ADDITIONS. 
 
COLLEGE LIFE. 67 
 
 PART III. 
 
 Der kiihne Dichtertraum ist nicht verloren, 
 
 Er war zu eng, zu bleich : 
 Nur in des Menschen Seele wird geboren 
 
 Das Erd-und Himmelreich. 
 
 Das Ideal. 
 
 Constance Naden came to us in 1881. The 
 story of her life at College would be short enough 
 if a successful student-life could be summed up in a 
 simple record of marks, classes or degrees. For the 
 official testimony of the College Calendar shows that 
 a very few class places and prizes taken, without 
 obvious effort, in the course of some five years given 
 to lecture room and laboratory, represent all there is 
 to show to the outside world of the career of the 
 most brilliant student the doors of Mason's College 
 have yet admitted. 
 
 The proof that this estimate of her powers was 
 shared by all her teachers is to be found in the roll of 
 "Associates" of the College, where it may be seen 
 that there is but one name to which is joined neither 
 official title, nor University distinction, nor College 
 diploma, in explanation or justification of its place in 
 the list.* Professors, and students perhaps better 
 than professors, knew how well that place had been 
 
 • This was written before the recent amplification of the list. 
 
 F 
 
68 PREPARATORY STUDIES IN SCIENCE. 
 
 earned. In a burlesque report of an imaginary 
 debate, printed in an early number of the College 
 Magazine, she is referred to under the name 
 " Hypatia," a sort of acknowledgment, perhaps not 
 very appropriate, but still an intelligible acknowledg- 
 ment of her position among her fellow-students. 
 
 From the first it was evident that, although she 
 had no University examination in view, she had 
 planned for herself a very definite and very complete 
 course of study, with a very well defined purpose. 
 
 The study of philosophy, undertaken with the 
 object of forming a true theory of life, requires that 
 no branch of modern learning shall be omitted from 
 the necessary preparatory course. Physical and 
 biological science must both be explored. Miss Naden 
 knew this, and accordingly, having determined to build 
 high, she proceeded to lay her foundations deep, sub- 
 mitting to a very thorough drilling in the subject- 
 matter of the sciences of physics, chemistry, botany, 
 zoology, and geology. Then, as in one subject after 
 another, she obtained command of the fundamental 
 principles, with no mean acquaintance with its 
 detail, she transferred her active intelligence, her keen 
 reasoning faculty, and great powers of acquisition, to 
 new ground. No inducements seemed sufficient to 
 prevail upon her to become a mere scientific speciahst. 
 Foir her the absorbing questions seemed to be, What 
 is man, whence and whither? 
 
 But though she came to gather for herself the 
 elements of the synthetic philosophy which she 
 thought to pursue as a life-work, she also gave freely 
 
THE COLLEGE MAGAZINE. 69 
 
 of her time and talents to the social life of the College. 
 For some time she served as editress of the Magazine, 
 and was always, till she left England for the East, a 
 chief contributor to its pages. In the first number of 
 the first volume (1883) there is a sonnet of hers, 
 "Hercules." The second number contains an article 
 on "Scientific Idealism;" the next a paper on 
 " Paracelsus." 
 
 The fourth number opens with an Editorial 
 bearing her signature, in which a reply is framed to 
 the question: "Is the increasing predominance of 
 brain over muscle conducive to national welfare ?" 
 And this reply so clearly indicates the habitually cheer- 
 ful and healthy, as well as lucid, character of all her 
 thought, that the final sentences, which contain the 
 pith of the matter, may be appropriately quoted here. 
 The increasing predominance is prejudicial " because it 
 promotes excessive specialization, thus contracting the 
 sphere of human sympathies, and widening the breach 
 between the classes of which a nation is composed : 
 and also because severe and continuous exercise of the 
 brain tends to the disease and consequent atrophy of 
 other parts of the body, inducing an unhealthy con- 
 dition which must in time re-act upon the organ of 
 mind. The heart, which is a muscle, will revenge 
 itself upon the brain. A nation, which has forgotten 
 how to enjoy, will soon forget how to think — and the 
 sooner the better." 
 
 Here the fallacy — if there is one— lies in the 
 assumption that there is a predominance of mind over 
 muscle in modern civilised life, and that it is increasing. 
 
70 "a shade falls on us like the dark." 
 
 The predominance is probably an assumption for 
 which the justification seems to be that it is apparent 
 chiefly among those classes of persons whose mode of 
 life was most familiar to the writer. 
 
 These selections serve to show the habitually 
 serious turn of her mind, while a couple of pages of 
 verse, under the title "Scientific Wooing," in the third 
 number, provide an example of her sprightly humour, 
 of which other instances are scattered through the 
 later numbers of our magazine, as well as in the 
 published volumes of her poems. Unfortunately she 
 was obliged to resign the editorship in December, 1884. 
 The last act of what may be regarded as her student life 
 was the composition of the essay on Induction and 
 Deduction, for which the first award of the Heslop 
 Gold Medal was made. Then came the journey to the 
 East, her illness in India, and return home. Her 
 friends hoped for the best, and looked forward with 
 confidence to the ripening of that noble fruitage of 
 which the spring-time of her life had given promise so 
 abundant. This, however, was not to be. The 
 treasure of this young and ardent life is spilled and 
 wasted ; and for those of us who mourn her loss there 
 is no consolation but the memory of the flower that 
 lived but such a little day and then was seen no more. 
 
 WILLIAM A. TILDEN. 
 
HYLO-IDEALISM. 7 1 
 
 IV. 
 
 "Take the Godhead into your own Being, 
 And It abdicates its cosmic throne.'' 
 
 Schiller. 
 " The important question, What is the rule of Life ? is lost 
 out of the world." — Bishop Butler. 
 
 A memoir of Miss Constance Naden, as Mr. 
 Hughes and myself agree in thinking, which should 
 ignore the scientific hylo-ideal, or automorphic 
 principle, or synthesis underlying and suffusing her 
 whole intellectual and ethical architectonic, would be 
 like the tragedy of Hamlet minus its Protagonist. 
 
 I shall here state, in as few and clear words as 
 possible, the data on the furthest rim of her horizon, 
 which coloured and inspired all her utterances, in prose 
 or rhyme ; premising that ever since leaving College she 
 had bid adieu to poetry, and was concentrating all her 
 powers for the composition of what she called her 
 magnum opus, embodying these esoteric convictions, 
 to which she became a convert while still in her early 
 girlhood — a composition cut short by her premature 
 death. Without this revelation of her inner life much, 
 especially of her later poetry and prose, must be as 
 enigmatical, and indeed incomprehensible, as Volapiik. 
 None of her readers, in its absence, will find it 
 practicable to appreciate what the Germans term her 
 
72 ITS ELEMENTARY SIMPLICITY. 
 
 Weltanschauung, or world-scheme, as regards either the 
 Macrocosm or the Microcosm of Man. 
 
 My chief difficulty in this exposition is the 
 elementaTy naivete andsimplicityof the concept, or ideal, 
 involved — the conclusion being more self-evident 
 than any premises leading up to it which I could 
 possibly frame — that conclusion being only common 
 sense, and, indeed, common-place fact, proverbially 
 grander and stranger than all fiction. Her own most 
 explicit utterances of her esoteric faith or unfaith are 
 contained in her essays on The Brain Theory of Mind 
 and Matter, on Hylo-idealism, the Creed of the Coming 
 Day, in her analysis of Carlyle's genius and of his 
 Spiritual Optics, in her critique of Professor Huxley's 
 Essays on Culture, in her tract What is Religion ? and 
 in her German poem, Das Ideal, at page 76 of her 
 Songs and Sonnets of Springtime, not to mention 
 passages, passim, in which, less explicitly, the same 
 world-scheme may be read between the lines.* To 
 these writings I beg to direct the attention of all 
 serious students of her life-work solicitous to verify, 
 at first hand, her settled opinions, aspirations, and 
 convictions. All I can pretend to do in this synopsis 
 is to indicate the nature of the primum mobile — 
 at once Archimedean fulcrum and lever — by means 
 of which she moves, and, indeed, evolves the universe 
 — a principle based exclusively on well-established 
 data of Physics, Physiology, and Moral Philosophy. 
 
 * See her posthumous volume, lately published by Bickers 
 and Son, London, on Induction and Deduction, and other 
 Essays. 
 
WRIT OF POSITIVE SCIENCE EXTENDED. 73 
 
 From its far-reaching and exhaustive synthesis, it 
 enables the " Writ of Positive Science '' to run in 
 regions, viz., those of Consciousness, in which, as the 
 King's beyond the Highland line during the heritable 
 jurisdiction of the Chiefs, it has hitherto been invalid. 
 It heralds, therefore, a new departure in the provinces 
 of Anthropology and Morals, clearing up nugce that 
 have hitherto ruinously hampered human insight and 
 progress in its highest forms, while yet, as above 
 stated, introducing no new element into the Sphinx- 
 like problem. Its main coign of vantage, and that, 
 now-a-days, itself quite a truism, is the coherent 
 postulation, on simple and intelligible bases, of the 
 fatuity of Absolute Knowledge, or true Ontology, or 
 Causality, and the assured certainty, or entelechy, of 
 its relativity or individuality — transcendence of which 
 latter, corresponding with the impossibility of exit 
 from what Lord Tennyson calls the "abysmal depths" 
 of our personality, being manifestly a yeductio not only 
 ad ahsurdum but ad impossibile. 
 
 On this relational ordinance, therefore, unless we 
 are prepared, like TertuUian, to believe just because 
 it is impossible — each individual sentient Being — 
 Beast or Man, Protozoon or Metazoon — must be 
 relatively, i.e., in itself, everything. " Thing," indeed, 
 disappears altogether by transformation into conscious 
 "think," no cognizance of object or Non-Ego being 
 possible, until this mental (cerebral) transfiguration 
 from non-egoistic externality into Subject-Egoity is 
 consummated — a fact which is the key of the whole 
 position, and the pivot upon which the mighty 
 
74 AUTO-MONISM Versus dualism. 
 
 question of Auto-Monism versus Dualism revolves. 
 This simple fact — simple as any conjuring trick when 
 once we have been initiated into its secret — is clearly 
 one with Kant's negation of the Thing in itself, or 
 Ding an sick. It is just as clearly solidaive with the 
 predicate that each individual sentient being, on the 
 relative or cerebro-ideal plane of ideation, bien entendu, 
 is the Maker or Creator, or Demiurge of the only 
 universe — abstract or concrete, visible or invisible, to 
 which it has access. Quod supra, vel extra, nos is 
 hylo-ideally, as the only "real reality" or factuality, 
 nihil ad nos. All students of ancient Greek wisdom 
 will recognise in this Neo-conceptualism the Gospel 
 of the Abderite sophist, Protagoras, in his own day, 
 though ultimately persecuted, like Phidias, Aspasia, 
 and Socrates, &c., if not literally crucified, for 
 Atheism — acclaimed like Christ — Logos and Sophia; 
 viz., that man, and, by implication, all other animals, 
 is to himself the measure and standard of all existence 
 and non-existence whatsoever — a formula utterly mis- 
 understood by Plato, Bacon, G. H. Lewes, Grant 
 Allen, Proctor, Tyndall, and generally by most 
 special scientists, our contemporaries. This formula 
 unobscurely affirms that each individual Ego or Self is 
 the creator of its own world : Faher mundi sui : and that 
 there are as many worlds as there are sensoria to image 
 them — a different world being represented in, and by, 
 every individual brain ; constituting thus the veritable 
 apotheosis, canonization, or beatification of universal 
 Humanity, thus revealed as the Surrogate or Vicarius, 
 quite the Pope-King or White Czar, of an unknowable 
 
A WORLD-SCHEME. 75 
 
 Pseudo-Deity. Each sentient unit is thus monarchos 
 and autocrat of all it surveys. 
 
 All impious presumption — a term Socrates 
 applied to the astronomers of his own time — is 
 eliminated from this Promethean and Titanic escalade 
 — Heaven itself, like all things or nothings else, being 
 but ideal, i.e., a physiological state — an internal feel- 
 ing, not an external "reality" — when we limit our 
 faculties to phenomena or appearances. Indeed, the 
 charge of presumption recoils on our gainsayers. 
 A world-scheme based on the relativity or pheno- 
 menality (by synecdoche) of cognition is the really 
 humble view, confining, as it does, human knowledge 
 within its legitimate boundaries, but as a set-off — the 
 gain being incommensurably greater than the apparent loss 
 — making man supreme in that his only proper sphere. 
 The real presumption clings thus to the Spiritualists, 
 who seek to know, and assume to know, the unknow- 
 able and unverifiable. To search after the unsearch- 
 able, with which we have no real concern whatsoever, 
 is self-evidently "vanity of vanities." It is like the 
 futile efforts of the infant in arms to clutch the moon, 
 or like attempting to jump down our own throat, out 
 of our own skin, or to run from our own shadow. 
 The real humility is to foreclose all pretensions to 
 reach verm causa as entirely beyond the necessary 
 limitations of the human mind (brain), and to rest 
 content in the relativity of all Gnosis. 
 
 In modern times Bishop Berkeley's Principles of 
 Human Knowledge is the rechauffe of the Abderite 
 sophist's standpoint, as Spinoza's Pantheism of the later 
 
76 HUMANISM V. THEISM. 
 
 Platonist Theocles, only the former, vitiated by the 
 dual fallacy of the Absolute, from which Animism or 
 Fetichism — a vicious relic from primeval medicine 
 men — the Greek hylo-zoists who preceded Plato were 
 exempt. Our christian and episcopal Protagoras 
 enunciates his " Principle" thus ; "Some truths there 
 are so near and obvious to the mind that a man has 
 only to open his eyes to see them. Such I take to be 
 this most important one, that all the choir of Heaven 
 and furniture of earth — in a word, all those bodies 
 which compose this mighty frame of the world, have 
 not any substance without a mind." This position, 
 unlike Mr. Gladstone's "Rock of Holy Scripture," is 
 impregnable. But, since out of our own cerebration 
 we can never expatiate, that pseudo-alien mind can be 
 no other than our own — the "unknown" Cause of 
 Causes, therefore, which we blindly "seek after," and 
 when hypothetically "found" assume to worship, 
 being impossibly any other "making for righteous- 
 ness," or the reverse, than the Pseudo-Deus-Homo, 
 Ego, or Demiurge, our Very Self of Very Self. 
 
 In a tract published at 63, Fleet Street, in 1887, 
 entitled Humanism v. Theistn, I have dwelt more fully 
 than I do here on the bearing of this auto-centric 
 Solipsism on Eschatology. This tract consists, in 
 addition to her essay on Hylo-Idealism, of extracts 
 from letters addressed to Miss Naden, selected by 
 herself, during the years 1878-80. They are prefaced 
 by a note of her own stating that, after farther 
 verbal illustration, and after study of the exact and 
 moral sciences, she became a convinced convert to 
 
EVOLUTION OF THE POSITIVE SCIENCES. 77 
 
 this world-scheme. Berkeley's plea for Absolute 
 Idealism appeared in 1708, more than a hundred 
 and eighty years ago. In that interval what 
 stupendous experiential developments, which at 
 bottom are all mental, have taken place. Scotch 
 Moral Philosophy fiom Hutcheson to Hume and 
 Thomas Brown, of which Kantism is an offshoot, 
 German Rationalism dating from Lessing's Wolfen- 
 biittel Fragments (1774-78), the neology of modern 
 philological exegesis, and last in order, but first in 
 rank, the amazing evolution of the Positive Sciences, 
 not one of which existed in 1708, with the exception 
 of formal or ideal Newtonian Physics, and its appli- 
 cation to Astronomy. Even that whilom Queen of 
 Sciences, now dethroned by " transcendental " 
 Anatomy, required the revision of Laplace and other 
 French Neo-Materialists, to get rid of the immaterial 
 extra-mundane Spiritism which vitiated its conclusions 
 in the domain of Philosophy. No competent 
 astronomer, now-a-days, but must smile at Sir Isaac's 
 scholium about the Ens Supnmum. It is quite on a 
 par with Milton's mythology of Creation. Medicine, 
 in Berkeley's age, and till the end of the eighteenth 
 century, was quite in the scholastic stage. It only 
 entered the Positive phase under the genius of Xavier 
 Bichat, who, like the subject of this memorial sketch, 
 was cut off prematurely at the age of thirty-one years. 
 The Bishop's delusion as to the " virtue of tar water," 
 which, during almost his entire lifetime, he extolled 
 as the "■infallible" prophylactic and panacea for all 
 diseases of animals and vegetables, is proof sufficient 
 
78 MONISM THE CREED OF SCIENCE. 
 
 of the backwardness of the healing art, as well as of 
 his own visionary disposition and complete incapacity 
 for valid experimental research. Mutatis mutandis, 
 like Dean Swift, he was, in Thackeray's words, 
 "strangled by his own [clerical] bands." 
 
 All such minds are, as fetichists, dualists, who 
 ■must hold animal Life to be the union of Soul and 
 Body — a now quite antiquated and anti-scientific 
 position, fundamentally one with the Archaism of Van 
 Helmont, a Flemish nosologist, who died soon after 
 Newton's birth. Now-a-days Monism — unity of body 
 and mind — which defines sentient vitality as organic 
 function, or organization in action, is the accredited 
 creed of Science. That histological canon holds a 
 separate soul or spirit, or Noiis, to be in Physiology, 
 what Phlogiston or Caloric is in Chemistry and Physics, 
 an imaginary factor or Nonentity. This thesis is well 
 expressed by the late Sir Wm. Gull, M.D., in the 
 sentences : " Until to-day [or rather yesterday] the 
 theory that the living quality in us was due to a 
 mysterious vital force \i.e., immaterial spirit or 
 principle] out of reach of science, pre-occupied the 
 mind and stood in the way of observation and experi- 
 ment. But now it has become the immovable stand- 
 point of Physiology that a living creature is dependent 
 for all its bodily functions upon the forces of inorganic 
 matter ; or in other words, that our corporeal life is 
 but the operation of material atoms and material forces 
 within the reach of experimental enquiry.'' 
 
 Indeed, how can this be any longer a question, 
 since the solidarity of the organic and inorganic was 
 
THE SOMATIC SELF. 79 
 
 set at rest by Wohler's transmutation of the one into 
 the other by his artificial manufacture in the laboratory 
 of the organic product Urea from inorganic ones, 
 more than sixty years ago (1S28)? So that now-a- 
 days organic chemistry is only that of the carbon 
 compounds. One step further, but that an epoch- 
 making, all-shattering one, reversing past and present 
 authoritative notions of human Ethics and Practice, 
 Miss Naden takes, when she resolves Hylozoism into 
 Hylo-idealism, of which the somatic Self is centre, 
 radius, and periphery. As must be the case if all our 
 knowledge be only an Autopsy, or Self-inspection — a 
 thought-world and thought being an alias of cerebration, 
 as impossible of vicarious or altruistic performance as 
 sleep or alimentation. The mere affirmation that the 
 Brain is sensifacient, or sense and mind creatmg, solves 
 the whole immemoiial problem, which in all ages and 
 climes has maddened the hitherto only semi-rational 
 family of Man in doubt whether to deem himself a 
 God or Beast. Most seem quite content with being 
 the latter or worse. And until the human race can 
 be made to realise, and act upon the fact, that each of 
 its units is its own measure and standard no progress 
 worth the name, but only processes of alternate action 
 and reaction, can, in the way of Self- and world- 
 reformation, come to pass. Wanting this criterion of 
 truth and untruth, the extension of Luther's plea 
 for Private (individual) Judgment and liberty of 
 conscience, human nature must remain indefinitely 
 what Pope describes in the second epistle of his Essay 
 
8d our universe made up of sensations. 
 
 0J1, Man, from the line "Know then thyself, presume 
 
 not God to scan," to the couplet: 
 
 " Sole Judge of Truth, in endless error hurl'd, 
 The glory, jest, and riddle of the world." 
 
 Make "thing" only think or idea — an Ideal Pope 
 vigorously and virulently combats and denounces in 
 the 4th Book of the Dimciad — and the whole standing 
 problem, usually pronounced insoluble, including the 
 origin of " Evil," Determinism and Indeterminism, etc., 
 is disentangled at one blow, like the Gordian Knot by 
 the sword of the Macedonian conqueror. "Our 
 Universe," writes Miss Naden, at page lo of Humanism 
 V. Theism, in one of many passages to the same effect 
 throughout her writings, "is made up of sensations [or 
 states of consciousness] . For even thought is but the 
 special sense of the cerebral cortex, and beyond 
 sensation we cannot pass. Even Hyle, the substance, 
 the Unknowable, if you will, must be defined in terms 
 of thought. ^ ^ Practically we may say of Self, as 
 Paul of Christ : In it are all things created in the 
 Heavens and upon Earth, things visible and things 
 invisible ; all things have been created by it, and Self 
 is before all things, and in self all things consist." 
 Of course this is the Gospel of Selfism, far as the poles 
 asunder from vulgar selfishness and Egotism. Lord 
 Byron hails Berkeley's theory as a "sublime discovery," 
 from its making the Universe universal Egotism, or 
 rather Egoism. And the above quotation from Miss 
 Naden converts this speculative dream into a sober, 
 scientific excogitation not possible in his age. It quite 
 corresponds with Sir Humphry Davy's ejaculations 
 
PHYSIOLOGICAL PHENOMENA. 8 1 
 
 during the orgasm induced by Nitrous Oxide Gas : 
 " Nothing exists but thoughts. The Universe is com- 
 posed of impressions, ideas, pleasures, and pains." 
 And when, quite restored to his normal condition, he 
 describes himself as " by degrees losing all connection 
 with external things, and as existing in a world of newly 
 connected and newly modified ideas, and as seeming 
 a new and sublime being, newly created." The Stoic 
 and Christian Palingenesia, Pentecostal descent of the 
 Paraclete, and all analogous raptures or £Kstases of 
 Saints and Martyrs, "raising their longing eyes on 
 high as though it were a bliss to die," can be nothing 
 else than this hyperneurotic condition of the supreme 
 nerve centres, and therefore a natural physiological 
 phenomenon. The ecstatic or enstatic rhapsody of 
 the emancipated Baccalaureus in Part II. of Goethe's 
 Faust, translated by Miss Naden at page 173 of her 
 Modern Apostle, and the quasi-divine vision of her 
 Modern Anostle himself, on which she — through the 
 medium of Ella — throws cold water, to say nothing of 
 Calenture, Mirage of the Desert, and other cognate 
 physiological states, are all instances of the same 
 cerebro-cosmic exaltations, and Mount Tabor-like 
 transfigurations. 
 
 Fichte's announcement at the close of one of his 
 lectures at Jena, " Gentlemen, to-morrow I shall create 
 God," and Schiller's lines in his Life and the Ideal, 
 " With Man's resistance [to Reason] vanishes also the 
 Majesty of God," all bear witness to the fact that per- 
 cepts and concepts — emanations of the Self — form 
 our entire universe. So that, instead of being the 
 
&2 AUTOCENTRIC SOLIPSISM. 
 
 offspring in the domain of Consciousness, outside 
 which is taboo, we really are the Parent of Deity. 
 
 On that neo-nominalist world-scheme — a view 
 thoroughly verified by the records of all Religions 
 from Serpent Worship to Jehovah, Jove, or Lord 
 Jesus — Divinities are made in the image of their 
 worshippers, not vice versa,. Autocentric Solipsism is 
 well illustrated by the Brahman saying that"Brahm 
 looking round can see nothing but himself;" or, to 
 come nearer home, by the inscription on the monument 
 of Sir Ch. Wren, in St. Paul's Cathedral, " Si monu- 
 mentum guceris ciycumspice ;'' or by what ought to have 
 been the answer of the Neo-Materialist savants to 
 Napoleon on the passage to Egypt, when he extended 
 his arm to the Orient Stars, and fancied to foil them 
 by asking who made all that. The real answer, on 
 this plane of thought, ought to have been : "Yourself. 
 What you see is a vision of your own." Later in life he 
 objected to Laplace's exclusion of Divinity from his 
 system, to which the great geometer replied, differing 
 thus in toto from Newton : " I have no need for that 
 supposition." 
 
 I hope I have now made the philosophical 
 esoterism of Miss Naden intelligible to all — never 
 numerous, especially in un-ideal England — serious 
 enquirers. It may all be summed up in the postulate 
 that perception and conception, or, in one word, 
 Thought or Idea, is an organic function, which, like 
 all other natural offices, every one must perform for 
 himself. To him, or her, who realises this necessity, 
 the whole burden of my exposition is clear. Egomet 
 
Jacob's membrane. 83 
 
 ipse must be the universal "I am." When Bacon 
 blames men for spinning webs, like spiders, out of 
 their own entrails, he failed utterly to see through the 
 problem. Man can do nothing else. The cerebral 
 cortex is a viscus, and out of it proceed the issues of 
 life and death, or what is the same, our consciousness 
 of the former, of which the latter is only the privative. 
 To myself the above canon covers the whole 
 position. But, before closing, I may append 
 additional concrete anatomical evidence, extracted 
 from Dr. R. A. Lundie's recent contributions 
 to the more recondite optical Anatomy, under 
 the article " Eye," in Chambers's Encyclopaedia, or 
 Dictionary of Universal Knowledge. In that enlight- 
 ened, and up to date monograph, Dr. Lundie writes: 
 "In vision we do not look outwards towards the object, 
 but inwards only, towards the object as mirrored [i.e., 
 manufactured] at the base of our own eye ; the essen- 
 tial factors of vision — the rods and cones of the 
 bacillary layer of the retina or Jacob's membrane, 
 which are present by millions, being thus turned away 
 from the light." This seems a perfect physical proof 
 that the quasi-outer, or objective world, so far as we 
 can or need see, is only an individual and subjective 
 image of what Locke calls "/ know not what," formed 
 at the bottom of our own optical apparatus. I quote 
 Chambers's Cyclopaedia as a popular and accessible 
 work of reference. The same morphological proof 
 of automorphic Monism is more fully elaborated in 
 Sir John Lubbock's Senses of Animals (International 
 Scientific Series), and in other recent handbooks 
 
 G 
 
84 SCIENTIFIC REALISM. 
 
 dealing with this crucial problem. The reflected 
 image on the retina, corrected by the "Mind," points the 
 same moral, that all we see is but an Autopsy. Kepler's 
 Supplement to Vitellio is no satisfactory rationale of the 
 puzzle; no "explanation" of an ultimate fact being 
 possible or necessary. It is entirely ultra vires rationis 
 (cerebri), and therefore,, in sound science, and sober 
 sense, quite out of court. 
 
 To scientific realism, in the supreme regions of 
 thought and life, Lucretius' verdict, condemnatory of 
 religion, is thus evidently equally applicable. Descartes' 
 formula, Cogito ergo sum should only run Cogito^snm. 
 Being and Thought, as highest mode of consciousness, 
 are parallelisms. Mens sana in corpore sano should, in 
 like manner, read Corpus sanmn = Mens sana. 
 
 R. LEWINS. 
 
 Note. — It may not be unprofitable or un- 
 interesting here to record the contemptuous and 
 intolerant view that great literary Leviathan, Mr. 
 Thomas Carlyle, took of the auto-cosmic principle 
 at the root of Miss Naden's " Brain Theorem of 
 Mind and Matter." On January 21st, 1870, of his 
 Journal (page 388, Vol. II.), History of his Life 
 in London, from 1835 to i88i, by Mr. Froude, we 
 read as follows : " It is notable how Atheism spreads 
 among us in these times. [Huxley's] protoplasm 
 (unpleasant doctrine, that we are all, soul and body, 
 made of a kind of blubber, found in nettles. 
 
carlyle's antagonism. 8s 
 
 among other organisms,) appears to be delightful 
 to many, and is raising a great crop of atheistic 
 speech on the shallower side of English spiritualism at 
 present. One [Lewins], an army surgeon, has 
 continued writing to me on these subjects from all 
 quarters of the world, of which, after the first two or 
 three, which indicated an insane vanity, as of a stupid 
 cracked man, and a dull impiety as of a brute, I have 
 never read beyond the opening word or two, and then 
 the signature, as prologue to immediate fire ; every 
 one of which, nevertheless, gives one a moment of 
 pain, of ghastly disgust and loathing pity, if it be not 
 anger too, at this poor [Lewins] and his life. 
 
 "Yesterday there came a pamphlet, published at 
 Lewes, by some moral philosopher, there called Julian, 
 which, on looking into it, I find to be a hallelujah on 
 the advent and discovery of Atheism ; and in particular, 
 a crowning — with cabbage, or I know not what — of 
 this very [Lewins]. The real joy of Julian was what 
 surprised me — sincere joy you would have said — like 
 the shout [howl] of a hyaena on finding that the whole 
 universe was actually carrion. In about seven minutes 
 my great Julian was torn in two, and lying in the place 
 fit for him." 
 
 This forcible diatribe of the prose poet well illus- 
 trates the antithesis between Poesy and Science, which 
 latter eliminates all mysticism from things, and, as in 
 Hylo-idealism finally, on physiological grounds unifies 
 object and the subject self. It recalls the dialectics of 
 Socrates, who, when in prison, wrote pseans to Apollo 
 and Diana, and who labelled the astronomers and 
 
86 carlyle's antagonism. 
 
 other Hylo-zoists of his day as "impious madmen." 
 And still more Dr. Johnson, in his scurrilous, attitude 
 towards Hume, Adam Smith, and Scotch Philosophy 
 generally. As also in his absurd notion that he had 
 "vanquished Berkeley," not exactly " with a grin," but 
 " by a kick." Yet so it is ever in ages of progress and 
 evolution. The boundary of the brain range of 
 to-day becomes the truism of to-morrow ; and yet the 
 earlier generation cannot transcend their own limita- 
 tions so as to enter into the borders of the promised 
 land, but die in the arid wilderness. Carlyle's scorn 
 and nausea of the Synthetic Philosophy, a wider world- 
 scheme than either Kantism or Comtism, is notorious. 
 Like Hylo-idealism, it seemed to his anti-scientific 
 purview mere idiotism and iniquity ; as indeed did the 
 critical system of the great Scoto-German, Kant. 
 
 New ideals rarely come to men above forty, as 
 William Harvey recorded in the case of the circulation 
 of the blood, and, alas, illustrated in his own person, 
 by his persistent denial of Aselli's demonstration of the 
 absorbent lacteal system. 
 
 R. L. 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
89 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 Letter from Mr. Herbert Spencer to 
 Dr. Lewins. 
 
 Fairfield, 
 
 Pewsey, Wiltshire, 
 
 June loth, 1890, 
 
 Dear Sir, 
 
 Before I received your letter of the 8th inst., 
 I was about to write expressing my thanks for the 
 copy -you have kindly sent me of Miss Naden's 
 Induction and Deduction and other Essays. Already I 
 had formed a high estimate of her intellect and 
 character, and now perusal of some parts of the 
 volume you have sent me has greatly raised this 
 estimate. Very generally, receptivity and originality 
 are not associated ; but in her mind they appear to 
 have been equally great. I can think of no woman, 
 save " George Eliot,'' in whom there has been this 
 union of high philosophical capacity with extensive 
 acquisition. Unquestionably her subtle intelligence 
 would have done much in furtherance of rational 
 thought ; and her death has entailed a serious loss. 
 
 While I say this, however, I cannot let pass the 
 occasion for remarking that in her case, as in other 
 
90 APPENDIX. 
 
 cases, the mental powers so highly developed in a 
 woman are in some measure abnormal, and involve 
 a physiological cost which the feminine organization 
 will not bear without injury more or less profound. 
 
 I am glad to hear that you propose to publish 
 another series of her Essays, and am quite willing that 
 you should, if you wish, include m it the foregoing 
 expression of my admiration. 
 
 I am, dear Sir, 
 
 Faithfully yours, 
 
 HERBERT SPENCER. 
 R. Lewins, Esq., M.D. 
 
 In a letter addressed to me, dated 17th August, 
 1890, Mr. Herbert Spencer desired that the following 
 note from the Appendix to the Study of Sociology 
 might be appended to his previous letter, in further 
 explanation of the question raised therein, and in reply 
 to subsequent criticism : — 
 
 " Perhaps, however, the most serious error made in 
 drawing these comparisons [between the powers of men and 
 women] is that of overlooking the limit of normal capacity. 
 Either sex under special stimulations is capable of manifesting 
 powers ordinarily shown only by the other ; but we are 
 not to consider the deviations so caused as affording proper 
 measures. Thus, to take an extreme case, the mamm£e of 
 men will, under special excitation, yield milk : there are 
 various cases of gynsecomasty on record, and in famines, infants 
 whose mothers have died, have been thus saved. But this ability 
 to yield milk which, when exercised, must be at the cost of 
 masculine strength, we do not count among masculine attributes. 
 Similarly, under special discipline the feminine intellect will 
 yield products higher than the intellects of most men can yield. 
 
APPENDIX. 91 
 
 But we are not to count this productivity as truly feminine if it 
 entails decreased fulfilment of the maternal functions. Only that 
 mental energy is normally feminine, which can co-exist with the 
 production and nursing of the due number of healthy children. 
 Obviously a power of mind which, if general among the women 
 of a society, would entail disappearance of the society, is a power 
 not to be included in an estimate of the feminine nature as 
 compared with the masculine. " 
 
 The implication pointed to by Mr. Spencer's 
 letter, above quoted, is that in cases where the feminine 
 intellect, under high pressure, is made to vie with the 
 masculine in power, the physical tax tells primarily on 
 the reproductive system, and, by partial arrest of its 
 functions, tends to cause derangements. 
 
 W. R. H.