t them. He must have the
artistic sense which selects from the vast mass of fact that which is
significant. This power of artistic selection is of course influenced
by his unconscious ideals, by his conception of the relative
importance of the forces which move mankind, and of the ultimate goal
of progress. His philosophy directs his art, and his art interprets in
the light of his philosophy.

It may be admitted that Froude possesses a larger share of the
artistic than of the philosophic qualities necessary to the great
historian. At times his hatred of ecclesiasticism becomes almost a
prejudice. In his writings on Irish and colonial questions he evinces
the Englishman's love of the right, but sometimes, unfortunately, the
Englishman's inability to do justice to other races in points which
distinguish them from his own. In some expressions he seems to
distrust democracy in much the same unreasoning way in which Mr.
Ruskin distrusts machinery. He had imbibed something of Mr. Carlyle's
belief in the "strong man"; though he, no more than Carlyle, can show
how the strong, just ruler can be produced or selected. But a more
serious deficiency in Froude's philosophy arises from his imperfect
conception of the method of evolution which governs all organizations,
civil and religious, so that they continually throw off short-lived
varieties and history becomes a continual giving way of the old order
to the new. To fear, as Froude seems to, lest a survival may become a
governing type, is as unreasonable as to fear that old men will live
forever. Certainly he would have taken a juster, saner view of the
English Reformation, had he been convinced that all the collisions
between the moral laws and the rebellious wills of men, which are the
burden of the years, are in the end obliterated in the slow onward
movement of the race; but then perhaps his history would have lost in
interest what it might have gained in philosophic breadth and balance.
For it cannot be denied that feeling has given his narrative that most
valuable quality--life.

The general recognition of Froude's power, and the growing conviction
that he was far nearer right than the theological school he so
cordially detested, was vindicated by his appointment as Professor of
History at Oxford to succeed Freeman, one of the severest critics of
his historical fairness. He lived to deliver but three courses of
lectures, one of which has been published in that delightful vo