Page:Dictionary of National Biography. Sup. Vol III (1901).djvu/195

 sophical articles under the title ‘Lessons from Nature as manifested in Mind and Matter,’ London, 8vo. ‘Nature and Thought,’ an attempt to refute Berkeley in Berkeley's own method of dialogue, appeared in 1882 and other works (all London, 8vo) in the following order: ‘A Philosophical Catechism’ (1884), ‘On Truth: a Systematic Inquiry’ (1889), ‘The Helpful Science’ (1895), and ‘The Groundwork of Science: a Study of Epistemology’ (1898). In these treatises he laboured to re-establish philosophy upon a pre-Cartesian basis, with only such modifications of form as were imperatively demanded by the problems of the age. But this attempt to refurbish the scholastic armoury of his church was combined with a theological liberalism which eventually brought him into collision with her. His neo-catholicism was adumbrated in ‘Contemporary Evolution,’ London, 1876 (a reprint of articles in the ‘Contemporary Review’), and more explicitly formulated in a series of papers in the ‘Nineteenth Century,’ viz.: 1. ‘Modern Catholics and Scientific Freedom’ (July 1885); 2. ‘The Catholic Church and Biblical Criticism’ (July 1887); 3. ‘Catholicity and Reason’ (December 1887); 4. ‘Sins of Belief and Disbelief’ (October 1888); 5. ‘Happiness in Hell’ (December 1892), which, with two explanatory papers (February and April 1893), was placed on the Index Librorum Prohibitorum, 21 July 1893; and 6. ‘The Continuity of Catholicism’ (January 1900). The last article, with another entitled ‘Some Recent Apologists,’ which appeared contemporaneously in the ‘Fortnightly Review,’ brought his orthodoxy formally into question and led to his excommunication by Cardinal Vaughan (18 Jan.). An article, ‘Scripture and Roman Catholicism,’ which appeared in the ‘Nineteenth Century’ in the following March, completed his repudiation of ecclesiastical authority. He died of diabetes at his residence, 77 Inverness Terrace, London, W., on 1 April following. He was married. His son, Dr. F. St. George Mivart, is a medical inspector of the local government board.

It is to be regretted that Mivart did not confine himself strictly to scientific work, in which his real strength lay. In mastery of anatomical detail he had few rivals, and perhaps no superior, among his contemporaries; but his eminence in this department was not gained without a degree of preoccupation which left him scanty leisure for the study of the delicate and controversial questions on which he attempted to arbitrate.

Besides the works mentioned above, Mivart was the author of: 1. ‘Introduction Générale à l'Etude de la Nature. Cours professé à l'Université de Louvain,’ Louvain, Paris, 1891. 2. ‘Birds: the Elements of Ornithology,’ London, 1892, 8vo. 3. ‘Types of Animal Life,’ London, 1893, 8vo. 4. ‘An Introduction to the Elements of Science,’ London, 1894, 8vo. 5. ‘Castle and Manor: a Tale of our Time,’ London, 1900, 8vo. For his uncollected papers not specified above see the Zoological Society's ‘Transactions’ and ‘Proceedings’ from 1864 (with which compare ‘Zoological Record’ and ‘Zoologist,’ 3rd ser. viii. 281); ‘Transactions of the Linnean Society,’ 2nd ser. (Zool.), i. 513: ‘Proceedings of the Royal Society,’ 1888, No. 263; ‘Popular Science Review,’ viii. 111, ix. 366, xiv. 372, xv. 225; ‘Contemporary Review,’ April 1875, May, July, September, October 1879, January, February, April 1880, May 1887; ‘Fortnightly Review,’ January, April 1886, September 1895, May 1896; ‘Nineteenth Century,’ August, December 1893, August 1895, January, December 1897, August 1899; ‘Dublin Review,’ October 1876, October 1891.

 MOLTENO, JOHN CHARLES (1814–1886), South African statesman, the son of John Molteno, deputy controller of the legacy office, Somerset House, and of Caroline Bower, his wife, was born on 5 June 1814 in his father's house in London. The family was of Milanese extraction, but had long been domiciled in England. Losing his father at an early age, he was educated at Ewell, and after a short experience in the office of a city shipbroker he sailed for South Africa in 1831 to take up duties in the public library at Cape Town. In 1837, when twenty-three years of age, he started a commercial business of his own, and was for the next ten years engaged in a spirited endeavour to open up new markets for colonial produce ; but a succession of adverse circumstances proved fatal, and in 1841 he abandoned his Cape Town business and devoted himself to developing the wool trade on a property which he had acquired in Beaufort West. From this date till 1852 he lived an isolated life in the great Karoo, forming an intimate ac- 