Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 15.djvu/671

Rh M A U M A U of the Church of England as understood by himself. His love to God as his Father was a passionate adoration which filled his whole heart. No one who ever heard Maurice read the Lord s Prayer can possibly forget it ; the intensity of his convictions in the pulpit made his message seem as luminous and clear as it was brief and concentrated, though his teaching apart from the living voice had by no means the same character. It was the peculiarity of his congregation that those who wanted his advice sought him ; having no parish, he had no definite sphere of work beyond the church. Thus his preaching took the forms now of exposition and now of the resolution of metaphysical difficulties, rather than of direct dealing with the facts, the sins, and the temptations of human life common to all. Feeling this defect, he took for a time a district for parochial visita tion, but was perplexed and distressed at the experience to which he was unequal. With all his affectionateness and desire to give sympathy he was unable even to conceive intellectual difficulties which were not his own. To those who did not demand of him all they needed, but took thankfully what he had to give, he was altogether a stimulating and helpful teacher. He opened new views, and encouraged men to think for themselves, and see what their words meant. He was even morbidly fearful of founding a party, and was deeply distressed at the name Broad-Church. Those who surrounded him, and were kept together by his personal charm and influence, were learning to think for themselves, and have dis persed in many directions. There are probably not half a dozen persons who, even nominally, reflect the precise shades of Maurician teaching. As a writer it is extremely doubtful if his work will have a great and permanent place in the future. His one novel, Eustace Con- way, is even now unread ; his theological works, though abounding in passages of great beauty, full now and then of a fiery eloquence, are as a whole somewhat obscure. He published too much, and a large number of his works are sermons recast. We miss the human voice, and we find a class of writing which only the highest excellence can make tolerable out of the pulpit. Maurice s greatest effect on his time is in his educational work. The Working Men s College, which owes more to him than to any one else, for which he rendered great sacrifices, and which was and is more full of his spirit than are most institutions of that of their founders, was a totally new departure in education. It was intended to give, and it has largely succeeded in giving, not what is called a popular education, but &quot;higher education&quot; to working men, and in combining teachers and taught in a college with its social life, and a bond of common interests. Queen s College, in like manner for the higher education of girls, is scarcely less identified with his life, though its influence is not so great, nor can its work be so widely known. Both at King s College and at Cambridge Maurice gathered round him a band of earnest students, to whom he directly taught much that was valuable drawn from wide stores of his own reading, wide rather than deep, for he never was, strictly speaking, a learned man. Still more did he encourage the habit of inquiry and research, more valuable than his direct teaching. In his power, which has been truly called Socratic, of convincing his pupils of their ignorance he did more than perhaps any other man of our time to awaken in those who came under his sway the desire for knowledge and the process of independent thought. If, as a social reformer, Maurice s name be forgotten in the future, it will be because in much he was before his time, and gave his eager support to schemes for which the world was not ready. From a very early period of his life in London the condition of the poor pressed upon him with consuming force ; the enormous magnitude of the social questions involved was a burthen which he could hardly bear. He threw himself with characteristic energy into schemes for a true co-operative system, in which some ardent young men were then engaged, and in spite of his dislike for systems and party names did not shrink from being known as a Christian Socialist, and taking a keen interest in the paper which bore that name, and was the organ of the movement. That and the Politics for the People, much the same paper under a different name, received his sanction and aid ; many strifes between masters and workmen were appeased, if not directly by himself, by those who were aided by his counsel, and were in constant intercourse with him. For many years he was the clergyman whom working men of all opinions seemed to trust even if their faith in other religious men and all religious systems had faded, and his power of attract ing the zealot and the outcast resembled that of the Master whom he followed. Maurice was twice married, first to a sister of John Sterling, secondly to a sister of his friend Archdeacon Hare. By his family ties and his closest friendships he came in contact with few but intellectual people. Thus while he wrote and spoke and worked for the average man he set that average somewhat high. Those who were privileged to know him did not know a more beautiful soul. The following are Maurice s more important works. Some of them were re-.vrittcn and in a measure recast, and the date given is not necessarily that of MAURITIUS, formerly called the ISLE OF FRANCE, an, island in the south-western portion of the Indian Ocean, between 57 18 and 57 48 E. long., and 19 58 and 20 31 S. lat., 550 miles east of Madagascar, and 115 miles north-east of the island of Reunion, 940 miles south-east of the Seychelles, 2300 miles from the Cape of Good Hope, and 9500 miles from England via Aden and Suez. The island is irregularly elliptical somewhat triangular in shape, and is 36 miles long from north-north-east to south- south-west, and about 23 miles broad. It is 130 miles in circumference, and its total area is about 713 square miles. The island is surrounded by coral reefs, so that the ports are difficult &quot;of access. Map of Mauritius. From its mountainous character Mauritius is a most picturesque island, and its scenery is very varied and beautiful. The most level portions of the coast districts are the north and north-east, all the rest being broken by hills, which vary from 500 to 2700 feet in height. There are three principal masses of mountain : the north-western or Pouce range, in the district of Port Louis ; the south-western, in the districts of Riviere Noire and Savanne ; and the south eastern range, in the Grand Port district. In the first of these, which consists of one principal ridge with several lateral spurs, overlooking Port Louis, are the singular peaks of the Pouce (2650 feet), so called from its supposed resemblance to the human thumb; and the still loftier Pieter Botte (2676 feet), a tall obelisk of bare rock, crowned with a globular mass of stone. The highest summit in the