Page:Literary studies by Joseph Jacobs.djvu/218

 Seeley as an historical writer had no charm; as a Cambridge man might put it, he could not gush. I should digress too much if I discussed how far this was due to the influence of the Cambridge ἦθος. Perhaps I may summarise by saying that we of Cambridge woo Truth, not Art, forgetful that the highest truth can only be expressed by art. Be this as it may, the fact remains that Seeley failed to reach the highest, because of the absence of that personal appeal which charms us in many Oxford men of much inferior gifts.

Yet withal what an achievement was his in the realm of pure intellect! Putting aside for a moment his theological 'excursions and alarms,' consider what he did for the modern history of the three greatest European nations. For Germany he wrote the best life of the creator of modern Germany. If his biography of Stein fails to attract, it is mainly because Stein is not an attractive personality. The best parts of the book are where he is not dealing with Stein at all, but with some great movement of European feeling, like the national protest of Spain. What lends the book, however, an almost epic note, is the rôle played by Napoleon as the Satan of the action. This he also treated separately in his monograph on the great condottiere, as he regarded him. This was an artful book, in more senses than one.