Page:Littell's Living Age - Volume 126.djvu/519

Rh he would not give up his women-pupils. Therefore, he was allowed to have young men and young women in the same classroom; and when, at the end of the session, it was found not only that no mischief had resulted, but also that a young woman was at the head of the examination-list, and had carried off the prize in political economy, the practice was continued in the same class, and is being now extended to others. Thus, the first step that has hitherto been taken in England towards the encouragement of mixed education is due to Prof. Cairnes, though partly only brought about by the unfortunate accident of his broken health.

His health was altogether broken in the spring of 1872. He was forced to resign his post at University College, and to content himself, instead of continuing to take an active part in collegiate education, with the barren title, albeit welcome to him as a grateful testimony to his abilities as a teacher, of emeritus professor of political economy. In 1873 that compliment was followed by the bestowal, quite unsolicited, upon him by the University of Dublin of the degree of doctor of laws. Henceforth, all the work he could do had to be done in his enforced retirement at Blackheath, his amanuensis being the brave and patient wife who did so much in every way to lighten the burden of his life.

That work, however, was very considerable. Two volumes, "Political Essays" and "Essays in Political Economy" which he published in 1873, did not involve much labour, as they were mainly composed of reprinted articles and lectures, or of papers written long before, though not hitherto printed. But each volume contained some fresh matter, the most important essay being on "The Present Position of the Irish University Question." Mr. Cairnes next set himself to re-arrange his notes of lectures delivered at University College, and to put in writing the main conclusions at which he had arrived in correction or in extension of the teachings of his predecessors on certain points. The work grew in his hands, however, and "Some Leading Principles in Political Economy newly Expounded" came to be a far more exhaustive treatise than at starting he could have hoped to make it.

Into the privacy of the heroic life and the lingering death amid which all this later work was done we have no right to enter. If ever that history is written by a competent hand, the world will learn to what height and dignity modern stoicism in its purest and noblest form can reach. This thing is not valued nowadays. A man may work and suffer for others, and those others take or reject the work, but think little of the sufferer. There is some small consolation in the thought that it was not altogether so in this case. Such homage as is rare in these bustling times was paid to Prof. Cairnes during these last years, and, though he never recognized it as homage, it was grateful to him. Selfish motives may have prompted most of the pilgrims who journeyed down to Blackheath, as they knew that there they could get better help towards putting sound thoughts into their books, or newspaper articles, their speeches in Parliament, or their college lectures, as well as all their plans of life, than would elsewhere be obtained. They knew, too, that the excellent judgment on which they relied would be joined in the expression with so much wit and humour that they were tempted to forget the pain of the sufferer in the pleasure derived from his conversation. But they also went because they knew that the sufferer's pain was alleviated by the consciousness that he was not altogether debarred from the outside world, — that he could take part not only in the private interests of his friends, but also in their public work. To live as useful a life as possible was his great ambition. To feel that it was growing useless was his heaviest trouble, heavier than the physical pain that he endured. He did not know how useful his life was to the very last. Still less, perhaps, was it possible for a man so imbued with the modesty of genius, so entirely free from every sort of arrogance or self-conceit, to know how useful might be the issue of that life after welcome death had put an end to his sufferings.

 

 From Land and Water.

Esquimaux are in the habit of catching sharks both with nets, baited with salt meat, and with a hook and line. They are hunted for the sake of the oil which is expressed from their livers, and for a substance very much like spermaceti, which is obtained under pressure from their flesh. Sir Leopold M'Clintock says the Esquimaux assert 