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William Robertson Smith:
The Scientific, Literary and Cultural Context from 1866 to 1881

Gordon Kempt Booth
M.A. (Edin.), M.Ed. (Edin.)

A Thesis presented for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy at the University of Aberdeen, 1999.

[Contents]   [Summary]   [Acknowledgements]   [Abbreviations]

There is irony in those efforts one makes to alter one’s way of looking at things, to change the boundaries of what one knows and to venture out always from there. Did mine actually result in a different way of thinking? Perhaps at most they made it possible to go back through what I was already thinking, to see it differently, and to see what I had done from a new vantage point and in a clearer light. Sure of having travelled far, one finds that one is looking down on oneself from above. The journey rejuvenates things, and ages the relationship with oneself.
— Michel Foucalt: The Use of Pleasure

Theories which bring into connexion with each other modes of thought and feeling, periods of taste, forms of art and poetry, which the narrowness of men’s minds constantly tends to oppose to one another, have a great stimulus for the intellect, and are almost always worth understanding.
— Walter Pater: The Renaissance

Contents:

  1. Introduction
  2. The Sorcerer’s Apprentice
  3. The Young Controversialist
  4. The Harp of Prophecy
  5. The “Rights of Matter”
  6. Culture and Crisis
  7. Breaking Through
  1. Bending the Bow of Ulysses
  2. The Unseen Universe
  3. The Hinge of Possibility
  4. The “Smell of the Fire”
  5. The Fault Lines of Faith
  6. The Portals of Discovery
  7. Conclusion: William Robertson Smith’s Legacy
Bibliography

Summary

This thesis examines a formative period of William Robertson Smith’s life, from his entry in 1866 to New College, Edinburgh, as a theological student, until 1881, when he became joint editor of the Encyclopaedia Britannica following his deposition from the chair of Hebrew and Old Testament Literature at Aberdeen Free Church College. A main aim of the thesis has been to illustrate how closely Smith’s early education at his father’s hand meshed with the influence of his subsequent academic mentors, resulting in a life-long commitment to apply the “scientific method” to his theological and biblical studies.

The opening chapters focus upon the significant impact of Smith’s interest in science and mathematics — and in particular upon the consequences of his close association at Edinburgh with Peter Guthrie Tait, professor of Natural Philosophy at Edinburgh University. Smith’s student writings, particularly on prophecy, are then examined for the light they shed on his subsequent work as well as for the subtle influence exerted on the psychological aspects of that work through his earlier training under Alexander Bain at Aberdeen University.

Robertson Smith’s brief verbal duel with John Tyndall in 1874 is recounted for its relevance to the vigorous and often fierce debate between science and theology which so characterised the period. A similar level of controversy is found within both those respective fields between traditionalists and liberals, illustrated here by reference, amongst many others, to the writings of Matthew Arnold, Ruskin, Huxley and Mark Pattison. Smith’s emergence as a significant protagonist is marked by his first contributions, in 1875, to the ninth edition of the Encyclopaedia Britannica. The radical and “unsettling” nature of those critical essays brought immediate accusations of heresy, leading to his protracted trial at the hands of the Free Church of Scotland.

To the end of his short life, Robertson Smith retained the clear imprint of his evangelical upbringing, yet he was progressively influenced by his dedication to the “scientific method” as applied to biblical criticism; by his acceptance of an evolutionary concept of human and religious development; by his unrivalled knowledge of Continental criticism (particularly in the work of Julius Wellhausen and Abraham Kuenen); and, much more indirectly, by his reading of the Positivist writers of his day — particularly John Stuart Mill, G.H. Lewes and Herbert Spencer. Smith’s writings are analysed in terms of those factors and are contrasted with the views of leading contemporary figures — including George Eliot and John Morley — in an effort to identify Smith’s unique contribution.

Finally, the complex roots of Robertson Smith’s temperament — and in particular his reputation as a “controversialist” — are assessed against the circumstances of his early upbringing, and the relevance of psychoanalytic theory is examined in the light of Freud’s explicitly expressed debt to Smith’s ideas. Similarly, in the style of Michel Foucault, Smith may be seen, less as an enigmatic or anomalous figure of his day, than as a writer whose discourse was as unconsciously subversive of the religious dogma and doctrine of his day as had been the proclamations of the prophets of Israel.

Acknowledgements

I am grateful to all those who gave advice and assistance in the writing of this thesis. Library staff have been unfailingly co-operative, not only at the Queen Mother Library of Aberdeen University but also at the Manuscripts Departments of Cambridge University Library, the British Library and the Beinecke Library, Yale, all of whom efficiently supplied photocopies of relevant material.

Amongst those who responded readily to my requests for advice or practical help, I am grateful to Prof. Rob Archbold and Dr Peter Lees, both of whom offered helpful comments on quaternions and nabla, to Rabbi Lionel Shrago, to whom I turned for information on the early Jewish community in Aberdeen, and to Mr David Gadsby of Messrs A. and C. Black, who gladly gave me anecdotal information on the firm’s association with the Encyclopaedia Britannica. In addition, I owe a particular debt to Dr Francesca Murphy of Aberdeen University, whose sound advice I heeded less often than it deserved; to my two sons, who frequently counselled me, with filial patience, on computing matters; to Barbara Rae, who assisted me in solving all my word-processing difficulties with great forbearance; and to Dr Robert Segal of Lancaster University, whose enthusiasm and practical assistance proved of immense value at the outset.

Two people above all deserve heartfelt thanks: my supervisor, Professor William Johnstone, whose gentle guidance enabled me to acquire a rudimentary understanding of Hebrew and whose incomparable knowledge of Pentateuchal criticism has been inspirational; and my wife, Martha, who patiently read (and re-read) each chapter in draft and whose good sense unerringly detected numerous obscurities and solecisms. The many imperfections and shortcomings which remain are my own.

Abbreviations

Acad.
The Academy
B.A.
British Association for the Advancement of Science
B&C
Life of William Robertson Smith by Black and Chrystal (1912)
Bain
Autobiography (1904)
Biblica
Encyclopaedia Biblica (1899)
Blackwood's
Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine
BFER
British and Foreign Evangelical Review
BQR
British Quarterly Review
ContempRev
Contemporary Review
CPWMA
Complete Prose Works of Matthew Arnold (ed. R.H. Super, 1970)
CUL
Cambridge University Library
DNB
Dictionary of National Biography
EB9
Encyclopaedia Britannica, ninth edition (1874-89)
FCSAP
Free Church of Scotland Assembly Proceedings
Essays
William Robertson Smith: Essays in Reassessment (ed. Johnstone, 1995)
FortRev
Fortnightly Review
GEL
The George Eliot Letters (ed. Gordon S. Haight)
L&E
Lectures and Essays of WRS (ed. Black and Chrystal, 1912)
NBR
North British Review
P.E.F.
Palestine Exploration Fund
Punch
Punch, or the London Charivari
RepBA
Reports of the British Association for the Advancement of Science
OED
Oxford English Dictionary
OTJC
The Old Testament in the Jewish Church
Pr.Is.
The Prophets of Israel
Rel.Sem
The Religion of the Semites
S.P.G.
Society for the Propagation of the Gospel
S.P.R.
Society for Psychical Research
TransRSE
Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh
WIVP
Wellesley Index of Victorian Periodicals

Note: Unless otherwise indicated, references to all MS correspondence to and from WRS are to letters contained in the Cambridge University Library Collections Add. Mss 7449. In those instances, only the specific reference number within that collection is cited. Material drawn from manuscript memoirs are from CUL Add. Mss 7476 and are so indicated in the footnotes.

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