Grote

Grote, George, D.C.L., LL.D. (1794-1871), a noted historian and philosopher, was born near Beckenham, his grandfather being a German from Bremen who established himself first as a merchant, then as a banker, in London. George Grote was educated first at' Sevenoaks and then at Charterhouse, where he had for contemporary Connop Thirlwall, though their friendship did not begin till a later period. At the age of 16 he had to enter his father's bank, but continued his classical studies, to which he was devoted, and gave much attention also to German, political economy, music, and philosophy. In 1820 he came under the influence of the Bentham-Mill school of thought, an influence which had a great effect in moulding his own views, while he in his turn exercised much influence upon John Stuart Mill. In 1821 he wrote a pamphlet upon Parliamentary Reform, and in 1822 An Analysis of Natural Religion upon the Temporal Happiness of Mankind, which was in a great measure founded upon some MSS. of Bentham. In 1820 he had already taken up the idea of writing a history of Greece, and in 1826 an article of his in The Westminster Review upon Mitford's History of Greece foreshadowed his line of treatment. Meantime, he, with Mill and others, was greatly interested in the project of founding a London University, though there was some friction between him and them as to filling the professorial chairs. In 1830 he was in France and displayed practical sympathy with the revolutionary cause. In 1831 he wrote a further pamphlet on Parliamentary Reform, and being returned to the House of Commons, sat during three Parliaments, showing himself an ardent advocate of the introduction of the Ballot, as well as other points of reform. In 1843 he finally left the bank, and devoted himself to the great work of his life. The first two volumes of his history appeared in 1846, and the twelfth and last in 1856. This history came as a revelation to many, not only for the clearness and occasional grandeur of its style, but also for the new points of view which it took and for its marvellous insight into the problems of ancient Greek life and the methods of their settlement. Some difficulties of Swiss political life and their result in the "Sonderbund," and the similarity between them and those of ancient Greek politics, had led in 1847 to the publication in the Spectator of Seven Letters upon Recent Politics in Switzerland. In 1865 he published his second great work on Plato and the Other Companions of Socrates, and endeavoured to complete his estimate of Aristotle, but failure of health and death prevented this. It was published posthumously, He showed his regard for the new London University by liberal endowment.