office. But Max Müller was a Liberal, and the friend of Liberals in university matters, in politics, and in theology, and this consideration united with his foreign birth to bring the country clergy in such hosts to the poll that the voice of resident Oxford was overborne, and Monier Williams was elected by a large majority. It was the one great disappointment of Max Müller’s life, and made a lasting impression upon him. It was, nevertheless, serviceable to his influence and reputation by permitting him to enter upon a wider field of subjects than would have been possible otherwise. Directly, Sanskrit philology received little more from him, except in connexion with his later undertaking of The Sacred Books of the East; but indirectly he exalted it more than any predecessor by proclaiming its commanding position in the history of the human intellect by his Science of Language, two courses of lectures delivered at the Royal Institution in 1861 and 1863. Max Müller ought not to be described as “the introducer of comparative philology into England.” Prichard had proved the Aryan affinities of the Celtic languages by the methods of comparative philology so long before as 1831; Winning’s Manual of Comparative Philology had been published in 1838; the discoveries of Bopp and Pott and Pictet had been recognized in brilliant articles in the Quarterly Review, and had guided the researches of Rawlinson. But Max Müller undoubtedly did far more to popularize the subject than had been done, or could have been done, by any predecessor. He was on less sure ground in another department of the study of language—the problem of its origin. He wrote upon it as a disciple of Kant, whose Critique of Pure Reason he translated. His essays on mythology are among the most delightful of his writings, but their value is somewhat impaired by a too uncompromising adherence to the seductive generalization of the solar myth.
Max Müller’s studies in mythology led him to another field of activity in which his influence was more durable and extensive, that of the comparative science of religions. Here, so far as Great Britain is concerned, he does deserve the fame of an originator, and his Introduction to the Science of Religion (1873: the same year in which he lectured on the subject, at Dean Stanley’s invitation, in Westminster Abbey, this being the only occasion on which a layman had given an address there) marks an epoch. It was followed by other works of importance, especially the four volumes of Gifford lectures, delivered between 1888 and 1892; but the most tangible result of the impulse he had given was the publication under his editorship, from 1875 onwards, of The Sacred Books of the East, in fifty-one volumes, including indexes, all but three of which appeared under his superintendence during his lifetime. These comprise translations by the most competent scholars of all the really important non-Christian scriptures of Oriental nations, which can now be appreciated without a knowledge of the original languages. Max Müller also wrote on Indian philosophy in his latter years, and his exertions to stimulate search for Oriental manuscripts and inscriptions were rewarded with important discoveries of early Buddhist scriptures, in their Indian form, made in Japan. He was on particularly friendly terms with native Japanese scholars, and after his death his library was purchased by the university of Tôkyô.
In 1868 Max Müller had been indemnified for his disappointment over the Sanskrit professorship by the establishment of a chair of Comparative Philology to be filled by him. He retired, however, from the actual duties of the post in 1875, when entering upon the editorship of The Sacred Books of the East. The most remarkable external events of his latter years were his delivery of lectures at the restored university of Strassburg in 1872, when he devoted his honorarium to the endowment of a Sanskrit lectureship, and his presidency over the International Congress of Orientalists in 1892. But his days, if uneventful, were busy. He participated in every movement at Oxford of which he could approve, and was intimate with nearly all its men of light and leading; he was a curator of the Bodleian Library, and a delegate of the University Press. He was acquainted with most of the crowned heads of Europe, and was an especial favourite with the English royal family. His hospitality was ample, especially to visitors from India, where he was far better known than any other European Orientalist. His distinctions, conferred by foreign governments and learned societies, were innumerable, and, having been naturalized shortly after his arrival in England, he received the high honour of being made a privy councillor. In 1898 and 1899 he published autobiographical reminiscences under the title of Auld Lang Syne. He was writing a more detailed autobiography when overtaken by death on the 28th of October 1900. Max Müller married in 1859 Georgiana Adelaide Grenfell, sister of the wives of Charles Kingsley and J. A. Froude. One of his daughters, Mrs Conybeare, distinguished herself by a translation of Scherer’s History of German Literature.
Though undoubtedly a great scholar, Max Müller did not so much represent scholarship pure and simple as her hybrid types—the scholar-author and the scholar-courtier. In the former capacity, though manifesting little of the originality of genius, he rendered vast service by popularizing high truths among high minds. In his public and social character he represented Oriental studies with a brilliancy, and conferred upon them a distinction, which they had not previously enjoyed in Great Britain. There were drawbacks in both respects: the author was too prone to build upon insecure foundations, and the man of the world incurred censure for failings which may perhaps be best indicated by the remark that he seemed too much of a diplomatist. But the sum of foibles seems insignificant in comparison with the life of intense labour dedicated to the service of culture and humanity.
Max Müller’s Collected Works were published in 1903. (R. G.)
MAXWELL, the name of a Scottish family, members of which have held the titles of earl of Morton, earl of Nithsdale, Lord Maxwell, and Lord Herries. The name
is taken probably
from Maccuswell, or Maxwell, near Kelso, whither the family
migrated from England about 1100. Sir Herbert Maxwell
won great fame by defending his castle of Carlaverock against
Edward I. in 1300; another Sir Herbert was made a lord of the
Scottish parliament before 1445; and his great-grandson John,
3rd Lord Maxwell, was killed at Flodden in 1513. John’s son
Robert, the 4th lord (d. 1546), was a member of the royal
council under James V.; he was also an extraordinary lord of
session, high admiral, and warden of the west marches, and was
taken prisoner by the English at the rout of Solway Moss in
1542. Robert’s grandson John, 7th Lord Maxwell (1553–1593),
was the second son of Robert, the 5th lord (d. 1552), and his
wife Beatrix, daughter of James Douglas, 3rd earl of Morton.
After the execution of the regent Morton, the 4th earl, in 1581
this earldom was bestowed upon Maxwell, but in 1586 the
attainder of the late earl was reversed and he was deprived
of his new title. He had helped in 1585 to drive the royal
favourite James Stewart, earl of Arran, from power, and he
made active preparations to assist the invading Spaniards in
1588. His son John, the 8th lord (c. 1586–1613), was at feud
with the Johnstones, who had killed his father in a skirmish,
and with the Douglases over the earldom of Morton, which he
regarded as his inheritance. After a life of exceptional and
continuous lawlessness he escaped from Scotland and in his
absence was sentenced to death; having returned to his native
country he was seized and was beheaded in Edinburgh. In
1618 John’s brother and heir Robert (d. 1646) was restored
to the lordship of Maxwell, and in 1620 was created earl of
Nithsdale, surrendering at this time his claim to the earldom
of Morton. He and his son Robert, afterwards the 2nd earl,
fought under Montrose for Charles I. during the Civil War.
Robert died without sons in October 1667, when a cousin John
Maxwell, 7th Lord Herries (d. 1677), became third earl.
William, 5th earl of Nithsdale (1676–1744), a grandson of the third earl, was like his ancestor a Roman Catholic and was attached to the cause of the exiled house of Stuart. In 1715 he joined the Jacobite insurgents, being taken prisoner at the battle of Preston and sentenced to death. He escaped, however,
