Rev. Henry Ward, Vicar of St Barnabas, King's Square, London, E.C., remained at Oxford till 1880, and then went to London to take up literary work; with the help of the chief critics of the day he brought out the important selections of English verse called The English Poets (4 vols., 1880–1881). He joined the staff of The Times and wrote much for that paper, becoming its principal art critic. He also published Humphry Sandwith, a Memoir (1884); and he edited Men of the Reign (1885), English Art in the Public Galleries of London (1886), Men of the Time (1887), and, with the help of Matthew Arnold, Huxley, Lord Wolseley, H. S. Maine and others, The Reign of Queen Victoria: a Survey of Fifty Years of Progress (1887).
Mrs Humphry Ward at first devoted herself to Spanish literature, and contributed articles on Spanish subjects to the Dictionary of Christian Biography, edited by Dr William Smith and Dr Henry Wace. She wrote also for Macmillan’s Magazine. In 1881 she published her first book, Milly and Olly, a child’s story illustrated by Lady (then Mrs) Alma-Tadema. This was followed in 1884 by a more ambitious, though slight, study of modern life, Miss Bretherton, the story of an actress. In 1885 Mrs Ward published an admirable translation of the Journal of the Swiss philosopher Amiel, with a critical introduction, which showed her delicate appreciation of the subtleties of speculative thought. It was no bad preparation for her next book, which was to make her famous. In February 1888 appeared Robert Elsmere, a powerful novel, tracing the mental evolution of an English clergyman, of high character and conscience and of intellectual leanings, constrained to surrender his own orthodoxy to the influence of the “higher criticism.” The character of Elsmere owed much to reminiscences both of T. H. Green, the philosopher, and of J. R. Green, the historian. Largely in consequence of a review by W. E. Gladstone in the Nineteenth Century (May 1888, “Robert Elsmere and the Battle of Belief”), the book became the talk of the civilized world. It ran in five months through seven editions in three-volume form, and the cheap American editions had an enormous sale. It was translated into several European languages, and was the subject of articles in learned foreign reviews. Robert Elsmere is in itself a fine story, notably in its picture of the emotional conflict between Elsmere and his wife, whose over-narrow orthodoxy brings her religious faith and their mutual love to a terrible impasse; but it was the detailed discussion of the “higher criticism” of the day, and its influence on Christian belief, rather than its power as a piece of dramatic fiction, that gave the book its exceptional vogue. It started, as no academic work could have done, a popular discussion on historic and essential Christianity. In 1890 Mrs Ward took a prominent part in founding University Hall, an “Elsmerian” settlement for working and teaching among the poor. Her next novel, David Grieve, was published in 1892. In Marcella (1894), and its sequel Sir George Tressady (1896), she broke new ground in the novel of modern politics and socialism, the fruit of observation and reflection at University Hall. In 1895 had appeared the short tragedy, the Story of Bessie Costrell. Mrs Ward’s next long novel, Helbeck of Bannisdale (1898), treated of the clash between the ascetic ideal of Roman Catholicism and modern life. The element of Catholic and humanistic ideals entered also into Eleanor (1900), in which, however, the author relied less on the interest of a thesis and more on the ordinary arts of the novelist. Eleanor was dramatized and played at the Court Theatre in 1902. In Lady Rose’s Daughter (1903)—dramatized as Agatha in 1905—and The Marriage of William Ashe (1905), modern tales founded on the stories respectively of Mile de Lespinasse and Lady Caroline Lamb, she relied entirely and with success upon social portraiture. Later novels were Fenwick’s Career (1906), Diana Mallory (1908), Daphne (1909) and Canadian Born (1910).
Mrs Ward’s eminence among latter-day women-novelists arises from her high conception of the art of fiction and her strong grasp of intellectual and social problems, her descriptive power (finely shown in the first part of Robert Elsmere) and her command of a broad and vigorous prose style. But her activities were not confined to literature. She was the originator in England of the Vacation Schools, which have done much to educate the poorest children of the community upon rational lines. She also took a leading part in the movement for opposing the grant of the parliamentary suffrage to women, whilst encouraging their active participation in the work of local government. She was one of the founders of the Women’s National Anti-Suffrage League in 1908, and both spoke and wrote repeatedly in support of its tenets.
See for bibliography up to June 1904, English Illustrated Magazine, vol. xxxi. (N.S.) pp. 294 and 299. (H. Ch.)
WARD, SETH (1617–1689), English bishop, was born in Hertfordshire, and educated at Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge, where he became fellow in 1640. In 1643 he was chosen university mathematical lecturer, but he was deprived of his fellowship next year for opposing the Solemn League and Covenant. In 1649 he became Savilian professor of astronomy at Oxford, and gained a high reputation by his theory of planetary motion, propounded in the works entitled In Ismaelis Bullialdi astronomiae philolaicae fundamenta inquisitio brevis (Oxford, 1653), and Astronomia geometrica (London, 1656). About this time he was engaged in a philosophical controversy with Thomas Hobbes. He was one of the original members of the Royal Society. In 1659 he was appointed master of Trinity College, Oxford, but not having the statutory qualifications he resigned in 1660. Charles II. appointed him to the livings of St Lawrence Jewry in London, and Uplowman, Devonshire, in 1661. He also became dean of Exeter (1661) and rector of Breock, Cornwall (1662). In the latter year he was consecrated bishop of Exeter, and in 1667 he was translated to the see of Salisbury. The office of chancellor of the Order of the Garter was conferred on him in 1671. In his diocese he showed great severity to nonconformists, and rigidly enforced the act prohibiting conventicles. He spent a great deal of money on the restoration of the cathedrals of Worcester and Salisbury. He died at Knightsbridge on the 6th of January 1688/1689.
WARD, WILLIAM (1766–1826), English mezzotint-engraver, an elder brother of James Ward (q.v.), was born in London in 1766. He was the most distinguished pupil of J. Raphael Smith, and executed a great part of many of the plates which bear the name of that excellent engraver. In 1795 he began to exhibit in the Royal Academy, of which in 1814 he was elected an associate engraver. He also held the appointment of mezzotint-engraver to the prince regent and the duke of York. He executed six plates after Reynolds, engraved many of the works of his brother-in-law, George Morland, and his mezzotints after Andrew Geddes, which include the full-lengths of Sir David Wilkie and of Patrick Brydone, are of great merit. His engravings are full of artistic spirit, and show fine feeling for colour; and they are excellently tender and expressive in their rendering of flesh. He died in London on the 1st of December 1826.
WARD, WILLIAM GEORGE (1812–1882), English Roman Catholic theologian, was born on the 21st of March 1812. His career is extremely interesting as illustrating the development of religious opinion at a remarkable crisis in the history of English religious thought. Ward is described by his son and biographer as somewhat unequally gifted by nature. For pure mathematics he had a special gift—almost a passion. For history, applied mathematics—for anything, in fact, outside the exact sciences—he felt something approaching to contempt. He was endowed with a strong sense of humour and a love of paradox carried to an extreme. He went up to Christ Church, Oxford, in 1830, but his father’s subsequent pecuniary embarrassments compelled him in 1833 to try for a scholarship at Lincoln College, which he succeeded in obtaining. His examination for mathematical honours exhibited some of the peculiarities of his character and mental powers. Four out of his five papers on applied mathematics were sent up absolutely blank. Honours, however, were not refused him, and in 1834 he obtained an open fellowship at Balliol. In the previous year the Tractarian movement had commenced, and Ward’s relations with that movement were as original as the rest of his life. He was attracted to it by his
