Reprint of the original, first published in 1876.

The Metaphysical Society was founded in 1869 at the instigation of James Knowles (editor of the Contemporary Review and then of the Nineteenth Century) with a view to 'collect, arrange, and diffuse Knowledge (whether objective or subjective) of mental and moral phenomena' (first resolution of the society in April 1869). The Society was a private dining and debate club that gathered together a latter-day clerisy. Building on the tradition of the Cambridge Apostles, they elected talented members from across the Victorian intellectual spectrum: Bishops, one Cardinal, philosophers, men of science, literary figures, and politicians. The Society included in its 62 members prominent figures such as T. H. Huxley, William Gladstone, Walter Bagehot, Henry Edward Manning, John Ruskin, and Alfred Lord Tennyson. The Metaphysical Society (1869-1880) moves beyond Alan Willard Brown's 1947 pioneering study of the Metaphysical Society by offering a more detailed analysis of its inner dynamics and its larger impact outside the dining room at the Grosvenor Hotel. The contributors shed light on many of the colourful figures that joined the Society as well as the alliances that they formed with fellow members. The collection also examines the major concepts that informed the papers presented at Society meetings. By discussing groups, important individuals, and underlying concepts, the volume contributes to a rich, new picture of Victorian intellectual life during the 1870's, a period when intellectuals were wondering how, and what, to believe in a time of social change, spiritual crisis, and scientific progress.

Chronic Vigour is a study of the development of Christian thought and the doctrine of Providential Evolution. The author argues that the renovation of Anglican theology, as a response to Darwin's evolutionary theory, actually began at the moment of Darwin's first publication of The Origin of Species. Chronic Vigour is unique because it examines a school of clergymen who knew Darwin and corresponded with him. The book demonstrates how these clergymen came to endorse Darwinian biology as early as 1884 in Britain. It places the history of the principle of 'providential evolution' squarely in its English context. The book consists of five chapters. The first chapter is devoted to Edward Bouverie Pusey (1800-1882), the Professor of Hebrew at Oxford and the leader of the Tractarian movement. The second chapter evaluates the religious proposals which were offered within the Church itself as a direct reaction to biological evolution. In the third chapter, the author investigates St. George Jackson Mivart (1827-1900), the key person to generate the doctrine of Providential evolution. The subject of the fourth chapter is the Reverend Charles Kingsley (1819-1875), who was the model of the progressive Victorian parson and the first Anglican priest to be an evolutionist. Finally, chapter five brings together many of the book's themes by examining Bishop Frederick Temple's (1821-1902) contributions to the providential evolution cause.