e,
coming when it did, had a paralysing effect on Acton's productive energy
is most probable, for it made him feel that he was no longer one of a
school, and was without sympathy and support in the things that lay
nearest his heart.

Another cause retarded production--his determination to know all about
the work of others. Acton desired to be in touch with university life
all over Europe, to be aware, if possible through personal knowledge, of
the trend of investigation and thought of scholars working in all the
cognate branches of his subject. To keep up thoroughly with other
people's work, and do much original writing of one's own, is rarely
possible. At any rate we may say that the same man could not have
produced the essay on German schools of history, and written a _magnum
opus_ of his own.

His life marks what, in an age of minute specialism, must always be at
once the crown and the catastrophe of those who take all knowledge for
their province. His achievement is something different from any book.
Acton's life-work was, in fact, himself. Those who lament what he might
have written as a historian would do well to reflect on the unique
position which he held in the world of letters, and to ask themselves
how far he could have wielded the influence that was his, or held the
standard so high, had his own achievement been greater. Men such as
Acton and Hort give to the world, by their example and disposition, more
than any written volume could convey. In both cases a great part of
their published writings has had, at least in book form, to be
posthumous. But their influence on other workers is incalculable, and
has not yet determined.

To an age doubting on all things, and with the moral basis of its action
largely undermined, Acton gave the spectacle of a career which was as
moving as it was rare. He stood for a spirit of unwavering and even
childlike faith united to a passion for scientific inquiry, and a scorn
of consequences, which at times made him almost an iconoclast. His whole
life was dedicated to one high end, the aim of preaching the need of
principles based on the widest induction and the most penetrating
thought, as the only refuge amid the storm and welter of sophistical
philosophies and ecclesiastical intrigues. The union of faith with
knowledge, and the eternal supremacy of righteousness, this was the
message of Acton to mankind. It may be thought that he sometimes
exaggerated his thesis, that he p