LEWES, GEORGE HENRY, a versatile and influential English author, was b. at Griff, Warwickshire, April 18, 1817, educated at various schools, studied medicine for some time, and finally resolved to devote himself to authorship. In his twenty-first year, he proceeded to Germany, where he remained for two years, studying the life, language, and literature of that country. On his return to England. he took up his residence in London, and has ever since been one of the most industrious as well as successful of litterateurs. An intellect clear and sharp, if not remarkably strong; a wit lively and piquant, if not very rich; sympathies warm, if not wide; and a style as firm as it is graceful, have made Lewes one of the best of critics and biographers. He has contri buted to most of the quarterlies and magazines of the day; edited (with admirable talent) the Leader newspaper from 1849 to 1854; composed novels, comedies, and tragedies; and, of late years, has turned his active mind to the study of and cognate branches of science, in which he has won as high a reputation as in the lighter depart ments of literature. his principal works are his Biographical History of Philosophy (1845,
a new edition of which, much enlarged, was afterwards published); The Spanish brama, Lope de Vega and Calderon (1846); Comte's Philosophy ot the Sciences (forming one of the volumes in Bohn's Scientific Library, 1853), a work which is not a mere translation of the French savant, but in several parts a complete remodeling, by which the style does not suffer; Lfe and Works of Goethe, etc. (1855); Seaside Studies. at Ilfracombe (1858); Physiology of Common Life (1860); Problems of Life and Mind (1873-74); On Actors and the Art' of Acting (1875); and The Physical Basis of ;hind (1877). In 1865 Lewes founded the Fortnightly Bedew, and for a time was its editor. He died Nov. 30, 1878.