KINGSLEY, kingeli, CHARLES (1S19-75). An English author and clergyman, born at Ilolue vicarage. Devonshire. June 12, 1819. He entered Magdalen College. Cambridge, in 1S3S, where he distinguished himself in classics and mathematics. In 1842 he became curate, and, two years later, rector of Eversley, in Hampshire. In 18-1S he published the f-mu;at's Trugedy, eir the True Story Eli:.-abeth of Hungary. an admirable representa tion of media•al piety. The next two or three years of his life were devoted—in company with his friend F. D. Maurice, and others—to the physical and moral improvement of the working classes. His opinions on the social anarchy of modern times are to be found ;n his Altos Locke, Tailor and Poet (1850), a novel of some power, the hero of which is taken from a London This was followed by a Problem (1851 ), in lvhieli Kingsley handles, among other questions, the condition of the English agricultural laborer; and in 1853 by Hypatia. or Yew Foes with an Old Face. a brilliant delineation of Christianity in conflict with the expiring philosophy of Greece in the early part of the fifth century. Two years after he published Westward Ho!—probably the greatest of his works. Other works of his are the famous London sermon called Message of the Church to Laboring Men t The Heroes, or Greek Fairy Talcs: Two 'Years Ago (1857) ; The Water Babies (1803) Good Yews of God Here ward (1SS61: The Hermits (IS68): Madam How and Lady ll'hy; At Last, a delightful account of a voyage to the \Vest Indies (1571). Ile was ap
pointed professor of modern history at Cambridge in 1860, and, after resigning that post. was made. in IS69. canon of Chester and afterward canon of Westminster. In 1S67 he had a passionate con troversy with .Tohn Henry Newman because Kingsley had said (IS60) that "truth for its own sake had never been a virtue with the Roman Catholic clergy." Kingsley's versatility is strik ing. With almost equal fervor he studied social questions, religion, and zoology. He was a Chris tian as ardently as he was au admirer of Darwin and Huxley and their science. Darwin and theol ogy seemed to him compatible. Kingsley's health began to fail about 1863. In 1874 lee visited the United States in search of health. He died at Eversley, January 2.3, 1875, and was buried there. Consult: The Chester edition of the Works, ed. by his son, Maurice Kingsley (London, 14 vols., 1900) ; and Letters and Memories by his wife (1877; condensed, 1883) ; The Life and Works of Charles Kingsley (19 vols., New York, 1902).