Arthur Helps

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Arthur Helps — Life, Works, and Intellectual Legacy

Explore the life, writings, and legacy of Sir Arthur Helps (1813-1875), English writer, historian, public servant, and early advocate of animal rights. Learn about his biography, major works, philosophy, famous quotes, and influence.

Introduction

Sir Arthur Helps (10 July 1813 – 7 March 1875) was a prominent English writer, historian, public servant, and intellectual figure of the Victorian era. While not always categorized strictly as a “historian,” his historical works, essays, dialogues, and public service placed him at the intersection of literature, politics, and moral philosophy. He is particularly remembered for Friends in Council, The Spanish Conquest in America, and his moral and social reflections. He also was an early advocate of animal rights, extending ethical concern beyond humans.

Early Life and Education

Arthur Helps was born on 10 July 1813 in Streatham, Surrey, England, the youngest son of Thomas Helps, a London merchant.Eton College and then attended Trinity College, Cambridge, where in 1835 he graduated as thirty-first wrangler in the mathematical tripos.

At Cambridge he became a member of the Cambridge Apostles, an intellectual society known for fostering literary, philosophical, and political discussion. Among his associates were Tennyson, Arthur Hallam, Richard Chenevix Trench, and others.

His early intellectual promise and connections paved the way for a career combining public service and writing.

Career in Public Life

Early Government Roles

Soon after leaving university, Helps became private secretary to Thomas Spring Rice (later Lord Monteagle), then Chancellor of the Exchequer, a post he held until 1839.

He also was appointed to commissions for settling claims related to the Gunboat War and compensation of British ship-owners whose property was seized in Denmark and elsewhere.

Clerk of the Privy Council & Later Service

In 1860, Helps was appointed Clerk of the Privy Council, a major government role that brought him into close communication with Queen Victoria and Prince Albert.

In recognition of his service, in 1871 he was made a Companion of the Order of the Bath (CB), and the next year he was elevated to Knight Commander of the Bath (KCB).

Late in life, following financial setbacks, Queen Victoria granted him a grace-and-favour residence in Kew Gardens (Queen Charlotte’s Cottage), where he lived for the remainder of his life.

He died on 7 March 1875, in London, reportedly from pleurisy.

Major Works & Writings

Arthur Helps was a prolific writer, producing essays, historical volumes, dialogues, fiction, and moral reflections. Below are his most significant works and themes.

Thoughts in the Cloister and the Crowd (1835)

Helps’s first publication was a book of aphorisms and reflections on life, character, politics, and manners. It contains lines that later found quotation, such as the idea that the “deep slumber of decided opinion” reflects a certain intellectual complacency.

Friends in Council (3 series, 1847–1859)

One of his most popular works, this series of essays in the form of dialogues (among characters named Milverton, Ellesmere, Dunsford) examines moral, social, and intellectual problems.

Historical Works on the Spanish Conquest & Slavery

Helps wrote The Spanish Conquest in America and its Relation to the History of Slavery and the Government of Colonies (4 volumes, 1855–1861), a sweeping historical narrative combining archival research and moral critique.The Life of Las Casas (1868), The Life of Columbus (1869), The Life of Pizarro (1869), and The Life of Hernando Cortés (1871).

Fiction, Essays & Others

He also ventured into political novels (Realmah, 1868), short essays and aphorisms (Brevia: Short Essays and Aphorisms, 1871), and works such as Organization in Daily Life (1862), Thoughts upon Government (1872), Social Pressure (1875), among others.

Additionally, after Prince Albert’s death, Queen Victoria selected Helps to edit the Prince Consort’s speeches, and he also edited the Leaves from a Journal of Our Life in the Highlands (Victoria’s journal).

Advocacy for Animal Rights

In 1873, Helps published Some Talk About Animals and Their Masters, a work notable for extending moral concern to animals and even insects—an early expression of what later became the animal rights movement.

Intellectual Themes & Philosophy

• Moral earnestness: Helps often combined intellectual curiosity with moral reflection, aiming not just to analyze but to guide conduct.

• Dialogic form: In Friends in Council and other works, his use of dialogues allowed multiple perspectives to interact, rather than monologic preaching.

• Historical conscience: In his works on conquest and slavery, Helps engaged with moral questions of empire, colonization, and human rights even while writing in a Victorian context.

• Public duty & private integrity: His public service and private writings reflect a belief that intellectuals should contribute to governance, not detach from it.

• Ethical expansion: His concern for animals and the nonhuman world anticipates later shifts in moral philosophy toward more inclusive ethics.

Famous Quotes

Here are some notable quotes attributed to Arthur Helps (from Essays and Aphorisms, Thoughts in the Cloister, Friends in Council, and other writings):

• “Wise sayings often fall on barren ground, but a kind word is never thrown away.”

• “Keep your feet on the ground, but let your heart soar as high as it will.”

• “Routine is not organization, any more than paralysis is order.”

• “Experience is the extract of suffering.”

• “The sense of danger is never, perhaps, so fully apprehended as when the danger has been overcome.”

• “It has always appeared to me, that there is so much to be done in this world, that all self-inflicted suffering which cannot be turned to good account for others, is a loss …”

• “We are frequently understood the least by those who have known us the longest.”

These quotes reveal Helps’s temper: reflective, moral, attentive to the human condition, and wary of peremptory judgments.

Legacy and Influence

Though not as widely known today as some Victorian figures, Helps left an intellectual imprint in several domains:

• His Friends in Council enjoyed popularity in his lifetime and influenced Victorian moral writers.

• His historical and biographical writings contributed to how Victorian Britain viewed empire, conquest, and moral responsibility.

• He is sometimes remembered as a precursor to ethical debates about animals and the nonhuman world.

• He exemplifies a Victorian ideal of the scholar-civil servant: someone who both thinks and acts in public life.

Modern scholars, such as Stephen Keck, have reexamined Helps’s work in the context of Victorian intellectual history, empire, and moral sensibility.

Lessons from Arthur Helps

• Integrate thought and service. Helps’s career shows how scholarly reflection and public responsibility can reinforce each other.

• Use dialogue, not dogma. His dialogic method encourages humility, open inquiry, and recognition of complexity.

• Let morality animate scholarship. Helps believed intellectual work should carry ethical weight.

• Push the limits of empathy. His extension of concern to animals suggests that moral progress often means widening our circle.

• Persist in conviction despite setbacks. Despite financial and political challenges, Helps continued writing and serving.

Conclusion

Sir Arthur Helps (1813–1875) was a Victorian polymath: writer, public servant, historian, moralist, and early advocate for broadened ethics. Though not best known today, his writings and life embody the merging of ideas and duty, reflection and action. His dialogues and historical works still reward readers with insights into character, morality, ambition, and conscience.