Philosopher
Philosophers
On this page, philosophers, thinkers, and scientists Vernon Lee knew or mentioned in her books are introduced.
- Alfred Adler
1870～1937. An Austrian psychologist. He worked with Freud at the beginning of his career but later he left him and initiated his own theory: individual psychology. The major book of his is Individual Psychology.
Vernon Lee felt sympathy for Alder's work. Lee disliked Freud's psychology on the same reason as Adler's: Freud put too much stress on sexual desire. Vineta Colby states that Lee found herself right from Adler's psychology in terms of the idea of self-consciousness. When she felt mentally sick, Alder's ideas gave her some comfort. She wrote: "What I, at all events, owe to Psychoanalysis and quite especially to Adler. Recognition or suspicion that a large portion of our beliefs originate in our feeling of and about ourselves, but being obscure and not in front (not in relation to the Eye!)." （Colby, Vernon Lee, P.312.）Colby also states that in metal crisis, Lee learned "an illusion of self-importance" from Adler.
- Alfred William Benn
1843～1915. An English philosopher, historian. He is famous for his study in Greek history. The major works of his are A History of Modern Philosophy (1912) and The Greek Philosophers(1882).
Vernon Lee met Benn through Eliza Lynn Linton in 1881. She lived near Benn in Italy. She wrote: "We had been neighbors in that little valley under Fiesole some fifteen years now, my windows looking on to a field of vines and a reach of reeded stream which belonged to him, once farms but raised by the Florentine tax-gatherer to the dignity of 'civil habitations,' being separated by only a few hundred yards of unfrequented road."(Colby, Vernon Lee, P.295.) Lee and Benn took a walk together, talking about Hegel, Bergson and ancestors' worship. Colby states that Been was a 'genuine humanist' for Lee. (P.295.)
When Benn died in 1915, Lee wrote the obituary on Nation(October 9) .
- Henri-Louis Bergson
1859~1941. A French philosopher. He wrote books on time and recognition. The major works of his are Essai sur les données immédiates de la conscience (1889)、Matière et mémoire (1896)、and L'Évolution créatrice (1907).
Bergson's term 'élan vital' means the power to evolve life exponentially. Under the influence of Darwin's theory of evolution, Bergson claimed that life evolves not from external power but from internal power of life and referred to this type of evolution as creative evolution. Besides the work of philosopher, he engaged in the foundation of the League of Nations. He was given the Nobel Prize.
Bergson asserted that in addition to spatial division of time, there is the inseparable stream of consciousness and he calls it "durée (duration)." Furthermore, he set as an intermediate existence between substance and representation "image."
Bergson read Vernon Lee's books and valued them highly. The name of Bergson often appears in Lee's books such as Vital Lies. The are common in terms of assuming 'durée' in addition to physical course of time.
- Hippolyte Taine
1828～1893. A French philosopher, critic. The major works of his are Histoire de la littérature anglaise(1863） and others.
Since her young days, Vernon Lee liked reading Taine's books. On Taine's Philosophie de l’Art (1865–1882） she wrote on British Quarterly Review in 1878: "The eighteenth century in Italy is not what Taine represents it, misled, doubtless, by the account of a few superficial travellers and disputable memoir-writers. It is almost a kind of minor Renaissance, a very jog-trot one certainly, but none the less distinctly one." (Colby, Vernon Lee, P.23.) Lee paid attention to Italian music in the 18th century Taine didn't deal with.
- William James
1842～1910. An American psychologist, philosopher and an elder brother of Henry James. Under the influence of Charles Sanders Peirce, he led the movement of pragmatism. So-called 'James- Lange theory' (One cries not because they are sad and one becomes sad because they cry) is well-known. He advocated the theory of 'stream of consciousness' and gave a lot of influence on James Joyce and other novelists. The major works of his are The Varieties of Religious Experience(1902) and Principles of Psychology(1890）. He lectured psychology in American universities for the first time.
It did not matter for James whether or not it is true: it matters for him whether or not the truth is useful for one. If it is useful for 'I', it is truth for the man. This type of thinking is called pragmatism.
James' psychology gave great influence on Vernon Lee. One of his books, The Principles of Psychology (1890) gave Lee suggestions on the relationship between minds and bodies of human beings. However, Lee's attitudes towards James' psychology were generally critical. In Vital Lies, on the theory of "will to believe," she regarded James as 'the most illustrious victim of this intellectual epidemic' and writes 'one of its chief centres of infection, the "Will-to-Believe."' The whole of Vital Lies is used to attack the pragmatism of James. The "will to believe" means the criticism against Descartes' methodology. It means that human beings have the power to believe something, even when there is not sufficient proof.
Lee also wrote an essay titled 'Professor James and the "Will to Believe." According to Vineta Colby, while James thought that 'doctrinal sources' such as idealism, transcendentalism, or religion, are necessary for the health of human beings, Lee didn't trust them.
Louis Norbert is Vernon Lee's novel. It is a story where Lady Venetia and an archaeologist research the identity of Louis Norbert in the 17th century. Lady Venetia claims that Louis Norbert is the son of Louis ⅩⅣ while the archaeologist criticizes her saying that she "invents" the history. He says: "There is a volume of William James' essays called 'The Will to Believe"―you are that Will in this case." (Louis Norbert, P.176.)
Because Lee took the critical attitudes towards him, James kept some distance from Lee and advised his brother Henry to do so.
- Wilhelm Max Wundt
1832~1920. A German psychologist. He is the founder of experiment psychology. Psychology as a field of study was founded through the work of Wundt and it gave a great influence on William James.
Vernon Lee, who had a strong interest in psychology and tried to connect aesthetics with psychology, read books by Wundt. She mentioned Wundt many times in her books.
In The Beautiful, Lee considered the "perception of lines" in art. She claimed that one sees the line of the present but at the same time imagines the line of the future based on the memory of the past line and such interrelation among the past, the present and the future produces meaning and "shape." She obtained such thinking from Wundt. According to Lee, Wundt put emphasis on 'feelings of tension and relaxation among the elements of form-perception.'
- Edmund Gurney
1847～1888. An English psychologist and a scholar of occultism. In 1882, he engaged in the foundation of The Society for Psychical Research (SPR). In 1875, he began to study the relationship between music and its listeners. He played an important role in the spread of occultism. He was also an acquaint of William James.
Gurney was an acquaint of Vernon Lee. Lee said on the impression of his she had as follows: "handsome 'but is more like a butler with a dash of guardsman'".（Vineta Colby, Vernon Lee, P.115.）
Gurney's book The Power of Sound(1880) had a great impact on Vernon Lee and she wrote the review on this. She argues Gurney's theory of "the aesthetics of hearing." Colby states that Gurney is the forerunner of Bernard Berenson's aesthetics. （Colby, Vernon Lee, P.167.）
Lee wrote several ghost stories, so it is possible that Gurney's books influenced her.
- Edward Bradford Titchener
1867~1927. An English psychologist. He studied under the instruction of Wilhelm Wundt and became a professor at Cornell University. The major work of his is Psychology of Thought Processes(1909). Titchener argued with William James on the authenticity of telepathy. Titchener rejected it while James supported it.
Vernon Lee tried to incorporate aesthetics into psychology and the key term for that is "empathy." It is the translation of a German word 'Einfuhlung' Theodor Lipps employed. Lee translated this term into 'infeeling' and Edward Titchener coined the term empathy. Afterwards, Lee used the term empathy. Lee mentions this process in The Beautiful.
In 'subject and object' in The Beautiful, Lee mentioned the fact that Titchener made the word "empathy" and argued it.
In the entry of empathy in Oxford English Dictionary, the first example of empathy is taken from Vernon Lee's Beauty and Ugliness.
- Karl Groos
1861~1946. A German philosopher and psychologist. He asserted
evolutionary instrumentalism, which refers to the way of thinking that ideas lead actions and they are instruments by which these actions are valued. The major work of his is The Play on Animals, in which he asserted theatrical art is the preparation for later life.
Groos connected shapes and motions of objects with psychological changes of observers' minds and names it as 'inner mimicry.' Vernon Lee inherited this way of thinking.
Vernon Lee was influenced by Groos' psychology and met him at Thüringen. From 1902 to 1908, Lee and Groos exchanged letters and discussed the influence of aesthetic experiences on human beings. Lee's Beauty and Ugliness was criticized by Theodor Lipps but Groos valued it favorably.
In "The Economic Parasitism of Women" in Gospels of Anarchy, Lee valued highly Groos' 'Play Instinct.'
- Karl Heinrich Marx
1818～1883. A German philosopher and economist. His idea is called Marxism and exerted great influence on the 20th century's politics and philosophy. He asserted that capitalism develops and as the natural result, and then the age of communism comes. The major works of his are Manifest der Kommunistischen Parte (1848)（Friedrich Engels is the co-author） and Das Kapital(1867).
Vernon Lee admired German culture and possessed Das Kapital. She didn't join the Fabian Society, a British socialist organization, but had some kind of sympathy towards socialism. However, she took a negative attitude towards the ideas of Marx. Vineta Colby asserts that Lee disliked Marxism's "rigid economic determinism."(Colby, Vernon Lee, P.274.) Colby also asserts that Marx, Wagner, and Bismark destroy the idea on Germany Lee had. (P.262.)
In 1934, Lee read Toward Understanding of Karl Marx, an essay critical against Marx by Sidney Hook.
- Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel
1770~1831. A German philosopher. He is the representative philosopher of German idealism and wrote books on religion, history, aesthetics and others. The major works of his are Vorlesungen über die Philosophie der Geschichte(1838) and Phänomenologie des Geistes(1807).
Vernon Lee had a strong interest in German philosophy and history and read Hegel's books. In 'Puzzle of the Past' in Hortus Vitae, she tackled the problem that the past and the present can coexist. Her conclusion is that it is impossible. However, according to Hegel's theory of TheseーAntithese－Synthese, they can coexist because they are contradictory.
Hegel had an idea that the beauty of art is superior to that of nature. This led to aestheticism. Vernon Lee especially in the first part of her career, wrote many books on aestheticism and she may be influenced by Hegel.
Walter Pater's famous words "all arts aspires to the state of music" gave a strong influence on Lee and according to her this idea derived from Hegel. In 'The Value of the Ideal' in Baldwin, she stated that the theory of music of Walter Pater is the repetition of Hegel's 'old music theories.'
Christa Zorn writes: "Lee generally was critical of Hegel, but followed his philosophy more closely than she would admit." (Christa Zorn, Vernon Lee, P.170.)
- Goldsworthy Lowes Dickinson
1862~1932. A British philosopher, political scholar. He kept company with the members of the Bloomsbury Group.
When the First World War broke out, Lee and Dickinson came to know each other as pacifists. Dickinson engaged in the foundation of the United League and Lee praised such activities of Dickinson's and his book The International Anarchy, 1904-1914 (1926). Vineta Colby asserts that Dickinson was not "declared pacifist" for Lee and sometimes annoyed her. Lee says "he (Dickinson) was 'wrinkled with scruples.'"(Colby, Vernon Lee, P.294.）
Dickinson also read Lee's books on war and tried to made remarks on war which are different from those of Lee's. He thought that Lee could not contribute to the realization of world peace.
- Jean-Jacques Rousseau
1712~1778. A French philosopher. He is one of the representative philosophers of enlightenment. The main idea of his can be summarized into the phrase: Return to nature. The major works of his are Discours sur l'origine et les fondements de l'inégalité parmi les hommes (1755)、Du contrat social ( 1762)、Émile, ou De l'éducation (1762)、Les Confessions (autobiography, 1770)、Julie ou la Nouvelle Héloïse (novel, 1761) and others.
Vernon Lee often mentioned Rousseau. For example, in 'On Novels' Baldwin, an essay in dialogue, Marcel says: 'a diseased soul like Jean-Jacques.' Another character, Mrs. Blake, asserts that modern French literature including Balzac, Flaubert, and Baudelaire comes from Rousseau's Les Confessions. And he asserts as follows: "And as Rousseau, who certainly was not a true Frenchman, has never seemed to be a genuine man either, but a sickly, morbid piece of half-developed precocity; so I cannot admit that the present phase of French literature represents manhood as opposed to the French literature of the past." Furthermore, in 'Of Doubts and Pessimism' in the same book, Baldwin says: "I certainly consider a book like the 'Confession' as a remarkably nasty pathological exhibition."
In 'In Piedmont' in Genius Loci, Lee told the impressions she had in Piedmont, Italy, and mentioned Rousseau as follows: "Jean Jacques was a very undesirable lackey. The Abbe de Gouvon, as he calls him, was the person, if I remember rightly, who gave him some smattering of mathematics; and presented him with "the Fontaine de Hieron,"the little scientific toy with which he thought to begin his fortune."(Genius Loci, P145.)
In The Sentimental Traveler, a travelogue, the expression "Rousseau's vanity" can be found.
In "Rosny and the French Analytical Novel" contained in Gospels of Anarchy, Lee states that Rousseau's Confessions has "subjective truth."
Rousseau wrote a book entitled Dictionnaire de Musique (1768). This is the one of the earliest books on music and had a great influence on Lee's Music and Its Lovers. In a letter, Lee referred to this book.
- Jules Michelet
1798～1874. A French historian. The major works of his are Histoire de France、La Femme (1859)、and La Sorcière (1862).
Since she was young, Vernon Lee loved reading Michelet's books and was influenced by them. In a letter in 1878, Lee wrote about Michelet: "I have brought a heap of Michelet and Ruskin (rather a contrast) with me." (Complete Letters, Volume 1, P.230.) Peter Gunn asserts that one of the reasons Lee wrote Ariadne in Mantua is the influence of Michelet. According to Gunn, Lee learned romanticism from Michelet. Lee herself wrote in Euphorion: ""how much I am indebted to the genius of Michelet; nay, rather, how much I am, however unimportant, the thing made by him, everyone will see and judge."
Michelet tackled the problems of women in some books such as La Femme and that is one of the reasons Lee had an interest in Michelet.
- George Tyrrell
1861～1909. An Irish minister of the Jesuit. He tried to adapt Jesuit doctrines to the modern ways of thinking. The major works of his are The Church and the Future (1910) and Christianity at the Crossroads (1910).
Vernon Lee set a chapter named 'Father Tyrrell: Modernism and the Will to Continue Believing' in 'Applied Pragmatism,' the second part of Vital Lies and argued on the thoughts of Tyrrell. For example, Lee wrote: "As regards Protestantism, on the other hand, Father Tyrrell's book (like M. Loisy's famous one) is directed, not so much at freeing Catholicism from scientifically untenable doctrines, as at showing that "Liberal Protestantism," with its substitution of the ethical elements for the sacramental and transcendental ones, so far falls short of being the true embodiment of the Religious Idea." (Vital Lies, Part Ⅱ, PP.171~172.)
- Joseph Ernest Renan
1823~1892. A French historian on religion. His work Vie de Jésus(1863）described Jesus as a human being for the first time, and had a great influence on the later generations. Oscar Wilde claimed that it was one of the most influential books written in the 19th century, together with Darwin's The Origins of Species.
Vernon Lee had no faith in any religion but nevertheless, she had a strong interest in Jesus or the Virgin Mary. Vie de Jésus was one of her favorite books. The name of Renan often appears in her books. Peter Gunn asserts that Christian beliefs did not influence Lee's ideas but invoked "sympathy and admiration" in her.
In Baldwin, Lee referred to the name of Renan as a person who gave the greatest influence on French young people along with Baudelaire. And she asserted that the secret of Renan's pessimism is "sceptical and resigned."
In Louis Norbert, Lady Venetia says: "I rather liked Ahab in Renan's Peuple d'Israel."
- John Stuart Mill
1806~1873, An English philosopher. The major works of his are Principles of Political Economy (1848）、On Liberty(1859）and The Subjection of Women (1869).
Vernon Lee herself made many feminist remarks and had a strong interest in Mill's works and mentioned the name of Mill in her works. For example, in Baldwin Olivia says 'incarnation of logic and utilitarianism,' mentioning the relationship between Mill and his wife.
Also in Vital Lies, a book written to criticize pragmatism, Lee referred to Mill many times as a forerunner of pragmatism. In a letter written in 1887, Lee mentioned Mill's "Political Economy." （Complete Letters Volume 2, P.317.）
- Daniel Halévy
1872～1962. A French historian, critic. He was a friend of Marcel Proust and other literary persons. At the Dreyfus trial, he supported Dreyfus. The major work of his is Essai sur l'acceleration de l'histoire (1948).
Vernon Lee and Halévy were friends with each other and had a lot in common in their liberal ideas on society.
- Charles Sanders Peirce
1839～1914. An American philosopher, mathematician, scientist. Some critic asserts that he is the most creative, versatile intellect of America.
Peirce is regarded as the founder of pragmatism and also founded the metaphysical club. He promoted "abduction," which is the term referring to the process through which hypothesis to explain things is formed. He advocated "fallibilism": truth can be false and it can be renewed through experiences.
Vernon Lee interpreted Peirce as a founder of pragmatism and claimed that William James was influenced by Peirce: They were colleague at Harvard University. But Peirce came to be discontented with James' pragmatism and changed the name of idea from pragmatism to pragmaticism. Vineta Colby, a biographer of Lee, claims that Lee didn't argue with Peirce on theoretical pragmatism. (Colby, 284）Peirce defined truth as "the opinion which is fated to be ultimately agreed to by all who investigate."
Lee's Vital Lies was written to criticize William James' pragmatism: she mentioned the name of James in the book and quotes many sentences from Peirce's books. She asserted that pragmatism of James or Schiller is different from that defined by Peirce. She wrote: "Mr Peirce makes truth into an intellectual imperative which sooner or later imposes itself (or would impose itself but for human "perversity") on opinion, Messrs James and Schiller constantly (besides con-fusing"Truth" with its objective correlative "Reality") calmly identify truth with belief, and belief with opinion, and they test truth (which is itself belief's and opinion's standard) by the beneficial or agreeable, the useful con-sequences due to holding a given belief or opinion." (Vital Lies, P.28.)
According to Lee, Peirce's ideas were onmade by collecting those of John Locke, George Berkeley, David Hume, and John Stuart Mill and William James and Schiller escaped from them. Lee wrote: "The Pragmatism of Mr Peirce is a formula of the "Logic of Science." The Pragmatism of Messrs W. James and Schiller is, so far as it possesses any originality, a method of apologetics, a not always strictly grammatical new Grammar of Assent."(Vital Lies, P.47.)
- Charles Darwin
1809～1882. An English naturalist. He visited Galápagos Islands and various parts of the world by HMS Beagle. On the Origin of Species published in 1859 gave great impacts on European society and Christian world. His ideas of the theory of evolution shown in the book are negative to the Christian beliefs, so Darwin was criticized by Christians.
Vernon Lee mentioned Darwin many times in her books. For example, in 'Of Honour and Evolution' in Baldwin she argued the matter of the development of science and ethics under the influence of Darwin's theory of evolution. She seemed to believe in the theory. She read the books of T.H. Huxley, who is called 'Darwin's bulldog' and learned a lot from them. She claimed the necessity of the birth of new morality with the development of science. In The Handling of Words, Lee wrote: "Darwinian tell us that the prehensile feet of babies reproduce the feet of monkeys." (P.13)
- Theodor Lipps
1851~1914. A German psychologist. He had a strong interest in art and aesthetics and gave an influence on Freud. The term Einfuhlung (empathy in English) Robert Vischer, a German philosopher, coined was spread by Lipps through his book Raumasthetik(1896). He asserted that beauty gives humans mental power and consoles them.
Vernon Lee was strongly influenced by the theory of Lipps. However, Lipps criticized Lee's Beauty and Ugliness, and after that she modified her opinions on psychology, pointing out the problems in Lipps' theory. Peter Gunn asserts that Lee criticizes 'metaphysical element' in Lipps' theory.
The first entry of the examples of "empathy" in Oxford English Dictionary is from Lee's Beauty and Ugliness.
- Thomas Carlyle
1795~1881年。A Scottish historian, philosopher. The representative works of his are Sartor Resartus(1833~34 ）、The French Revolution (1837)、Heroes and Hero Worship (1841） and others. Lee read many of Carlyle's books.
In The Handling of Words, Vernon Lee analyzed the style of Carlyle in the chapter with the name of 'Carlyle and the Present Tense,' comparing Carlyle's use of present tense with those of other writers.
Carlyle wrote a book Past and Future (1843）, which may have influenced Vernon Lee's idea on the past. Lee wrote: "The use of the present tense answers, on the contrary, to Carlyle's very personal attitude in what is really the world of contemplation." (P.184.)
Interests in German culture are common in both Lee and Carlyle.
- Thomas Henry Huxley
1825～1895. An English biologist. He advocated agnosticism, which means that humans cannot recognize the nature of things. Because he supported Darwin, he was called Darwin's bulldog. He wrote books such as Science and Education and Evolution and Ethics.
Vernon Lee valued the theory of Darwin and read the books of Huxley. Especially his idea on the relationship between scientific development and ethics shown in Evolution and Ethics is shared with Lee.
- Bertrand Russell
1872～1970. An English mathematician, philosopher. When the First World War broke out, he began to act as a pacifist. The major works of his are Principia Mathematica (1910~13）、The Problems of Philosophy (1912） and others. He and Albert Einstein pronounced Russell-Einstein manifesto in 1955 to abolish nuclear weapons.
Vernon Lee met Russell for the first time in 1894 through their common friend. They met several times hereafter, but Russell disliked Lee, though he admitted her intelligence. Russell told Burdet Gardner, who wrote a book on Lee, Lesbian Imagination: ”(Lee was) incredibly ugly, but always able to win the devotion of young girls who were both intelligent and beautiful. This, I suppose, was owing to the brilliancy of her intellect." He called Lee "vampire, a very masterful, dominant person―a bloodsucker."
On the other hand, Lee liked reading Russell's books. Both of them take anti-war stance.
- Herbert Spencer
1820~1903. An English philosopher, sociologist. Under the influence of Charles Darwin's theory of evolution, he advocated social evolution. The major works of his are System of Synthetic Philosophy (1860） and others.
Though Vernon Lee accepted the theory of evolution by Darwin and Spencer, she kept kind eyes toward losers of the survival of the fittest and had an idea that evolution must entail the birth of a new ethics. Lee's recognition of the theory found in her short story 'The Lady and the Death' derives from Spencer.
Spencer played an important role in aesthetics. His Principles of Psychology was widely read and had a great influence. Ian Small summarizes his aesthetics: "The greatest art therefore axiomatically became that which was capable of exercising the greatest variety and volume of pleasurable emotion or sensation in its audience." (Ian Small, Conditions for Criticism, P.71.) Spencer was a forerunner of Lee in that he considered the influence of artistic works on observers' mentality.
In 'Beauty and Sanity' in Laurus Nobilis, Lee wrote: "Whether or not Mr. Herbert Spencer be correct in deducing all artistic activities from our primeval instincts of play, it seems to me certain that these artistic activities have for us adults much the same importance as the play activities have for a child."
On the other hand, in The Beautiful, Lee's ideas on art are expressed. It is said that Schiller created the philosophical theory in which 'non-practical attitude' combined with the term 'beautiful' is used in order to define art and its pleasure as 'a kind of play' and Hebert Spencer revived it, but Lee denied it.
In Althea Dialogues, Althea says that he doesn't want to think of himself as a criminal and that he doesn't want to burn Spencer's books. (P.211)
In 'Imagination Penetrative' in The Handling of Words, Lee mentioned agnosticism of Spencer. （P. 283）
- Beatrice Webb
1858～1943. An English sociologist, economist. She played an important role in Fabian Society with her husband Sidney Webb. She wrote Women and the Factory Acts (1896) and so on.
Vineta Colby asserts that Vernon Lee and Sidney Webb had a lot in common in terms of their negative attitudes against the suffragette movement at that time.
Furthermore, Colby points out that Lee may write The Gospels of Anarchy inspired by Webb's entry in her journal in 1884: "Social questions are the vital questions of today; they have taken the place of religion."
- Ferdinand Canning Scott Schiller
1864~1937. An English philosopher. He was born in Germany and studied at Oxford University. He was influenced by the theory of evolution and criticized the Hegelian philosophy. His ideas are close to pragmatism.
In Vital Lies, Lee mentioned the name of Schiller along with those of Henry James and Perth, and regarded him as representative pragmatists. She cited many passages from Schiller's book Studies in Humanism and criticized 'The Will to Believe,' the idea shown in it.
- Plato
B.C.427~B.C.347. A philosopher in ancient Greece. He founded the basis of the Western philosophy. He was a disciple of Socrates and a teacher of Aristotle. The major works of his are The Apology of Socrates, The Republic, Symposium, Phaedo and others. His theory of ideas has given a great influence on later generations.
Many of Plato's books were written in the dialogue-style, which has been influential to the present. Lee also adopted the style in such works as Baldwin, following the tradition since Plato.
In the 19th century, Plato's Symposium gained a lot of attention. It discusses androgyny and Vernon Lee learned a lot from it. In Althea, one of the narrators, Althea, is compared to a young man in Symposium. On it, Christa Zorn writes: "Althea's appearance like "one of the youths in Plato's dialogues" not only links her with the antique model of homoerotic love but also exemplifies the contemporary practice of using the boy image as a sign for lesbian difference." (Zorn, Vernon Lee, P.107.) Zorn points out the similarity between Lee's dialogue on altruism and Plato's dialogues.
Vernon Lee made many references to Plato in her books. For example, in Laurus Nobilis, she asserts that the philosophy of Plato is the source of "all higher philosophy" in Europe. Also in the same book, Lee wrote: "we human creatures will never know the absolute or the essence, that notions, which Plato took for realities, are more relative conceptions." (P.80.)
- Frances Power Cobbe
1822~1904. An Irish writer, social activist. She took part in the campaign for suffragette and to prohibit animal experiments, especially vivisection. Her books on feminism are The Duties of Women and others. She engaged in the foundation of National Anti-Vivisection Society (NAVS) in 1875, and that of British Union for the Abolition of Vivisection (BUAV) in 1898. Besides these, she wrote novels such as The Confessions of a Lost Dog(1867). She cohabited with Mary Lloyd, a female sculptor.
Cobbe read Vernon Lee's ghost stories and loved them. In her autobiography, Life of Frances Power Cobbe, she mentioned the works of Lee: "The ghost of popular belief almost invariably exhibits the survival of Avarice, Revenge, or some other thoroughly earthly passion....The famous story of Miss Lee is one exception to this rule." (Life of Frances Power Cobbe, P.11.)
Like Cobbe, Lee attacked harshly vivisection of animals. However, they were different in the ideas on the development of science. Lee took it affirmatively and asserted the necessity of the birth of new moral while Cobbe took it negatively. Cobbe's theory against vivisection may be based on blind disbelief in science.
They exchanged letters. In a letter to Mary Robinson in 1883, Lee wrote: "Have (you) seen Miss Cobbes' very unjust but very flattering article about me in the Contemporary? It is so odd, that tone of the deist towards the "good agnostic" as Florence Sellar called me―like the people in the Chanson de Roland, who are always exclaiming." In another letter to Cobbe, Lee deplored that her novel Miss Brown was not favorably accepted. And in the same letter, she asks Cobbe to introduce her to many people when she would visit London. （Complete Letters, Volume 2, P.27.）In a letter in1879, Lee wrote: "...I have been in correspondence lately with your friend Miss Cobbe. She is so kind to make use of me; and I am delighted to be put to use by her." (Complete Letters Volume 1, P.256.)
Cobbe "married" Mary Lloyd. The lived together. Cobbe was a manly woman: she employed words men like to use and kept her hair short like men and wore male clothing. In terms of this Cobbe are similar to Cobbe. Sharon Marcus argues Cobbe's sexuality in Between Women: Friendship, Desire, and Marriage in Victorian England.
Cobbe's ideas on marriage is conservative: In The Duties of Women, Cobbe asserts that women should defend family and house staying home, and this is the virtue of the British. ("One word in concluding these remarks on woman's duties as a Hausfrau. If we cannot perform these well, if we are not orderly enough, clear-headed enough, powerful enough, in short, to fulfill this immemorial function of our sex well and thoroughly, it is somewhat foolish of us to press to be allowed to share in the great housekeeping of the State." The Duties of Women, P.151.)
- Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche
1844~1900. A German philosopher. The major works of his are Also sprach Zarathustra(1885), Zur Genealogie der Moral(1887) and others.
Nietzsche and Lee had a lot in common: both of them had interests in Wagner. Lee made many references to Nietzsche in her books and wrote an essay titled 'Nietzsche and the "Will to Power," which is included in The Gospels of Anarchy.
Vernon Lee could read German, so it is certain that she read books of Nietzsche. Colby asserts that Lee praises Nietzsche's "the force and of originality of his thinking."（Colby, Vernon Lee, P.279.）
Among his books, his first book Die Geburt der Tragödie (1872) was important for Lee. In it, Nietzsche classified art into two categories: Apollonian art and Dionysian one, which was succeeded by Lee. That is evident in her Music and Its Lovers. However, while Nietzsche brought Dionysian art into light, Lee asked for Apollonian art. In The Handling of Words, Lee writes that she sees Dionysian art with doubt and aversion.
In 'Nietzsche and the "Will to Power," Lee criticized 'The Will to Power' in Nietzsche and writes: 'It is right, therefore, despite Nietzsche, that there should be pity for others.'
In Laurus Nobilis,Lee wrote: "it is not only music, as Nietzsche said, but all art, that is abut a kind of dancing, a definite rhythmic carrying and moving of the soul."
In The Handling of Words, Lee wrote: "Nietzsche was telling us, according to his wont, rather what he experienced with mingled complacency and disgust in his own self, than what he valued in others. To him the word―he was apt to feel it rather as the spoken than the written word―was essentially the response, almost the reflex, the impatient, violent, contemptuous and often self contemptuous venting and easing of his inner distress, of his instability, soreness and frenzy." (P.314.)
- Blaise Pascal
1623～1662. A French philosopher, mathematician, physicist. He entered a religious life at the age of 31. His saying ”Man is a reek to think" is very famous. The major works of his are Pensée and others.
Vernon Lee mentioned Pascal in her books such as Laurus Nobilis.("There is a penséeof Pascal's to the effect that a fop carries on his person the evidence of the existence of so many people devoted to his service. This thought may be delightful to a fop; but it is not pleasant to a mind sensitive to beauty and hating the bare thought of ugliness." Laurus Nobilis, P.145.)
In Vital Lies, Lee wrote that William James' understanding of Pascal's 'Wager' is unique.
- Henry Havelock Ellis
1859～1939. An English physicist, sexologist. His book Studies in the Psychology of Sex(1933 ） is the epoch-making work in this field. He made the concept of narcissism popular among English people and is said to have discovered women's sexual desire.
It is difficult to assume that Lee liked Ellis who claims women have sexual desire, but he mentioned her name in his book. In Sexual Inversion, which was written together with John Addington Symonds and published in 1897, Ellis argued lesbianism and regarded the relationship between Lee and Mary Robinson as its case history.
- Max Simon Nordau
1849~1923. A Hungarian doctor, philosopher. He acted as one of the leaders of Zionism. He published Die Entartung in 1892．In it, he criticized the artists of decadence such as Wagner, Verlaine, Wilde, Nietzsche, and Baudelaire. At the beginning of the book, he deplored: "The fin de siècle state of mind is to-day everywhere to be met" and regarded Paris as the centre of decadence. Also, to criticize Ibsen's The Doll's House, he wrote a novel The Right to Love. Times, an English journal, expressed him as "philosopher of decadence" in his obituary.
In 'Deterioration of Soul' in Gospels of Anarchy, Vernon Lee showed her understanding on Nordau's theory but at the same time criticized it. She wrote: 'I find that Nordau's book has inspired me with a salutary terror, not merely of Degeneracy (though he is right in teaching us to be afraid of that), but of the deterioration of the soul's faculties and habits, which is the inevitable result of all intellectual injustice.'
Vernon Lee thought that there is morals under all scientific truths. On the other hand, she criticized the works of Nordau and Lombroso because she thought they had an idea that degeneration is attributable to physiological causes. She claimed they should ask for social causes of degeneration and proceeded to argue the relationship between individuals and society. According to Lee, when human beings are separated from society, they become egocentric, but they shouldn't be too aware of healthiness stipulated by society. She wrote: 'Our souls are beset by dangerous tendencies, notions, and examples: let every individual, therefore, scrutinize and select among the tendencies and notions of others; scrutinize and select more carefully still among the tendencies and notions he may find in himself.'
On the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, Lee wrote: "In the world of art, however, the religious enthusiasm of degenerate and hysterical Englishmen sought its expression in pre-Raphaelitism."(Degeneration, P.77.) Furthermore, she wrote: ""But this retrogression to first beginnings, this affectation of simplicity, this child's play in word and gesture, is a frequent phenomenon amongst the weak-minded, and we shall often meet with it among the mystic poets."(Degeneration, P.82) On John Ruskin who supported the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, she argued: "These proposition were decisive in determining the direction taken by the young Englishmen of 1843, who united artistic inclinations with the mysticism of the degenerate and hysterical. They comprise the aestheticism of the first Pre-Raphaelites, who felt that Ruskin had expressed with clearness what was vaguely fermenting within them." （Degeneration, P.79.）
In "The Economic Parasitism of Women" in Gospels of Anarchy, Lee mentioned the name of Nordau.
On music, Nordau wrote: "The musical listener is accustomed involuntarily to develop a little in his mind every motive occurring in a piece." In this book, he argued the influence of music on human's mind. On ghost stories, he writes: "Ghost-stories are very popular, but they must come on in scientific disguise, as hypnotism, telepathy, somnambulism."
