In his series of lectures, Dixon explores the nature of the human soul in light of humanity’s historical, cultural, and philosophical situation. He argues that the human experiences of wisdom and folly, dreams and desires, and creating and destructing are integral to the process of cosmic becoming. For Dixon, our ‘spiritual’ or interior dimension is an important and ‘real’ part of the cosmos.
William Macneile Dixon was born in 1866 in India. A poet, historian, and scholar of the English language, he was a true Renaissance thinker, believing that a civilization was more indebted to the genius of its ‘intuitive’ individuals than to its politicians, engineers, or scientists. In 1891, he was appointed Professor of English Literature at Alexandra College, Dublin, and in 1894, became Professor of English Language and Literature at Mason Science College. Dixon took up the Regius Professorship of English Language and Literature at the University of Glasgow in 1904.
Professor of Literature to the Royal Birmingham Society of Artists, he was also President of the Library Association of the United Kingdom in 1902. Dixon’s poetry and patriotism inspired a generation. Notable works include English Poetry from Blake to Browning (1894), A Primer of Tennyson, With a Critical Essay (1896), In the Republic of Letters (1898), Poetry and National Character (1915), The British Navy at War (1917), Tragedy (1924), Cinderella’s Garden (1927), The Human Situation (1937), Thoughts for the Times (1941) and An Apology for the Arts (1944).
