immediately put into practical shape, was as good as unknown before him. To take a bright period or personage of history, to frame it in a firm outline, to conceive it at once in article size, and then to fill in this limited canvas with sparkling anecdote, telling bits of color, and facts all fused together by a real genius for narrative, was the scene painting which Macaulay applied to history. . . . And to this day his Essays remain the best of their class not only in England but in Europe. Slight or even trivial in the field of historical erudition and critical inquiry, they masterpieces if regarded in the light of great ular cartoons on subjects taken from modern his

They are painted, indeed, with such freedom, iness, and power, that they may be said to enjoy sort of tacit monopoly of the periods and characters which they refer, in the estimation of the general public. Any portion of English history which Macaulay has travelled over is found to be moulded into a form which the average Englishman at once enjoys and understands. He did, it has been truly said, in a small way, and in solid prose, the same thing for the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries that Shakespeare did in a poetical way for the fifteenth century.

He succeeded in achieving the object which he always professed to aim at-making history attractive and interesting to a degree never attained before. This

is either a merit or a fault, according to the point of view from which we regard it; but from every point of view, it was no common feat."1

Mendelssohn is the best introduction to classical music, but the more one knows of classical music the less he cares for Mendelssohn. And so it is with Macaulay's Essays as compared with the highest forms of literature. Notwithstanding the undoubted merits of the Essays and their permanent popularity, it is certain that when one has attuned his ear to the finest nuances of the most refined English prose, he tires of the snap of Macaulay's short sentences, and the too obvious antithetical balance of his ringing periods. The oratorical devices for hammering home an idea, which succeed when assisted by vocal melody and graceful gesture, become monotonous in cold type. Macaulay's avowed aim was to make his writing "read as if it had been spoken off." But he forgot that there are delicate qualities in the finest writing which are above what is possible to the most accomplished anecdotist and the most successful orator. Then, too, one who has accustomed himself to deep thought and careful discrimination, is liable to be offended by Macaulay's cocksure judgments, insufficient generalizations, picturesque exaggerations, and unreasonable prejudices. "Taken all round, his in1 J. Cotter Morison's Macaulay, pp. 68, 69.

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into men's bosoms was not deep, and was dey limited. Complex and involved characters, Which the good and evil were interwoven in odd

inal ways, in which vulgar and obvious faults ces concealed deeper and rarer qualities under1, were beyond his ken. In men like Rousseau, , Boswell, even Walpole, he saw little more the world could see - those patent breaches sional decorum and morality which the most ...young person could join him in condemning. cat civic and military qualities-resolute omptitude, self-command, and firmness of he could thoroughly understand and warmly There is no doubt that Macaulay was often and gave his prejudices full vent in his A but it must also be said that for the most Lie Samuel Johnson, his prejudices were on the - that of reasonable liberty and rational

* a great difference between the first thirteen essays and those which appeared after his return from India in 1888. The former were often written in great haste in the intervals snatched from his parliamentary business, and were never intended for permanent pub

en In fact, Macaulay resisted their republicaup as he could, and was only forced to it, in 1. Cotter Morison's Macaulay.

1843, by the appearance of several American editions which had an enormous sale in England as well as in the United States. In the authorized editions he made many changes, improved the style, and on the essays written after 1834, he bestowed as much care in composition as he put on his History. He wrote to Macvey Napier about his Essay on Bacon: "I never bestowed so much care on anything I have written. There is not a sentence in the latter half of the article which has not been repeatedly recast. I have no expectation that the popularity of the article will bear any proportion to the trouble which I have expended on it. But the trouble has been so great a pleasure that I have already been greatly overpaid. Pray look carefully to the printing."

It may be interesting to have Macaulay's own judgment on these works, as given in his letters to Napier "Very little, if any, of the effect of my most popular articles is produced either by minute research into rare books, or by allusions to mere topics of the day. . . . I hope in a few weeks to send you a prodigiously long article about Lord Bacon, which I think will be popular with the many, whatever the few who know something about the matter may think of it. . . . [Magazine articles] are not, I think, made for duration,

and few people read an article in a review twice. A bold, dashing scene-painting manner is that which

always succeeds best in periodical writing. . . . I have done my best to ascertain what I can and what I cannot do. There are extensive classes of subjects which I think myself able to treat as few people can treat them. After this, you cannot suspect me of any affectation of modesty; and you will therefore believe that I tell you what I sincerely think, when I say that I am not successful in analyzing the effect of works of genius. I have written several things on historical, political, and moral questions, of which, on the fullest reconsideration, I am not ashamed, and by which I should be willing to be estimated; but I have never written a page of criticism on poetry, or the fine arts, which I would not burn if I had the power. Hazlitt used to say of himself, I am nothing if not critical.' The case with me is directly the reverse. I have a strong and acute enjoyment of works of the imagination, but I have never habituated myself to dissect them. Perhaps I enjoy them the more keenly for that reason. Such books as Lessing's Laocoon, such passages as the criticism of Hamlet in Wilhelm Meister fill me with wonder and despair."

Whatever may be their faults, their merits are such that the Essays of Macaulay will probably be read by thousands of people as long as an interest in English history and English literature exists.

In 1826 Macaulay was admitted to the bar, and