his talents were generally recognized, and a wider career soon opened to him. In 1830 he entered Parliament and speedily took a foremost place. As a Whig, he warmly supported the Reform Bill of 1832. His first speech created little less than a sensation; and afterward, says Gladstone, "whenever he rose to speak, it was a summons like a trumpet-call to fill the benches." His perspicuous thought, his copious diction, and his vigorous utterance all gave him great power as a speaker. He was a hard worker, and throughout his political career he exhibited not only an incorruptible integrity, but also a selfsacrificing devotion to the welfare of his country. During this laborious period, in the spare moments gained by early rising, he wrote some of his best-known essays, among which are Moore's Life of Lord Byron," Samuel Johnson," "John Hampden," and "Lord Burleigh."

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489. An Insatiable Reader.-In 1834 Macaulay sailed for India as legal adviser to the Supreme Council. It was a sacrifice to leave his native country and well-earned fame; but his new office, which paid a salary of ten thousand pounds, brought him the means to provide better for those dependent upon him. He spent the long voyage in reading. “Except at meals," he said, "I hardly exchanged a word with any human being. I devoured Greek, Latin, Spanish, Italian, French, and English." He was always an insatiable reader; history, travels, novels, poetry he devoured them all with but little discrimination. He possessed the uncommon faculty of riding post" through an author; and frequently mastered a volume during a morning's walk. As often happens with far less vigorous minds, books were allowed to take the place of reflection. To use the words of Gladstone, "He was always conversing or recollecting or reading or composing; but reflecting, never."

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490. Work in India.- Macaulay was a man of strong personality, of great good sense, and of indefatigable industry. In Calcutta, as in London, he accomplished, apart from his special office, a large amount of valuable work. As chairman of the Committee of Public Instruction, he exerted a decisive influence on the educational policy of India. Instead of en

couraging Oriental learning, he maintained that the great object of the British government ought to be the promotion of European literature and science among the natives of India." During his four years' stay in India he wrote only two articles for the Edinburgh Review; but one of these was the famous essay on "Bacon." He returned to England in 1838.

491. A Tour in Italy.- A few months after his return he made a tour in Italy. His familiarity with Latin and Italian literature prepared him to enjoy in rich measure the historic associations of the country. He was sensitive to architectural beauty, and St. Peter's made a deep impression on him. "I really could have cried with pleasure," he wrote. He used this journey to verify the local coloring of his "Lays of Ancient Rome." "I then went to the river," he wrote again, "to the spot where the old Pons Sublicius stood, and looked about to see how my 'Horatius' agreed with the topography. Pretty well; but his house must be on Mount Palatine, for he could never see Mount Coelius from the spot where he fought." Accordingly, we read in the poem,

"But he saw on Palatinus

The white porch of his home;

And he spake to the noble river

That rolls by the towers of Rome."

492. The Essays.- On his return to England, Macaulay was again elected to Parliament. Though political interests, to a greater or less degree, engaged his attention all his life, we turn to a consideration of his literary achievements. And first in time, and if the popular estimate is to be taken, first in importance, are the "Essays." The chief of these appeared in the Edinburgh Review between 1825 and 1844. They cover a wide field and may be divided into two principal groups historical and critical. In English history we have the essays on "Burleigh," "Hallam," "Hampden," "Temple," "Mackintosh," "Walpole," "Chatham," "Clive," and "Warren Hastings," which taken together give a tolerably complete view of the period between Elizabeth and George III. Among the

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essays treating of continental history, "Machiavelli," Mirabeau," "Frederic," and above all "Von Ranke," deserve special mention. The critical essays include, as will be seen, a considerable number of the most prominent English writers: "Addison," "Bacon," "Bunyan," "Byron," "Dryden,"

"Johnson," and "Milton."

These "Essays" were produced in the vigor of early manhood, and most of them under the stress of a busy political life. Instead of constituting Macaulay's main vocation, they were little more than recreations. He wrote, to use his own expression, because his head was full. While lacking in critical acumen, judicial fairness, and indisputable accuracy, they display astonishing resources of diction, unequalled clearness of thought, and a masterful knowledge of history. Any absence of delicacy in touch is amply compensated by a spacious canvas and unstinted color. Macaulay may be fairly styled the Rubens of essayists.

493. Qualities of Style.- His style, about which so much has been said, is preeminently rhetorical and declamatory. It is better adapted to oral discourse than that of any other English author. It is essentially the same style that appears in his eloquent parliamentary speeches. It abounds in repetitions for the sake of clearness; in tremendous emphasis of statement; in a luxuriant expansion and illustration of ideas. Though natural to him, it has the appearance of being artificial. It surrenders its flexibility to the demands of a uniform rhetorical movement. It lacks the freedom and melody of the best forms of prose; and in spite of its striking antitheses and its agreeable succession of long and short sentences, there is an unvaried sameness of tone that at length grows tiresome. While in Macaulay's hands it was capable of splendid results, it is not a style to be blindly imitated.

His mind was quick, direct, and vigorous in its operations. It soon caught the main outlines of a subject. With a few prominent points before him, Macaulay proceeded to fill in his picture from the ample resources of his memory and imagination. There is an absence of gentle gradation and subdued tints. But whatever may be lacking in fine discrimination and

exquisite delicacy, there is always an unfailing lucidity and impressive power.

494. Partisan Attitude.- These considerations throw light on a serious and acknowledged failing. Macaulay is generally a partisan. While he was thoroughly honest at heart, and while he would have scorned to do any one intentional wrong, yet the clearness and impetuosity of his mental processes sometimes hurried him to unwarranted conclusions. He was deficient in judicial calmness and reserve. Hence, however interesting his treatment, and however imposing his assertions, it must be confessed that his conclusions are not always decisive and final.

495. Facts Rather than Principles.- Macaulay lacked philosophic depth, but was sensitive to dramatic situation. He delighted in facts rather than in principles. He preferred to describe events rather than to trace their underlying causes. It may be doubted whether he appreciated the subtle feeling of the finest poetry. In his literary criticism we miss a luminous interpretation of exquisite passages. He frankly admitted that criticisms like Goethe's "Hamlet" or Lessing's "Laocoon " were at once his admiration and despair.

496. "Lays of Ancient Rome."- Macaulay was not a poet, yet he published a slender volume of poems that have kept their place as a popular favorite. These are the "Lays of Ancient Rome," which were published in 1842. In the preface the author tells us that he speaks, not in his own person, but in the person of ancient minstrels, who know only what a Roman citizen, born four or five hundred years before the Christian era, may be supposed to have known, and who are in no wise above the passions and prejudices of their age and nation. In this way the legends of Horatius defending the bridge, of the battle of Regillus, of the slaying of Virginia, and of the prophecy of Capys are treated. Macaulay frankly acknowledges his indebtedness to the old English ballad, to Scott, and above all to Homer. He reproduces the heroic spirit, and especially the patriotic devotion of the ancient Roman, in a manner deeply impressive.

497. Method as a Historian.- As a historian Macaulay

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is distinctly modern in his aims and methods. Instead of accepting traditional or legendary views, he goes to the original sources of information. Whatever fault may be found with some of his conclusions, his painstaking research is universally acknowledged. He shared the democratic tendency of his age, and in his "History" he attaches importance, not simply to the fate of princes, but also to the life of the common people. "It will be my endeavor," he says in the first chapter of the "History of England," "to relate the history of the people as well as the history of the government, to trace the progress of useful and ornamental arts, to describe the rise of religious sects and the changes of literary taste, to portray the manners of successive generations, and not to pass by with neglect even the revolutions which have taken place in dress, furniture, and public amusements."

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498. History of England.”—The “History of England,” completed in 1855, exhibits the same general characteristics exemplified in the "Essays." Its style is rhetorical, pellucid, and strong. It abounds in admirable descriptions of persons, places, and events. It has been styled, not unjustly, a veritable portrait gallery. To use his own language, it invests "with the reality of human flesh and blood beings whom we are too much inclined to consider as personified qualities in an allegory; calls up our ancestors before us with all their peculiarities of language, manners, and garb; shows us over their houses, seats us at their tables, rummages their old-fashioned wardrobes, explains the uses of their ponderous furniture." But, at the same time, it frequently shows a partisan bias. In the multitude of details it sacrifices a true perspective; and throughout it all there is a singular lack of philosophic spirit.

499. Closing Years. The closing years of Macaulay's life are not free from pathos. He had been a strong man physically, broad-shouldered and stout-limbed. He was blessed with a superabounding energy and spirit that made him the life of every company. But at last, in 1852, he was suddenly stricken with heart disease, which was soon followed by an incurable asthma. Thus to be shorn of his strength was a cruel blow. I became," he says, "twenty years older in a week."

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