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    Critical Miscellanies, Volume I (of 3) Essay 4: Macaulay
    Critical Miscellanies, Volume I (of 3) Essay 4: Macaulay
    Critical Miscellanies, Volume I (of 3) Essay 4: Macaulay
    Ebook61 pages48 minutes

    Critical Miscellanies, Volume I (of 3) Essay 4: Macaulay

    By John Morley

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    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherArchive Classics
    Release dateNov 27, 2013
    Critical Miscellanies, Volume I (of 3) Essay 4: Macaulay

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      Critical Miscellanies, Volume I (of 3) Essay 4 - John Morley

      The Project Gutenberg eBook, Critical Miscellanies, Volume I (of 3), by John Morley; Essay 4: Macaulay

      This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with

      almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or

      re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included

      with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org

      Title: Critical Miscellanies, Volume I (of 3)

      Essay 4: Macaulay

      Author: John Morley

      Release Date: December 22, 2006 [eBook #20164]

      Language: English

      Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1

      ***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CRITICAL MISCELLANIES, VOLUNME I (OF 3)***

      E-text prepared by Paul Murray, Graeme Mackreth,

      and the Project Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team

      (http://www.pgdp.net/c/)

      CRITICAL

      MISCELLANIES

      BY

      JOHN MORLEY

      VOL. I.

      Essay 4: Macaulay

      London

      MACMILLAN AND CO., Limited

      NEW YORK: THE MACMILLAN COMPANY

      1904

      MACAULAY.

      The Life of Macaulay 253

      Macaulay's vast popularity 254

      He and Mill, the two masters of the modern journalist 256

      His marked quality 259

      Set his stamp on style 260

      His genius for narration 262

      His copiousness of illustration 264

      Macaulay's, the style of literary knowledge 266

      His use of generous commonplace 267

      Perfect accord with his audience 271

      Dislike of analysis 272

      Not meditative 273

      Macaulay's is the prose of spoken deliverance 276

      Character of his geniality 278

      Metallic hardness and brightness 279

      Compared with Carlyle 281

      Harsh modulations and shallow cadences 283

      Compared with Burke 283

      Or with Southey 285

      Faults of intellectual conscience 286

      Vulgarity of thought 289

      Conclusion 290

      MACAULAY.

      'After glancing my eye over the design and order of a new book,' says Gibbon, 'I suspended the perusal till I had finished the task of self-examination, till I had revolved in a solitary walk all that I knew or believed or had thought on the subject of the whole work or of some particular chapter; I was then qualified to discern how much the author added to my original stock; and if I was sometimes satisfied by the agreement, I was sometimes warned by the opposition of our ideas.' It is also told of Strafford that before reading any book for the first time, he would call for a sheet of paper, and then proceed to write down upon it some sketch of the ideas that he already had upon the subject of the book, and of the questions that he expected to find answered. No one who has been at the pains to try the experiment, will doubt the usefulness of this practice: it gives to our acquisitions from books clearness and reality, a right place and an independent shape. At this moment we are all looking for the biography of an illustrious man of letters, written by a near kinsman, who is himself naturally endowed with keen literary interests, and who has invigorated his academic cultivation by practical engagement in considerable affairs of public business. Before taking up Mr. Trevelyan's two volumes, it is perhaps worth while, on Strafford's plan, to ask ourselves shortly what kind of significance or value belongs to Lord Macaulay's achievements, and to what place he has a claim among the forces of English literature. It is seventeen years since he died, and those of us who never knew him nor ever saw him, may now think about his work with that perfect detachment which is impossible in the case of actual contemporaries.[1]

      That Macaulay comes in the very front rank in the mind of the ordinary bookbuyer of our day is quite certain. It is an amusement with some people to put an imaginary case of banishment to a desert island, with the privilege of choosing the works of one author, and no more than one, to furnish literary companionship and refreshment for the rest of a lifetime. Whom would one select for this momentous post? Clearly the author must be voluminous, for days on desert islands are many and long; he must be varied in his moods, his topics, and his interests; he must have a great deal to say, and must have a power of saying it that shall arrest

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