Critical Miscellanies

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Critical Miscellanies, Volume I (of 3), by

John Morley
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Title: Critical Miscellanies, Volume I (of 3) Essay 4: Macaulay
Author: John Morley

Release Date: December 22, 2006 [eBook #20164]
Language: English
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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]
[Footnote 1: Since the following piece was written, Mr. Trevelyan's biography of Lord Macaulay has appeared, and has enjoyed the great popularity to which its careful execution, its brightness of style, its good taste, its sound judgment, so richly entitle it. If Mr. Trevelyan's course in politics were not so useful as it is, one might be tempted to regret that he had not chosen literature for the main field of his career. The portrait which he draws of Lord Macaulay is so irresistibly attractive in many ways, that a critic may be glad to have delivered his soul before his judgment was subject to a dangerous bias, by the picture of Macaulay's personal character--its domestic amiability, its benevolence to unlucky followers of letters, its manliness, its high public spirit and generous patriotism. On reading my criticism over again, I am well pleased to find that not an epithet needs to be altered,--so independent is opinion as to this strong man's work, of our esteem for his loyal and upright character.]
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