Critical and Historical Essays, vol 2 | Page 3

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CRITICAL AND HISTORICAL ESSAYS
VOLUME 1
by THOMAS BABBINGTON MACAULAY

CONTENTS OF VOL. 1
ENGLISH HISTORY
EDITOR'S NOTE BIBLIOGRAPHY HALLAM'S HISTORY
BURLEIGH AND HIS TIMES JOHN HAMPDEN MILTON SIR
WILLIAM TEMPLE SIR JAMES MACKINTOSH HORACE
WALPOLE WILLIAM PITT THE EARL OF CHATHAM CLIVE
WARREN HASTINGS LORD HOLLAND INDEX

EDITOR'S NOTE
By
AJ Grieve
A French student of English letters (M. Paul Oursel) has written the
following lines:
"Depuis deux siecles les Essais forment une branche importante de la
litterature anglaise; pour designer un ecrivain de cette classe, nos
voisons emploient un mot qui n'a pas d'equivalent en francais; ils disent:
un essayist. Qu'est-ce qu'un essayist? L'essayist se distingue du
moraliste, de l'historien, du critique litteraire, du biographe, de
l'ecrivain politique; et pourtant il emprunte quelque trait a chacun d'eux;
il ressemble tour a tour a l'un ou a l'autre ; il est aussi philosophe, il est
satirique, humoriste a ses heures; il reunit en sa personne des qualities
multiples; il offre dans ses ecrits un specimen de tous les genres. On
voit qu'il n'est pas facile de definir l'essayist; mais l'exemple suppleera
a la definition. On connaitra exactement le sens du mot quand on aura
etudie l'ecrivain qui, d'apres le jugement de ces compatriotes, est
l'essayist par excellence, ou, comme on disait dans les anciens cours de

litterature, le Prince des essayists."
Macaulay is indeed the prince of essayists, and his reign is
unchallenged. "I still think--says Professor Saintsbury (Corrected
Impressions, p. 89 f.)--that on any subject which Macaulay has touched,
his survey is unsurpassable for giving a first bird's- eye view, and for
creating interest in the matter. . . . And he certainly has not his equal
anywhere for covering his subject in the pointing-stick fashion. You
need not--you had much better not--pin your faith on his details, but his
Pisgah sights are admirable. Hole after hole has been picked in the
"Clive" and the "Hastings," the "Johnson" and the "Addison," the
"Frederick" and the "Horace Walpole," yet every one of these papers
contains sketches, summaries, precis, which have not been made
obsolete or valueless by all the work of correction in detail."
Two other appreciations from among the mass of critical literature that
has accumulated round Macaulay's work may be fitly cited, This from
Mr. Frederic Harrison:-
"How many men has Macaulay succeeded in reaching, to whom all
other history and criticism is a sealed book, or a book in an unknown
tongue! If he were a sciolist or a wrongheaded fanatic, this would be a
serious evil. But, as he is substantially right in his judgments, brimful
of saying common-sense and generous feeling, and profoundly well
read in his own periods and his favourite literature, Macaulay has
conferred most memorable services on the readers of English
throughout