tion and recollection of certain properties of numbers and figures. Oh that I had to learn astrology, or demonology, or school divinity; oh that I were to pore over Thomas Aquinas, and to adjust the relation of Entity with the two Predicaments, so that I were exempt from this miserable study! 'Discipline' of the mind! Say rather starvation, confinement, torture, annihilation! But it must be. I feel myself becoming a personification of algebra, a living trigonometrical canon, a walking table of logarithms. All my perceptions of elegance and beauty are gone, or at least going. But such is my destiny; and since it is so, be the pursuit contemptible, below contempt, or disgusting beyond abhorrence, I shall aim at no second place."

At Cambridge, as at the preparatory school, he excelled in literary and classical studies and was noted for his ready and somewhat boisterous conversational powers. He early became interested in political questions, and began to participate in political discussions. While at Cambridge he renounced the principles of the Tory party to which his father was attached, and became an ardent Whig, and afterwards became one of the trusted leaders of the party.

In 1819 he won the Chancellor's medal for a poem on "Pompeii," and again in 1820 for a poem entitled Evening." In 1822 he received his Bachelor's degree,

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and in 1824 was elected to a fellowship, which was the more pleasing to him because it brought such deep gratification to his parents.

His first literary efforts were contributed to Knight's Quarterly Magazine, for which he wrote several articles between June, 1823, and November, 1824. In this latter year he made his début as a public speaker at an anti-slavery meeting, where he seems to have made a considerable impression by his eloquence and exhaustive treatment of the subject.

In 1825 he contributed his essay on "Milton" to the Edinburgh Review, and for twenty years after he was a constant writer for this celebrated magazine. His "Milton" brought him wide renown, and made his name familiar to a wide circle of readers. While his work was scholarly, it was also popular and intensely interesting. Probably no other writer of the present century has so taken the world by storm as did Macaulay. The circulation of the Review increased with unexampled rapidity. In America his essays were reprinted in editions both cheap and expensive, and were not only sold in large quantities here but even found a large sale in the mother country.

Macaulay imparted to his writings a peculiar charm from which even the casual reader cannot escape. His wide reading and wonderful memory enabled him to range the whole field of literature and history for his

illustrations and allusions, and also to impart a large amount of information, which, if not always strictly accurate, was invested in such picturesque and beautiful language that it appealed directly to the higher tastes of his readers and did much to quicken their intellectual life.

In 1825 he received his Master's degree, and in 1826 was called to the bar, but he very soon abandoned his attempt to practise law and gave himself up to his literary work and to the pursuit of politics.

His articles in the Edinburgh Review brought him a wide popularity, which, added to his powerful advocacy of Whig principles, made it possible for him to enter Parliament, and in 1830 he was returned from the borough of Colne.

His first speech was in favor of a bill to remove the civil disabilities of the Jews, and his second was directed against slavery in the West Indies. He also took a prominent part in the great debate on the Reform Bill, and contributed materially to its final adoption.

From this time his position, both in politics and society, was assured. He was probably the most prominent and influential member of his party in the House and was always listened to with interest and respect. He won renown not only for the eloquence and power of his speeches, but also for his readiness in debate.

His great stores of information and his exhaustless memory both combined to make him invincible in the hot battles that were then waged in Parliament.

On July 10, 1833, he made an effective speech in favor of an important measure then under consideration, at the close of which one of the administration leaders gave utterance to his admiration in the following words:

"I must embrace the opportunity of expressing, not what I felt (for language could not express it), but of making an attempt to convey to the House my sympathy with it in its admiration of the speech of my honorable and learned friend: a speech which, I will venture to assert, has never been exceeded within these walls for the development of statesman-like policy and practical good sense. It exhibited all that is noble in oratory; all that is sublime, I had almost said, in poetry; all that is truly great, exalted, and virtuous in human nature. If the House at large felt a deep interest in this magnificent display, it may judge of what were my emotions when I perceived in the hands of my honorable friend the great principles which he expounded glowing with fresh colors and arrayed in all the beauty of truth."

This generous tribute expressed no more than the common estimate of Macaulay's eloquence and logical power.

In 1834 he was made president of a new Law Commission for India and member of the Supreme Council of Calcutta. The salary attached to these positions was large, and during his three years' residence in India he was enabled to acquire a competency which made him independent for the rest of his life.

While in India he found time to continue his studies, and also to write several of his brilliant essays. It was at this time that he acquired the knowledge of Oriental life and history, which he afterwards used so effectively in his essays on Warren Hastings and Lord Clive.

In 1838 he returned to England, and was at once elected to Parliament from Edinburgh. From 1839 to 1841 he was Secretary of War and occupied a seat in the Cabinet. In 1842 he surprised the public by turning aside from his usual style of composition and publishing the "Lays of Ancient Rome," which at once became immensely popular, and have remained so to the present day, despite the fact that they have been condemned by critics as neither poetry nor history. In 1844 he wrote his last essay for the Review and then gave himself up to the preparation of his History of England from the Time of James II., the first two volumes of which appeared in 1849. The event of their publication had been eagerly anticipated by the public, and they sold so rapidly that the