and Tasso; "Don Quixote;" Gibbon's "Rome;" Mill's "India;" all the seventy volumes of Voltaire; Sismondi's "History of France;" and seven large volumes of the "Biographia Britannica."

Macaulay's wonderful memory was a most useful endowment; but his habit of incessant and omnivorous reading was something of a defect. Emerson remarks that the means by which the soul attains its highest development are books, travel, society, solitude; the first three Macaulay used, but solitude he neglected. He never gave himself time to think hard and deeply. Remarkable as his writings are, they would have been still more valuable, perhaps, if he had read less and reflected more. His brilliant works sometimes lack meditation and thoughtfulness.

After his graduation from Trinity (1822) Macaulay remained at Cambridge, pursuing post-graduate studies for the degree of Master of Arts, and in 1824, after an examination in which he stood first among the candidates, he was elected a Fellow of Trinity College, that is, one of the sixty masters of the college, with an income of $1,500 a year for seven years. In 1826 he was, as the English say, called to the Bar; but he did not take kindly to the law, got little or no practice, and soon laid aside his law books to devote himself exclusively to literature and politics.

In literature he had become distinguished even before he left Cambridge, partly by his college essays and poems, but more by his contributions, when a Bachelor of Arts, to Knight's Quarterly Magazine. Of these contributions, two battle poems, "Ivry" and "Naseby," are still read with pleasure. "Fragments of a Roman Tale" and "Scenes from the Athenian Revels"-attempts to picture the private life of bygone days-suggest that Macaulay might have written admirable historical novels. The Conversation between Mr. Abraham Cowley and Mr.

66

John Milton," which was his own favorite among his early writings, is, in the minds of many, superior in style and diction to anything that he wrote in later life. But Macaulay's real literary fame began in 1825, when he wrote his first essay for the Edinburgh Review. This famous Review was at that time the leading periodical in Great Britain, and exerted a literary and political influence never equalled before or since. To be admitted to its pages was the highest compliment that could be paid a young writer, and Macaulay was invited to write for it. His first contribution was the celebrated " Essay on Milton.” 1 As criticism, this Essay has little value, for Macaulay was never a subtle or profound critic, capable of analyzing and exhibiting the beauties of literary masterpieces; but as a piece of writing it is extraordinary, and it at once arrested the attention of the public. Jeffrey, the editor of the Edinburgh Review, wrote: "The more I think, the less I can conceive where you picked up that style." Murray, the publisher, declared that it would be worth the copyright of Byron's "Childe Harold " to have the writer on the staff of the Quarterly Review, the Tory rival of the Edinburgh. The Macaulay breakfast table was covered with cards from the most distinguished personages in London society, inviting the brilliant young essayist to dinner. He was courted and admired by the most distinguished persons of the day, and from that time on was one of the lions" of London society; for London soon discovered what Cambridge knew before, that he was one of the most entertaining conversers in the world.

66

66

The Essay on Milton" was but the beginning of a long series of more than forty articles-critical, historical, and controversial-which were contributed during the next twenty years to the Edinburgh Review, and made their author the best known essayist of the nineteenth century. 1Sec Mr. Croswell's edition of the Essay on Milton in this series.

66

The last Review article was the Essay on the Earl of Chatham," published in 1844.

But these famous essays, so far from being Macaulay's main occupation, were, in fact, struck off in hastily snatched moments of leisure-some of them before breakfast-by a man whose time was chiefly occupied with. the business of Parliament or various departments of the Government; for Macaulay was early drawn into public life, and in politics won immense distinction when he was still a young man. Mr. Gladstone declares that "except the second Pitt and Lord Byron, no Englishman had ever won, at so early an age, such wide and honorable renown. After two years' service as a Commissioner of Bankruptcy, he became, in 1830, a member of Parliament, through the friendliness of a nobleman who controlled the membership for Calne. This was just at the beginning of the great struggle to reform the representation in the House of Commons, and Macaulay plunged at once into the heat of battle. His very first speech in favor of the Reform Bill (1831) placed him in the front rank of orators. The Speaker sent for him and told him that he had never seen the House in such a state of excitement. Thereafter, whenever he rose to speak in Parliament, the remark, "Macaulay is up," running through the lobbies and committee rooms, was the signal for a general rush to hear him. Mr. Morrison thinks that "it may well be questioned whether Macaulay was so well endowed for any career as that of a great orator."

The young Whig soon became an important member of his party, filling some important offices, and distinguishing himself by hard work and high-minded, unselfish devotion for the public good. He once voted for a measure that took away his own office; at another time he resigned his government position, rather than hurt his father's feelings by helping to support a compromise Slavery Bill

All this time he was a

which his father did not approve. comparatively poor man. When he first went to college his father believed himself to be worth $500,000; but interest in public matters had led Mr. Macaulay to neglect his private business; and, while the son was still at Cambridge, money troubles began to throw their shadow on the family. Macaulay received the news bravely; while waiting for his fellowship, took private pupils to relieve his father of the burden of his expenses; devoted his income thereafter to providing for his sisters and paying off his father's debts; and, hardest of all, did it with a cheerful good humor that brought sunshine again to the home. One of his sisters says that those who did not know him during those dark days "never knew him in his most brilliant, witty, and fertile vein." His fellowship of $1,500 was very useful to him, but it expired in 1831; his political office was swept away by a change of ministry; he could not possibly make more than $1,000 a year by writing; and while he was winning fame in Parliament he was reduced to such straits that he had to sell a gold medal he had won at Cambridge. When, therefore, in 1834, the post of legal adviser to the Supreme Council of India was offered him, with a salary from which he could in a few years save $100,000, he accepted, and sailed for India.

In India Macaulay spent several years of hard work. Besides his regular official duties, he accepted the chairmanships of the Committee of Public Instruction and the Committee to draw up two new Codes of Laws for the country; and in both these committees he rendered services whose good effect remains to this day. Among other things he helped to introduce the study of European literature and science among the natives of India. Meanwhile he wrote a few essays for the Review, and read prodigiously.

In 1838 he returned to England. He was at once re

elected to Parliament as member for Edinburgh, and for the next ten years he was a prominent figure in the House of Commons and held important offices, two of them cabinet offices. But from the time of his sojourn in India, his interest in politics visibly declined, and after 1848 he seldom appeared in public life.

That which allured Macaulay from politics was his famous "History of England from the Accession of James II.," which engrossed most of his time and thought during the last twenty years of his life. This "History" is "undoubtedly the most brilliant and the most popular history ever written." 1 The work is in five volumes, and covers a period of only seventeen years; but probably it has been more widely read than any other history in the English language. It shows vast research, extraordinary power of narrative, and an unrivalled splendor of style. It has, of course, certain faults; but with these we are not now concerned. The first two volumes appeared in 1848, and took England and America by storm. volumes were published in 1855. finished, was published after the Within a generation of its first appearance, one hundred and forty thousand copies of the "History" were sold in Great Britain only. In America no other book except the Bible ever had such a sale. It was translated into German, Polish, Danish, Swedish, Hungarian, Russian, Bohemian, Italian, French, Dutch, Spanish, and Persian. In a single check Macaulay received from his English publishers, as part of his share of the proceeds, the amazing sum of $100,000.

66

The third and fourth The fifth volume, undeath of the author.

Two other literary works of our author remain to be noticed. 'Lays of Ancient Rome -a series of martial But poetry with Ma

ballads-was published in 1842.

caulay was rather a recreation than a serious business, and

1C. K. Adams, Manual of Historical Literature, p. 463.