IN TR ODUCT I O N

expression to t h e indiff erence of his soul in ces a ys j B ut on .

the other hand along with light airy grace ful t rifie s,we find
, , ,

pieces o f lyrical intensity passionate outbursts suggestions o f

, ,

deeps unf athomed by even S hakespeare s plummet W may ’

. e

anticipate that it will prove to be impossible to state with

precision the marks and attributes of a thing so various that
it seems to be the epitome o f all literature : the failure of the
lexicographers is sig nificant .
A
I n the last resort we may reduce essays to two classes
essays par excellen ce and compositions to which custom h as
,

assign ed the same name but which agree o nl y in being com

,

p a r a t iv el
y short (for it is necessary to rule o ut the Es s a
y con

cer n i n
g Hum a n Un de r s ta n di n g) and in being more o r les s
incomplete This incompleteness may arise either from
.

treating a subj ect only in outli n e o r from handling o nly a

,

branch o r division o f some greater theme The theme its elf .

may be in any department o f human thought ; it may be

scientific o r phi losophic hi storical or critical S uch essays
,
.

do not strictly belong to a separate literary form ; the historical

essay is an incomplete hi story the philosophi cal essay might
,

expand i n to a treatise But besides essays in t hi s looser sense

.

there are essays more strictly s o called in whi ch w e do detect

a special literary form Lamb s essays are the best examples
.
’

in English as Montaigne s are in F rench S uch essays co uld

,
’
.

under n o circumstances expand into treatises ; they are com

le t e in themselves T hey have been admirably described
p .

b y Alexander S mi t h in his paper On the Wr i ti n g of

/
itself one o f the best essays o n the art ever writ ten : Th e

essay he says as a literary form resembles the lyric in s o

,
”
, , ,

far as it is m oulded by some central mood— whimsical serious , ,

or satirical Give the mood and the essay from the first
.
, ,

sentence to the last grows around it as the cocoon gro ws

,
”
around t h e silkworm .Th e essayist ”
he says further , ,

does n o t usually appear early in the literary hi story o f a