TheEnglishEssayandEssayist_10050053

TH E E N GLIS H E S SA Y
AND E S S A Y I S TS
T/z e Cb a r m els f
o Englis b L ite r a tur e
Edi t ed b y O LI P HA NT S ME AT O N , M A . .
E NGL I S H E P I C AN D H ER O I C PO ET RY .
By Pr o fes so r W MA CN E I LE Di xo n M A
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,
. .
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Un i vers i t y of Glas go w .
E N GL I S H LY R IC PO ETRY .
By E R N ES T a s .
T HE E N G L I SH D RA MA .
By Pr o fes so r F E S C HE LLI N G, D Li8

y
. . .
Un iv er s i t o f Pen ns y lvani a .
E NG L I SH P H I LO S O PH ERS AND S CH OOLS

OF P H I L O S O P H Y .
By Pro fes s o r JA ME S S ar a , MA , U ni ver s i t y

THE E N G L I SH E S S A Y AN D ESS A Y I STS .
By Pr o fess o r HU G H WALKE R LL D S t , . .
, .
D avid
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s Co lle ge , Lam pe t er .
TH E E NG L I SH NO V E L .
By Pr o fes s o r GE O RGE S u ur s n v n v , D Li tt
Un i v er s i t y o f E din b ur gh .
. .
,
E NG L I SH E L E G I AC D I D ACTI C , , AND
RE L I G IOU S PO ETRY .
D Li t t , De an of N or m ch , an d the Re v
R ONAL D B u m s
. .
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, MA . .
E N G L I SH H I S TO RI AN S AN D S CH OO LS
O F H I ST O R Y .
By Pr o fes s o r RI C HA R D LO DGE Uni ver s i ty

WA L K E R 5
M A LL D
H U GH ,
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1
9 5
1 LO N D O N AND T O RO N T O
J M . . D ENT 59
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SO N S LTD .
NEW YO RK : E . P. DUTT O N a co .
PR EFA C E
IT is hoped that i n most respect s thi s volume o n Tbc Englis b

Es s ay a n d Es s ay is t s will su ffi cie n tly explai n its e l f without th e
aid o f a pre f ace But there is o n e point with regard to whi ch
.
a word o f explanatio n may perha ps be n ecessary There is .
i n English a great ma s s o f literary criticism o f whi ch mu ch ,
the greater part is i n the form o f essays I f thes e critical .
essays ha d been here treated in accorda nce with their in

t r i n s ic importance they would have filled much more S pace
,
tha n has been given to them But i n . Cba rm el: of Euglis b

Li ter a tur e there is a separate volume a ssigned to criticism .
I n the pr ese n t volume therefore my purpose has bee n to

, ,
touch upon the subj ect as lightly a s the nature o f my o wn task

p e rmitted I co ul d not entirely ignore it ; for sometim e s
.
criticism has aided i n the developme n t o f the essay a n d ,
sometimes reference to an essayist s critical work has bee n’
necessary to round o ff a gener al estimate o f him I t is clear .

,
fo r exa mple that Matthew Arnold could not be ignored i n a

,
book professing to discuss the English Essayists ; a n d it is

equ ally clear that t o S peak o f him as a n essayist without t e
fer ence to hi s criticism would be absurd NO attempt how .
,
ever has been made to di scuss hi s critical principles in full

, .
Thi s then is the explanation i f I seem to ha ve said t o o little

, ,
about the critics I f I have said t o o much it is from failure

.
,
to strike the just mean between f ull discussion and total

silence .
HU GH WALKER .
D ece m be r 18. 1 9 1 4.
C O N TE N T S
C HAP .
I N T ROD U C T IO N
A N T I C I P A T I O NS O F T HE E SSAY
THE A H O RIS T I C E SSAYIS T S

P
THE C HARA C T ER W RI T ERS

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M IS C E ANE O U S E SSAYIS T S O F T HE S E V EN T EEN T H C N

LL E
TU RY
THE Q U EEN A NNE E SSAYIS T S
THE O F S T EE L E A N D A D D IS O N
THE TRANSI T I O N F R O M T HE E I G H T EEN T H C EN TU RY
THE E ARL Y R E V IE W ERS O F T HE N I NE T EEN T H CEN TU RY
S O M E O F T HEIR V I C T I M S A N D O T HERS
,
THE E ARL Y M A GAZ INES O F T HE N INE T EEN T H C EN TU RY

THE H IS T O RIAN E SSAYIS T S
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THE L A TT ER H A F O F T HE N INE T EEN T H CEN TU RY

L
S O M E E SSAYIS T S O F Y ES T ER D AY
I ND Ex
T HE EN G LIS H E S SA Y A ND
E S S A Y I ST S
INTRODUCTI ON
WHAT isan essay ? Perhaps the notions most widely pre

valent with regard to this question are first that an essay is , ,
a composition comparatively short and second that it is , ,
somethi ng incomplete and unsystematic Th e latter clearly .

, ,
w as Johnson s conception and he was n o t only a great le xi co

’
,
grapher but himself a notable essayist He defines an essay

,
.
to Jae a loose sally o f the mind an irregul ar indigested , ,
Th e Oxf o r d
”
piece not a regular and orderly performance
,
.
E nglis h D i cti o n ary combines the two conceptions I ts de .
fin it io n runs thus A compositio n Of moderate length o n any

particular subj ect o r branch of a subj ect ; originally imply
,
ing want o f finish an irregul ar indigested piece

, ,
b ut
now said o f a composition more o r less elaborate in style ,
”
though limited in range Both definitions are somewhat
.
vague and Johnson s is essentially negative—a sure Sign of

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’
di ffi c ul ty But vague as they are these definitions are too

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,
narrow and precise to embrace all essays s o called I f we co n -

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c e iv e the essay t o be short and incomplete on the other hand ,
we certai nl y conceive the treatise to be lengthy and systematic .
But while Hume writes A Tr e a tis e of H um an Na tur e Locke ,
writes An Es s ay co n cer n i g Hum a n Un de r s tan ding ; and the

n
latter work attempts as seriously as the former to be systematic ,
whi le it is the longer o f the two .
At least it may be thought the essay is a species of prose

, ,
A
2 TH E E NGLI SH E S S AY AND E SS AY I S T S
com position Usage however overleaps even the boundary
.
, ,
between prose and verse ; and not o nl y do we find in the

eighteenth century a metrical Es s ay o n Cr iti cis m but even ,
in th nineteenth we find a metrical Es s ay o n M in d I ndeed

e .
the word is actually older in English as the name of a co m

position in verse than as the name o f a composition in prose ;
for King James s Es s ays of a P r e n ti ce in tbe divi n e Ar t of
’
P o es ie preceded Bacon s Es s ays ’

.
While therefore we know fairly well what to expect O f a

, ,
poem call ed a lyric and even of one called an epic or a tragedy

, ,
we have hardly the vaguest idea o f what we shall fi n d in a

composition entitled an es say Thi s extreme in de fin it e n es s .
is partly inherent inthe nature o f the thi ng
want of system
have led to the vague name instead Of one

t he a dopggn of
ci m
w
re
ii it wag m
n
w fi
igh t also seem more preten
fl
An d the vaguenes s became more vague by the Opera

tion o f a kind of natural law ; for just as in the days before ,
enclosures stray cattle found their way t o the unfenced

,
common s o the strays o f litera t ure have tended towards the

,
ill de fin e d plot o f the essay

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.
A t e m ea n s little o r nothi ng just because it

-+ ~
,
means anything I f we call Locke s great work and Lamb s

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di ssertation o n roast pig alike es says we have in e ff ect emptied ,
the word of content Apparently there is no subj ect from t h

.
,
e
stars to the dust heap and from the am o eba to man whi ch
-
,
may not be dealt with in an essay N either in respect of .
manner of treatment is the range much less wide F r e .
quently the ess ay derives its charm from lightness and from
s u e r ficialit y apparent if not real
p , I t is the literary fo o f .
the pococurante : i f Gallio ever wrote about religion he ga v e ,

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

,
’
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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

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, , ,
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

c ountry ; he comes naturally after the poet and the chronicler
.
His habit o f mind is leisurely ; he does not write from any

special stress of passionate impulse ; he does not create
material s o much as he comments upon material already
existing I t is essential for him that b ooks should have been
.
written and that they should at least to some extent have

, , ,
b een read and digested He is usually full of allusions and

.
references and these his reader must be able t o understand

,
and follow ”
.
Custom cannot be ignored and in the following chapters

,
some attention will b e paid to the essay and essayist in the

looser sense b ut at the same time greater stress will be laid
,
upon those compositions and those authors who illustrate t h e

stricter meaning Th e essayists o f the centre as they may be
.
,
called have the superior claim upon attention in a book

,
devoted to the essay .

AN T I CI PAT I O NS OF TH E E S S AY
CHA PT ER I
A N T I C I P AT I O N S OF T HE ESS AY
WH I LE there is doubt as to the precise definition an essay of ,
it is possible to s ay wi th unusual precisio n when the name (as

used to denote a certain S pecies of prose composition) and the
thing alike were introduced into England N otwithstanding .
the anonymous and somewhat trivial Rem e dies aga i n s t Dis

co n te n tm e n t it may reasonably be said that we ow e
both to Bacon and that 1 5 9 7 when he published the little

, ,
book containing te n pieces o f the most concentra ted literary

pemmican ever presented is the birth year o f the English
,
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essay But it is Bacon himself who remarks that there are

.
certain hollow blasts of wind and secret s wellings o f seas

before a tempest ; a n d s o too there are certain anticipations
o f the essay before it can be said without reservation that we
had essays .
Th e a ge of Elizabeth was a time o f literary experiment .
Though the drama became almost an obsession and drew to ,
itself many men whom nature never meant t o be dramatists ,
that did not prevent the most varied experiments in poetic

forms new and old ; nor did the fact that the age w a s essen
t ia lly poetic prevent ventures in prose But between the .
experiments in verse and the experiments in prose there w a s

a great di fi e r n c e I n verse there was a tradition which
e .
,
though not very firmly established was valuable for guidance ; ,
in prose notwithstanding Malory s M or te d Ar t/J ur and Ro b in

,
’ ’
son s translation o f Utop ia and B e r n r s s F r o is s r t there was

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e
’
a ,
none F urther the very nature o f verse implies la w and t h

.
, ,
e
form proclaims it ; while the first tendency is to regard prose

a s free from law Most men in the earlier stages of literary
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,
6 TH E E NGLI SH E S S AY AND E S S AY I S T S
development at least and probably in the later stag e s as well
, ,
do not discover that they have been talking prose all their
lives b ut assume it No w th e vice o f Elizabethan poetry is
,
.
lawlessness ; much more therefore is this likely to prove to

b the vice o f Elizabethan prose
e Here literary rub b ish was .
shot ; and though in the heap there are gems to b e found they ,
are invaria b ly rough N owhere else is a discriminating j udg

.
m ent S imperatively demanded F o r the last century the

O .
tendency o f criticism though there are honourable exceptions

, ,
h a s b een towards a most uncritical laudation Of everything

Eliza b ethan I t is easy to praise even the poetry amiss and
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,
with regard to the prose it is still more easy to forget o r to

ignore the fact that till near the end o f the reign of Eliza beth
, ,
there is o f original prose little indeed that can be comme n ded

, ,
without reserve There is a freshness a lavishn ess o f thought

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,
and imagination about the prose as well as the poetry o f th e

,
great age that is apt to carry the student away It s ver y .
rudeness is not without charm But we must remember that .
a omposition may b e forcible and ingenious and may prove

c ,
conclusively that the author s mind is powerful a n d fertile ’

,
yet at the same time may give evidence that he is capricious

and lawless and b y reason o f his very lawless n ess is n o t the
,
master of th instrument Of expression which he uses F o r

e .
art like nature is not mastered except by Obedience I n

, , .
this predi cament the great bulk of Elizabethan prose stands .
I t is inartisti c because the writers are wilful ; there are many

purple patches but very few compositions whi ch are good as
,
wholes .
Th e prose works of Lodge and Lyly and Greene are relevant

to the history o f the novel rather than to that of t h e essay .
Th e beginnings of the latter we may trace along three di ff erent

li nes : the lin e which leads to the character writers of the -
seventeenth century the line o f criticism and the line o f

, ,
polemics Th e last is a thi ng hostile to the literary S p irit

.
,
AN T I CI PAT I O NS OF TH E E S S AY 7
and though it demands some notice when we are dealing

with origins at later stages it will as a rule be ignored
, .
Th e English character writers are all disciples more o r less

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,
close o f Theophrastus and it has been customary to explain

, ,
the po p ul arity o f their art in the early part o f the seven

t e e n t h century by reference to Cas a ub o n s translation of
’
Theophrastus which was published in 1 5 9 2

,
Certainly that .
translation gave a great stim ul us to the school and it may ,
b e that but for it Hall and O verbury and Earle would never
, ,
have written their characters But the conception O f

.
’
charactery as an art w as already rooted in England Th e .
remains we possess are it is true somewhat trumpery To a

, , .
printer named John Aw de le y we o w e the F r a te r n i ty of Vaga

bo n ds . I ts precise date has n o t been determined but it is ,
known to be slightly Older than Thomas Harman s Ca vea t o r ’
Wa r n in g f o r Co m m o n Cur s e to r s vulgar ly called Vaga bo n ds

, ,
which seems t o have appeared in I 5 66 Aw de le y s booklet is .

’
little more than a curiosity I t is mai nl y a collection of de

.
fin i t io n s o f the various classes Of the tribe o f vagabonds with ,
two o r three short essays o n the company o f cozeners and

shifters ”
. Harman is more ambitious and hi s Ca ve a t may ,
be describe d as a short dissertation o r treatise o n vagabonds ,
each kind or class being the subj ect o f what may be regarded
indi ff erently as a chapter o r a separate essay His sketches .
have onsiderable merit fo r he possessed humour and

c ,
sympathy as well as knowledge But Mr G S Go rdon . . . .
has shown that charactery was already far more firm l y

1
rooted in English than we should infer from such slight

remains as these Th e passage he quotes from Wilson s A t
.
’
r
o Rbe to r i c proves that the writing o f c haracter sketches after

f -
the manner o f Theophrastus was a regul ar part of m e dize val

education Th e germ was n o t o nly alive but was widely
.
,
di fius e d ; and the wonder is not that the art o f writing char
,
I E gli h L i t
1
n n tus d th Cl i s
era re a n e as s c .
8 TH E E NGLI SH E SS AY AND E S S AY I S T S
became popular i n the reign O f James but that it was
a ct e r s ,
not already popular under his predecessor The explanation .

,
n o doubt lay in the fact that the necessary instrument was

,
n o t yet forged More even than other artists in prose the

.
,
c haracter writer needs a style concise pointed and lucid ; and

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,
nobody knew the secret till S hakespeare and Bacon taught

it I f Ca s aub o n s Tbeopbr as tus was a useful reminder Bacon s
.
’
,
’
Es s ays were a revelation .
Criticism had made a feeble beginning before the Eliza

bethan age and Ca x t o n s prefaces may be regarded as early
,
’
essays in the art I n later days critical writings became both

.
,
more voluminous and o f greater intrinsic importance than those

scanty anticipations of the schoo l of Theophrastus whi ch have
been mentioned ; and though Wilson s Ar t of Rbe to r i c is because ’
,
of its length and elaboration above the S phere o f the essay

, ,
and G ascoigne s No te s of I ns tr uctio n co cer n i g tbe m a kin g

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n n
of V er s e is for reaso ns suggested by the title beneath it the

, , ,
bulk of thi s critical work consists of essays Much of it .
relates to the ontroversy about metres classical and non

c ,
classical the chi ef interes t o f whi ch now is that at one tim e

,
it threatened to lead S penser himself astray Campion attacks .
rhym e and D aniel defends it ; but though the latter proves ,
himself much the better man he as well as hi s adversary is , , ,
essentially te hnical I t is only in the attack o n poetry as an

c .
art and the defence o f it that we meet with work whi ch is still
deserving o f praise as literature and that only from the pen ,
of S idney .
Th e first document in this controversy is S tephen Go s s o n s ’
—1 62 whi ch he dedicated
( 5 54
1 4) S cb o o l of Abus e ,
without authority to S ir Philip S idney ( 1 5 5 4

,
and so ,
probably provoked t h e cele b rated Ap o logy f o P o e try Go s

,
r .
son s attack is written with considera b le vigour and S pirit b ut

’
has littl e substance and is violent and one sided His dis
,
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like o f poets is great : He that goes to s e a must smell o f the ,

Th e distance between him and them is almost immeasurable .
I t is moral as well as intellectual a matter Of the S pirit as ,
well as o f the pen There is in the Ap o logy no sente n ce un

.
worthy of that description o f the author whi ch appeared upon

the title page when he was in his grave
-
the right noble ,
”
virtuous and learned Sir Phi lip Sidney K night S idney will
,
.
n t stoop to the abuse i n which Gosson and Lodge alike revel

o .
Though it is fairly clear that the Ap o logy is an answer to Tbe

S cb o o l of A bus e no mention is ever made o f the latter Though
,
.
an apology it is written in a strain o f eulogy s o lofty as to

,
S how that S idney believed poetry to need hardly more

apology than in the opinion o f G eorge I I I did the Bible
,
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,
itself The most e ff ective defence is to carry the war into the
.
enemy s territory An d this is the S pirit in whi ch S idney

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writes about poetry F a r from pleading that it is excusa b le

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,
S idney asserts its pre eminence I t is superior alike to philo

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S ophy and to hi story I n respect o f the true end o f all know

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ledge i t is superior to every one o f the sciences

,
.
I n hi s judgments o n S pecial subj ects S idney is often happy .
Th e famous sentence about the o ld song o f Percy and

D ouglas indicates a mind alert and receptive and s o do the ,
remarks on recent Engli sh poems O n the other hand the .

,
c ondemnation o f the neglect o f the unities in the E nglish
drama and o f the intermixture of tragedy with comedy shows

, ,
that S idney had no more of the prophetic faculty than other

c ritics Within a f e w years from the time when he wrote
.
,
S hakespeare had proved that on both points he was wrong .
But if we condemn S idney what is to be said o f Ben Jonson

,
and others who maintained the same doctrine even after the
demonstration of its falsity ?
Th e Ap o logy f o r P o e try is written with fervour and strength ,
and is often felicitously expressed but the style is un ,
c ertain and unformed Parentheses are too frequent and

.
,
relative clauses hang o n e upon another S uch a period as .

A N T ICI PAT I O NS OF TH E E SS AY
the following is evidence o f immaturity ; it would never have
been written after the full development Of prose style
O ur tragedi es and comedies (n o t without cause cried o ut
against) observing r ules neither o f honest civi lity nor o f S kil
,
ful poetry excepting Gor bo duc (again I say o f those that I

, , ,
have seen) whi ch notwithstanding as it is full of stately

, ,
S peeches and well soundi ng phrases climbing to the height

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,
o f S eneca hi s style and as full o f notable morality which it

, ,
doth most delightfully teach and s o obtain the very end of

,
poesy yet in truth it is very de f e ct io n s in the circumstances

, ,
which grieveth me because it might not remain as an exact

,
”
model o f all trage dies .
Th e other critics may be passed over rapi dl y N either .
We b b nor Putte nham is worthy of note as an essayist Th e

e .
latter s Ar t of En glis b P o esy ha s the S ize and elaboration

’
o f a treatise rather than the comparative informality of
an essay S ir John Harington ( 1 5 61

. in the B r ief
Ap o logy f o r P o e t y prefixed to his translation o f Or la n do
r
F ur io s o shows hi mself to be a follower o f S idney

,
He has .
that reverence fo r authority whi ch is common to all the

critics o f the time He has a reverence also for worl dl y
.
station and remarks with bated breath that Cornelius

, , ,
Agrippa has not only condemned poetry but hath spared ,

”
neither mitres nor sceptres George Chapman has some
.
interesting matter in the prefaces to hi s translation of Homer ,
but he as well as S idn ey a ff ords excell ent ill ustrations o f the

vicious prose style o f the time and in o n e of these gives a
,
noteworthy hint o f the reason why it is s o bad :

I ever imagine that as I talian and F rench poems to our
studious li nguists win much o f their di s co un t ry e d a ff ection ,
as well because the understanding of foreign tongues is sweet

to their apprehension as that the matter and invention is
pleasing s o my far fetched and as it were beyond s e a man n er
,
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, ,
o f writing if they would take as much pains for their poor

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12 T H E E NGLI SH E SS AY AND E SS AY I S T S
countrymen as for a proud stranger when they once u n der
stood it sho uld be much more gracious to their proud conceits
,
than a discourse that falls naked before them and hath ,

”
nothi ng b ut what m i x e t h itself with ordinary table talk .
Th e prospect of English prose was poor so long as it should

strive to be far fetched and to c ultivate a beyond sea
-
manner o f writing and among the proofs Of the greatness

of S hakes peare and Bacon is the fact that they b oth knew
ho w to be homely on the proper occasion as well as how to b ,
e
eloquent in a cis marine manner -

.
The controversialists o f the period under review wer e

related with unusual intimacy to the critics fo r as we have , ,
seen the critics were themselves controversiali sts I t w a s

,
.
Puritanism that attacked poetry and s o provoked t h e ,
Ap o logy f o r P o e t y But this w a s merely an o fis ho o t of t he

r .
wi der controversy which we associate with the name of Martin

Marprelate Th e reading of these scurrilous pamphl ets is
.
s a d work and there is little to be gained by it

,
N o o n e cares .
any longer for the arguments either o n the one side or o n t he

other and they who wish to understand what is worth under
,
standi ng in the matter turn not to the pamp hl eteers but to

, ,
Hooker who played here the part taken by S idney in the

,
literary di 3 pute and raised the subj ect to a level worthy o f

,
o ne
“
right noble virtuous and lear n ed
,
”
Th Marprelat e . e
tracts have even less of literary merit than those which wer e
written for the purpose of the critical di spute and in them ,
selves they wo uld har dly be worthy of notice But they .
serve to introduce Thomas N ash ( 1 5 67—1 60 1 )— a name which

cannot be ignored in a sket c h o f the beginnings of miscellaneous
prose Th e di sastrous influence o f the controversial spirit is
.
sho wn by the fact that in hi s Marprelate pamphl ets N ash S inks

beneath hi mself and becomes in the literary sense negligible
, ,
.
N evertheless these pamphlets were effective for their purpose

, ,
and I saac Walton was dou b tless right when he declared tha t
A N T ICI PAT I O NS OF TH E E SS AY 13
N ash put a greater stop to these malicious pamphl ets than

a much wiser ma n had been able ”
Th controversy shaded . e
o ff into a personal squa b ble with Gabriel Harvey whi ch was ,
the occasion o f N ash s Har e witb y o u to S fi o W lde

’
a r n a n
a dialogue in a vein o f wit whi ch though somewhat heavy is , ,
copious and effective W come closer to the province o f the

. e
essa y in Tbe A a t m y of A bs u dity

n o a farrago o f various r
matters presented with a great parade f learning ; in P ie ce o r
P e iles s b is S upplic tio t tbc D evil

nn a where in a style
n o ,
telling though coarse the writer sets hi mself to lash the

,
follies of the age ; and above all in A w de rful s tr a nge on ,
ul us As t o l gi c l P g o s ti ti
”
a nd m i r ac o r o
f tb is 2 e ar of o u
a ro n ca on o r
Lo d Go d
r a piece Of excellent fooling o f the sort
indicated by the F OO1 in Le r a
Th e n co m es t h ti e m e, wh o liv e s t o s ee
’
t,
Th at g o in g sh ll b a e us e d w it h f eet .
”
F orm is lacking and N ash knows n o t how to s e t b ounds to

,
hi mself ; but in theme and treatment these pieces give a faint

foretaste of the periodical essay o f the eighteenth century .
Th e words o f D ekker about N ash are worthy o f attention

I ngenious and ingenuous fluent facetious T N as h from , , ,
.
,
whose abundant pen honey flowed to thy friends and mortal ,
aconite to thy enemies ”

Th e honey and the aconite are
.
both to be found in N ash and there is o nl y t o o much a b un d

,
ance His power is indubitable but he is utterly un dis

.
,
criminating and can rarely refrain from any poor quip o r pun
,
that rises in his mind S O good a critic as Russell Lowell

.
thought that N ash had a better claim than S wift to be called

the English Ra b elais ; and there is a sense in whi ch the judg
ment is sound But it may easily be misinterpreted I n the
. .
profusion with which N ash pours his mind o n to paper in his ,
unrestrained abandonment to every suggestion as it rises ,
the abundance noted by Dekker there is something ,

1
4 T H E E NGLI SH E SS AY AND E S S AY I S T S
R abelaisian that is not to be found in S wift But N ash is a
.
far S maller man and writer than either R abelais or S wift

, , ,
and it cannot be supposed that Lowell thought the two com

parable in literary greatness or nearly matched in genius .
Witty as N ash is his wit is Often heavy and tasteless His

,
. .
form lessness is irritating ; and though he wa s the most

e fi e c t i v e satirist o f his time
,
the reader feels that he would
have been more e ff ective still if o nl y he had kno wn how much
more the hal f is than the whole There is a good deal to
.
admire in N ash but also not a little to forgive

, .
T H E AP H O R I S T I C E S S AY I S T S
CHA PT ER II
THE A P H O R I S TI C ESS AY I S T S
A LT H O U G H N ash s tracts may fairly be classed as

a fe w o f
’
essays it is obvious that he did n ot conceive himself to be

,
initiating a w fashion of writing N did he in fact do

ne . or
so . N either did the critics S till less can the forerunners .
of the character wr ters be described as the founders o f the

-
i
essay : they are too unformed and non literary D ekker the -
.
,
successor of N ash and his superior comes chronologically ,
after Bacon Th latter consequently is the first o f English

. e
ess ayists as he remai n s for S heer mass and weight of genius

, , ,
the gr eatest I t is then o f peculiar interest to consider

.
, ,
what he had in mind when he wrote the papers t o whi ch he

gave the name f essays and how he regarded these products
o ,
Of his pen O bviously the general conception was b orrowed

.
from Montaigne whose essays had appeared seventeen years

,
before the earliest f Bacon s r B a co n felt at once that the

o
’
.
form was suitable to receive many thoughts f his own mind o ,
and not merely hi s intellect but his whole disposition made such
a form as that which Montaigne supplied valuable to hi m .
Béico n was
p surpassed
o r an e s hi m in depth of insight into subj ects which
he had S pecially studied fe w in any age have rivalled him in ,
the ca a tt r re nant thoughts o n almost any theme

e .
We may accept the judgment 0 experts t at o k wa s a e
profou n der la wyer and we may believe that Harvey was

,
justified in j eering at the Lord Chancellor s knowledge of ’
S cience But we have to go back to Aristotle t o discover

.
Bacon s superior in enc clo as dic ran e o f mind F urther
’
.
,
B acon was t lT fi ft y o f hi s thoughts and hi s lit e r a gy material .
O f material wealth he was carel e ss thou h he was b no means

,
m treasures of hi s mind he f f f o b e a _
and he willin I wasted none o f them .
Th e mass o f papers c h he left proves hi s extraordi nary

diligence and the care with whi ch he hi ved hi s wisdom
,
.
Macaulay has noted that the best collection o f j ests in the

world— they are really something deeper than j ests —was
dictated by hi m o n a day when illn es s had un fit t e d him fo r
more serious work .
TO a man thus endowed and thus thrifty o f time and of

,
Here co ul d be
thoughts that would n o t for the time at least fit
, ,
into any part o f the I ns ta u a ti o M gn a and yet were too

r a ,
well—developed and too coherent to be buried in a mere entry

in a commonplace book B aw r efo r u ak es i hd o rm fr om
.
-
Mon tai gne b ut fills it with materi al drawn from his o wn mind
,
.
Th ere is all the di ff erence in the world between the secluded

and solitary F rench gentleman— once indeed a courtier and
perhaps a soldier but now merely the S pectator of life and its
,
shr ewd critic— and the am b itious English lawyer and S tates
man with o n e eye fixed upon the pole star o f philosop hi c truth
,
-
,
and the other watchi ng the political weather cock -

.
meditati ons ”
He ranks them b ut as recreations in co m
.
parison with his more serious studi es Ye t he is conscious of .
and pleased with their popularity I n 1 61 2 he refers with

.
satisfaction to the often printing Of the former volume

”
.
I n the epistle dedicatory to Andrewes Bishop of Winches ter , ,
written in 1 62 2 he says : I am not ign orant that th ose kind

,
Of writings would with less pains and embracement (perhaps)

, ,
A dva n ce m f ent o Le a r n in g was
publ i shed i n If ther efore , ,
the change o f style be attributed to the gro wth o f Bacon s ’
mind it is necessary t o suppose that within eight years o f the

,
first appearance o f the es says he had reached a point of

development in the imagination as high as that at which he
stood at the close of his life As thi s supposition is hardly.
tenable we must seek for some other explanation o f the

x he n o m e n o n
p I t . is probably to be found in a change i n
Bacon s conception as to the function and the possibilities o f
’
J the essay form I n the early

, sentences are nearly
all short crisp sententious There are few connectives
, ,
. .
'
Each sentence st ands b y itself the co n centrated expres sion ,
of weighty thought But this is not be c ause Bacon s imagi

.
’
nation was not yet developed not because he co ul d n ot have ,
written i n the richer and smoother style o f later days had he ,
chosen to do s o I t is because at thi s period the essay was

.
, ,
to him literally and precisely a n attempt at a subj ect

,
‘
.
I t was something incomplete somethi ng whi ch ought to bear ,
o n i t s face the visible marks o f it s unfinished con di tion It .
w a s a group o f jottin gs di ff erent from the memoranda o f

,
diaries and commonplace books inasmuch as they wer e a

group S uch memoranda t o o may be meditations and
.
,
”
, ,
they are certai nly dispersed ”

But they are apt to be dis
.
e rs e d over the universe while the me ditations o f the essays

p ,
are confined within the four corners o f a si ngle Subj ect The .
connexions are n o t worked o ut and expressed but are implicit ,
a n d can be supplied by the intellige n ce of an alert reader .
Essays such as those Of S tudies and Of S uito r s are something o f

the nature Of that running analysis o f paragraphs which is
occasionally printed o n the margins of books When .
,
fore it is said that each sentence Of Bacon s contains matt

,
’
for a paragraph of an ordi n ary writer the statement is tru ,
a but not s o the implication that the Baconian sentence does
the work o f the paragraph I f Bacon had bee n treating the

.
TH E AP H O R I S T I C E S S AY I S T S 1
9
subj ect f ully he t o o would have written the paragraph I t
, .
would n o t have been the paragraph o f a n ordinary writer but ,
the extreme condensation would be found no longer .
I f we turn to the essays of £2 and S t ill more to those ,
of we Observe indeed precisely the contrast which

, ,
M points out Bacon finds room fo r conjunctions and

. .
connective clauses He does more he imparts warmth

.
,
colour to the style His keen sense o f analogy enables hi m

.
to discover ill ustratio n s everywhere Metaphors and similes .
are frequent and sometimes though n o t v ery ofte n they

, , ,
“
have a poetical quality Virtue is like precious odours
.
,
most fragrant when they are incensed o r crushed ; fo r pros

p e r it
y doth best discover vice but adversity doth
,
best discover
virtue “
I t is heaven upon earth to have a man s mind ’
move in charity rest i n providence and turn upon the poles

, ,
o f truth . I t is a poor centre o f a man s actions himself ’

, .
I t is right earth F o r that o nly sta n ds f ast upon his o wn

.
centre ; whereas all thi ngs that have affi nity with the heave n s
move upo n the centre o f another which they benefit ,
”
.
S us picio us amo n gst thoughts are like bats amongs t birds ,
they fly best by twilight “

A great estate left to a n
.
heir is as a lure to all the birds o f prey round about to seize

,
on hi m i f he be n ot the better establi shed in years and i n

,
judgment Likewise glorious gifts and foundations are

.
,
like sacrifices without salt and but the painted sepulchres

,
”
o f alms ,
whi ch soon will putrefy and corrupt inwardl y .
Compositions in whi ch such sentences as these occur are

obviously a good deal more tha n mere jottings Bacon s .
’
conceptio n o f the essay had developed and therefore he ,
clothed his dispers ed meditations i n a richer vesture As .
N
es sayi st I t I S true he was sti ll the phi losopher I n undres s ; but
.
, ,
perhaps the popularity he had won had made him more f ully
conscious o f the importance of the step he had taken in t he lit tle
boo k of 1 5 9 7 I t was worth while spending time a n d taki n g
.
20 TH E E NGLI SH E SS AY I STS
trouble t o weave together the disj ecta m e m br a o f his medita

tions ; for as he must now have seen he had naturalised in
, ,
England a new species of literature and he was showing the

,
w a y to the development o f a n e w S tyle o f English prose Fo r .
the end in view it is hard to conceive anythi ng better than

the essays Of Tr utb Of De a tb Of Adver s ity The general con
, , .
ce t i o n of t h e e s s a y is still preserved T h e subj ect is still

p .
treated incompletely Th e essays are loose thoughts

.
'
thrown out without much regularity .

”
But though loose they
are not disconnected and fo r the irregularity there is com
,
e n s a t io n in the famili ar ease and friendly confidence o f the

p
Bacon is t o o stately and hi s thought is t o o profound
, ,
q
to permit us to S peak of the essays as the confidential chat o f
a great philosopher ; b ut in them he comes as near that as his
nature would permit .
Just here we detect the secret o f Bacon s inferiority (of ’
course merely q ua essayist) to hi s model Montaigne or t o the

greatest English master o f t he form Charles Lamb Th e , .
ideal essay seems to imply a certain lightness and ease and ,
a confidential relation between the author and the reader .
That we find in Oxfo r d i n tbe Lo ng V a ca ti o n and in M r s .
B a ttle s Op i n io n s o n Wb is t But n o t in Bacon Even where

’
. .
he most unbends Bacon is still stately and m agnificent Th e .
toys to whi ch he descends in the essays are never more

'
I trivial than such things as masques and triumphs and gardens ;

\
and though o f the former he says it is b etter they should be

graced with el egancy than daubed with cost ”his taste fo r
' ,
S plendour appears conspicuously in the treatment as it does ,
also in hi s description o f the garden I n Montaigne and in

.
Lamb the subject is often unimportant F r such writers

. o
every road leads to the end o f the world and a title whi ch ,
promises o nl y some graceful triviality may cover deep feeli ng ,
if not profound thought Th e praise o f cannibals may con

.
ceal a satire on civilisation But in Bacon the subj ect alway s

.
TH E APHORI S T) C E S S AY I S T S
is important and however unsystematic he may be in his
,
trea tment o f it he never wanders beyond its bounds Masques

,
.
and triumph s are toys but they are discussed at nearly as

”
,
gr eat length and with as strict adherence to the theme as

, ,
truth itself or as atheism

,
.
While it would be di ffi c ult if not impossible to make a satis

factory classification which sho uld embrace all the essays of
Bacon it is easy to detect what are the prevailing sorts
,
.
Bacon was a morali st and a politician and a large proportion , ,
including many o f the most interesting o f the essays deal ,
either with the ethi cal quali ties of men o r with matters per ,
tai ni ng to the governme n t of states His purely scientific .
interests make but little S how The conditions were not .
favourable and besides science was the subj ect o f those

, ,
serious works in comparison with which the essays were

recreations .
moralist Bacon makes no pretence to system To do .
s o woul d have been to write somet hing diff erent from an
essay as he conceived it I t would moreover have implied

.
, ,
a disposition alien from that Of the father O f empirical philo

sophy I n this respect the modern mind is widely diff erent
.
from the ancient S ocrates advised the abandonment of

.
physic al investigations o n the ground that they were t o o co m

plicated ; but o n the other hand he undertook to inquire into
the essential principle o f justice in the belief that the in
v e s t i a t io n though di ffi cult was by no means hopeless Th e
g , ,
.
modern feeling is precisely the contrary and n o o n e did more ,
to make it s o than Bacon By the aid o f his method he hoped

.
‘
that the secret of nature might ere long be solved completely ;
He had no such h0 pe with regard to the principles o f mora ls .
I t is n o t clear that he w as certain O f the existence of principles

o f absolute vali di ty Th e E s s ay s seem to be the work o f an
.
opportunist Bacon admires truth moral an d well as in

.
,
t elle ct ua l. Clear and round dealing I S the honour o f man s ’

22 TH E E NGLI SH ES S AY AN D E SS AY I S T S
nature But the n falsehood is like alloy in gold a n d silver
.
”
,
which though it debases the metal makes it work the better

, ,
.
Th e impression here given is immensely strengthened by the

J
essay Of S im ula tio n a n d D is s im ula tio n Bacon approves o f .
”
secrecy : nakedness is uncomely as well in mind as in body ,
.
But to preserve secrecy dissimulation is Often necessary and ,
in some cases even simulation o r the pretence to be what o n e

,
is not Thi s last indeed is mor e c ul pable and less politic

.
, , , ,
except it be in great and rare matters ”

But by these S teps .
we are led to the conclusion that the best composition and

temperature is : to have Ope n ness in fame and opinion ; secrecy
i n habit ; dissimul ation in seasonable use ; and a power to
4 feign i f there be no remedy I t is not an elevated o r a n
”
.
,
elevating ideal A careful and candid reading o f the essay

.
will S ho w that Bacon s morality is hi gher than that o f average

’
humanity and perhaps as high as is easily practicable in a

,
workaday world But the framer o f such maxims could

.
never have felt that awe o f the moral law within which K ant
coupled with the a we Of the starry heavens above ; nor is
there in any Baconian maxim a suggestion o f the spirit of the
saying Le t justice be done though the heavens should f all
,
.
’
Th e principle to be inferred is rather let right be do n e and , ,
let truth be told if it be not too costly As a man must be

, .
j udge in his o wn case of what is t o o costly the standard is not ,
extravaga n tly hi gh .
O n the whole Bacon gives the impression o f singul ar aloof

nes s from moral considerations His maxims are prudential. .
He appears to be looking down with absolute di spassionate

ness from a height and determi ning what course o f conduct
,
pays bes t He condemns cunning not as a thing lo a t h e s o m e/

.
,
and vile but as a thi ng unwise O ccasionally he even lays

, .
down the rules for immoral conduct without a word of overt

disapproval I n the essay Of S uito r s he recognises indeed the
.
existence of right and wrong : There is in some sor t a right

T H E AP H O R I S T I C E S S AY I S T S 23
i n every suit ; either a right o f equity if it be a suit o f con ,
t r o v e r s y ; o r a right o f desert if it be a suit o f petition

”
, .
But he goes o n : I f aff ection lead a man to favour the wrong

side in justice let him rather us e hi s cou n te n ance to com
,
po und the matter than t o carry it I f a ff ection lead a man .
to favour the less worthy in desert let him do it without de ,
p r a v in
g o r disabling the better deserver Wa s ever moralist .
so impartial between right and wrong ? Le t the wrong

doer be moderate But he seems to be s o advised less in the
.
,
interest o f the su ff erer than because in pushing matters to an

,
extreme there is danger to the perpetrator o f the wrong .
Thi s impression is confirmed by the tone and substance of

a remarkable group o f essays which deal neither with moral
-
principles in the indivi dual nor with the interests o f the state
, ,
but with domestic relations and with S pecial ties between man
and man F e w readers of Baco n can have been insensitive
.
towthe extraordi na ry coldness Of the fi say s Of P a r en ts a n d

a /
Cb ildr en Of M a r r i age a n d S i ngle Lif e a n d Of Love

,
Perhaps .
the defects Of the essay Of F r i e n ds b ip are less obtrusive but ,
a little consideration shows that they are cogn ate The view .
is fundamentally utilitarian Here certainly is the phi lo .
sophy O f fruit B acon values friendship hi ghl y but mai nly

.
,
for the fruits to be gathered from it —comfort to the emotions ,

“
light to the un der s t anding aid in the a fiair s o f life
,
A .
friend is another hims e lf and some t hi ng more But it is

”
,
.
always what a man receives from his f riend never for a ,
moment what he gives that is i ns isted on He never hi nts

,
.
that a man may be ennobled by a deed o f pure un s e lfis hn es s .
Apparently the blessedness Of giving had no place among

Baco n s beatitudes
’
.
S O it is t o o with the essays o n the domestic relatio ns .
Wif e and chil dren are hostages to fortune ” “

impediments ,
”
to great enterprises ei t her o f vir t ue o r mischief
,
Baco n s .
’
reco gnitio n o f the moral developme n t due t o those relatio n s

is most inadequate I t is true he sees that wife a n d children
.
are a kind O f discipli ne of humanity b ut he seems hardly ,
conscious o f any wider influence An d apparently he thinks .
the balance o f advantage swings to the other side ; for he

says that unmarried men are the best friends best masters ,
“
v and b est servants though he adds that they are not
”
,
always the best subj ects ”

Evidently Bacon was both d . e
fici e n t in and disposed to underrate the emotional element .
His own marriage w as a marriage o f convenience ; and though

his condemnation o f the excesses Of the passion of love is
fully justified the pronouncement that it is the child Of
,
folly and the advice to sever it wholly from the serious

,
”
a fiair s and actions o f life seem to in dicate coldness Of blood ,
and heart Contemporaries uncharitably and perhaps n u

.
,
jus t ly suspected hi m to be more susceptible of the meaner

,
than o f the more generous passions and saw in the essay Of ,
D efo r m ity a covert satire on hi s cousin Robert Cecil Earl Of

, ,
S alisbury .
An examination of Bacon s attitude towards religi on leads

’
to similar results His belief in religion like hi s belief in

.
,
y moral principles was largely prudential

,
and was destitute Of
fervour I t had its root in the understanding ; the religion
.
o f saints a n d martyrs has its root in the heart Bacon s de

‘ ’
.
cl a r a t io n in the essay O f A tbe is m that he had rather believe

all the fables in the L egend and the Talmud and the Alcoran , , ,
than that thi s universal fr ame is wi thout a m ind is perfectly

”
,
sincere But if circumstances had tempted hi m to sign a

.
declaration to the contrary his conscience would never have ,
forced hi m as Cr a nm r s di d to hold hi s right hand in the

,
e
’
,
flames Th essay Of Un ity of Religio n is the work o f a

. e
political Opportunist I t views religion as the chi ef band .
”
Of human society and Bacon s main preoccupation is to ,
’
determine h o w it may be made most useful in that capaci t y .
M ost remarkable all perhaps is the essay — remark

o f Of D e a tb
26 T H E E NGLI SH E SS AY AND E SS AY I S T S
the highest point attained by English opinion a fter a n e xpe ri
ence o f three centuries I t is immeasurably superior to that
.
whi ch was lately exempli fied in what w a s sardo nically called

the Congo F ree S tate O f the es sence o f wisdom as well as
.
,
o f huma ni ty is the denu n ciation o f the b ase and hasty

“
,
”
drawing o f profit in th e first years and the declaration that ,
it is a shameful and u n b lessed thi ng to take the scum o f the

people and wicked condemned men to be the people with
, ,
whom you plant ”

Bacon s countrymen learnt this only
.
’
when the colonies showed that they would no longer endur e

the treatment which he had condemned We have to bear .
such facts in mind in order to do justice to the marvellous

prescience and elevation o f mind shown in this essay I n .
/ his capacity o f political moralist Bacon seems t o shake o ff the

.
fetters which cramp hi m when he 13 de ali n g with individual

morality ; o r rather perhaps it is the fact that he is always
, , ,
at heart a political moralist that lowers his tone in the other

,
class o f cases The accepted standard o f the ethics o f public

.
life is to thi s day even outside Germany lower tha n that o f

, ,
private life I n Bacon s time the difie r e n ce was still wider— b o w

.
’
wide may be gathered fr om the bitter irony of More s Utop i a

’
for there had been no great improvement in the century inter

v e n in g between More and Bacon .
There is no other o f the political essays whi ch shows Baco n

s o immeasurably superior to hi s time a s that O f P la n ta tio ns .
Mr R ey n olds in his edition o f the Es s ay s h a s shown that in

.
, ,
the e s say Of Us u y Bacon has n o t only fallen into fallacies

r
,
but that they are fallacies some o f which had been transcended
by at least one contempora r y Mun Th e subj ect o f the essay
, .
Of Em p ir e monarc hs and their policy towards their subj ects

,
and towards rival monarchs has lost much o f its interest and
,
importance Of zbe Tr ue Gr ea tn es s of K i ngdo m s a n d Es ta tes

.
is to the modern mind t o o exclusively concerned with war

, ,
and military policy ; and even t h e essay Of S e diti o ns a n d

Tr o ubles ,full as it is o f ripe wisdom touches no principles so ,
large o r so ge n erous as those which are expres sed in the course

o f the discussion o f colonies N evertheless there is not o n
.
,
e
o f these essays which does not S how that Bacon had m a s t e r d V e
some principle whi ch probably no contemporary had grasped .
Th remark for example that

e ,
to be master o f the s e a is an
,
”
abridgement o f a monarchy with the paragraph whi ch ,
follows embodies a truth illustrated again and again in English

,
hi story— a truth whi ch though it was familiar to Thucydi des

, ,
was first adequately expounded by an American writer in

the present generation Captain afterwards Admiral Maha n
, , ,
.
Essays filled with thought s o massive could only be written

by a Bacon ; and in this respect the earliest o f English
es sayists still stands alone I t took Ulysses to draw the b o w
.
»
m .
o f Ulysses But though it was impossible to rival Bacon it

.
,
was n ot diffi cult to take hi nts from him He did more than V .
introduce a new literary form : he took o n e of the longest

steps ever taken in the evolutio n o f English prose style ; a
S tep whi ch s t that style upon the road which it travelled
_
e ,
though n o t without divagations down to the d ays of S wift ,
and Addiso n English prose was already be fore Baco n o r

.
'
, ,
independently o f hi m rich and sonorous Hooker the last

, .
,
book o f whose E ccles ias tic l P o lity was published in the same
a
year with Bacon s earliest essays still ranks as one o f o ur

’
,
greatest sty lists S o does Raleigh who ha d written several

.
,
thi ngs before that date though his His to ry of tbe Wor ld did
,
not appear till seventee n years later But while thes e writers .
have maj esty and strength while in their hours o f insp iration
,
they were able to write as few have writte n since while ,
Raleigh s apostro phe to death remai ns absolutely unsurpassed

’
,
it cannot be said that they were masters o f a style suited to all

the purposes whi ch prose must subserve I t was admirable .
for great themes and for moments f elevation but ill adapt e d o ,
to the pedestrian passages which must li n k such themes and

moments o n e t o another Th e sentences were i n co n veniently
.
long and even in the hands o f the most skil ful writers
,
were freque n tly involved and obscure Parentheses were .
extremely common These faults were characteristic not

.
o nl y o f scholars ; and there is no need to go for illustration to

the Euphuists Even men who li ke Richard Hakluyt were
.
, ,
primarily simple men o f action fall into similar vices because , ,
n o model o f a style consistently simple and clear had yet been

s et . Th same is true of Bacon himself in his larger and more
e
sustained works But in the Es s ays he did s e t the example

.
,
he did furnish the model By the very plan and conception .

,
almost o f necessity the sentences had to be short They are .
s o eve n in the later essays With shortness came luci di ty. .
Th e essays o f Bacon have to be read slowly and thought

fully n o t because the style is obscure but because they are
, ,
extremely condensed and the thought is profound Th e .
grammatical structure is sometimes loose but it is rarely ,
ambiguous .
4 With shortness came also flexibility Th e older style was .
cumbrous : it could rise but it could not easily sink : to adapt

,
Goldsmith s j est about Johnson it might b e fit the mouths of

’
,
whales but har dly those o f little fishes Th e new style o f

,
.
Bacon fitted itself as easily to buil di ngs and gardens o r to ,
suitors and ceremonies as to truth and death I t could sink

, .
to the familiarity o f likening money to muck n o t good unless it ,
be S pread or rise to a comparison between the movements o f

,
the human mind and the movements o f the heavenly bodies .
To Bacon in short we are largely indebted for making good

, ,
that whi ch had hi therto been the chief defect o f English

literature Till the closing years of the sixteenth century
.
,
except in translations no o n had shown a mastery o f the

,
e
principles o f prose Then Bacon showed such mastery and

.
,
S hakespeare in even higher degree than Bacon S hylock s .

’
tremendous outburst in the first scene o f the third act o f

T H E AP H O R I S T I C E SS AY I S T S
Tb e M er cb an t f
o and Antonio s letter in the scene
Ve n i ce ,
’
following it are models as superb in prose as are the lines o n

,
mercy in verse .
Th e example S et by Bacon w a s followed by two men who

have little in common wi t h hi m and b ut a slender share o f his
gifts— Sir William Cornwallis whose Es s ays were published ,
in 1 600 and Robert Joh n son who thought even essay t o o

, ,
am b itious a nam e and called hi s little volume Es s a ies o r

, ,
r a tbe r I m p e rfe ct Ofi er s Johnson too k a S pecial

interest in education ; Co rnwallis was discursive in treatment
and varied in hi s themes t hough he showed a preference,
for abstract qualities such as P a tie n ce H um ility Va n ity

, , , ,
A m b i ti o n He had views o f hi s o wn upon the art of essay

writing . I hold he says neither Plutarch s n o r none
”
, ,
’
,
o f these ancient short m a nner o f writings n o r Montaigne s ’

, ,
nor such of this latter time to be rightly termed Essays for ,
though they be short yet they are strong and able to endure
, ,
the sharpest trial : but mine are Essays who am but newly ,
bound prentice to the inquisition o f knowledge and use these ,
papers as a painter s boy a board that is trying to bring

’
,
his hand and hi s fancy acquainted ”

His o w n reflections .
certai nl y are rather shallow— n o t strong nor able to endure ,
the sharpest trial But fo r hi s historical position he would

’
scarcely deserve mention O ne o f hi s gifts however may be

.
, ,
noticed He S hows considerable cr it ical in s ight He was

. _ .
an admirer o f S hakespeare and allusions to Ha m le t Otbe llo and

, ,
other plays are scattered through the essays in the later

edi tions S o too he warmly p ra is et e En glg h translation
. a
of Montaigne .
m
4
one w riter who came near bending the b o w o f

the English Ulysses— Ben Jonson Th e great dramatist has .
received hi s full meed of praise and fame as a poet and perhaps ,
even more than his meed ; but in spite o f the warm eulogy of
a few discerning critics his prose whi ch is quite worthy Of ,
3 0 TH E E NGLI SH E S S AY AND E SS AY I S T S
compariso n eve n with Bacon s has been shame f ully neglected ’
,
.
Dryden perceived Jonso n s great n ess as a critic and declared

’
,
that he had laid down as many a n d profitable rules for per

fe c t i n g the stage as a n y wherewith the F rench can furnish us
”
.
,
S winburn e read him with characteristic discernme n t and ,
expressed his admiration unfortunately with characteristic ,
exaggeration He compares Jonson with Bacon very much

.
,
to the disadvantage o f the latter Donne s verses [ the

’
are as far above Gray s [ the Odes !

'
An n z ver s r ie s J he says
” ’
a , ,
as Jonson s notes o r observations o n men and morals on

’
,
principles and o n facts are superior to Bacon s in truth of

,
’
insight in breadth of View in vigour o f reflection and in co n

, ,
cis io n o f eloquence
”
An d again : . F rom the ethi cal point
o f View whi ch looks merely or mai nl y to character the com ,
parison is little les s than an insult to the Laureate ; and from

the purely intelli gent or ae sthetic point o f view I should be
disposed to s ay or at least inclined to think that the com
, ,
parison would be hardly less unduly complimentary to the

”
Chancellor Th e exaggeration here carries its o wn corrective
. .
Wide differences o f Opi nion may legitimately be held as to the

ethics o f Bacon ; but it is absurd to sugges t that any man is
so great a s to be insulted by being compared with him i n tel
le c t ually I t is all the more absurd to exalt Jonson s o
.
greatly because as is hinted in the s ub title D is co ver ies is

,
-
,
largely composed o f extracts and adaptations from Jonso n s ’
reading But though S winburne has thus damaged hi s o wn

.
l
cause the high opinion he held of Jonso n s D is co ver ies is (apart

,
’
from the comparison with Bacon and the questio n o f origi

n ali t ) essentially just
y He is wro n g rather
. in his needless
depreciation o f Baco n than in hi s panegyric o f Jonson ; but
he is further wrong in that he has not made the n ecessary
deduction from the credit o f Jonson o n the score of hi s
Th qu t i f J s ri gi al it y i ad ir b ly de lt with in
’
1
e es on o o nso n o n s m a a
C t l in
as e a
’
editi f D i
s ion o s co ve r e s .
THE AP H O R I S T I C E SS AY I S T S 3 1
i n ferior originality N ot merely did Jonson n ot i n troduce the

.
essay as Baco n may reasonably be said to have done but it

, ,
has been proved beyond dispute that he owed the substance

o f hi s thought in very great measure to other writers .
Ti m ber o r D is co ver ies is among the latest o f Jo n so n s

’
, ,
works I t was not printed till 1 641 a n d intern al evidence

.
,
poi n ts to the conclusion that much o f it w a s not written till

a fter 1 63 0 Th e extraordinary neglect from whi ch it has
.
s n fie r e d may be explained partly by the remiss n ess o f e ditors .
O utwardly it has the appeara n ce o f a collection o f loose

jottings 1 7 1 in number varying in length from merely a
, ,
sentence o r s o to the dimensions of o n e o f the shorter

Baconian essays But if we look to the substance we find in
.
,
several cases that the n otes are not really disjointed but
connected and in some measure systematic Thus there is
, ,
.
,
an excellent group o f four notes whi ch constitute jointly

a n essay o n the prin ciples o f art or as Jonson phrases it , , ,
‘
picture An other group is seen to b e a thought ful and
.
’
w eighty essay o n style ; and a thi rd should be read to

gether as a n essay on government These notes there .
,
fore are considerably les s discursive than on the sur face

, , ,
they appear to be If their re al con n exions were indicated o n e

.
,
hi ndrance to their popularity wo ul d be removed ; for men are

apt to shu n such meditations as seem to them to be too di s
persed They wa n t a certain continuity o f thought
.
’
.
As B acon s essays have been divided into moral and

’
political s o may Jonson s notes be clas sed as mai nly moral

,
’
and critical I n the S phere o f morals S winburne s preference

.
’
for hi m as against Baco n may be justified There is a fervour .
a n d generosity in Jo n son whi ch can n ot be paralleled from

Bacon Take for example the beautiful note headed
.
,
B en efi ci a
“
Nothing is a courtesy u nless it be meant us ; and that
friendly and lovingly W owe no tha n ks to rivers that they . e ,
3 2 THE E NGLI SH E S S AY AND E SS AY I S T S
carry our boats ; or winds that they be favouring and fill o ur
,
sails ; o r meats that they be nourishi ng F o r thes e are what

,
.
they are necessarily Horses carry us trees shade us but

.
, ,
they knew it n ot I t is true some men may receive a courtesy

.
,
and not kn ow it ; b ut never any man received it from him

that knew it n ot Many men have been cured o f diseas e by
.
accidents ; but they were n o t remedies I myself h ave .
known o n e helped of an ague b y falling into a water another ,
whi pped o ut o f a fever ; but no man would ever use these

for medicines I t is the mind and n ot the event that di s
.
, ,
t in guis h e t h the courtesy from w rong My adversary may .
o fi e n d the judge with his pride and impertinences and I win ,
the cause but he means it not m e as a court esy I scaped

, .
pirates b y b eing shipwrecked w a s the wreck a benefit there,
fore ? N o the doing o f courtesies aright is t h e mixing o f the

, ,
respects fo r hi s o wn sake and for mine He that doth them

, .
merely fo r hi s o w n sake is like o n e that feeds hi s cattle to

.
,
”
sell them : he hath hi s horse well drest for S m i t hfield .
O r take the note o n truth

J Without truth all the actions o f ma n ki n d are craft ,
malice what you will rather than wisdom

, ,
N othi ng is .
lasting that is feigned ; it will have another face than it

had ere long As Euripides saith NO lie ever grows o ld
.
, .
’
Equally admirable fo r terse wisdom are the note o n parasites ;

the group f s ix o n envy ; that whi ch deals with good men
o
and bad men ; and the powerf ul discussion o f the love of

4
money . N o o n e who reads these notes wi t h care w ill de n y
to Jonson the title o f a moralist and a weighty one , .
I n the department o f criticism it was hardly possible for

Jonson to fail fo r he had been t hi nking o f the subj ect all his
,
life His o wn application of hi s prin ciples in the drama

.
prepares us to di ff er from him ; and in his famous note o n

S hakespeare there is a touch o f condescension whi ch makes it
less surprising to discover that there are certain aspects o f
34 TH E E NGLI SH E SS AY AN D E S S AY I S T S
Criticism of a somewhat di ff erent kind is to be fou n d in t he
note entitled I ngen io r um D is cr im in a whi ch is j ustly praised by,
“
S winburne for its soundness o f judgment its accuracy o f ,
defi nition and its felicity o f expression

,
”
Th e remarks o n .
the essayists are for the present purpose peculiarly interest

, , ,
ing Although he was at the moment inva ding their S phere

.
,
Jonson thought but mea nl y o f them and declared that all o f ,

”
them even their master Montaigne
,
”
turn over all books , ,
and write out what they presently find or meet without ,

.
choice ”
.
Jonson was a man o f wide range as well as of extraordinary

power o f thought and although in the essay o n governmen t
,
he is o ff hi s beat even here he comes with credit through the

,
ordeal o f comparison with Bacon Th e essay is as close .
packed with thought as any of Bacon s o wn Th e two notes ’

.
o n clemency are as honourable to Jonson s heart as they a r e

’
to hi s head ; that o n an illi terate prince and the o n e which ,
follows it are almost perfect ; and there is a very happy union

,
o f wisdom with wi t in M o res A uli ci
I have discovered that a f eigned familiarity in great

,
ones is a note o f certain usurpation o n the less Fo r great and

,
.
popul ar me n feign themselves to be servants to others to mak e ,
these slaves to them S o the fisher provides bait for the trout
.
,
roach dace etc that they may be food for him

, , .
,
”
.
Th quotations su ffi ciently illustrate Jonson S S tyle

e It ’
.
co
w I n a degree riv allin
g
even Bacon s I t is capable o f rising to eloquence but a
’
.
,
plain subj ect is treated in a plain and simple way I n hi s us e .
o f ornament Jonson obeys hi s o wn rule : his flowers o f S peech
are such as grow to hi s S tyle He I s a b solutely free from

’
'' - Q W
the vice I n the art o f co ifiifig E EIgr 5 m m a t ic

equals He S peaks O f a tedious person
.
as o n e that touched neither heaven nor earth in his dis

”
course Th e self taught man if he be proud o f his tuition
.
-
, ,
THE AP H O R I S TI C E S S AY IS T S 35
is a nni hilated in a dozen words : He that was only taught

by himself had a fool for his master
,
”
This mastery Of e pi .
gra m is a dangerous gift as the character wri ters o f Jonson s

,
-
’
time showed But it was da n gerous to them because they

.
were men o f thi rd rate power They were perp etually strain
-
.
ing after epigram ; in Jonson s mind the epigram rose natur

’
ally and easily Their flowers were culled ; his grew in the
.
meadow o f hi s thought They were proud wh en they could

.
compose a piece wholly o f epi gra m s ; but Jonson knew that

unmixed epigram was a s un pala t a ble as a dish o f pepper
’
alone I n a word his style is the expression of a genius which

.
,
never ceases to be common sense ; and D is co ver ies may be

taken as o n e o f the most trustworthy o f guides upon almost
any subj ect with which it deals .
I f it be permissible to treat as literature a book which was

not written by its author then by Virtue o f Ta ble Ta lk John
,
-
S elden ( 1 5 84—1 65 4) deserves a place beside Bacon and Jonson .
More than thirty years passed after S e lde n s death before the ’
book was published but there is f air ground for concluding

,
that it was put together withi n a short time after hi s death ,
and that not o nl y the substance but a good deal o f the phrase
.
ology is to be ascribed to S elden At any rate the credi t .

,
o f this remarkable book must be shared between him and the
compiler Richard Milward ; and together they have produced

,
a little volume whi ch shows more mastery o f the aphoristic

s t yle tha n anythi ng else in English except the works o f Bacon ,
and Jonson whi ch have just been commented o n Th e r e

, .
semblance to Jonson is closer than the resemblance to Bacon ;

for Bacon s essays are in their own w ay finished works and
’
,
they underwent careful revision whi le many sections o f the ,
D is co ver ies are merely jottings which the author would pro
bably have expanded had he lived to issue the book hi m self .
Ta ble T a lk was never meant for publication at a ll and is still

-
,
i.
l ess formal than the Dis co ver ies But it is the concentrated .
36 T H E E NGLI SH E SS AY AND E S S AY I S T S
essence of immense learning and a life of thought I t is .
fl
always weighty and often most felicitously expressed Again .
and again it gives the ripe fruit o f S e lde n s wisdom in r e e c

’
tions upon the subj ects to whi ch he had devoted his life .
S poken in the midst o f civil strife the Opi n ions of S elden are
,
characterised b y a moderation and a judicial balance which

would have been equally displeasing to the zealots o f both
parties Thus S elden had far too hi gh a conception o f the
.
power and rights of the S tate to please the High Church So .
[ by the stro n ger party ! religion was brought into kingdoms ,
s o it has been continued and so it may be cast out when the

,
”
S tate pleases An d in speaking o f religion to the question
.
,
whether the Church or the S cripture is judge o f religion he

answers I n truth neither but the S tate
“
,
”
,O n the other .
hand he would have pleased the zealots o f dissent if possible

,
even less Th e whole current o f his thought as the most

.
,
casual reader must see runs against them ; but there is a

,
homely vigour in hi s refutation o f o n e of their co n te n tions tha t

“
makes it worth quoting : The main argument why they
would have two sermons a day is because they have t wo ,
meals a day ; the soul must be fed as well as the body But .
I may as well argue I ought to have t wo noses because I

,
have t wo eyes or t wo mouths because I have two ears What

, .
have meals and sermons to do o n e with another ? ”

Th e
zealot on either side woul d have torn asunder the man who
said : R eligion is like the fashion one man wears hi s doublet
,
slashed another laced another plain ; but every man has a

, ,
doublet : s o every man has his religion We di ff er about

.
”
trimming Here surely is a mind as detached as even
.
Hume s i n hi s discussion o f superstition and enthusiasm

’
.
S elden has the power invaluable i n literature o f convey

, ,
7 i n g suggestion in a fe w words : Th e Ki n g hi mself used to

eat in the hall and hi s lords sate with hi m and the n he
, ,
”
understood men Possibly if he had co n tinued to s it in the
.
,
hall and had S till understood men there might have been no
,
Civil War He has also a marked gift for felicitous illustra

.
tion : Twas an unhappy division that has been made

’
b etween faith and works ; though in my intellect I may divide

them just as in the candle I know there is both light and
, ,
heat But yet put out the candle and they are both gone
.
, ,
one remains not without the other : S o tis betwixt faith and
’
works ; nay in a right conception F i des es t op us if I believe a

, ,
thi ng because I am commanded that is op us

,
”
I f S elden had
.
w ritten more in the ver n acular and had devoted hi s powers

,
to literature rather than to learning he would have been

,
u n surpassed in the union o f instruction and entertainment .

38 T H E E NGLI SH E SS AY AN D E S S AY I S T S
CHA PT ER III
T HE C HA R A C T E R W R I T E R S
-
T H OU G H Bacon was the founder o f a gen r e he had no successors ,
o f his o w n sort except Jonson and S elden Th e type o f essay .
whi ch came i n to vogue in the early years o f the seventee n th

century and remained popular till its close 18 an I nteresting ,
example of fusion Emphasis is always and rightly laid

.
, ,
upon its debt to Theophrastus But it is not suffi cient to

.
point out thi s alone We have already seen that the c o n c e p

.
tion o f the character as delineated by Theophrastus had been

familiar for generations ; but nothing came o f it until other
influe n ces came into play O ne o f thes e was the influence o f
.
S eneca to whom attention had been drawn b y the rise o f the

,
drama Another was the influence o f the dramatists them

.
selves who both gave to and borrowed from the character

,
writers There is a very intimate connexion between Over

.
b ury and Earle o n the o n e hand and the Jonso nian comedy
,
o f humours o n the other They like Jonson conceive

.
, ,
o f virtues and vices as embodied in individual men Like .
hi m they are philosophi cal yet their thought as well as hi s is

,
concrete rather than abstract Th conc e ption o f character

. e
is analytical not intuitive But greatest of all is the debt

,
.
fl
o f the essayists to Bacon N ot that they either did or could
.
effectively imitate Bacon ; they had n o t s u i cie n t weight .
His importance to them lies in the fact that he supplied that

which enabled them to copy th e model s e t by Th e ophrastus
a pattern o f a style concise pointed and sententious
,
Lastly .
,
it must b e noticed that if ever we are entitled to S p eak o f a

literary form as answering to somethi ng in the spirit o f t h e
a e wherein i t appears we are s o entitled in the case o f the
g ,
TH E CH ARA CTE R WR I TE R S -
39
character writers F o r they are precisely the prose analogue

-
.
v
o f the metaphysical poets They have the same merits and

.
d efects they S how the same interests and they rise flourish
, , ,
a n d decline just at the same time .
Philip Bli ss stands to the character writers in a relation -
s imilar to that whi ch N athan Drake holds with reference to the
eighteenth ce n tury essayists I n hi s edition o f Earle s M icr o

-
.
’
co s m o gr a b
p y Bliss in 1 81 1 enumerated no fewer than fift
y
seven characters and collection o f characters o f which fift y six ,
-
were published between the years 1 60 5 and 1 700 the one ,
S pecimen outside these bounds being Harman s C ave a t which ’

,
has already been noticed F orty four years later Bliss stated
.
-
that in an interleaved copy whi ch he used he had noted co lle c

tions suffi cient to swell the list four—fold Long ago all but a .
handful o f these books were forgotten and eve n the b est o f ,
them are read b y few except students and W anderers in the

b y paths o f literature
-
But the frequency o f such produc
.
tions in the seventeenth century proves that at that time

they filled a need o r gratified a taste .
We may illustrate the transition from the ordinary mis

c e lla n e o us prose o f the Elizabethan period such as w e find ,
in N ash to charactery by the example of a man greater

, ,
than any o f the character writers stric t ly so called— Thomas

-
Dekker ( 1 5 70 i) I n De k k e r s B ellm a n of Lo n do n ( 1 60 8)
.
’
the part descriptive O f the various kinds of rogues has much

in common with the Cba r a cte r s o f Overb ury and the rest S o .
has the latter part o f j es t s to m k e y o u M e r r y ( 1 606 7 i) and

a -
,
so, above all has A S tr a nge Ho r s e Ra ce

,
where the
-
cha racters are knit together by the conception o f the horse

race This piece shows a reach o f rather ill di sciplined
.
-
imagination altogether beyond the ordinary character writer -

.
Here is De k k e r s picture o f Hospitality

’
.
Against this wretch [A N iggard! (in brave defiance) stept ,
forth an o ld Lord (that is n o w no Courtier ; for he keeps a

40 TH E E NGLI SH E SS AY AND E SS AY I S T S
place in the c o un t r y a n d all the chi mneys in it smoke : he S pends
,
his mo n ey as he S pends the water that passeth to his house ,
it comes thither in great pipes but it is a ll consumed in his ,
kitchen ) hi s name is Ho sp i tality I t is a grave and reverend

, .
countenance ; he wears hi s beard long of purpose — that the ,
hairs being whi te and still in hi s eye he may be terrified

, ,
from doing anythi ng unworthy their honour : hi s apparel is

for warmth not bravery : if he thi nk ill at any time he
, ,
pr e sently thinks well : fo r just upon hi s breast he wears hi s

Repr e be n s io n As a j ewel comprehends much treasure in a
.
little room and as that nut shell held all Ho m er s I li a ds

,
-
smally writte n in a piece o f V ellum S o though the tree o f .

,
his Virtues grew high and is laden with goo dl y f ruit yet the
“
, ,
to
p bough
-
of all and the fairest
,
apple O f all he counteth his ,
Ho sp i tali ty : His bread w as never t o o S tale hi s drink w as ,
never sour n o day in the year was t o them that are hungry
, ,
a fas t i n d yet he observes them all He ives considerably

g a
y , : g
every hour but in reverence o f one seaso n in the year all
, ,
that come may fr eely take ”

.
Even if we confine o ur view to hi s prose however D ekker , ,
wa s much more than merely a character writer and his style -

,
in other places rises to an eloquence o f whi ch the pictur e o f

Hospitality gives but a faint conception I n the character .
sketches his sentences are usually short as are those o f a ll ,
the character writers ; elsewhere they are generally long and

-
,
sometimes clumsily involved ; fo r Dekker like most o f his ,
contemporaries was too much given to the use o f parentheses

, .
But as a rule he managed the long sentence with a skill which

has never been common and at that time was rare inde ed .
Th e following S pecimen is taken from News f r o m Hell

( 1 605 )
Now as touchi ng the seven leaved tree o f the deadly sins
-
,
(w hi ch P i er ce P e n n ile s s would have hewn down

) hi s request ,
is unreasonable for that gro ws s o rank in every ma n s garden

’
, ,
4 2 TH E E NGLI SH E SS AY AN D E S S AY I S T S
t i v e n ess . S winburne was right in hailing hi m with the
words :
0 sw ee t es th ear t o f all t h y ti m es eav o ne .
Whatever the theme handles this quality is always

D ekker ,
present Tbe G ull s Ho r n bo o k ( 1 609) is a lively satirical piece

.
’
-
,
ridiculing the dandies o f the time ; but there is little in it o f

the aconite o f N ash Tbe B a cbe lo r s B a n q ue t ( 1 60 3) dis
.
’
courses o f the various humours o f women their quickness ,
o f wits and unsearchable deceits

,
”
But there is n o bitter n ess .
i n the discourse ; D e k k e r s own word pleasant in its modern ’

,
sense more correctly describes it Th e setting is f ar more

, .
dramatic and the sty le freer than that o f the ordin ary
characters .
’
I f we look upon Tbe B ellm an of Lo n do n as belonging in part

to the domain o f character writing Dekker must be regarded
“
-
,
as o n e o f the earliest masters o f the art which was just spring ,
ing up not from Harman but from the other sources already
, ,
indi cated I t is not quite clear how far D ekker consciously

.
borrowed from these sources ; b ut Joseph Hall ( 1 5 74

specifically avows hi s o wn indebtedness to one o f them I n the .
epistle to the reader prefixed to hi s Cba r a cte r s of Vir tues a n d

V i ces he declares that he is i m i tating the ancient
moral p hilosophers whom he calls the divines o f the o ld
,
heathens ”
O ne class o f these he says bestowed their time
.
, ,
in drawing o ut the true lineaments o f every virtue and vice s o ,
lively that who s aw the medals might kn ow the face : which

,
art they significantly termed charactery ”

.
As one of the com b atants in the S mectymnuus controversy ,
and as successively bishop o f Exeter and o f N orwich Hall ,
ha s left a n ame of note in the history of the English church .
I n his own day he had the f ate o f the controversialist and was ,
as much vi lified by his opponents as he was praised by the
men o f his own side The esteem o f Lamb is a guarantee that

.
T H E CH ARA CTE R WR I TE R S -
43
as a n essayist Hall is worthy o f consideration and it is clear , If
that his speci al gifts and tastes were such as to qualify hi m

for character writing Th e essays o f thi s type are largely
-
.
s atirical ; for whether human vices and foibles be o r be n o t

more common than human virtues it is at any rate easier to ,
make capital o ut of the former N ow Hall was certainl y by.
nature inclined to satire While hi s claim to be the father

.
o f English satire is ill founded -

in the writing of his Virgi
,
v
de m iar um he was following no estab lished f ashion Though .
not absolutely the first in the field he was a pioneer ; and we ,
have his o wn avowal o f the keen enjoyment with whi ch he

practised the art o f satire I ndeed the enjoyment is excessive
.
,
and is o n e reason why Hall s satires notwithstandi ng all their

’
,
ability are apt to leave a bad taste in the mouth Their S pirit
, .
s eems har dl y to be that whi ch befits a Christian mi nister .
But the satires were the work o f Hall s youth : he was only ’
twenty four when the second instalment appeared Th e

-
.
e arliest known copy o f his Cb a r a cte r s o r tue s a n d Vi ces is

f Vi
o f ten years later date Th e author had had time to grow
.
fl
mellow he was doubtless influenced by a sense of the duties
,
o f hi s clerical o i c e and the plan o f the work necessitated a

,
view o f human nature wider than that taken in the satires .
He had to deal with virtues as well as vices ; and so we find
fl
pictures of the patient man and o f the f aithful as well as o f ,
the hypocrite the a t t e r e r and the covetous man As a rule

, ,
.
,
Hall like Theophrastus confined himself to the delineation

, ,
o f embodied qualities ; but in the G ood Magistrate he gives

an example o f a type whi ch soon became common —the ,
representative o f a calling .
Hall s practice as a satirist stood hi m in good S tead as a

’
writer of characters The quality whi ch abo ve all others the

.
, ,
c haracter writers aimed at embodying in their prose was

-
r
pungency ; and this was already o n e of the chief characteristics

o f Hall s satires in verse But pungency unrelieved is tire
’
.
44 TH E E NGLI SH E SS AY AND E S S AY I S T S
some and satire is apt to pall u nless it is redeemed by the
,
moral indignation o f a Juvenal Th e necessary relief is .
present in the Cba r a cter s of V ir tues a n d V i ces They are more .
varied and more humane than the satires and they have that ,
touch o f sympathy whi ch is absent from the latter But .
while they are evidently the work of o n e who has watched

men with keen intelligence they S how no trace o f that sudden,
insight whi ch is characteristic o f the born reader of men .
They often read like notes for Hall s sermons and F uller was
’
,
right in preferring these more rounded and sonorous com

“
positions Hall he says is very good in his characters
.
, , ,
better in hi s sermons best of all in his medi tations

,
”
.
Th e Cba r a cte r s are w ritten with force and S pirit a n d have ,
little o r none o f the archaism whi ch is a feature o f Hall s

’
”
satires in verse Th e title o f the Christian S eneca whi ch
.
,
F ull er applies to Hall gives a hint o f the nature o f his book

, .
A fair S pecimen of it may be found in the picture o f Tbe

Un tbr zf t
He ranges beyond hi s p ale and lives without compass ,
.
His expense is measured not by abili ty but will His , ,

.
pleasures are immoderate and not honest A wanton eye ,

.
,
a li quorish tongue a gamesome hand have impoverished hi m

, ,
.
Th e vulgar sort call hi m bountiful ; and applaud him while

he S pends ; and recompense hi m wi th wi s hes whe n he gives ,
with pity when he wants : neither can it be de nied that he

wrought true liberality but overwent it : no man could,
have lived more laudably if when he was at the best he had

, , ,
stayed there ”
.
I n thi s passage not a word is thrown away Th English . e
is terse and simple the judgment balanced ; the unthri ft

,
receives credit for the virtue that is i n him while hi s faults ,
are laid bare There is a remarkable absence o f the S pecial

.
vice which was then beginning to pervade literatur e —the

indulgence in conceits I t is to Hall s credit that in the
.
’
,
T H E CH ARA CTE R WR I TER S -
45
main he successfully resisted the temptation which so easily

,
b eset his contemporaries But it would be too much t o say

.
that he was wholly free from it Th e character o f the hypo .
c r i t e is tainted with th is vice He is the stranger s saint ’

.
,
the neighbour s disease the blot o f goodness a rotten stick in

’
, ,
a dark night a poppy in a cornfield an ill tempered candle

, ,
-
with a great snuff that in going o ut smells ill

,
”
.
F uller as the above quotation shows certainly did not

, ,
overlook Hall ; but he somewhat puzzlingly speaks o f S ir

Thomas O verbury ( 1 5 81 as the first writer o f char
a c t e r s of our nation s o f ar as I have Observed
”
No w the .
earliest known edition of Ov e r b ury s Cbar a cte r s is one which ’
appeared in the year after hi s death bound up with hi s poem ,
A Wife .Did F u ller know o f an edition at least S ix years

earlier than the earliest now known ? V ery likely he did fo r ,
Wood in the Atben a Oxo n ie n s es expresses the belief that th e

'
edition of 1 61 4 was the fourth o r fifth O verbury who died .

,
at thi rty two seems then to have begun the writing o f char
-
,
a c t e r s at a n early age I t is reasonable to suppose his book

.
to have been a very small one The title o f the e di tion o f .
1 61
4 is : A W f
i e W b e r e un to a e a dde d m a n
y witty r
Cbar a cter s , a n d co n ce i te d Ne ws , wr i tte n by b i m s elf a n d o tbe r
Ge n tle m e n
le ar ne d bis fr ie n ds o nly
Thi s collection contained
.
twenty o n e characters and even these as the title proclaims

-
, , ,
were not all by O verbury Th collection whi ch now goes . e
under Ove r b ur y s name includes nearly eighty characters ; but

’
how many were really written by hi m it is impossible to tell .
As the victim f the weakness of James and the vice o f the

o
Countess o f S omerset Overb ury has a pla ce i n English

,
hi story more secure than that whi ch he now holds or is likely ,
ever to regain in English literature Th e astonishing S tory

, .
of the great Oyer of Poisoning can never be wholly for

gotten but Ov e b ur y s poem A Wif e has lost its savo ur and it
,
r
’ 1
,
1
Th s s Th Ch i f Wif h w e r st ill ret i th i h
e ver e on e o ce o a e, o ve . a n e r c arm .
46 T H E ENGLI S H E S SAY AN D E SSAYI STS
is highly im probable that the Cb ar a cte r s will ever regain po pu
lar i t y A natural style never di es an artificial o n e kno w s
.
,
no second birth An d Ove r b ury s s tyle is hopelessly a rti

.
’
ficia l . Th e phrase conceited news in the title is significant .
What in Hall is an occasional thread o f tinsel is warp and woo f

i n the essays o f O verbury He is concerned far less with the
.
meaning of what he says than with the wit he shows in saying

it He calls a character
. wit s descant on any plain ’
song ; and the phrase correctly describes those he himself

“
and the learned gentlemen hi s friends drew S ubstance .
“
is subordinate to form matter to manner A host is t h e
,
.
kernel o f a sign : or the sign is the shell and mine host is the
sna il ”
. A soldier is the husbandman o f valour hi s sword is ,
hi s plough which Honour and Aqua vit ae two fiery m e t al d

’
-
, ,
”
j ades are ever drawing
,
A fine gentleman is the cinnamon
.
tree whose bark is more worth than his body

,
”
An apparitor .
“
is a chick o f the egg abuse hatched by the warmth o f ,
authority : he is a bird o f rapine a n d begins to prey and ,

”
feather together Phrases like these being the principal
.
ornament o f the piece the most far f etched (and therefore the
,
-
most hi ghl y esteemed) usually comes at the beginning o f the

-
es say This is a trick o f the style I t is easy to see that the

. .
main end o f the writer is the display o f his o wn wit n o t the ,
expression of truth We can imagine the learned gentle

.
“
man biting the end of hi s quill till the smart phrase strikes
hi m and then drawing the character to fit that n o t a ccording
, ,
A t o the lineaments o f nature Hall really tries to depict the.
virtues and vices ; O verbury is content to be Witty and to

amuse His essays are more concrete than Hall s He usually
.
’
.
tacks the character o n to some trade or occupation A soldier .

,
a ta ilor a sexton a chambermaid a mere common la wyer

, ,
”
, ,
a tinker are a m o ng hi s subj ects But the character takes

, .
colour from th e occupation drawing thence its virtues o r its

,
Vi ces .
T H E CH ARA CTE R WRITE RS -
47
O ccasionally O verbury o r one o f his coadjutors shakes o ff
, ,
the strained and u n natural a fi e ct a t io n s o f his sty le a n d writes

from the heart Fo r the author o f Afa ir a n d bappy M ilk m a i d
.
-
certainly had a heart and had he written a few piec e s more

,
o f e ual excellence would have deserved no mean place amon g

q ,
English essayists
I n milking a co w and straining the teats through her
,
fingers it seems that s o sweet a milk press makes the milk

,
-
the whi ter or sweeter ; for never came almond glove or

aromatic ointment o n her palm to taint it The golden ears .
o f corn fall and kiss her feet when s h reaps them as if they e ,
wisht to be bound and led prisoners by the same hand that

fe ll d them Her breath is her own which scents all the year
’
.
,
long o f June like a n w made hay cock Sh e makes her hand

,
e -
.
hard with labour and her heart so f t wi th pity : and when

,
winter evenings fall early (sitting at her merry wheel) s he

sings a defiance to the giddy wheel of fortune S h e dares .
g o alone ,
and unfold sheep i t h nights and fears’
no manner ’
,
o f ill because she means none

,
”
.
Th e news from various countries and places whi ch is ,
appended to the Cba r a eter s is an expansion o f t he essay ,
worthy o f note The same style is preserved and there is

.
,
little change in substance but the device betrays a sense o f

,
the need o f variety of theme a desire to widen the field o f mis

,
c e ll a n e o us prose I t is a n early hint o f what afterw ards cam e

.
t o be a feature o f the essay as it was evolved by Richard S teele .
I n the art of character writing however both Hall and

-
, ,
Overbury were far surpassed by John Earle ( 1 60 1 2

He is not free from the defects o f hi s time He is excessively .
antithetical and he is sometimes conceited

,
but his
M ier o co s m ogr apby is o n the whole written in such delightful
, ,
English is so full of that genuine wit which never becomes

,
antiquated and takes o fi so happily those traits o f human

,
nature which last from generation to generation that were , ,

4 8 TH E ENGLI S H E S SAY AND E S SAYI STS
it o nly generally known it might be har dl y less popular at
,
the present day than it was throughout the seventeenth

century .
J John Earle was born at York and educated at Merton ,
Co llege O xford He rose to emin ence in the Church becomin g

, .
,
bis hop o f Worcester in 1 662 Thence in the following year.

, ,
he w a s translated to S alisbury Thi s prosperity however .

, ,
came at the close o f his life and not without much batterin g
,
did he steer his ship into so safe a haven Previously he had .

,
gone through the stormy period of the Civil Wa r had taken the ,
unsuccessful side had lost his property for the sake o f Charles I
,
.
and had shared th e exile o f Charles I I Earle appea r s to have .
bee n o n e o f the most estimable and lovable men o f hi s time .
He was emi nent as a scholar and s at in the Westminster ,
Assembly o f Divines of 1 643 He translated Hooker s ’

.
E ccles ias ti ca l P o lity into Latin in order to make s o excellent

,
a work accessible to all men of lear ning ; but the MS w as .
destroyed by servants a fter his death He was still more .
remarkable as a man than as a scholar Anthony Wood says .
o f him that since Mr Richard Hooker died none have lived

.
, ,
whom Go d had blessed with more innocent wisdom more ,
sanctified lea r ning o r a more pious peaceable primitive

, , ,
temper than he
,
”
Clarendon is singularly warm in praise
. .
He declares that Earle was a man o f a conversation so

pleasant and delightful s o very innocent and so very facetious
, ,
that no man s company w as more desired and more loved

’
, .
He was among the few excellent men who never had nor never ,
could have an enemy but such a o n e who was an enemy to all

, ,
learning and virtue and therefore would never make hi mself

, ,
known .
”
Th e little book which gives Earle hi s place among character

writers was published i n 1 628 and immediately became ,
pop ular There were five editions withi n two years of its
.
pu b lication and the author li ved to see the te n th Like other

, .
5 0 TH E ENGLI S H E S SAY AND E SSAYI STS
time : She doubts o f the Virgin Mary s salvation and dare ’
,
n o t saint her but kn ows her o wn place in heaven as per

,
f e ct ly as the p e w she has a key to S he is s o taken up with .
faith she has no room for charity and understands no good

, ,
works but what are wrought o n the sampler

,
”
Take again .
the picture o f A Yo ung r a w Pr ea cber : He has more tricks

with a sermon than a tailor with an old cloak to turn it and
, , ,
piece it and at last quite di sguise it with a new preface

, .
This is truth but Earle knew that there was another side
,
e quall y true and as a serious student o f human character

, , ,
he depicts that in the fine sketch o f the Gr a ve D ivin e .
Earle s wi t can be su ffi cien t ly biting

’
O f A S ba r k he writes .
that no man puts his brain to more us e than he for his life ,
is a daily invention and each meal a n e w stratagem

”
, A .
m e r e F o r m a l M a n is o n e who apprehends a j est by seeing

men smile and laughs orderly hi mself when it comes to his
, ,
turn .
”
O f A m e r e D ull Pbys icia n “
Th e best cure he has
done is upon hi s o wn purse whi ch from a lean sickness he ,
hath made lusty and in flesh His most unfaithf ul act

,
is that he leaves a man gasping and hi s pretence is death

, , ,
and he have a quarrel and must not meet ; but hi s fear is , ,
lest the carcase should bleed He is a sucki ng c o n s um p .
tion and a very brother t o the worms fo r they are both

, ,
”
engendered o ut of man s corruption He who wielded a ’
.
pen so sharp pointed might easily o n e would thi nk have

-
, ,
made enemies ; but Clarendon knew Earle after he had been

softened by years .
S ome o f the sentences above quoted are much lik e

Ov e r b ur y s but in Earle we never seem to lose touch o f truth
’
,
and reality The w it is a vehi cle of wisdom ; and though

.
the method is Ov e r b ury s the substance is frequently akin to ’

,
that of Hall O ccasionally— as in A gr a ve D ivin e A vulg r

.
,
a
s p i r i te d M a n and A s ta i d M a n — the expression is serious
and the author is undisguisedly an ethi cal teacher I n such .

TH E CHARACTE R WRITE RS -
essays Earle is seen in the most favourable light B est of all .
is the exquisite character o f a child I t is comparable with .
Ov e r b ur y s milk maid ; but whi le the latter is n o t wholly free

’
-
from the suspicion o f a r t ific iali t y Earle s piece has the ring
,
’
o f perfect sincerity .
He is nature s fresh picture newly drawn in o il whi ch

’
,
time and much handling dims and defaces His soul is yet a .
white paper unscribbled with observations o f the world ,
wherewith at length it becomes a blurred note book He is -

.
purely happy because he knows no e vil n o r hath much

, ,
means by s in to be acquainted with misery He arrives not .
at the mischi ef o f being wise nor endures evils to come by

,
foreseeing them He kisses and loves all and when the

.
,
smart o f the r o d is past smiles o n the beater N ature and his

,
.
parents alike dandle hi m and tice him o n with a bait o f sugar

, ,
to a draught o f worm wood Th e elder he grows he is a

.
stair lower from Go d ; and like his first father much worse in
hi s breeches He is the Christian s example and the o ld ’
.
man s relapse : Th e o n e imitates his pureness and the other

’
,
falls into hi s simplicity Could he put o ff hi s body with his

.
little coat he had got eterni ty without a burthen and ex

, ,
changed but o n e Heaven for another ”

.
Earle s book may be regarded as supreme among English

’
works of the school o f Theophrastus Within a fe w years o f .
it s date the topmost point in a mo di fied type of charactery was

reached by George Herbert ( 1 5 9 3 —1 63 for though A P r ies t
to tbc Te m p le which is better known as Tbe C o un tr P a r s o n was
, y ,
not published till 1 65 2 it was written twe n ty years earlier

,
.
While the kinshi p between this delightful little book and the
character sketches is obvious the diff erences between them
-
,
are t o o imp ortant to be ignored There is both a di fi e r e n c

. e
in plan and a di ff erence in S pirit and i n te n tion ; and these

two di ff erences may be regarded as reciprocally cause and
effect the one of the other Tbe Co un try P ar s o n is not a
.
collection o f unconnected sketches but a short treatise in ,
thi rty seven chapters each f which delineates a phase o f the

-
,
o
parson s life —his knowledge hi s praying his preaching hi s

’
, , ,
comforting etc We have seen that the prevailing vi e with

,
. c
the character—writers was that they were more concern ed with

themselves than with their subj ect and aimed first of all at ,
the display o f their o w n wi t Even Earle is not wholly free

.
from this taint But G eorge Her b ert is His aim is to r e

. .
commend religion by the delineation o f a most winning and

saintly li f e His parson has that reality which s o many o f
.
the characters lacked Th e picture is no mere exercise o f in

.
g e n uit
y b ut
,
the expression of Herbert s sincere feeling ; and
’
by the charm o f this sincerity the reader is carried o n from

phase to phase half unconscious of the author and o f the
,
b eauty o f his style But even Herbert could hardly have

.
produ ed thi s e ff ect if the thi rty seven chapters had bee n
c -
descriptions o f thi rty seven di ff erent men U nity o f design

-
.
was essential to his purpose while it is irreconcilable with

,
the Th e o Phr as t ic character sket c h Tbc Co un try P a r s o n is

-
.
o n e o f the most charming o f essays but it is not in the

,
strictest sense a character .

’
Th e after glow o f the great Elizabethan age still illuminated

-
Earle ; but he was almost the last o f the haracter writers in c -
this strictest sense who had any touch of real greatness Th . e
subj ect—matter w a s exhausted and later writers could do

,
little more than repeat their predecessors Human nature .
in the concrete is infinite in variety b ut not s o its types , .
They ar e as the letters o f the alphabet to the words o f a

language Thus the themes of the character writers became
.
-
threadbare and the weariness which in consequence possessed

,
the writers was from them transmitted to the readers Brief .
mention will su ffice fo r those of the tri b e who still require notice .
Nicholas Breton ( 1 5 45 3 shows more plainly than

most o f hi s brethren the influence of Bacon to whom his ,
TH E CH ARA CTE R WRITE RS -
53
Cba r a cte r s up o n Es s ays , M o r a l

D ivi e ( 1 61 5 ) is dedicated an d n .
Th subj ects are Wisdom K nowledge Love Peace Truth

e , , , , ,
D eath and s o on But the essays are mere exercises f verbal

,
. o
I
ingenuity and the beginning o f T uth will suffi ce to show how

,
r
far they are removed from Bacon Truth is the G lory of

Time and the Daughter f Eternity
,
a Title o f the hi ghest o :
Grace and a N ote of a divine N ature she is the Life o f R eligion

,
: ,
the Light o f Love the Grace o f Wit and the Crown of Wis , ,
dom Tbc G d d the B d ( 1 61 6) is a co llection of fifty

” 1
. oo an a
characters written in the same style and conveying just as ,
little mea ni ng F tas ti ( 1 626) deals with the four elements

. an cs ,
fis h beasts man woman the seasons etc

, ,
Th style is f
, , ,
. e o
the would b poetical sort Z phi us with hi s sweet breath

-
e . e r
cools the parchi ng beams o f Titan the nightingale tunes her ,
throat to refresh the weary traveller the nymphs of the woods ,
in consort with the muses sing an ave to the mor ning and a
vale to the setting s u — and s o on till the reader s patience n
’
is wearied o ut .
Much superior to Breton is G ffr ay Myn s hul ( 1 5 94 i I 66S ) e -

,
whose Es s ys d Ch r a cte rs of P is
a and P is e r s ( 1 6 1 8)
a a r on an r on
is o e o f the best of these collections Personal experience

n .
gives a depth which the characters o f other writers often

“
lack There is feeling in hi s des cription of the prison
. It .
is a microcosmus a little world of woe it is a map o f misery

, , ,
it is a place that will learn a young m a n more villany than

he can learn in twenty dicing houses b owling alleys brothel -
,
-
,
houses o ordinaries and an o ld man more policy tha n if

r ,
he ha d been pupil to Machiavel ”

S imilar praise is due t . o
Wy S altonstall whose P i tu s L q ue te s ( 1 63 1 ) is freer in

e , c re o n
style is less forced and has more genuine wi t than any but
,
three or four of these collec t ions

. .
1
B aco n s e r ve s as a t o uchs t o n e in t h e c as e o f m an y of t he c h a ac t er r
w r it e rs . R ea d h is A the i s m al o n g w i th J o h n S t e p h e ns
’
s A the i s t , an d
t he pi n ch b e ck im i ta t io n o g
f t h o u h t is a t o n ce r ev ea le d .
54 T H E ENGLI S H E S SAY AND E S SAYI STS
D onald Lupton
’
s (d C o un try
1 67 6 ) Lo n do n an d the
Q
.
Car bo n a do e d a n d ua r te r ed i n to s eve r a l C ha r a cte r s ( 1 63 2) is

interesting for a reason other than its merits I t illustrates .
1
the di ffi culty the character writers felt to impart variety -

.
”
Abstract quali ties are a very scanty plot o f ground and ,
we have already found modes o f life and occupations intro

duc d e Lupton dealt with places as well
. O f twenty four .
-
essays which carbonado London twenty two treat of ,

-
places and o f twelve devoted to the country three are of

, ,
this description I n the former section there are essays o n

.
London itself the Bridge Cheapside Bridewell and B edlam

, , ,
.
O ther writers again delineated countries— England F rance

, , , ,
S cotland etc Y e t another device due to t hi s crying

,
.
need of variety is seen in A s tr a nge M e ta m o r p ho s is of

M an tr a n sfor m e d i n to a Wilde r n es s
,
for there
the author deciphers his characters under the guise o f
birds and beasts and even plants Th e collection is not
, .
without merit though the evidences of decline are patent

,
.
At a somewhat later date a n e w sort o f variety is drawn from

history and in The Ti m es A n to m iz d ( 1 647) Thomas F orde
,
a
’
writes essays o n such subj ects as re b ellion w ar and peace ,

.
Sir William Coventry wrote the C ha r a cte r of a Tr im m e r long

before Halifax undertook the subj ect though not with the ,
grace and insight o f Halifax ; and some twenty years after

F orde political and sectarian subj ects are not o nl y present but
prevalent in that collection of characters which nearly fills
the second volume o f the Re m a ins o f S amuel Butler ( 1 61 2
Butler was n o t known to his contemporaries in the
capacity o f a character writer ; for the characters were among -
the miscellaneous papers which he bequeathed to Longueville .
They were edited by Thy e r in 1 7 5 9 More than a hundred .
1
No t f o r t h e fi rt s tim e . Th e s am e d e v ice is fo u d
n in M i cr o lo gi a
a co ll e cti o n r
d es c i b e d as c h ar ac t e s r , or es s a y s, o f pr e so n s ,
t d
ra es an d pl
ac es , o fi e re d t o the c it y an d c o un tr y by R . M .
”
THE CH ARA CTE R WRITE RS -
55
were printed by him and others have recently bee n published

,
in the Cambridge English Classics series Most o f them says .

,
Thy e r were drawn up between 1 667 and 1 669 and in the

, ,
choice o f subj ects we s e e the mark both o f the man and o f the
age A m o der n P o liti cia n A n hyp o cr itica l N o n co nfo r m is t
.
, ,
and A Rep ublican are the first upon the list Th e tone is .
that o f a man disappointed and disillusioned He had lived .
through t he time o f trouble and adversity to hi s party o nl y ,
to find that its ultimate success brought for hi m little either , ,
o f honour o r o f reward Th e author o f H udihr a s could hardly

.
write a considerable volume without showi n g here and there

wit and force But the performance as a whole is tedious
.
,
and it is wholly unredeemed by that huma nity which elevates

Earle . While there is kindliness in even the most pungent
pieces o f the latter Butler s wit is b itter and he seems
,
’
,
pleased that men are no b etter than they are .
There remains o n e ma n Thomas F uller ( 1 60 8 , who

belongs chronolo gi cally to the period of decline yet is hi mself ,
no example o f decay O n the contrary with the exception

.
,
o f George Herbert he is th e greatest man who ever touched

,
the character sketch and his Ho ly a n d P r ofa ne S ta te ( 1 641 ) is

-
,
the most readable book that can by any stretch o f the meani n g
be included under the class o f books of characters But The .
Ho ly a n d P r ofa n e S ta te is a book of characters with a di fi e r e n c e .
Earle remains the most perfect exemplar of the school of

Theophrastus ; F uller belongs to a school o f his o wn While .
others were straining after variety and finding it sometimes ,
at the cost of sense F uller attained it easily and naturally

,
by being himself This is the vital secret whi ch makes The

.
Ho ly n d Pr cy a e S ta te so charming With the exception

a
'
n .
o f Earle the other character writers almost entirely b a nish

,
-
themselves from their o wn pages ; they are indeed s o artificial

that they may almost be said to banish humanity But .
huma nity is visible and Thomas F uller is present in every

56 T H E E NGLI S H E SSAY AND E S SAYI STS
page o f The Ho ly n d P r ofa ne S ta te Thi s has b een his charm
a .
for every one who has ever fallen under his influence I t is .
attested not o nl y by the well known criticisms o f Coleridge

,
-
and Lamb but it is safe to s a y b y all the critics who have

, , ,
ever written o f F uller appreciatively F o r it is quite possible .
to be unappreciative ; it is possible even to b e repelled by

hi s amiable garrulity Th e golden works o f the dear
.
,
fine silly o ld angel is the phr ase of Lamb in a letter to

,
”
Gilman and it suggests why the gold may be concealed from

,
some eyes .
F uller was a man o f many gifts n o t all o f whi ch are fully

,
revealed by The Ho ly a n d Pr ofa n e S tate though he is there ,
seen at hi s best He had wide t hough not particularly

.
accurate scholars hi p and his powerful memory enabled hi m

,
to accumul ate an extraordinary mass o f information He .
told Pepys that he had dictated to four schola rs in Latin ,
o n subj ects o f their proposing faster than they could write

,
.
I t may be that the matter di ctated would not stand a very

searchi n g investigation but the power to do such a thing at
,
all is remarkable His wit is attested by Coleridge ; but

.
whil e the phrase about its being the s t uff and substance
o f F ull er s intellect is always quoted it is not s o widely
’
,
remembered that Coleridge further pronounces that F uller s ’
wit ,
alike in quantity quality and perpetuity surpassed
, , ,
that of t h e wittiest in a witty age ”

.
I n some respects t he character sketch was very well -
adapted to F ull er Th e conceits which it encouraged neither

.
repelled hi m n o r presented any di ffi culty to his ingenuity .
O n the contrary Lamb has said that F uller s natural bias to

,
’
conceits was so pronounced that it woul d have b een going

“
o ut o f hi s way t o have expressed hi mself out of them But

”
.
o n the other hand F uller was discursive and diff use n o t to s a

y ,
garrulous ; and the style of charactery was condensed to

exces s and discouraged wandering I t was this combination .
58 TH E ENGLI S H E SSAY AND E S SAYI STS
ment of a feeble minded fellow who decided that the poor
-
,
ma n s money should be put between two empty dishes and

’
,
the cook paid with the jingli n g O r take that lively illustra
.
tion by contraries o f the Good Parent : D id not that mother

show little wit in her great partiality to whom when her ,
neglected son complained that hi s brother (her darling) had

hit and hurt him with a stone s he whi pped hi m o nly for ,
standing in the way where the stone went whi ch his brother
c ast ? At once the tension is relieved Epigram upon epi .
gram wearies as surely and as soon as gaiety without

eclipse but there is no danger o f weariness when we have
”
,
such relief as thi s Th e human el ement is back again ; and

.
it becomes evident that the typical character writer is an -
acrobat tum b li n g and playing tricks whereas F uller is a well ,
bu ilt man walking easily and naturally Th e gym n astic feats .
are surprisingly clever b ut at the end of the performance t h e

,
acrobat is o n precisely the same spot o n the carpet where he

b egan while the simple walker has made considerable pro
,
gress o n the way to hi s destination O rdinary charactery .
ill ustrates not human life but th e writer s talent ; F ull er

, ,
’
devotes a greater talent n o t to the exhibition o f his o wn

,
cleverness but to throwing a real light upon some phase of

,
human nature Their wit ends in itself ; F uller s wi t is als o

.
’
wisdom Coleridge showed hi s customary sureness o f touch

.
when he added to his praise o f F uller s wit the remark that he ’
had equal superiority in sound shrewd good sense and , , ,
freedom o f intellect ”
.
S ometim es the stories impart a pleasant personality ; a

quality without whi ch F uller wo ul d not be F uller and one ,
also whi ch removes hi m far from the ordinary character

writers They are among the most impersonal of essayists
.
,
while F uller has been compared to Charles Lamb perhaps ,
the most personal and intimate F uller is not afraid o f t h e

.
pronoun I and hi s us e of it deepens the sense o f intima c y

, .
—
THE CH ARA CTE R WRITE RS 59
Fo r example : Mr Ca m b de n in his R emains presents us
.
, ,
with examples o f great men that had little epitaphs An d .
when once I asked a witty gentlema n an honoured friend of ,
mine what epitaph w as fittest to be written o n Mr Ca m b de n s

, .
’
tomb ? Le t it be said he Cam b de n s R emains

’
,
But
,
’
.
’
the matter goes deeper than the mere us e o f a pronoun Even .
when he speaks in the thi rd person even when he writes o f ,
far lands and o f distant ages F uller s personality is always ,

’
near I t imparts a tone it is an essence an atmosphere an

.
, , ,
i n de fin a b le somet hi ng whi ch marks all he writes as un m is t a k

ably hi s I t was probably this quality more than anything
.
else that won the love o f Lamb We shall s e e it presently .
when we come to illustrate F uller in his closest approaches to

the orthodox character writers -
.
Th e stories quoted hitherto have been o f the amusing sort ,
and F uller liked them s o when they were to be had and would
s erve the purpose But hi s was a richly veined humanity
.
,
and he has stories and reflections o f the most serious sort as

well O ccasionall y the mere passing of time has brought
.
s ome change whi ch causes a s m ile to break where F uller never
meant t o provoke o n e He w a s wholl y serious when he wrote

.
t hus in the Life of M r P e r k i n s the concrete example of the

.
,
F aithful Minister : He would pronounce the word da m n

with such an emphasis as left a doleful echo in his auditors ’
c a r s a good while after But in his older age he altered

.
hi s voice and remitted much o f hi s former rigidness often

, ,
professing that to preach mercy was the proper office of the

m inisters o f the gospel He was wholly serious when he
”
.
w rote the story o f Dr Whitaker thanking Mr West

“
. for
giving him correction when his young scholar ; and time has
l eft the gravity unimpaired I t is impossible t o mistake the
.
heart felt charity o f the remarks in the essay Of N a tur a l F o o ls

-
O nly God s pleasure put a di ff erence betwixt you An d

’
.
c onsider that a fool and a wise man are alike both in the
60 T H E ENGLI S H E SSAY AND E SSAYI STS
start ing place their birth and in the port their death : only
-
, , ,
they di ff er in the race o f their lives .

”
Many single sentences might be quoted whi ch would leave

the impression that there was little o r no di ff erence between
F uller and the character writers as a body or at most only
-
,
such di ff erence as there is between a witty man and a super

la t iv e ly witty o n e Mere verbal quips are of t his sort Many
. .
men might have written that the Good Parent observeth

gavelki nd in di viding his aff ections though not hi s estate
, ,
for that is merely a conceited us e o f a technical term ; o r

that the Good Physician prescribes cheap but wholesom e
medicines to poor people not removing the c o n s um p
,
ti o n o ut o f their bodies into their purses ; o r “

lest hi s ,
”
apothecary should oversee he oversees his apothecary ,
.
But it would not be easy to find in F uller a paragraph

whi ch would not strike the reader as diff erent from the
paragraph of any other man ; and sometimes even single
sentences though fashi oned in the workshop of Theo
,
p h r a s t us seem
,
to carry that stamp o f personality w hi ch has
already been referred to Th e most ancient nobility
.
is ju nior to no nobili ty when all men were equal

,
”
seems , ,
somehow to be as unmistakably F uller s as the grand

,
’
old gardener is Te n nyson s Certainly it is s o with thi s

’
.
remark about the Younger Brother S ometimes he raiseth

.
hi s estate by applying hi mself to the court : a pasture wherein

el der brothers are observed to grow lean and younger brothers ,
”
fat . But perhaps the best illustrations o f that in de fin ab le
somethi n g of personality whi ch F uller imparts even to thos e
passages where he most closely follows the style of charactery
are to be found in the essay o n The Dege n er o us Ge n tle m n a ,
who is o f course the profane analogue to The Tr ue

, ,
Ge n tle m an
“
is his vocation and he scorns to follow a n y
V acation ,
pro f ession and will n o t be confined to any laudable employ

,
T H E CH ARA CTE R WRITERS -
m ent But they who count a alli ng a prison shall at last

. c ,
make a prison their calling ”

.
“
Having lost his own legs he relies on the sta ff o f hi s
,
kindred ; first visiting them as an intermitting ague but ,
afterwards turns a quotidian wearing their thresholds as bare

,
as his own coat At last he is as welcome as a storm ; he

.
,
that is abroad shelters hi mself from it and he that is at home

,
shuts the door . S ometimes he sadly p a c e t h over the

ground he sold and is o n fire with anger with himself fo r his
,
folly but frequently q ue n ch e t h it at the n ext alehouse

,
.
”
62 TH E ENGLIS H E S SAY AND E S SAYI STS
CHA PTER IV
M I S C E LL A N E O U S E SS AY I S T S OF THE S E VE N TE E N T H
C E N TU RY
WH I L E in the early part

,
the seventeenth century the
o f ,
delineation o f characters was the most popular exercise of the

essayists it was n o t the o nly o n e The instrument whi ch
,
.
Bacon had i n troduced could be put to many uses and among ,
the writers o f m i scellaneous prose there were a fe w apart from ,
Jonson who trod more closely in hi s footsteps than the artists

,
o f charactery O ne such was O wen F e llt h a m ( 1 60 2

.
author o f Res o lves D ivin e M or al P o liti cal a man about the

, ,
events o f whose life little is known while his Opi nions are ,
patent to every reader o f his works He was a Royalist of the .
most extreme type ; and to understand what a poli tical extreme

is we must go back to the writers of t hat age Many have
,
.
been surprised and pained by F uller s adulation o f Charles I ’

.
in the last essay o f his Ho ly S ta te His royal virtues are t o o

great to be told and too great to be concealed All cannot
,
.
,
some must break forth from the f ull hearts o f such as be hi s

faithf ul su b j ects But I must either stay o r fall My sight
. .
fails me — dazzled with the light o f maj esty All I can do is

, .
”—
pray ,
whi ch accordingly he does I t seems hardl y possible .
to surpass this but F llt ha m contrives to do so

,
e Here .
Charles the First and Chr ist the S econd li es is the last line of
hi s epitaph o n the royal martyr He intended no irreverence ;
.
he as well as F uller w as habitually reverent ; and the fact that

he was so makes these staggering words all t he m o r e in s t ruct iv e .
Clearly such a man could not love the Puritans and the essay ,
upon them under the guise o f moderation betrays a strong

, ,
dislike He says there are fe w who wi ll o w n the name ; and

.
MI S C ELLANE O US E S SAYI STS 63
the reason is that it is fo r the most part a name o f infamy .
He hi mself is ready to love a Puritan— with a diff erenc e :

A man that submits to reverent order that sometimes ,
unbends himself in a moderate relaxation ; and in all labours ,
to approve hi mself in the sereneness o f a healthful conscience

,
such a Puritan I will love immutably But when a man in .

,
thi ngs but ceremonial shall S purn at the grave authority o f

,
the Church and o ut of a needless nicety be a t hi ef to hi mself

, ,
o f those benefits which Go d hath allowed hi m : or o ut o f a
blind and uncharitable pride censure and scorn others as

, , ,
reprobates : o r out o f obstinacy fill the world with brawls , ,
about undeterminable t e n e n t s : I shall think hi m o n e o f those ,
whose opinion hath fevered his zeal to madness and dis

traction .
The Res o lves are divided into t wo centuries O f thes e .

’
the first in order of time whi ch afterw ards became second in

,
order o f arrangement was publis hed when F ellt ham was only
,
eighteen Th e second edition to which a n e w century

.
,
’
was added is dated 1 62 8 Th e earlier es says are very short

, .
,
the later ones are much f uller and altogether more mature .
Ultimately the original century was thoroughly revised ’
and much e nl arged while some of the papers were who lly
,
omitted and others substituted fo r them Th book was . e
extremely popular going through twelve editions between

,
its first publication and the year 1 7 09 I n the eighteenth .
century both F e llt ham and hi s writings were almost com

p le t el
y forgotten
,
but a partial revival o f interest in him took
place early in the nineteenth century .
I n his preface to the reader the author is careful to explain

that these essays were written not so much to please others as
to gr a t ify a n d profit hi mself But thi s may safely be taken as an
.
attempt to deprecate criticism and to suggest that the author

,
could have done better had he chosen to take pains The .
Re s o lve s are written n o t without ease but certainly with care

, ,
.
64 THE ENGLI S H E S S AY AND E S SAYI STS
I t is the ease which comes from study not from indifference ,
.
F llt ham s discipleship to Bacon is clear ; but so is the great

’
e
ness of the distance at whi ch he follows his exemplar To o .
great a spirit in a man born to poor means is like a hi gh heeled ,

-
shoe to of mean stature : it dva n c t h his proportion but

o ne a e ,
is ready to fit him with fall s is a simile with a Baconian smack ,

”
.
F llt h m s essay o death is obviously founded upon and

’
e a n
indeb ted to Bacon s essay the same subj ect ; but Of M a s

’
on n
’
U willi gnes s to Die shows how much more rhetorical and how
n n
much less massive in thought the minor writer is He loves .
orn ate phrases— cg the wise man lear n s to know hi mself

,
as well by night s b lack mantle as th scorchi ng beams o f

’
,
e
d y to which there is no parallel in Bacon

a
”
,
O ccasionally he .
paraphrases Bacon : I t was t h fool that said There is no e ,
Go d ; f certainly no wise man ever thought it and yet the

or , , ,
fool had s o much wit as n o t to prate o n t : I t was but in hi s heart ’
he said it I mpudence was not s o great nor inward conviction

.
,
s o strong s that he could with confidence declare it with hi s

,
a
tongue N or did he seriously think it in his heart : s o that it

.
proceeded no farther than a bare and lazy wish because he ,
would be glad it were s o But doubtless he co uld no more .

, ,
believe there was no soul in thi s vast world than that there
w s n o S p irit to actuate hi s body
a O bviously thi s is no more .
”
t han an expanded and weakened version f a sentence o t wo o r
fl
in Bacon s Of A the is m ’
.
There are well marked di -

n es both of endowment and ere c ,
o f purpo se between F llt h ,

and the character writers Th
e am -
. e
author of the Res lves had plenty of wit though apparently

o , , ,
n o t much humour But in the Res lves as a rule his aim was
. o , ,
no t to display either By far the most witty o f hi s writings

.
is that bright and lively performance A B r i f Ch te of the e ar a c r
Lo w—
,
C o u tr ies u der th S t te s where far more than in the

n n e a , ,
Res o lves we are reminded that he was a contemporary o f

,
E arle .
somethi ng in the cadence o f the sentences which suggests 1
that F e llt ha m may have read th e work o f a man who deserves

a place among the essayists for the sake of a single per
fo r m a n c e only because in that he attained an excellence
,
o f style whi ch makes him for once the rival o f the greatest , ,
masters .
William Drummond ( 1 5 85 —1 649) of Hawthornden is better

known as the author o f poems than as the writer of A Cypr es s
Gr o ve ; but excellent as are his sonnets the latter work is
, ,
equally des ervi ng o f remembrance and it comes nearer the ,
topmost heights o f literature than anything else that came

from the same pen Drummond had a ge nius refi n ed and .
elegant rather than robust I n his person al characteristics we .
may probably find the secret o f that acerbity whi ch marks hi s

portrait o f Ben Jonson Jonson was emphatically robust but.
,
n o t s o conspicuously refined and elegant ; a n d he may well have
r a sped the nerves of the re cluse o f Hawthornden Had he .
not bee n exceptionally fortunate in his circumstances perhaps , ,
in a rude age and country the ge nius o f Drummond would ,
n ever have bloomed at all Th e bloo m certainly withered .
whe n he left hi s retreat and came o ut into the world His .
best work both in verse and in prose is the expression o f a

, ,
spirit natur all y reflective thro wn in upo n itself by a solitary

,
lif e and re n dered deeply melancholy by prolonged brooding

,
abo ut his lost love Mary Cu n nin gham Drummond is not

,
.
passionate but there is evidence in hi s works of a genuine and

,
d eep a ff ection cherished until he f alls in love wi t h grie f

, S uch .
is the to n e o f the best o f hi s so n nets with the exception o f that ,
o n the Baptist whi ch sounds a deeper note

, S uch too is the .
tone o f the Cypr es s Gr ove Thi s elo quent m e di tation upon .
death was first published in 1 623 Th e immediate occasion of .
i
Th e y Of Ti
es s a
’
m e s co n ti n ua l S pee d is in th e s e co n d e
c n t ury (i n
t he or d r f rr g
e o a an e m en t ); b ut i t is no t o n e o f th o s e w hi c h ap pe r a ed
in th e fi st d i ti
r e on .
MI S C ELLANE O US E SSAYI STS 67
it wa s a severe illness from which D rummond had suffered ,
but the ful ness and richn ess o f tone attests years of reverie o n
cognate themes There was in Drummond from the start a
.
strain o f mysticism and his studies the events o f his life and
, , ,
the absence of event in hi s retirement at Hawthornden all

'
alike served to foster and strengthen it He is akin to the .
English Platonists and is enamoured o f the Platonic doctrine

o f ideas .His favourite conception is the oneness o f the
universe and the oneness o f the soul with that from which it
,
comes I t is t hi s which inspires him to his hi ghest flight of

.
eloquence in A Cyp r es s Gr o ve
I f on the great theatre of this earth amongst the number
less number o f men to die were only proper to thee and thine
, ,
then undoubtedly thou hadst reason t o repine at s o severe

and partial a law : But since it is a necessity from which ,
y age b y past hath been exempted and unto whi ch

'
n ev e r an -
,
they which be and s o many as are to come are thralled (no

, ,
conseque n t of life b eing more common and familiar) why ,
shouldst thou with unprofitable and nought availing stub

,
-
b o r n n e s s oppo se s o inevitable and necessary a condition ?

,
This is the hi ghway o f mortality and our general home ,
Behold what millions have trod it before thee w hat multi ,
tudes shall after thee with them that at that same instant
,
run I n s o universal a calamity (if D eath be o n ) private

. e
complaints cannot be heard : With s o many royal palaces ,
it is no loss to s e e thy poor cabin burn S hall the heavens .
stay their ever rolli ng wheels (for what is the motion o f them
-
but the motion o f a swift and ever whi rling wheel whi ch -
,
t win e t h forth and again u r o lle t h our life) and hold still time
, p
to prolong thy miserable days as if the highest o f their working
,
were to do homage unto thee ? Thy death is a pace in the

order o f thi s All a part o f the life o f this world ; for while
,
the world is the world some creatures must die and others
.
, ,
take life .
68 TH E ENGLI S H E SSAY AN D E S SAYI STS
Th e stately English of this passage is u n equall e d by any
thing else ih A Cypr es s Gr ove Th e essay is n ot free from t h e
.
fa ults o f the ti me The meta phors are sometimes far fetched

.
-
,
and sometimes they are mere conceits Drummo n d occasion .
ally writes in order that he may display his wit To

seek a reason u nless from the S parkling o f Go d in the so ul o r
, ,
from the Go d like S parkles o f the soul were to make reason

-
,
unreasonable by reasoni ng o f thi ngs transcending her reach

,
”
.
Arches and stately temples which o n e age doth raise , ,
doth not another raze ? But t he general level is very hi gh :

nearly three quarters of the essay might be quoted wi t h warm
-
approval While the following passage is inferior to t he

.
precedi ng o n e it still gives proof that Drummond poss es sed

,
a rare gift of style

But that perha ps which a n guis he th thee most is to have
, , ,
thi s glorious pageant o f the world removed from thee in the

S pring and most delicious sea son o f thy life ; for though to
die be usual to die young may appear extraor dinary I f
, .
the presen t fruition o f these thin gs be unprofitable and vain ,
what can a long continuance o f them be ? I f Go d had mad e

life happier He had also made it longer S tra n ger and new
,
.
hal cyon why wo uld thou longer nestle amidst t hese un co n

,
stant and stormy waves ? Hast thou not already su ff ered

enough o f thi s world but thou must yet endure more ? To
,
live long is it not to be long troubled ? But number thy

,
years whi ch are n o w

,
and thou shalt find that whereas
ten have outlived thee thousands have not atta ined this
,
a e
g. O ne year is suffi cient to behold all the magnificence o f
nature nay even o n e day and ni ght ; fo r more is but t he
, ,
same brou ght again Thi s s un that moon these stars t h e

.
, , ,
varying dance of the S pring summer autumn winter is that

, , , ,
very same whi ch the Golden Age did s e e They which ha ve .
the longes t time lent them to live in have almost no part of it ,
at all measuring it either by the S pace o f time which is past

, ,
whe n they were n ot o r by that whi ch is to come Why

,
.
s houldst thou then care whether thy days be many or f ew

, ,
which when prolonged to the uttermost prove parall eled

, , ,
with eternity as a tear is to the ocean ? To die young is

,
to do that soon and in so me fewer days whi ch once thou

, ,
must do ; it is but the givi n g over of a game that after never ,

”
s o many hazards must be lost .
A Cyp r es s Gr o ve is perhaps the first conscious and sustained

e ffort in English to write poetical prose Th e style was well .
adapted to D rummond s habitual tone o f thought and he

’
,
w a s tempted t o retain it when he was writing upo n subj ects

where the use o f it is less defensible What i n A Cypr es s .
Gr o ve is eloquence in I r ene becomes rhetoric

,
Th e latter .
,
written in 1 63 8 is a remembrance for concord ami t y a n d

, ,
”
love amongst his Maj esty s subj ects
, Though the style is
’
.
overcharged with ornament there is force in thi s fervid appeal

,
for moderation at once t o the country and to the king The

,
.
emphasis with whi ch Drummond insists upon the bl e ssings o f

peace to Britain betrays his fear that these blessings might
s oo n be lost Five years later he took up the subj ect a gain
.
in E / xl But these later essays were not printed durin g

m a La . a .
hi s life and had the author not also written A Cyp r es s Gr o ve

, ,
they would hardly be worth referring to now Ye t Drum .
mond was by natural bent an essayist and had he lived a ,
century later he would almost certai nl y have shone in the

, ,
company of S teele and Addison As it was he hardly realised .

,
his o wn gift I n all his prose writings except the Cyp r es s

.
Gr ove he is too much dominated by the subj ect and fa ils to

, ,
leave that impression o f personality which is the S pecial cha

o f the essay Th e path was as yet little trodden and he
.
,
imperf ectly understood the nature o f the art in whi ch never ,
t h eles s he achieved o n e signal triumph

, .
We may perhaps take S ir Thomas Browne ( 1 60 5 1 682) -
to be the successor of Drummond as a practitioner o f the

7 0 TH E ENGLI S H E SSAY AN D E S SAYI STS
art of writing cadenced prose That he studied that art
.
pro foundly and mastered it as few i f any have mastered it

, , ,
either before or since most students o f his works will agree

,
.
N either will any o n e dispute that by reason of the M is cella ny

,
Tr a cts and M is cella n ies if o n no other grounds , he is entitled

,
to a place among the essayists Th e question o n whi ch

.
doubt may reasonably be entertained is whe t her hi s place

among them is central or merely on the outer fringe The
, .
answer to that question must depend upon the view taken

o f the greater works o f Browne ; and it has hitherto been
generally assumed rather tha n show n that these have more o f
the n ature o f treatis e s than o f es says But in point o f len gth
.
Brown e s works certai nly do n ot with one exception exceed

’
, ,
the limits within whi ch custom has confined the term essay .
F e w o f Macaulay s essays are s o short as Ur n B ur i a l and

’
-
,
some o f them are considerably longer than Religi o M edici

or The Gar de n of Cyr us AS to Vulga r Er r or s it seems no
.
, ,
doubt absurd to regard as an essay a work which with notes

, , ,
i n B o hn s edition fills between 700 and 800 pages But whoever

’
.
looks below the surface will s e e that thi s formidable treatise

h as the character o f a treatise o nl y in the first book There .
,
i n deed we find a discussion o f the causes o f common errors

, ,
which is fairly orderly and as philosophi cal as it was in the

nature of Bro wn e to make it But then Browne was in the
.
, ,
judicious words o f the judicious Hallam far removed from ,
real philosophy both by hi s turn o f mind and by the nature

,
o f his erudition I n the subsequent books the unity is

of the most superficial sort Browne dis courses about
.
popular tenets con c erning minerals and vegetables concer ning ,
animals concerning man about popular customs and about

, , ,
popular tenets cosmographi cal geographi cal and hi storical

, .
In short if ever there was a b o ok de o m n ibus r e bus e t q uibus da m

,
a li is
,
that book is the Ps e udo do xi a Ep i de m i c R eal u n ity a .
it has none ; each chapter is independent o f the rest and any ,

MI S C ELLANE O US E S SAYI STS
o n e, o r almost a n y group of them might be omitted without,
leaving in the reader s mind the sense o f incompleteness

’
.
Ho w could he know that the third book would be incomplete

without that o m n ium ga the r um o f Chapter XX VI I from .
,
the musical note o f swans to the providence o f pismires i n

biting o ff the ends o f corn ? Ho w could he guess that even
a fter this the sundry queries o f Chapter XXV III are still .
necessary ? The truth is that each chapter is an essay in

itself virtually independent of the others with which it is
,
grouped F o r the unity and system whi ch have sometimes

.
been found in hi s works Brown e is indebted to the critics who

have discovered these qualities in him He is essentially and .
always a desultory though thi s does n ot mean a careless

, ,
writer and his meditations are invariably dispersed

, .
’
Browne then is not to be excluded from the province o f

, ,
the essay o n the ground that he is the author o f long and

clos e ly articulated works His only long work has hardly
-
.
any articulation at all F o r the most part it is a collectio n

.
,
of independent papers which the author has chosen to head

as chapters I S he then to be excluded o n the ground that his
.
aim and temperament are not the aim and temperament of

the essay writer ? O n the contrary he is in soul and s ub
-
,
stance an essayist from start to finish ; and if s o he is certainly

o n e o f the greatest perhaps the greatest o f all
,
Take Religi o .
M e di ci Though s o much shorter than V ulga r Er r o r s by

.
,
reason of its superior un i ty it of all Browne s works has ,

’
,
most nearly the character of a treatise But though .

,
Browne was a learned man of science Religio M e di ci has ,
none o f the detached impersonal scientific S pirit of a , ,
treatise I t is psychological but not as the philosophers are

.
,
psychological Almost at the beginning the personal note

.
is S truck the note which is characteristic o f the es sayist

,
a r e xce lle n ce the es ist of the school o f Montaigne

p say ,
“
I am I confess naturally inclined to that whi ch mis
, ,
7 2 T H E ENGLI S H E SSAY AND E S SAYI STS
gui de d terms superstition : my common conversation

z e al
I do acknowledge austere my b ehaviour full o f rigour some, ,
times n o t without morosity ; yet at my devotion I love to us e ,
the civility of my knee my hat and hand with all those

, , ,
outward and sensible motions which may express o r promote

my invisible devotion I should violate my o wn arm rather
.
than a church ; nor willingly deface the name of saint o r

martyr At the S ight o f a cross or crucifix I can dispense
.
, ,
with my hat but scarce with the thought o r memory of my

,
S aviour .I cannot laugh at but rather pity the fruitl e ss , ,
journeys o f pilgrims o r contemn the miserable condition o f

,
friars ; for though misplaced in circumstances there is

, ,
some t hing in it o f devotion I could never hear the Av e .
Mary bell without an elevation or think it a sufficie n t ,
warrant because they erred in o n e circumstance for me to

, ,
err in all— that is in silence and dumb contempt Whils t

, .
,
therefore they directed their devotions to her I o ff ered mine

, ,
to Go d ; and rectified the errors o f their prayers by rightly

ordering mine o w n At a solemn procession I have wept
.
abundantly whi le my consorts blind with opposition and

, ,
prejudice have fall en into an excess of S corn and laughter

,
”
.
What has thi s to do with system o r S cience ? I t would be

appropriate in an auto b iography and there is much besides ,
in the Religio M e dici that is autobiographic Ye t it certai nly .
cannot be ranked with the autobiography of G ibbon o r the

C o nfes s io n s o f Rousseau W might almost be reading an
. e
earlier Charles Lamb and we are reminded that Lamb claimed

,
t o be the first o f the moderns to discover the beauty o f one
o f Browne s works that he never sought to conceal his

’
,
debt to them all and that Browne was o n e o f the two men
,
whom he would most have liked to meet There is no place .
for the Religio M e di ci in the literary scheme except among ,
essays o f the personal type I n Browne s case the type .

’
is pleasantly flavoured with the science in which he ha d been

74 T H E ENGLI S H E SSAY AND E S SAYI STS
sna ils and toadstools n o r at the Jews for locusts and grass
,
hOppe rs ; but being amongst them make them my common

, ,
viands ; and I find they agree with my stomach as well as

theirs I could digest a salad gathered in a church yard
.
-
as well as in a garden I cannot start at the presence o f a

.
serpent S corpion lizard o r salamander ; at the sight of a

, , ,
toad or viper I find in me no desire to take up a stone to

,
destroy them I feel not in myself those common antipathies

.
that I can discover in others : those national repugn ances

do not touch me nor do I behold wi th prejudice the F rench
, ,
I talian S paniard o r Dutch ; b ut where I find their actions

, ,
in balance with my co un t r ym e n s I honour love and ’

, , ,
embrace them in the same degree I was born in the eighth

, .
climate but seem to be framed and constellated unto all

,
.
I am no plant that will not prosper o ut o f a garden All .
plac e s all airs make u n to me o n e country ; I am in England

, ,
everywhere and under any meri di an

,
”
S urely it is n o t a .
melancholy conceit to think we are all asleep in this world ,
and that the conceits o f this life are as mere dr eams to those
o f the next ; as the phantasms f the night to the conceit
o ,
o f the day There is an equal delusion in both ; and the

.
o n e doth but seem to be the emblem or picture o f the other .
We are somewhat more than ourselves in o ur sleeps ; and the

slumber of the body seems to be but the waking o f the soul .
I t is the ligation o f sense but the liberty o f reason ; and o ur

,
waking conceptions do not match the fancies of our Sleeps .
At my nativity my ascendant was the watery S ign of S o rp i o I

,
c ,
was born in the planetary hour of S a tu n and I thi nk I have r ,
a piece o f that leaden planet in me I am no way facetious .

,
nor disposed for the mirth and galliardi se o f company ; yet in

one dream I can compose a whole comedy behold the action , ,
apprehend the j ests and laugh mysel f awake at the conceits

,
thereof Were my memory as faithful as my reason is then

.
fruitful I w uld never study but in my dreams and this time

,
o
,
also would I choose for my devotions ; but o ur grosser

memories have then so little hold of o ur abstracted under
standings that they forget the story and can only relate to
, ,
o ur awaked souls a confused and broken tale o f that which

”
hath passed .
No wonder a work such as this was popular Th e sale was .
s o rapid that the first surreptitious edition seems to have
been exhausted within a f ew months and a second also un , ,
authorised followed in the same year I n 1 643 came the first

,
.
authorised version ; and in all there were fourteen o r fifteen

distinct issues some o f them accompanied by other works
,
o f Browne ,
before the close o f the century— evidence o f a
pop ul arity very extraor di n ary at that period N or was the .
po pularity limited to England Religio M e dici was trans .
lated into Latin Dutch German and F re n ch and won the

, , ,
ardent admira t ion o f the great F rench physician G uy Patin .
Th e story is f a m iliar ho w Lord Dorset was charmed with the

book o n its first appeara n ce and recomme n ded it to S ir K enelm
Digby ; and the latter has hi mself recorded how he sent fo r
it received it in bed and then — “
I closed n o t my eyes till
, ,
I had enriched mysel f with (o r at least exactly surveyed) all

the treasures that are lapped up in the folds of those fe w s h e e t s .
”
This admiration gave rise t o those Obs e r va ti o n s by D igby which

it had bee n customary ever since to append to Religio M e dici
N o other of Brown e s works has ever e n jo y e d q uit such
’
,
e
wide favour as the first O ne reason undoubtedly is that

.
nowhere else is Browne so personal and confidential ; and

there is nothing in all literature more engaging than such
egoism as his But besides most o f his other works are
.
,
i nherently inferior to t hi s first production Thi s is very .
obviously the case with the M is cella ny Tr a cts and M is cella n ies .
Th e best o f them all that on dreams contains nothing equal

, ,
to the reflections o n Sleep and dreams towards the close o f

Religi o M e di ci I n others such as the tra c ts Of Gar la n s d
.
,
76 TH E ENGLI S H E SSAY AND E SSAYI STS
and Gar la n d P la ts and Of Haw/es a n d F alco n ry
Co r o n ary or n ,
A n ie t
c d M o de
n we have illustrations o f Browne s pr o
an rn,
’
found and curious learning and f his occasionally acute ,

o
power of criticism but nothi ng that is not in these respects

,
surpassed in hi s more formal works The miscellanies were .
in fact the gleanings o f Brown e s harvest answers to que ries ’

,
addressed to him by hi s friends o dd papers which he had n ot ,
been able to weave in with his longer writings As to the .
rest The Ga de n f Cyr us goes far to j usti fy Hallam s remark

,
r o
’
that the absen ce o f the controlling supremacy of good se ns e

deprives Browne of the place whi ch wo uld other wise be his
among the greatest writers Th famous passage begin ni n g . e
But the quincunx o f heaven runs lo w is it is true one o f , ,
the finest that even Bro wn e ever wr ote ; but as a whole The
G de of Cy r us is fantastic and whimsical to the point o f
'
ar n
weariness Chri s tia n M or als is wise and lo f ty but S piritu ally

.
,
no richer than Religi o M edi i while it is destitute o f the c ,
delight ful egoism o f the latter work An d highly entertai ning .
as Vulg r Er r or s is there are parts of it which are dull and

a ,
commonplace N either in style n or in moral depth is it

.
equal to the earlier work O nly those who find in it an impor .
tant contribution to scientific thought can put it at the head

o f Browne s works
’
.
There remains only Ur n B ur ia l for it is surely a somewhat

perverse criticism that has raised almost to a level with it the
Le tte to rF ie d But Ur n B ur ial contain s some forty or
a r n .
fifty pages of the most beautiful English ever written probably ,
the greatest piece f sustained eloquence in the prose of the

o
language I t is the concentrated essence o f Browne s genius

.
’
.
Th spirit is fundamentally the S pirit o f Religio M e di ci

e In .
both there is the same brooding thought ; though in the

earlier work it is evoked by the contemplation o f the author s ’
o wn life a n d in the later by the relics o f long dead huma nity

,
- .
Both are insti n ct with the melancholy of Browne a melan ,

MI S C ELLAN E O US E S SAYI STS 77
ch o ly of his compounded of many simples extracted

o wn , ,
”
from many obj ects Bo th t o o are profoundly mystical ; for
.
, ,
Brown e is o n e o f the n umerous stumbling blocks in the way o f -
those modern theorists in whose view mysticism is charac

t e r is t ic o f the Celtic race and is alien from the An glo S axon -
.
Th e style t o o is ess entia lly the same ; but it has developed

, ,
.
O n the o n e ha n d it has lost something o f ease on the other

, ,
it is f ar more hi ghly wrought richer and more gorgeous Th e

-
,
.
temper o f the artist in words is manifest in the characteristic

epistle dedicatory es peci ally in the closing sentence where
, ,
Bro wn e weav es into hi s phraseology the theme of the work

thus dedicated : Having long exp erience of your frie n dly
conversation void o f empty formality full of freedom co n
, , ,
st a nt and generous honesty I look upon yo u as a gem of the

,
o ld rock and must profes s myself even to urn and ashes your
, ,
ever faithf ul friend and servant ”

The first book sketches.
slightly the buri al customs o f many nations Th e recent dis .
co v e r
y of urns in N orfolk leads in the second t o the more
specific consideration o f the urns used to receive the ashes left
a fter cremation ; but again the discursive mind o f Bro wn e
diverges to the question o f the population o f Britain in the
time o f J ulius C ae sar and to other questi ons equally remote
,
from the subj ect in hand F rom time to time refere n ce is

.
made to some detail o r other o f the particular discovery which

gave occasion to the essay ; but the references are merely
cursory for the true subj ect o f the essay is not the urns found
,
in Norfolk but the thoughts o n mortality suggested by them

, .
Who knows the fate o f hi s bones or ho w often he is to be ,
buried ? who hath the O racle of hi s ashes o r whither they are ,
to be scattered ? The r eli ck s o f many li e like the ruins o f

Pompeys in all parts o f the earth Thes e sentences i n the
”
, .
epistle dedi catory stri ke the keynote o f the whole Th . e
opening chapters with their curious lore gradually work up

, ,
to the reflectio n s at the close for which the whole has been
,
7 8 TH E ENGLI S H E SSAY AND E S SAYI STS
w ritten We have nearly reached the height in the closing
.
paragraphs o f Chapter IV : Wer e the happiness o f the n ext

world a s closely apprehended as the f elicities o f this it were a ,
martyrdom to live ; and u n to such as consider n one herea f ter ,
it must be more than death to die which makes us amazed at ,
those audacities that durst be nothing and return into their

chaos again ”
. I t is the heaviest S tone that melan
c ho l
y can throw at a man to tell hi m he is at the end o f hi s
,
nature ; o r that there is n o further state to come unto which ,

”
thi s seems progressional and otherwise made in vain
,
.
But it is in the fifth and last chapter that the cli max to
which Browne has been workin g comes I t is like a solemn .
music and Milton i n his grandest mood might have writte n a

,
sonnet upon it Every paragraph is an almost matchles s

.
model o f musical prose The very first teaches us what to

.
expect .
4
No w since these dead bones have already o ut lasted the -
living ones o f Methuselah a n d in a yard under ground a n d

, ,
thi n walls o f clay outworn all the strong and specious build
,
ings above it ; and quietly res ted under the drums a n d

tramplin gs o f three conquests : what pri n ce can promise such
diuturnity unto his r e lick s or might not gladly say
, ,
S ic e go co m po n i ve r s us in o s s a ve li m ?
Time, whi ch antiquates anti qui t ies and hath an art to make ,
”
dust of all thi ngs hath yet spared these minor monuments
, .
An d s o through the paragraphs all famous about the songs , ,
the syrens sang about the circl es and right lines that limit
,
a n d close a ll bodies about the darknes s and light that divide

,
the course o f time about the epitaph of Go r dian us Where

, .
is there finer English tha n the O bli vion paragraph

O blivion is n ot to be hi red The greater part m ust be.
c ontent to be as though they had n ot bee n to be found in the ,
register o f Go d n o t in the record o f man Twenty seven

,
.
-
MI S C ELLANE O US E S SAYI STS 79
names make up the first story before the flood and the ,
recorded names ever sinc e contain not o n e living century .
Th e number o f the dead long exceedeth all that shall li ve .
Th night o f time far s ur pa s s e t h the day and who knows whe n

e ,
w a s the equinox ? Every hour adds unto that current arith

metic which scarce stands o n e moment An d since dea t h mus t
,
.
be the Lucin a o f life and even Pagans could doubt whether

, ,
thus to live were to die ; since o ur longest s un sets at right de

s c e n s io n s and makes but winter arches and therefore it can n ot
, ,
be long before we lie do wn in darkness and have our light in

ashes ; since the brother of death daily haunts us with dying
meme n toes and ti me that grows o ld in itsel f bids us hope n o
, ,
—
long duration diut ur n it y is a dream and fo lly o f expectation ”
.
F lawlessness is even more rare in prose than it is in verse ,
and if all the pieces were collected which a reasona b le criticism

could praise wholly without reserve they would make only a ,
very small volume But an extraordinary proportion would

.
come from Ur n B ur ia l— a proportion hi gher than any other

work o f equal length would yield possibly higher than could ,
be glea n ed even from the longest works .
Th e value o f B ro wn e now lies wholly in hi s S tyle In n o .
other case is the style more emphaticall y the man in none ,
other is the attempt to sever substance from form more hope

less o r more unjust where in the most partial wa y it ca n
, , , ,
be done The thought o f Browne is in many poin ts Open to

.
question I n V ulgar Er r or s he is divided betw een credulity and

.
scepticism He has no clue to guide him through the mazes o f

.
false opinion There is little ground for surprise in the fact that
.
some o f his co n temporaries s aw only the scepticism ; for their

faith expressed itself in a series o f propositions and Browne ,
doubted some o f them I t is more asto nishi ng that there

.
have been moderns also w ho regarded hi m as sceptical in

mind Coleridge s a w deeper and rightly ranked him as an
.
,
Ultra fidia n ”
Hence Browne s acceptance of Te r t ull ian s
’ ’
-
.
80 TH E ENGLI S H E SSAY AN D E SSAYI STS
credo quia imposs ibile es t
, He has a vein o f superstitio n
.
,
and believes in ma gic and witchcraft I n the latter case uh .
fortunately hi s was more than a pass ive belief ; for as late as

1 66 he was partly instrumental in bringing about
‘
t h e de a t h
4
o f two wretched women charged with this crime But when .
all this has been admitted and the utmost h a s been said that
,
c a n be said against Browne as a phi losopher and a man o f
science the value o f hi s best work remains exactly the same

, .
R easoning cannot touch that paragraph o n oblivion any ,
more than all the syllo gisms since Aristotle can either lessen
o r increase the beauty of Beethoven s music Th e appeal’
.
o f music is to another range of being a diff erent f aculty ,
than that whi ch the syllogism addresses S o too Browne s .

’
appeal is to t he emotions rather than to the reason No t .
what he asserts but what he suggests is important Ur n

, ,
.
B ur ia l proves nothing a n y more tha n P a r a dis e Lo s t does

, .
But just as P a r a dis e Lo s t k indles and elevates the imagination ,
S O does Ur n B ur i a l .
Great as were Bro wn e s services to literature they were

’
,
not without drawback Th e vice o f learning is pedantry and

.
,
Browne had hi s share o f it I n s ome forms it is harmless

.
enough I f we get weary o f the quincunx we cease to read

.
The G a r den of Cyr us and there is an e n d

,
Bro wn e was not .
the first pedant and had he never writt en there woul d probably
,
have bee n not o n e pedant less after him But it was di fie r e n t .
with his choice o f words All who could judge perceived hi m

.
to be a master of style a n d some tried to imitate hi m Un

,
.
fortu n ately in hi s case as in ma n y another the f a ul ts proved

, , ,
to be more easily reproduced tha n the beauties Hence the .
judgment o f Coleridge which harsh as it seems is n e v e rt he

, , ,
les s sound : Si r Thomas Browne it was who though a ,
writer of great ge n ius first e ff ectually injured the literary tas te

,
of the nation by his introductio n o f learn ed words merely ,
because they were learn ed ”

Johnson again S peaks o f
.
82 TH E E N GLI S H E S SAY AND E S SAYI STS
could ask ; since any beautiful obj ect doth s o much attract
the sight that it is in no man s power not to be pleased with
,
’
”
it
. Clarendon s sentences however have not the weighty
’
, ,
sententiousness o f Bacon s ; o n the contrary the vice o f hi s

’
,
style is that they are apt to be at ti mes far t o o long and

loosely constructed .
Th e personal note whi ch is characteristic of all these writers

connects them with Montaign e rather than with Bacon But .
J m o r e deli beratel y than any o f them Abraham Cowley ( 1 6 1 8

1 667) c u l tivated a form of essay more intimate and co n fi
dential though less profound weighty and phi losophical than
, , ,
the B aco nian Th e style is less elaborate than D rummond s

.
’
or Brown e s I t is a form o f the essay whi ch can be traced

’
.
,
with intervals of partial oblivion from Cowley s day to this ; ,

’
and in it have written the best beloved even if they b e not -

,
the greatest of all the essayist s —Addi son Lamb Thackeray

, , , ,
R L S tevenson
. . To have taken o n e o f the longest steps
.
towards this result is perhaps Co wley s best title to fame ’

.
Th e whole o f Cowley s prose would fill but a very slender

’
volume I t w as his misfortune to live i n an age o f civil con

.
vu ls io n He was torn from th e university by that violent

.
public storm which would su ff er nothing to stand where it

did but rooted up every plant even from the princely cedars
, ,
to me the hyssop ; and in hi s Opi nion a warlike various

, , ,
and tragical age is best to write of but worst to write i n ”

It , .
was his further misfortune to be early accepted as not merely

a poet but the greatest poet o f his time though Milton was a
, ,
contemporary To modern critic al taste no judgment seems

.
,
more surprising than thi s But naturally enough Cowley .
accepted it ; and the consequence is that hi s a dmirable prose

is limited to a mere handful o f prefaces a n d discourses Th . e
charm of these is largely due to their simple and sincere revela

tion o f self They are the friendly chat of a thoughtful and
.
reflective S pectator o f life N othi ng Cowley has written is

.
MIS C ELLANE O US ESSAYI STS 83
mo re delight f ul than what he has written di rectly about him

self It is natural to turn for ill ustration to the essay Of M ys elf
.
— perhaps the finest o f his compositions But whatever be .
the subject— whether greatness o r gardens or solitude o r , , ,
the dangers o f an honest man in much company— Cowley

loves to write in the first person ; and hi s thi rd person is but
a little way removed from it He is f ar happier in this m ood .
than in the more ambitious vision concerning the govern

ment o f Cromwell .
Complete success in Cowley s particular form o f essay is ’

v
hardly compatible with greatness of the highest ki n d Th e .
solemn peaks but to the stars are kno w n ; and here there is
pres upposed a certain familiarity and intimacy o f relation
with the reader Cowley had just the proper gifts and the
.
fl
right disposition He was retiring and unambitious He
. .
compares himself with Montaigne in respect of hi s in di e r e n ce

to greatness I confess I love littleness almost in all things
. .
A little convenient estate a little cheerful house a little com , ,
pany and a very little feast ; and if I were ever to fall in love
,
again (which is a great passion and therefore I hope I have ,
done with it ) it would be I think with prettiness rather than

1
, ,
with maj estical beauty I would neither wish that my .
tress nor my fortune sho ul d be a bo n a r o ba nor as Homer

, , , ,
used to describe his beauties like a daughter of great Jupiter , ,
for t h e stateliness and largeness o f her person but as Lucre , ,

'
tius says Parvul a pumilio X p
, p i tota merum
, s al , a cm v c, .
’
As far as my memory can return back into my past life ,
before I knew o r was capable o f gues sing what the world or

, , ,
glories o r business o f it were the natural a fi e ct io n s of my

, ,
soul gave me a secret bent of aversion from them as some ,
plants are said to turn away from others by an antipathy

i m perceptible to themselves and inscrutable to man s under ’
R b i g th
em e m hr i l
er n f th f hi e i tr
c th
on c e o e n a m es o s m s es s es , e
re ad r y h th h p
e m a ec o e o e .
84 TH E ENGLI S H E S SAY AND E SSAYI STS
standing Even when I was a young b o y at school instead
.
,
Of run ning about o n holidays and playing with my fellows I ,
was wont to S teal from them and walk into t he fields either ,
alone with a bo ok o r with some o n e compa nion if I could find

, ,
any o f the same temper ”

.
This is not the temperament o f the man who is born to

move the world either by the energy o f hi s action o r by the
,
profundity and originality o f his thought Th e enthusiasm .
o f a N apoleon and o f an Aristotle alike is stirred by that great
ness to which Cowley deliberately prefers li ttleness But thi s .
i s the temperament o f the b orn essayist ; and it is b ecause

they di splay it with an easy grace that Cowley s essays pre ’
serve a perennial charm Though his poetical reputation is .
gone as an essayist hi s position is sure

,
.
Another devel opment is best exemplified by the Ep is to lw

Ho Eli n w These are in form not essays at all ; but Of all
-
a .
the writings of the time except Cowley s they have mos t O f,

’
,
the S pirit of the essay ; and they surpass even Cowley s in ’
their power o f ill ustrating the Ad di sonian essay for they are ,
far more varied than Cowley s essays Th e Queen Ann e ’

.
essayists f elt the kinshi p and it is interesting to notice that

,
th ere is in The S p e cta tor a paper by Howell .
James Howell 1 666) w a s a man o f more diversified

-
activity than any of the essayists hitherto considered except ,
ing Bacon I f as may be suspected he was something of a

.
, ,
b usybody this fai ling makes him all the more e fi ec t i v e as a

,
miscellaneo us writer Like Cowley he was o n the Royali st

.
S ide Fo r a time he su ff ered imprisonment but he w as r e

.
,
leased in 1 65 1 and o n the R estoration he received some

,
recompense for his su ff erings in the o ffi ce of Histo ri ographer

Royal .
O f all Howell s voluminous compositions only the Ep is to le

’
c a n be said S till to live They are described as familiar letters

.
domestic and foreign partly hi storical political philosophical

, , , ,
u pon emergent occasio n s They were published in four
.
books b etw een 1 645 and 1 65 5 O n the threshold a question.
arises as to the authenticity o f the letters—not their a ut he n

t icit y as the work o f Howell ; that is undisputed ; but their
claim t o be accepted as compositions written at the time

when they profess to have been written and addressed to the ,
persons with whom the author r e presents himself as corre

8ponding .Thi s questio n is vital to the historian ; but it is less
important from the purely literary point o f View and it must ,
suffi ce here to S tate in the briefest way the conclusion o f

experts I t is that very many o f the letters are in the sense
.
,
indicated certainly S purious and that the historical value o f

, ,
the whole collection is small .
As pieces o f literature however the Ep is to lw Ho Elia n e

, ,
-
c
cannot be s o summarily dismissed The fact that the letters .
were in Howell s o wn day and fo r about half a century

’
,
after his death extremely popular is p r im a fa cie evidence of

, ,
merit ; and the further fact that the popularity has never
been entirely lost greatly strengthens the presumption Th e .
S ecret is not hard to find Howell aimed at popularity he had

.
,
the knack o f selecting interesting subj ects and the fact that ,
he ha d n o scruples about authenticity made his task all the

easier AS a writer he w as not a great master o f S tyle Th e
.
,
.
grand eloquence o f Milton was altogether beyond his reach .
He could never have rivalled the harmonies o f Browne ; n o r

could he have written with t he keen wit o f Earle But fo r a ll .
that Howell s style has very considerable and indeed having

’
, ,
r e gard to the purposes he had in view very great merits He ,

.
can be familiar and easy rapid and clear in narrative , ,
humorous or pathetic o r terse and pointed His brief letter

, .
to hi s cousin Rowland Gwin shows no small power to turn

a phrase : Cousin I was lately sorry and I was lately glad
, , ,
that I heard yo u w e r e ill that I heard you are well

'
,
His .
”
sentences are simple in structure : in this respect as i n ,

86 THE ENGLI S H E SSAY AND E SSAYI STS
many others he is a forerunner o f the Queen Anne essayis ts
,
.
He has shed completely those poetical elemen t s which are

alternately the highes t grace and the worst f ault I n the prose
writings O f his contemporaries He addresses hi mself to t h e .
understandi ng and rarely fails to make hi mself intelligible

,
.
There are not many devi ces for securing popularity with
whi ch Howell does n o t S how hi mself famili ar He has bee n .
S poken o f a s a journalist before the time o f journ alists ; and

few of his successors have equalled hi m in thi s essential O f
their art His bill o f fare is piquantly varied Th e very
. .
names of hi s correspondents are attractive Even to the .
present day notwithstanding the doubts cast upon their trust

,
worthi ness a S pecial interest attaches to letters which purport

,
to be addressed to Charles I Ben Jonson Lord Herbert o f .

, ,
Cherbury Buckingham S ir K enelm D igby Archbishop

, , ,
Usher and Wentworth (Lord S tra ff ord) There is attraction .
t o o in the varie t y of theme Th e letters range from phi l o

.
S ophy and the a ff airs o f state to the most trivial gossip of the
hour O ne group is devoted to the reli gions and another to
.
the languages o f the world Th e Hanseatic league is the sub

.
je ct o f o n e epistle ; another gives a vivid description o f the

assassination o f Buckingham Th e condition o f the Jews .
,
the I nquisition witches the habitation o f the moon are all

, , ,
withi n Howell s range A large number of letters are filled

’
.
with news domestic and foreign When more solid matter

,
.
fails hi m Howell e nl ivens his correspondent with an anecdote

, .
To Ben Jonson he addresses a variant o n Boccaccio s story of

’
the p t o f basil He feeds the appetite fo r the marvellous

o .
with a tale o f a white bird fluttering about the bed of th e

dying .
F rom t hi s it is obvious to ho w great an extent in all but ,
form Howell anticipated the periodical essayists They too

,
.
were newsmongers though the purveyin g o f intelligence soon

,
became a subordinate phase o f their activity They too .

ranged over a field whose boundaries were s e t only by their
o w n ingenuity . Th e p r op o r ti o ns o f the ingre di ents in the
mixture di ff er Howell is much more political than the
.
Queen An ne writers and they give closer attention than he

,
to th e mino r morals to fashions and the like But many o f the

,
.
Ep is to lce Ho Eli an e might be mentioned whi ch are just in the

-
a
manner o f Addison o r o f S teele S uch is the story of Captain

.
Bolea and the sudden whi tening of hi s hair S uch too are .
the letter to Captain Thomas B and the rambling medita .

,
tions of Book II 5 0 .
,
.
fl
Though some o f the writers who have b een mentioned were
not uni n ue n c e d by the S pirit o f party politics still their ,
atmosphere is widely di fferent from that o f the political

pamphl et Compositions o f that class are rarely literature ;
.
but were I t only fo r the sake o f the A r e op agiti c they cannot

,
a,
be ignored Th e political pamphl et proper has little i n

.
common with the political essays o f Bacon These are really .
essays o n questio n s not o f party o r o f the hour but of the ,
welfare o f states Th e author is a philosopher not a con

.
,
t r o v e r s ia lis t
. Th e accentuation o f di ff erences during the
reign o f Charles I made the philosophi c attitude di ffi cult
.
,
a n d powerfully f urthered the development o f the contro
v e r s i a l S pirit
. Much o f the talent which in quieter times would
have been devoted t o art was given up to party and the ,
masses o f pamphl ets which are to be found in all great libraries

were the result The bulk o f them are merely the raw
.
material Of history Th e majority even o f Milton s tracts

.
’
might without great loss to literature be forgotten were it n o t ,
that they are documents in the hi story and evidences o f t h e

character of Milton There are it is true here and there
.
, ,
passages o f a grandeur whi ch we have learnt to qualify by the

writer s name —Miltonic ; and there is at least one invaluable
’
revelation o f the inner soul o f the poet I t is that w ell known .

-
passage in the Ap o logy f o r S m e cty m n uus where he tells how ,

88 TH E ENGLI S H E S SAY AN D E SSAYI STS
he became convinced that he who would write well ought
hi mself to be a true po em But what the other tract s are
.
o nl y here and there o n e the A r e op agi tica is as a whole I n

, ,
.
form a S peech this great outpouring o f a heroic s oul is in

,
essence an essay Magnificent as it is it is far from faultless

.
,
.
N o one either b efore or since has used the English langua ge in

prose more maj estically than Milton But in prose he is not .
the assured master o f style that he is in verse The periodi c .
style whi ch w a s characteristic of the age is in his handling o f ,
fl
it sometimes heavy and obscure : o nl y in a few inspired
,
passages does he overcome the di i culti es o f a prose style as

yet imperfectly formed But what distinguishes the Ar eo
.
a i ti a from the other prose writings o f Milton is not so much

p g c
that the finest passages are finer than any in them as that the ,
whole piece is lofty in thought Elsewhere we have sometimes .

,
to regret that Milton wrote as he di d : in the A r e op agi ti ca he is

never unworthy o f himself F o r t w o centuries and a half it.
has remained the classical defence o f liberty o f thought ; and

though for the time the victory o f t h e cause Milton fought
, ,
for seems assured the day may again come when thi s
,
dauntless champion may be needed to inspire a new battle .
Tyrann y may be exercised b y a multitude as well as b y an

individual I n the latter case there is always an ultimate
.
remedy for the many are S tronger than the o n e : in the forme r
,
case the remedy is less easily found To argue that democracy .
is founded on the prin iple o f li b erty and is therefore in o m

c c
patible with tyranny is unconvincing Th e Christian Church

,
.
is founded on the conception of the immeasurable importance

of the individual soul and the individual s responsibility for
,
’
it ; and yet o n e o f the hardest battles ever fought by humanity

was fought to secure that soul from the tyranny of an external
power the Popedom Th e battle o f freedom may have to be
,
.
fought agai n and if it has the A r e op gi ti ca will become not

, , ,
a ,
merely an interesting landmark of hi story and a glorious piece

9 0 TH E E NGLI S H E S SAY AN D E SSAYI STS
”
were n o King has as Mr Herbert Paul points out a smack
, ,
.
,
o f Bacon S o has this :

. He [ the Prince! mus t not o nly be
fl
the first mover and the fountain from whence a ll the great
,
acts o f state originally o w but he must be thought so t o o by ,
hi s people that they may preserve their veneration for hi m

, .
As an answer to the gross and absurd attacks of partisans upon

'
Halifax this essay is conclusive N aturally Halifax advocates .
the philosophy o f the mean ; a trimmer if he be honest is a , ,
trimmer just b ecause he is in the mean An d to Halifax the .
political mean is that which lies between the two barbarous

extremes o f monarchy and commonwealth bo t h unrestricted
”
,
.
This is a type o f philosophy whi ch di scourages enthusiasm ;

but on two o r three points Halifax is enthusiastic and his ,
warmth gives life and vigour to the essay Our Trimmer .
a do r e t h the goddess truth is the b eginning o f hi s most

eloquent paragraph Th e conception o f la w inspires him with
.
a similar fervour Laws he says are to mankind that the

.
, ,
s un is to plants
”
His patriotism is more fervid still The
. .
Trimmer he says ,
doth n o t worshi p t h e s un because it is
, ,
n o t pecu liar to us ; it r am b le t h a b out the world and is less ,
kind to us than it is to other countries But for the ear t h o f .
England though perhaps inferior to that o f many places

,
a b road to him there is divi nity in it and he would rather die

, ,
than see a spire o f English gra s s trampled down by a foreign

trespasser ”
.
Th e same profound reverence for law combined with hatred ,
and dread of Papacy inspires the two essays which rank next
,
in importance A Le tte r to a D is s e n te r and The A n a to m y of an

,
E q uiva le t n Th e former whi ch was written o n the occasion

.
,
o f the D eclaration of I ndul gence earn estly insists upon the ,
danger of accepting a violation O f law as a favour I n the .
latter the equivalent was the proposal by Papists o f

,
S ome mighty n o bo dy k n o ws wha t whi ch should make

Protestantism as secure as the penal laws made it The essay .
MIS C ELLANE O US E S SAYI STS 9 1
is a masterly examination and rej ection of the idea The

, ,
.
fact that Halifax was Opposed to the equivalent is itself

a weigh ty reason against it for few men have ever been ,
by nature more free from bigotry His deep dislike and .
distrust o f Romanism had its root in statesmanshi p not in ,
sectarianism .
Thes e tracts a r e the grea test o f Hali fax s writings but the
’
,
most charming is The L dy s New Year s Gift o r A dvi ce to

a
’ ’
, ,
a Da u hte r
g I t is also
. that in which he approaches nearest in
S pirit to the essayists o f the eighteenth century Whi le there .
are here and there passages of wi t and sarcasm it is natural ,
that in a composition addr essed to his o wn daughter the

salient characteristics should be goodness of heart and tender
ness o f feeling I t is warm with the love o f a most a ff ectionate
.
father and luminous with the wisdom o f an exceptionally

,
wise o n e This delight ful letter was the most popular o f all
.
the compositions o f Halifax Though the age o f the Re s t o r a

.
tion is not credited with a large share of the domestic virtues ,
these virtues are never obsolete and Halifax spoke to the ,
heart of the best o f hi s countrymen .
Th e merit o f Temple w a s both less than and di ff erent in
fl
kind from that o f Halifax He t o o was master of a fine
.
style but he was far more di us e than Halifax and incapable

, ,
o f reachi ng the lofty height to whi ch the latter occasionally
soared There was a world of difi e r e n c e between the intellects

.
o f the two men Halifax wa s essentially a philosopher

.
,
Temple was helpless in the handling o f abstract ideas T h e .
Es s ay up o n the Or igin a l a n d N a tur e of G o ver n m e n t is the work

o f a man who has neither the scholars hi p n o r the S peculative
power necessary for the treatment o f the subj ect The de .
fici n ci s o f the essay Of A n cie n t a n d M o de r n Le ar n in g have

e e
been su fficiently exposed by Macaulay Perhaps they have .
been exaggerated ; but when he points out that among the

great English writers whom Temple fails to mention are
9 2 TH E ENGLI S H E SSAY AND E SSAYI STS
Chaucer S penser S hakespeare and Milton it is evident that
, , ,
there can be no eff ective defence Th e Temple o f literature .
is seen however n o t in such ambitious compositions as these

, , ,
but in the essays Of Ga de n in g and Of He a lth a n d Lo ng Life

r
easy and gossipy compositions very discursive and some ,
what di ffuse but always pleasant Th e former contains a

, .
famous commendation of the climate o f England whi ch ,
Temple quotes as having been uttered by the king : He

thought that w a s the best climate where he c ould be abroad
in the air with pleasure o r at least without trouble and in
,
convenience the most days o f the year and the most hours of
,
Th e latter reveals the S ecret why though Temple

”
the day .
,
is infe rior to Ha lifax as a writer and unworthy to be even ,
named with him a s a thinker he nevertheless comes closer ,
than Halifax to the central citadel o f the essay “

I have
c hosen those su b j ects o f these essays
”
he says wherein I , ,
take human life to be most concerned and which are o f most ,
common use and most necessary knowledge ; and wherein ,
though I may not be able to inform men more than they

know yet I may perhaps give them the occasion to onsider
,
c
more than they do ”

Th principle o f selection is just that
. e
which guided S teele Like S teele Temple is confidential

.
,
he unfolds the S tores o f his memory and mingles them with

the incidents o f his daily life Th e reminiscences o f the r e .
tired statesman are interspersed among the trivial reflections

and observations o f the country gentleman Even Temple s .
’
failings and limitations are rather helpful than hurtful He .
is vain b ut his vanity is harmless and good natured and it

,
-
,
banishes all tendency t o reserve He S hows a pleasant .
equabi lity o f mind whi ch to the essayist is perhaps a more

, ,
valuable gift than the force o f a S wift His o wn story o f hi s .
three wishes throws a flood o f light upon him They were .
he alth and peace and fair weather ;

, ,
“
whi ch he justly
”
,
adds though out o f the w a y among young men yet perhap s

, ,
contains the most elaborate e xpo s m o n o f hi s critical pri n
ci le s
p ,
though it is surpassed in i n terest by the admirable
P r efa ce to the F a bles The dialogue Of D r a m a tic P o es y was
.
occasioned by the preface to Sir Robert Howard s F o ur n ew ’
Plays in whi ch Howard undertook to answer the defence o f

,
rhyme i n the Ep is tle D e di ca to ry of the Rival La dies ; but ,
though it is thus a document in a controversy its thorough ,
urbanity and dispassionate reasoning give it the value of a

substantive work Howard himself appears as o n e of t he
.
interlocutors ; but he di d not enjoy the position and answered

in the preface to The D uk e of Ler m a in a tone which drew from
D ryden a Defe n ce o f the essay much sharper and more con
t r o v e r s ia l than the dialogue N aturally therefore it is of
.
, ,
far less value I t shows fine gifts of keen satire a n d e ff ective

.
retort but fo r critical principles we must turn to the essay

,
itself That is far from confining itself to the question of

.
rhyme The general principles o f dramatic construction the

.
,
unities the art o f linking scene to scene the diff erences b e

, ,
tween ancients a n d moderns English and F rench are all

, ,
discussed with admirable balance of judgment as well as ih

dependence I n respect o f the last quality it is diffi cul t for a
.
modern reader to do Dryden full justice Like all his con .
temporaries he is hampered by the rules and is fully him

,
’
,
self o nly when he fiin gs them aside or diverges i n to some

,
b y path where there are no rul es to obstruct him

-
Ye t eve n .
within the limits of the most authoritative rules there is

enough independence to justify Professor K er s descriptio n ’
o f hi m as sceptical tentative disengaged where most o f his

, , ,
contemporaries and most o f his successors for a hundred years

, ,
are pledged t o certain dogmas and principles ”

He accepts
.
the uniti e s it is true but it is with reservations and o n

, ,
rea so n ed principles ; and he will n o t admit the superiority

either o f the ancients o r o f the F rench He puts into the
.
'
mouth o f Eugenius (S ackville) some excelle n t remarks in

MI S C ELLAN E O US E S SAYI STS 95
praise of the powerf ul scenes of passion in S hakespeare and
F letcher and in his o wn person as N eander he pronounces a
, , ,
striki ng eulogy o n the intermingling o f tragedy with comedy .
He cannot but conclude to the honour o f o ur nation that

, ,
we have invented increased and perfected a more pleasant

, ,
way o f writing for the stage than w as ever known to the ,
ancients or mode m s o f any nation which is tragi comedy ”

,
-
.
A similar independence o f judgment is shown in the excellent

comparison in the P r efa ce to the F a bles between Chaucer and
, ,
O vid. Th e v ulgar judges whi ch are nine parts in ten o f all

,
n ations who call conceits and jingles wit who s e e Ovid full
, ,
O f them and Chaucer altogether without them wi ll thi nk me

, ,
little less than mad for preferring the Englishman to the
fl
R oman . Ye t with their leave I must presume to s ay that
, , ,
the things they admire are only glittering t ri e s and s o far ,
from being witty that I n a serious poem they are nauseous

, ,
”
because they are unnatural .
Dryden s understan di ng was o n e o f the most sound and

’
masculine that have ever been applied to criticism and ,
where he trusts it he writes admirably N o o n e ever with .
a firmer hand brushed aside the unessential This is con .
S i cuo us ly S een in his treatment o f the charge of plagiarism

p
in the Pr ef ce to A n Eve n ing s Love
a He adduces ’
excell ent examples o f Virgil S hakespeare etc and then by

, , ,
.
,
a f e w we ll judged remarks reduces the charge to precisely its

-
proper dimensions Th e employment o f the poet is like that

.
o f a curious gunsmi th or watchmaker : the iron o r silver is

,
not hi s own ; but they are the least part of that whi ch gives
the value ; the price lies wholly in the workmanshi p But .
sometimes Dryden s judgme n t was warped as it probably

’
,
was by patriotism when he pronounced Chaucer s K n ight s ’ ’
Tale perhaps not much inferior to the I lias o r the E n e is ”

, .
An d sometimes he did not trust his judgment We must not .
look in Dryden for unwavering consistency From time t o .

time he falls back on the r ules which he has almost made up
hi s mind to disregard and then he seems to unsay his o wn
,
wisest maxims I n the P r efa ce to Tr o ilus a n d Cr es s ida ( 1 679)

.
(wh i ch he beli eves to b e proba b ly one of S hakespeare s first ’
endeavours on the stage he is much fettered b y thi s o b ses sion .
S peaking o f the plots o f S hakespeare and F letcher he says

“
that we ought to follow them so far only as they have
C opied the excellencies o f those who invented and brought to
perfection D ramatic Poetry ; those things only excepted ,
whi ch religion custom o f countries idioms o f languages etc

, , ,
.
,
have altered in the superstructures but not in the foundation ,

”
Of the design . F rom t hi s it would seem that the whole
structure o f the drama is fixed and unaltera b le But to in .
t e r p r e t Dryden so is to take from him all meaning and it is ,
preferable to s ay that fo r the moment he yielded to the

weight o f authority and was inconsistent with hi mself .
I t is however in the P r efa ce to the F ble s that we get not

, ,
a
o nl y Dryden s most vivid and energetic criticism but a

’
,
unique revelation of his person I t is written with ext ra .
ordinary spirit and b rightness and is still o n e o f the best

,
pieces o f riticism in English Here Dryden casts aside all

c .
the i m p e dim e n ta o f rules writes exactly as he feels and co n

, ,
quers the reader by the force O f hi s strong intelligence He .
makes no attempt at system Th e nature o f a preface is

.
rambling never wholly o ut o f the way nor in it This I

, ,
.
have learned from the practice o f honest Montaigne He is .
confidential This P r efa ce contains at the close the frank yet

.
dignified plea o f guilty to many o f the charges b rought by

Jeremy Collier and an expression o f contrition I t is per
, .
sonal also in other and lighter ways He S peaks to the reader .
as an old man and tells him his o w n conception of the state

,
o f his faculties I think mysel f as vigorous as ever in the

faculties of my soul excepting o nl y my memory which is not
, ,
impaired to any great degree ; and if I lose not more of it I ,

9 8 THE ENGLI S H E SSAY AND E SSAYI STS
terms his judgment o f those conceits whi ch were the ba n e o f
,
literature both in verse and in prose in the period im

, ,
mediately be fore hi s o wn day He is speaking of verse but

.
,
the principle applies equally to prose : As for the turn o f

words in which Ovid particularly excels all poets they are
, ,
sometimes a fault and sometimes a beauty as they are used

, ,
properly or improperly ; but in S trong passions always to be

shunned because passions are serious and will admit no
, ,
playing .
”
Now character writing rested a lmost wholly o n
-
thi s turn o f words ; a n d whe n he adopted this view about

the turn o f words Dryden rej ected the style whi ch it e n
c o ur a e d
g He s aw two deviations from what he would have
.
called nature I t was a deviation to co n ceal mea ning under

.
verbal quibbles and by excessive condensation ; it was

e qually a deviation to conceal it in the maze o f long involved
sentences The first business o f prose was to convey a plain
.
meaning unmistakably ; and this was best done by a styl e

based upo n that o f conversation yet di ff ering from it as t h e
,
perma n e n t will diff er from the temporary a n d the studied

from the S po n taneous S uch seem to be the pri n ciples that
.
u n derlie the prose S tyle of Dryden .

CHAPT ER V
THE Q
U E E N AN N E E SS AYI S T S
IN the fulness o f time the periodical essay was born of the
brain o f Richard S teele ( 1 67 2 O f course there had
been anticipations Attention has already been drawn to
.
certain analogies between Cowley s essays and the Ep is to le

’
Ho Eli a n e o n the o n e hand and The Ta tler and The S p e c

- e ,
ta to r o n the other ; but notwithstan di ng these thi s most char ,
a ct e ri s t i c o f the literary forms of the Queen An ne period was ,
in quite a n exceptional measure the creation o f o n e mind

,
.
V
D a niel Defoe ( 1 661 —1 7 3 1) has sometimes bee n described as

the predecessor o f S teele and n o doubt S teele did take hi nts
,
from De foe Th e association of the two men at this point is

.
interestin g Though both were good writers neither o f them

.
,
ca n be ranked with the greatest ; but in o n e respect — power
o f origination— they are hardly equalled in their o wn period ,
or surpassed in t he whole hi story of Englis h literature To .
Defoe as a pioneer in journalism as well as i n the novel the

, ,
p alm i n thi s respect must be awarded ; but an injustice has
fl
sometimes been do n e to S teele by exaggerating Defoe s in ’
ue n ce o n the perio dical es say I t is perf ectly true that the

.
germ o f that literary form is to be fou n d in Defoe s Review ’
but the Review contains little more than the germ I f the .
essayist may be distinguished from the journalist and the

political pamphleteer D efoe was as es sayist more the
, , ,
disciple than the master o f S teele As es sayist hi s f ame

.
,
mus t rest principally o n the t w o volumes of miscellaneous

writings disinterred from forgotten journals by his biographer
William Le e ;and the contents o f these volumes range
from the year 1 7 1 6 to 1 7 29 after both The Ta tle r and The
,
S p e cta to r had run their course .
O f all the literary men of the eighteenth century Defoe was

per haps the most extraordi nary To call hi s life a r omance .
would be to misuse the word for at every point the great ,
a realist touched the hardest reality But if not romantic hi s .

, ,
life was certainly strange and unusual in the extreme and in ,
his case even the hardes t reality could o n occasion take a , ,

‘
ti nge o f romance He stood in the pill ory not to be pelted

.
,
with rotten eggs and dead cats but guarded by an admiring ,
crowd and crown ed wi th flowers S uch w a s the pu nishment .
a n d the reward for The S hor tes t Wa w i th the D is s e n te r s

1
y ,
when at last its real meaning came home to churchmen and “
to dissenters alike Defoe s o wn words in the pre f ace to the

.
’
,
eighth volume o f the Revie w best describe his li fe ,

I have
gone through a li f e o f wonders and am the subject o f a vast ,
variety o f providenc es ; I have been fed more by mi racle tha n

Elij a when the ravens were hi s purveyors ; I have some time
,
a go s um m d up the scenes o f my life in thi s distich :

’
No m an has ta s te d di fie r i n g f o r tune s m o re ,
A n d thi r tee n ti m es I ha ve b ee n r i ch a n d po o r
fl
.
a I n the school o f a iict io n I have learnt more philosophy than

at the academy and more divinity tha n from the p ulpit I n
, :
prison I ha d learnt to know that liberty does not consist in

o pen doors and the free egress and regr e ss of locomo t ion
,
I .
have seen the rough side of the world as well as the smoo th ,
a n d have i n less than half a year tasted the di ff erence be t ween
the closet o f a king and the dungeon o f N ewgate ”

.
I t is fortunately not necessary here to enter upo n the

, ,
c omplicated S tory o f Defoe s life F w o f the tasks of th

’
. e e
biographer are harder There is room for the widest di ff er

.
n c es o f Opinion from Minto s (which however is given with

’
e , , ,
1 02 T H E ENGLI S H E SSAY AN D E SSAYI STS
been the confidential S erva n t o f King William was well
e quipped . There is no reason to doubt that D efoe was ho n est
in intention and patriotic in S pirit That he fre quently .
s tartled and shocked hi s readers by hi ghly coloured des cr ip -
tio n s Of the power and greatness o f F ra n ce is no evidence to the

contrary ; for he argued with force that the p eople needed to
be startled and that the true patriot was he who roused them
,
from their excessive confidence .
With all this portion o f the Review however we have little

, ,
to do I t is a vast coll ection o f articles whi ch are essays in

.
the same sense as th e leaders o f a modern newspaper are

essays The point at whi ch the Review touches the periodical
.
7 essay proper is in the section called the M er cur e S ca n dale or
A do i ce fr o m the S ca n da lo us Club whi ch is f urther described as

being a weekly hi story o f N onsense I mpertinence Vice a n d
, , ,
S uch it w a s at the begin ning ; but before

”
D ebauchery .
the Review was a year o ld this section became a monthly

supplement Later S till it was separated from the main
.
portion and distinguished by the title o f The Li ttle Review .
Thus in the Re vie w the element o f news ousts gossip and

, ,
moral criticism ; while The Ta tler followed a line of develop

ment precisely contrary Th e diff erence is hi ghl y si gni ficant
. .
O n the whole the S ca n dalo us Club is of no great litera r y value .
Here and there we come upon vigorous essays on the vices and
folli es o f society o n the minor morals and sometimes o n the
, ,
great vi rtues and vices But many o f the papers have lost
.
their flavour the wit is oft en forced and there is a want o f

, ,
the human touches which give charm to The Ta tle r and The
S p e cta to r
. Great as were hi s gifts D efoe had not that light
,
ness o f touch whi ch disti nguished S teele and Addison and ,
is almost essential to this type o f essay .
Th e Re view as it then existed was brought to an end in 1 7 1 2

by the imposition o f that stamp tax whi ch rui n ed one half o f
Grub S treet ; but immediately a n e w series on a reduced scale
TH E Q
UE EN ANNE E S SAYI STS 1 03
wa s started a n d thi s was carried o n till June o f the following

,
year F o r more than a hu n dred years it was believed that

.
Defoe s political career ended in 1 7 1 5 but in 1 864 hi s b io

’
,
grapher Le e came upon evidence that thi s belief was mistaken .
F ollowing up the clue he found that from 1 7 1 6 to 1 7 29 D efoe

had been an active contributor to various journals ; and the
result o f his researches was the publication o f two volumes o f
miscellaneous writings inclu di ng more than three hundred
,
and fifty Essays and Letters moral and religiou s —imaginative

, ,
— humorous — amatory — ironical and miscellaneous ” Th e .

, , ,
t wo papers to which D efoe contributed most copiously were
M is t s j o ur n a l and Apple bee s j o ur njt l His connexion with

’ ’
.
the former throws a curious light upon hi s enigmatical char

acter ; for Mi st w as a Jacobite and among the Jacobite ,
associates o f the f o ur n e l were men like Atterbury and Boling

broke While he was a fellow contributor with these men
.
-
Defoe was secretly in the pay o f the Government and was ,
doing his best to thwart the ends which the j o ur n a l was

meant to serve S uch were the crooked courses which he
.
conceived hi mself to be at liberty to take for a good end .
We are however concerned with the literary aspects of these

essays rather than with the moral question whi ch arises from
,
their appearance where the disco verer found them ; and their
S pecial point o f interest is the evidence they a ff ord that if L (
D efoe gave a hi nt to S teele he also took hints from hi m .
Many o f the essays in M is t and Apple bee are o f types rendered

famili ar by The Ta tle r and The S pe cta to r but hardly to be ,
found in English before the appearance o f these periodicals .
Thus the excellent character o f To m O aken Plant from

, ,
M is t s j o ur n a l is close akin to the character sketches o f The

’
,
S p e cta to r S O too the caution o f Lionel Ly e alone against

.
-
love and the admirable essay o n quacks are exactly in the

S pirit o f The Sp e cta to r Apple bee s j o ur n a l contains a paper
.
’
most skil fully worked out from the conception o f the s ecrets
1 04 T H E E NGLI S H E SSAY AND E SSAYI STS
o fthe huma n heart revealed as the working o f bees is revealed
by a glass hive Th e mere description o f the plan again
.
betrays the kinship .
But while there is much in these periodicals that is sugges t ive

o f and w as probably suggested by The S p e cta to r there is more ,
4 still that is pure D efoe Th e extraordinary variety o f S ubject

.
is characteristic (Applebee fo r example contains a n essay o n

, ,
cryptography) The articles o n party government and on

.
the S outh S e a Company in Applebee s j o ur n al would hav e ’
been o ut o f place in the periodi cals conducted by Addi son

and S teele and s o would the powerful ironical essay on the
,
clemency o f the Czar in M is t s j o ur n al Equally alie n would

’
.
have been those articles in App lebee in August and S eptember ,
1 7 20 whi ch may be described as a first sketch o f t h e Re ligi o u

,
s
Co ur ts hip o r that character sketch in the same journal o ut o f

,
-
whi ch S prang M o ll F lan de r s .
There is much ephemeral s t ufi in these essays f or no man ,
co ul d maintain uniform excellence along with such S peed and

volume o f production as De foe s He wrote for the day and ’
.
,
great part o f what he wrote is no longer worth preserving .
But whi le thi s must be admitted it is also true that both in ,
the Review and in Lee s collectio n there is not a little good

’
and some admirable work I f Defoe s essays were accessible

.
’
,
and if the gold were separated from the dr oss he would take ,
a hi gh place among a class of writers with whom until recent

years he has hardly been associated at all His masterpiece .
J is the grand essay on The I n s ta bi li t of H um a n Gr ea tn e s s

y ,
whi ch was suggested by the funeral o f the Duke of Marlborough .
That there was something in the subj ect which drew o ut the
best that De foe had to give is in di cated by the grave eloquence
of the reflections on death which appeared in the same journal
( A pp le be e) about three years later Nothi ng greater than the.
former probably nothi ng s o forcible is to be found in S teele

, ,
o r Addison O nly S hakespeare and Oliver Wendell Holmes

.
1 06 TH E ENGLI S H E S SAY AN D E SSAYI STS
he was doubtless consciously painting hi s o wn portrait i n his
picture o f the rake in N o 27 o f The Ta tle r Th e depth o f
. .
comprehension and the heartfelt sympathy betray perso n al

experience “
With all the good i n tentions i n the world
.
”
,
S teele declares thi s creature sins o n against Heaven himself

, , ,
his friends and hi s country who all call fo r a better use of hi s

, ,
talents There is n o t a being under the s un so miserable as

.
this : he goes o n in a pursuit he hi mself disapproves and has ,
n o enjoyment but what is followed by remorse ; no relief from

”
remorse but the repetition o f hi s crime This is the char .
acter seen from withi n whi ch S wift after hi s quarrel with

, , ,
S teele described with customary bitterness from without :

,
He has committed more absurdities in economy friendship , , ,
love duty good manners politicks reli gion and writing than
, , , , , ,
ever fell to o n e man s share ” ’

.
S teel e had made various literary ventures before he S truck

upon the form which has given him an assured position in
English literature The Chr is tia n Her o in whi ch he de
.
,
li neated the character he would fain have been but coul d ,
not emulate was followed by several plays ; and these were

,
good enough to induce Lamb to contrast the pleasure o f ex

e cti n S teele o r F arquhar with the pain of fin di n — Adam
p g g
S mith S teele s appointment as gazetteer in 1 7 07 gave hi m
’
.
employment whi ch may by courtesy be called literary But .
thi s task by no means demanded all his energies and De foe s ,

’
Re vie w suppli ed the hint s o happily worked o ut in The Ta tle r ,
o f which the first number appeared o n April 1 2 1 0 S teele

7 9 ,
.
hi mself is the best expositor o f hi s o wn design I n the .
dedication o f the first volume to Mr Ma yn w a rin g he says .
The general purpose o f thi s paper is to expose the false arts

o f life to pull o ff the disgui ses o f cunning va nity and a ff ecta
, , ,
tion and to recommend a general S implicity in o ur dress our

, ,
discourse and o ur behaviour

,
”
This is supplemented by
.
hin ts in the first number o f The Ta tler in which the main ,

TH E Q
UE EN ANNE E SSAYI STS 1 07
divisions of the work are s e t forth in con n ection with various

co ff ee houses Hence it appears that the paper is to contain
-
.
accounts o f gallantry pleasure and entertainment ; poetry ;

,
learning ; forei gn and domesti c news There is a fifth and .
most comprehensive division what else I have to o ff er on

an
y other subj ect ”
T h e original motto
. quicquid a u
g nt ,
homines nostri e s t farrago libelli is in S hort a per

”
, , ,
fe c t des cription of the subj ect matter o f The Ta tler -

Th e .
name I saac Bickerstaff was as is well known borrowed

, , , ,
from S wift I ts familiarity helped to gai n an audi ence for

.
the new paper ; and the need o f a pseudonym o f some sort is

e xplained by S teele in a frank and manly passage o f the c o n
“
Th e ge n eral purpose o f the whole
”
cluding number . he ,
s ays ,
has been to recommend truth innocence honour a n d , , ,
virtue as the chi e f ornaments o f life ; but I considered that

, ,
s everity o f manners w as absolutely necessary to hi m w ho

would censure others and for tha t r e a s o n a n d tha t o n ly chose
, , ,
to talk in a mask I shall not carry my hum ili ty s o far as to

.
call myself a vicious man but at the same time must confess
, ,
my life is at best but pardonable An d with n o greater .

,
-
c haracter than t hi s a man would make but an in di fie r e nt

,
progress in attacking prevaili ng and fashionable vices which ,
Mr Bickerstaff has done wi th a freedom o f S pirit that would

.
,
have lost both its beauty and efficacy had it been pretended t o ,
by Mr S teele .
”
.
The Ta tle r appeared three times a week and as at the begin ,
ning it was written practically by S teele alone the strain o f ,
maintaining it was very great Evidence of a certain dearth o f

.
matter appears at an early stage Thus N o 6 is padded with .

,
.
the first instalment o f a journal o f the I liad and N o 3 5

”
,
.
with a long quotation from Hamlet s advice to the players ; ’
while N o 7 contains an appeal to any gentleman or lady to

.
send the grief or joy o f their soul to I saac Bickersta ff Es q ,

.
Th e dearth seems to have been due partly to the novelty o f

1 08 TH E E NGLI S H E S SAY AND E S SAYI STS
the undertaking for there is less evidence o f it in the later
,
volumes N evertheless S teele must have welcomed the

.
,
occasional assistance he received and especially the accession ,
o f Ad dison who early discovered that Bickerstaff was S teele

, ,
and who wrote occasionally from the eighteenth number

onwards though it was n o t till some eighty or ninety pa pers
,
had appeared that his contributions became frequent At no .
tim e during the c o n t in ua n c e o f The Ta tler did Addison dethrone

S teele from the leading position Not o nly the design but the
.
,
majority o f the contributions were S teele s I t is impossible

,
’
.
to ascertain with complete certainty and precision what he

wrote but between April 1 2 1 709 when The Ta tler was begun
, , , ,
a n d January 2 1 7 1 1 when it came to an end he appears to

, , ,
have contributed about o n e hundred and seventy papers I t .
w a s a scale o f production modes t indeed in comparison with

Defoe s but nevertheless remarkable enough
’
.
,
Ga y in the pamphlet entitled The P r es e n t S ta te of Wit

, ,
whi ch has been printed among the works o f S wift declared ,
that n ever man threw up hi s pen under S tronger t e m pt a

tions to have employed it longer and added some sentences ,
o f eulogy as s o und as anything that has ever been written
upon the subj ect

“
I t would have b een a j est some time since for a man to ,
have asserted that anything witty could be said i n praise o f

a married state ; or that devotion o r virtue were any way
necessary to the character o f a fine gentleman Bicker .
sta ff ventured to tell the town that they were a parcel of ,
fops fools and vain co quettes ; but in such a manner as

, , ,
even pleased them and made them more than hal f inclined
,
to believe that he S po ke the truth .
I nstead o f complying with the false sentiments o r vicious

tastes o f the age either in morality criticism o r good breed
, , ,
ing he has bol dly assured them that they were altogether in
, ,
the wro n g a n d commanded them with an authority whi ch

, ,
1 10 THE E NGLI S H E SSAY AN D ES SAYI STS
the machi nery o f The Athe n ia n Gaze tte whi ch had run from ,
1 6 0 to 1 6 6
9 9 By whoms
. o ever ori ginated it is certai n that ,
the human fi gure o f the S pectator (whi ch was drawn by

Addison) surrounded by his club o f representatives of various
,
grades and classes o f society was an immense improvement ,
o n The Ta tle r s crude machi nery o f the co ff ee houses and its

’
-
,
S hadowy figure of Bickerstaff Herein consists the superiority

.
o f The S p e cta tor s o far as it is real

,
Take away S ir Roger .
,
S ir An drew Will Honeycomb and the S pectator himself and

, ,
all must feel that the charm would be gone The Ta tler is a .
coll ection o f disco n nected essays but thes e figures make o f ,
The S p e cta tor a sort o f u nity though a very imperfect o n e

,
.
I t has often been pointed out that the creators o f S ir Roger

were almost novelists ; and a moment s consideration S hows ’
that the gap between the De Coverley papers when they are ,
once gathered together and the Vi ca r of Wa hefield is n o t

, ,
great But though Sir Roger is the princip al figure the

.
, ,
others are help ful as well and together they ill ustrate and
,
en force the truth o f Pope s lin e the proper S tudy o f man

’
,
kin d is man ”
I t was largely the pres ence o f these huma n
.
figures that caused The S p e cta to r to be by contempo raries as ,
well as i n later days more highl y esteemed tha n its pre

,
decessor It s pop ul arity was S till great when on December

.
,
1 7 1 2 it was temporarily suspended

,
Af ter it s res uscitatio n .
in June 1 7 1 4 it appeared o nly three times a week ; and eve n

on this re duced scale it di d n ot survive beyond the close of the
year Th e eighth volume o f The S p e cta to r is made up o f papers
.
contributed after this resuscitatio n ; and the ti t le was usurped

for a ninth volume with which S teele and Addi s on had nothi ng
to do .
To The S p e cta to r the contributions o f Addiso n were S lightly

more numerous than those o f S teele and they are thought ,
to be o f much higher merit But probably Opi nio n has bee n

.
influenced in some degree by S teele s depreciation o f himself ’

TH E Q
UE EN ANNE E S SAYI STS
in compariso n wi th the friend whom he delighted to honour .
Every o n e knows how referring to the assistance he go t from

,
Addison in The Ta tle r he S poke of hi msel f as faring like a

“
distressed prince who calls in to hi s aid a powerful neighbour ;

and too many have accepted thi s as an accurate account o f
the relative positions of the two men N o doubt Addi son is .
on the whole superior He is a far more finished writer more

.
,
v
correct more scholarly more subtly humorous S t e e Bs style

, ,
.
is like hi s life as Thackeray said full of faul ts and careless

, ,
blu n ders ; and redeemed like that by hi s sweet and co m , ,
passionate nature ”
I t was Thackeray too who pointed b ut
.
the great service done by S teele in his reverence for the pieties
of the home hi s respect fo r women and his love of children
,
.
Here he is certainly a better moralist than Addison Th e .
latter it is true is incapable o f the grossness whi ch dis figur e s

, ,
hi s predeces sors the R estoration writers and his contem ,
po r a r y S wift ; but though not gross he is contemptuous

. Th e .
famous compliment whi ch S teele paid to Lady Elizabeth

Hastings under the u nhappily chosen name o f Aspasia -to
love her was a liberal educatio n —could never have been paid
by Addison There is such a thing as tone in writing as well
.
,
as style and S teele at his best is as much superior to Addison

,
i n the former quality as he is inferior in the latter .
Apart from their other moral qualities there is i n S teele s ,

’
papers an open frankness which makes them extre m ely

attractive Hardly any form o f literature is more fascinating
.
than autobiography when it is sincere ; a n d without pro

, ,
fessing to be s o S teele is habitually autobiographical He

,
.
is doubtless all the more S incere because frequently his self

revelation is unconscio us He does not often tell facts o f hi s
.
-
ow n life but he co n stantly reveals the f eelings o f his heart ;

,
indeed his f ault is not reticence but rather the opposite I t .
is startling to find hi m filling a gap in The Ta tler with letters

which he had written to hi s own wife : but his literary ex
1 12 TH E ENGLI S H E SSAY AN D E SSAYI STS
pedi were a s ready a s various and a s free from res traint

e n ts ,
as the shifts of his life Just as he dressed up the baili ff s i n

.
livery to wait o n hi s di stinguish ed friends s o he w as ready to

,
press any scrap o f writing into service in place o f the paper

which was unwritten because o f the revel o f the night before .
Just as we cannot approve o f the S hifts of hi s li f e s o we may ,
shrink from some o f his literary expedients but we must bear

in mind that life and li terary works are all of a piece that ,
virtues and vices blemishes and beauties are s o in e x t ri

, ,
c a bl
y bound together that Richard S teele s writin g s would
’
have been impossible had Richard S teele himself bee n either

a b etter ma n o r a worse one I n the case o f no other
.
E nglish writer probably does the written word more faith

, ,
fully depict the writer .
Joseph Addison ( 1 67 2 whom S teele s o readily and

gladly welcomed as an associate in hi s enterprise has carried ,
a way more than his share o f t h e renown of the periodical essay .
That he w a s both as man and as writer far less faulty tha n

, ,
S teele is clear ; but fo r more than a century after the death

Of both men few voices were raised to question whether it wa s
equ all y clear that he had higher merits There was much i n .
the character as well as in the writings o f Addison tha t

1 a ppealed to the Engli s h sense o f r e spectability Everybody .
knew the story o f his summo ni ng his stepson to S ee how a ‘‘
Christian could di e comparatively fe w had read Walpole s ’
malicious comment that u nl uckily he died o f brandy

1 ,
”
He .
was universally regarded as an upright Clean living huma n e ,

-
,
a n d pious man He was more ; he was gifted wi th grea t

.
w personal attractiveness O n the occ asion o f his r e election

.
-
a s M P for Malmesbury in 1 7 1 0 S wi ft avowed hi s belief that

. .
,
if Addison had a mind to be chosen king he would hardl y ,
be refus ed and Pope declared that he had somethi ng more

charming in hi s conversation tha n I ever kn ew in any other
”
m an Power to inspire the deepest a ff ection is t e s t ifie d by
.
'
11
4 TH E ENGLI S H E S SAY AND E S S AYI STS
praised S teel e so hi ghly as a critic and Thackeray though , ,
with hesitation and doubt qualified the judgment of Macaulay

, .
I n the case o f Addiso n the question o f character is stric tly

releva n t to a judgment o n hi s literary work F e w English .
authors more accurately and exactly reveal the m selves in

their writin gs ; and Addi son has been s o long accepted as t h e
safest model for those who wish to learn ho w to write English
prose that thi s might seem to be almost the high e st praise it
,
is possible to bestow But as in the man s o in the writer

.
,
examination reveals not so much defects as limits and ,
compels qualification The s afes t model is that which most

.
surely teaches how to avoid error not necessarily that whi ch ,
shows the highest beauties John son s famous injunction to .

’
the S tudent o f style to give his days and nights to the

“
volumes o f Addison is too often remembered without John

”
,
son s qualification I t is addressed by hi m to whoeve r

’
.
wishes to attain an English S tyle familiar but not coarse and , ,

”
elegant but n o t ostentatious S o qualified the advice is .
,
sound ; but it leaves possible another judgment whi ch in fact ,
Jo hn son has pronounced also A style of whi ch this may b e .
said may yet be destitute o f the highes t beauties An d .
Addison s is destitute o f the highest beauties

’
I t is a fa r .
safer model than John son s ; but Ad dison never wrote nor ’
could have written anything equal to the letter to Chester

field I t is incompara b ly safer than Carlyle s ; but there a r e
.
’
passages in Carlyle as immeasurably beyond Addison s hi ghest ’
flight as the eagle s flight is beyond the S parrow s

’ ’
.
Th e cause is Obvious Th e greatest style is t h e expression o f

.
the highest energy intellectual and moral This is the reason

, .
why our greatest poets S hakespeare and Milton are likewise

, , , _
at their bes t among o ur greatest prose writers ; and it is als o

,
-
the reason why Addison who had not the energy to be more
,
than a third rate poet might be a safe model for the learner
-
, ,
but co uld never rise to the highest rank The separation o f .

THE Q
UE EN AN NE E S SAYISTS 115
form from substance leads to error u nl ess we constantly ,
remind ourselves that this separation is only provisional an ,
analysis fo r ur temporary convenience o f thi ngs whi ch are in

o
fact ins eparable I t is the forgetting this that has s e t Addison

.
o n a pedest al too lofty for him and has led t o the disappoint
'
ment o f multitudes who have learnt with astonishment ho w , ,
unsubstantial is that to which their guides have advi sed them

to give their days and nights Here it is that Matthew Arnold
.
finds in Addison the note o f provinciality ”

Addison s .
’
pros e says Arnold is Attic prose ; and he contrasts it to

, , ,
its advantage with the As iatic prose o f Burke whom he

, ,
thinks to be our greatest English prose writer But then it -

.
,
is comparatively a small matter to express onesel f well if o n e ,
will be content with not expressing much with expressing ,
only trite ideas ; the problem is to express new and profound

ideas m a perfectly sound and classical S tyle ”
I t is here that .
Addison fails .His ideas are trite ; at least they are n o t the
best ideas attainable in or about his time ”
.
I f this judgment be sound it is clear that Addison cannot

,
stand high in the roll of fame An d yet o n the other hand

.
,
-
,
it should be recognised that the service he did to English litera

ture w a s great There is a sense in which he may fairly be
.
said to have perfected English prose style He represents in .

,
this matter o ur indispensable eighteenth century

,
”
Ho w .
great was the need o f him may b e S een if we look back into
the preceding century and observe a man s o incomparably
,
superior to Addison a s Milton floundering except in hi s ,

-
moments o f inspiration in the tangle o f a prose which hardly

,
knows its o w n aim ; o r o n e s o richly gifted as S ir Thomas

Browne seriously injuring the literary taste of the nation
‘
by the freaks o f hi s diction ; o r Jeremy Taylor carried away ,
by the Asiatic taste which is s o irreconcila b le with the Attic .
I t was n o t Addison alone who taught the lesson o f neatness ,
lucidity and precision Much had been done by Dryden

.
,
1 16 T H E E NGLI S H E SSAY AND E S SAYI STS
m uch was done by S teele much t o o b y Defoe and S wift But
,
.
n o o n e di d more than Addison He and the Queen Anne

.
e ssayists have been a permanent force on the side o f sanity
a n d restraint of thought and clearness o f expression .
Th e form which S teele had created o r at least developed , ,
was singularly well adapted to Addison I t brought o ut all .
that was best in him and tended to conceal his deficiencies ;

,
a n d s o it has helped to keep hi m in a place somewhat loftier

than his merits entitle hi m to Add ison was a moralist ;
.
a n d The Ta tler and The S p e cta tor aimed at being moral forces .
But Addison was as we have seen somethi ng lower than the

, ,
g reatest ; and they lent themselves more readily t o the minor
morals than to the major Th e want o f force was not per

.
c e t ible in a writer satirising good — naturedly the vanity of

/ p
women o r the folli es o f the town O n the contrary it may .
,
have been an advantag e —for the time at least To have .
devoted great S trength t o su h ends would have been l ike

c
b reaking a butterfly o n the wheel At a later date we shall s e e

.
Johnson hampered in such work by that ve r y force which

A ddison had n o t . I t is this adaptation o f the instrument to
the performer whi ch makes Ad di son o n the whole the best of
his class .
J f
A ddison s
’
principal literary gifts were a delicate though not
highly o r iginal taste a keen sense o f humour and an insight
, ,
I nto character . They are all united in what is certainly hi s

greatest achievement— the character o f S ir Roger de Coverley ;
f o r though S ir R oger w a s first sketched and was afterwards
o ccasionally touched b y S teele he is in the main Addison s ’
,
creation An d he is unquestionably o n e of the treasures o f

.
o ur literature . I n nothi ng else has shown such

o ri inali t
g y ,
in noth i ng else such e x uis i
q I f S ir R oger
were eliminated it might be possible to accept that judgment

o f Ha z lit t s whi ch sets The Ta tle r a b ove The S p e cta to r ; but
’
the n t o demand his elimination is n o t much more reasonable

,
a doubt whether S teele had ever been surpassed as a
critic I t is not always safe to accept La n do r s judgments
.
’
,
and this o n e bears the mark o f exaggeration S till he did .

,
good servic ein calling attentio n to the fact that in respect of ,
some o f the functions o f criticism S teel e was as highly gifted ,
as any man of his time I n respect of s o m e o f the functions o f

.
criticism ; for there is a sense in whi ch it might be maintained

that he w a s not a critic at all O f reasoned and deliberate.
critical principles he probably had none ; but for critical

intuition he was unsurpassed and pro b ably unequalled I n his
o w n day N aturally therefore hi s cri ticisms are only occa
.
sio ual b ut they S how a fine i nstinct for what 18 good I n liter a
,
ture Proba b ly no contemporary was s o free as he from the

.
conventions o f the time Just because he trusted his instinct

.
and cared little a b out reasoned critical principles he w a s ready ,
to admire what was admirab le under wha t ever guise he found

it Th e rules which troubled D ryden troubled not S teele
.
at a ll Hence f e w men o f his time s o warmly loved S hake

.
speare I t mattered not to hi m whether the beauties were

.
native wood notes wild o r the product o f the nicest art

” -
,
.
He was a moralist in hi s criticisms as he was always and , ,
he found S hakespeare to be a great moral teacher I t was .
impossi b le he thought to turn from the no b le characters

, ,
drawn b y hi m w ithout strong impressions o f honour and

humanity Distress is laid before us with all its causes and
.
consequences and our resentment placed according to the

,
m erit o f the persons a fflicted — a doctrine it is true which , ,
is anathema to many I n other papers he quotes with high

.
praise and just appreciation the dream o f Richard III and the .
speech o f Hamlet on his mother s hasty marriage He con ’

.
t r a s t s with S uch works the licentious drama o f the R estoration ,
o f which s o sincere a moralist could be no admirer His .
loathi ng o f it s faults and the moral basis o f hi s criticism are

well shown in hi s fine remarks on The M a n of M o de He takes .
TH E Q
UE EN ANNE E S SAYI STS 1 1
9
for granted at the S tart that a fine gentleman S houl d be
hon est in his actio n s and refined in his language and dis,
”
,
c overing that Et h e r e e s fine gentleman is neither the one

’
g
n o r the other he draws the conclusion that
,
this whole cele
b r a t e d piece is a perfect contradiction to good manners good ,
S ense and common honesty

,
”
I f the moralist critic needs .
‘
-
‘
justificatio n it will be found by contrasting this judgment

,
with that o f s o excellent a criti c as Hazlitt o n the same piece .
While Hazlitt has played upon the surface S teele has pene ,
t r a t e d to the heart .
F o r form al criticism however Addison is by far the greater

, ,
o f the t w o friends After hi s accession the quantity o f critical

.
matter in The Ta tler and still more in The S p e cta to r largely

, ,
increased and the majority of the critical papers were

,
A ddison s I n The S p e ct to r for example he wrote n o t only

’
. a , ,
the elaborate criti q ue o n P ar a dis e Lo s t but the papers o n

‘
,
tragedy wit and imagi nation a n d those o n Chevy Chase as

, ,
well O f the two essayists he certainly was the reasoned a n d

.
,
deli b erate critic and the value o f his criticism has been
,
e stimated at a very high rate by s o thoughtful a writer as
Mr Worsfold But to others probably the majority much

. .
, ,
o f it seems antiquated Just because he wished to be able to

.
ive a reason for hi conclusions —

a desire in itself most praise
g s
worthy — h e was far more influenced by the accepted canons

,
'
than S teele ; and the influence o f the a cce pt e d can o n s is

always prejudicial We no longer care to ask the questions
.
about P a dis e Lo s t which Addison tries to answer His treat

ar .
ment of imagination is however more instructive ; and even , ,
if his principles were n o t who lly n e w they were principles ,
which had b efore been implied rather than adequately

expounded They were moreover principles whi ch were in
.
practice much negle c ted and consequently much in need o f ,
b eing insisted upon in Addison s o w n day ,

’
.
Before the temporary cessation o f The S p ecta to r in D ecember

'
1 7 1 2, S teele
had resolved to start a n ew paper ; and accord
in gly the first number o f The G ua r dia n appeared in March o f
the follo wing year I t was continued daily for rather mor e
.
than six months Why the change was deemed necessary is

.
not Obvious for the di ff erences between the t wo papers are

,
mainly first that some part of the verve and S parkle is gone
, , ,
and secondly that there are traces o f the influence o f party

,
S pirit which had been foreign to The S p e cta to r S teele and .
Addison were S till the principal writers ; but in the beginning

o f the new venture S teele had no assistance from his friend ,
whi le in the latter half the contributions o f Addison out

number those o i S teele who wa s then more absorbed in party
,
politics I t was for party purposes that he S tarted The

.
E n glis hm a n in O ctober 1 7 1 3 .
Th e action o f S teele and Addison themselves in thus start ,
ing periodical after periodical shows that such literature was ,
both popular and lucrative I f further evidence were needed .
it wo uld be found in the frequency with whi ch the flattery of

imitation w a s paid to the initiators Addison hi mself in a .
,
paper in The T tler notices some o f the imitations There

a , .
was a Re Ta tle r a F em a le Ta tler a Whisp er er and after the

-
, ,
demise of The T tler but during the life o f The S p e cta to r there
a , ,
was a S cottish Ta tler published at Edi nburgh Th e vo gue .
continued long after Ad dison and S teele were dead and was ,
s o great that N athan Drake in hi s E s s a s I llus tr a tive of the

y ,
Ra m bler etc ,
was able to enumerate no fewer tha n 2 2 1
.
,
papers more o r less o n the model of The Ta tler published

, ,
between it s appearance and the year 1 809 I t wo uld be idle .
to inquire ho w many Drake may have omitted N one o f .
these papers equalled the two prototypes and o nl y a fe w ,
demand some brie f notice .
An other evidence o f the popularity o f S teele s papers may

’
be found in the distinguished names which are included

among the occasio n al contributors Among them are nearly .
periodical essayist He was certainly a man o f higher genius
.
than either S teele o r Addison and n o t o n e o f the qualities ,
displayed in his verse would have been alien from the prose
o f the essays Perhaps the o nly po m t s i n whi ch he would
.
have been inferior to the t w o chiefs o f the tri b e are urbanity

a n d humour Pope shone in wit but Addison was certainly
.
,
his superior in humour F e w as are hi s papers they are .

,
s u ffi cient to S how that Pope was o n e of the best critics o f his
time Th e sati re o n Bossu is a masterpiece and the essay on

.
,
pastorals is a most skil ful piece o f irony though S teele and ,
his friends must have b een dense if they really b elieved that
the writer preferred Am brose Philips to Pope I rony and .
satire however are just the qualities for whi ch we look

, ,
in Po pe ; and it is perhaps more important to Observe ho w

thi s sm all group o f es says illustrates characteristics with ,
which he is less commonly credited N o 6 1 o f The Gu r di n . . a a
s hows hi m in the part of a pioneer in the inculcation o f

humanity to animals ; N o 4 is a manly protest against un .
fl
manly flattery in dedications ; and N os 9 1 and 9 2 dealing .
,
with the S hort Club show a power rare in men a i ic t e d as

, ,
Pope was o f laughing good naturedly at his o w n physical

,
-
deficiencies He is hi mself the president of the club

.
Th e first of these Dick D istich by name w have elected

, ,
e
president not only as he is the shortest of us all but because he

, ,
has entertained so just a sense o f the stature as to go generally ,
in black that he may appear yet less N ay to that pe r fe c

,
.
,
tion is he arrived that he S toops as he walks Th e figure of

, .
the man is o dd enough ; he is a lively little creature with ,
long arms and legs A S pider is no ill emblem of hi m He

. .
has been taken at a distance for a small windmill But indeed .
w hat principally moved us in hi s favour w a s his talent in

poetry for he hath promised to undertake a long work in
,
short verse to celeb rate the heroes o f o ur size He has enter .
r ained so great a respect for S tatius o n the score o f that line , ,

TH E Q
UE EN ANNE E SSAYI STS
M j r i igu
a o n ex o r e gn ab a t co r po re v irt u s
A l rg r p rt i
a e o on o f he r
o ic fir e
D id hi s t r t i p ire
s m a ll lim b s an d li t le b e as ns
that he once designed to translate the whole Thebaid for the

sake of little Tydeus .
Though Berkeley ranks next after Addison and S teele in

the number o f his contributions t o The G u r dia n the majority a ,
o f his essays are devoted to the defence o f Christianity and ,
are for the present purpose less important than many com
, ,
positions by less eminent pens on less weighty themes Most .
o f the other occasional contributors may be passed over in
silence But Jonathan S wift ( 1 667—1 745 ) is a person not

.
t o be s o summarily dismissed I t is true his connexion .
with the periodical essay (if we set aside The Exa m in er

,
,
the purpose o f whi ch w a s political n o t literary) is extremely ,
slight ; and his contributions cannot be said to be remark

-
able fo r excellence any more than for bulk He wrote a .
f e w papers o r parts o f papers for The Ta tle r and o n e from

, , ,
The S p e cta to r is printed among his works though the ,
passage from the j o ur n a l to S tella adduced in justification

makes it clear that S wift claimed o nl y to have supplied the
ideas Addison s w a s the pen that wrote the essay Perhaps
.
’
.
it may most fairly be regarded as a joint production ; for the

c onceptio n is decidedly S wiftian rather than Addisonian A .
fe w papers of no very striking excellence in S heridan s Dublin

’
periodical The I te llige n ce r are also by S wift I n view o f

,
n , .
the friends hi p between him and S teele during the earlier part
o f The Ta tle r s c ourse thi s meagreness of production may
’
,
s eem surprising But in truth S wift was not by nature

.
fitted for the work S wift says Coleridge

.
“
was the , ,
s oul o f R abelais dwelling in a dry place His humour

”
.
w as far too grim and sardonic ; he was not the man to deal
with the minor morals nor with the major morals either , ,
b y such light touches as alone were approp r iate to the

12
4 THE ENGLI S H E SSAY AND E SSAYI STS
periodical essay Contrast him with S teele in hi s attitude
.
towards women and it is at once evident ho w greatly in

,
fe r io r o r at l east how widely different the perio di cal essay

, ,
must have been had S wift been the guiding S pirit Th e .
coarse and discre dita b le Ma do n e lla papers in The Ta tle r are

his O r consider the Le tter to a ve ry y o u g La dy o n he r
. n
M a r i age which is practically an essay though it appeared in

r , ,
no periodical N o one can b e surprised that the letter is said

.
to have been regarded by the recipient as no compli ment

either to herself o r to her s e x I t is arrogant and con .
t e m p t uo us in the extreme To s y the truth I never yet . a ,
knew a tolerable woman to be fond of her own sex .
rout o f ladies got together by themselves is a very school o f

, ,
impertinence and detraction and it is well if those be t h e ,
worst ”
.
Th most noteworthy o f S w ift s contributions to The Ta tle r

’
e
is the essay o n S tyle (No I t is a good paper and yet

.
,
perhaps the most remarka b le feature in it is the extent t o

which time has proved this great master o f language wrong .
He gives eight examples of polysyllables introduced by t he

war which he says will never be able to live many more
, ,
campaigns An d yet every o n o f the eight is still part

. e
o f the literary language though palisadoes has like t h e

, ,
S hakespearean hurricanoes lost its foreign termination

‘ ’
, .
His examples o f slang have also proved their vitality by sur

v iv in g though some o f them certainl y have no claim to be
,
re c koned literary I t was however in his P r e dictio n s f o r

.
, ,
the 2 e ar 1 7 0 8and in the A cco u t of the D e a th of M r P

”
tr i dge n . ar
that S wift displayed most o f the S pirit o f the periodical

essayist and though they were not contributed to a periodical
, , ,
it is by these essays that he is most intimately associated with

the periodicals ; for as we have seen S teele borrowed from
, ,
him the name Bickersta ff and with it adopted his dispute wi th

,
Partridge These essays the M e dita tio up o n a B r o o m s ti ck a n

.
,
n ,
genius in the brilli ant group to whi ch he belonged a n d ,
Macaulay confessed his inability to distinguish between

certain passages by Arbuthnot and S wift s best writing But ’
.
the universality of ge ni us noted by Johnson told against

Ar b ut h n o t s permanent fame Had he concentrated hi mself
’
.
upon literature alone John son s judgment might have been ’
confirmed b yp o s t e r it y ; for the writings he has left are of

i
the high e st q u lit y But they are merely a handful the b y

i
a .
,
products o f a very busy mind I n respect o f wi t Ar b ut hn o t s .

,
’
fugitive writings are singularly brilliant Th e Hum ble P e titio n .
of the C o lli e r s etc is a very amusing piece o f satirical humour

,
.
, ,
and s o is the B r ief A cco un t of j o hn Gingli cutt s Tr e a tis e co n ’
cer n i g the
n A lte r ca tio n o S co ldi g of the A n cie n ts
r But n .
Ar b ut hn o t s masterpiece is The A r t of P o litica l Ly in g an

’
J
,
essay like the piece on altercation in the form o f a summary

, ,
o f a treatise dealing with the subj ect whi ch is supposed to ,
be in the press O f t hi s piece S wift in the j o ur n a l to S te lla

.
,
remarks ,
Tis very pretty but not so obvious to be under
’
,
stood .
”
But S wift s opinion o f the human mind as o f the
’
,
human heart was unflattering and surely a very moderate

, ,
intelligence might suffi ce for the enjoyment o f Ar b ut hn o t s ’
ready and abundant w it I n its kind The Ar t of P o liti cal .

,
Ly i n g is supreme Witty everywhere it is perhaps most

.
,
witty in the treatment o f the proof lie : A proof lie is li ke - -
a proof charge for a piece o f ordnance to try a standard

-
,
credulity O f such a nature he [the supposed author! takes

.
transubstantiation to be in the Church o f Rome a proof ,
artice whi ch if any o n swallows they are sure he will digest

,
e ,
everything else : therefore the Whi g party do wisely to try

the credulity o f the people by swingers that they may be able ,
to judge to what height they may charge them afterwards .
Towards the end o f this chapter he warns the heads of parties

against believing their o w n lies whi ch has proved of pernicious ,
consequence of late both a wise party and a wise nation,

TH E Q
UE E N ANNE E S SAYI STS
having regulated their aff airs upon lies o f their o w n invention .
Th e causes o f this he supposes to be too great a zeal and

'
intenseness in the practice of this art and a vehement heat ,
in mutual onversation whereby they persuade themselves

c ,
that what they wish and report t o be true is really S O

,
”
Or ,
.
again take the treatment o f the miraculous o n e species

, ,
o f whi ch is the prodigious As to O p GS o r the T r e ar es,
pro digious he has little to advise but that their comets

, , ,
whales and dragons sho uld be sizable ; their storms tempests

, , ,
and earthquakes without the reach o f a day s journey o f a ’
man and horse ”

Perhaps Macaulay had thi s es say as well
.
as the His to y of j o hn B ull in his mind Certainl y he would

r .
be a bold critic who shoul d undertake to distinguish unless ,
it were perhaps by the use of the preposition without

, , ,
between this and the best writing o f S wift .
Popular as the periodical essay was there were not wanting ,
some who protested against the prevalent style of literature ,
even while they yielded to the fashion Among these w a s .
An thony As hl ey Cooper ( 1 67 1 thi rd Earl o f Sha ft s e
bury His Cha cte r is ti s ( 1 7 1 1 ) consists principally o f short

. ra c
phi losophical treatises ; but appended to these is a remarkable

collection o f M is ce lla e o us Ref le ctio n s which attests hardly
n
les s forcibly than The T tle r and The S p e cta to themselves

a r
the popularity o f the essay F r it is clear that S haftesbury o
fl
.
was an essayist in his O Wn despite Th M is cell n e o us . e a
Re e cti n s may b described as the treatis es boiled down and

o e
popularised But the process was evidently distasteful and

.
,
it was not carried through without repeated growls I n o n e .
passage S haftes b ury describes the Misce llany o r common ,
Essay as a device for enabling the muddl e headed to become

,
-
authors I t is a litera r y form in whi ch the most confused

.
“
head if fraught with a little invention and provided with

, ,
Common place Book learning might exert itself to as much

-
,
advantage as the most orderly and well settled judgment

,
” -
.
An d again : Th e common amble o r Canterbury is not I
“
,
am persuaded more tiresome to a good rider than the s e e s aw

,
-
o f essay writers is to an able reader

-
Th e just composer o f a
.
l egi timate piece is like an a b le traveller who exactly measures

,
his ground premeditates his stages and intervals of relaxation

, ,
a n d intention to the very conclusion o f his undertaking

, ,
that he happily arrives where he first professed when he s e t

o ut. But the post way is b e ome highly fashiona b le
-
c
a mong modern authors . When an author S its down to

write he knows no other business he has than to be witty , ,
and take care that his periods b well t u n d o r (as they

e r
’
,
commonly say) r un s m o o th I n this manner he doubts not

.
,
to gain the character of b ight When he has written as many

r .
pages as he likes o r as his run o f fancy wou d permit ; he then

,
’
perhaps considers what name he had best give to hi s n w e
writing ; whether he should call it Le tte Es s ay M is cell y r, ,

an ,
o r ought else .
Thus the man o f unpopular Opinions and o f rare tastes

m ade hi s protest ; but the futility o f the protest is proved by
t h e fact that even whi le S haftesbury is maki ng it he is yieldi ng
t o the current These protests are embo died in essays— the

.
best attempt S haftes b ury coul d make to attain that very

popularity whi c h he half envied and half despised Ho w .
far hi s j udgment may have been unconsciously influenced

b y personal considerations it is impossible to say ; but at
l east it is clear that he had not in any great measure the gifts
w hich the popular mode o f writing demanded His style .
was cumbrous and he lacked the faculty of s o treating littl e

,
things as to make them great I t was for others not for him
.
, ,
to write meditations o n broomsticks .

Visionary scenes He is pleased that The Ch p io n o t being
. am n,
wholly devoted to politics allows room f r miscellaneous ,

o
pieces Then follows an entertaining vision of Helicon and

.
the Muses Th only contemporary papers whi h The

. e c
Ch m p i finds worthy o f praise are The C f ts m

a on and ra an
C o m m on S e s e both political and both f course

n ,
the same , ,
o ,
on
side of politics as The C h p i f r there is no blindness s am on o o
dark as that of party .
I t is evident that passages of this sort must t be pressed no .
Th political papers themselves admitted a certain amount f

e o
purely literary matter as we have seen in the ase f Defoe ,

c o .
S ome of the familiar names f the S p t t period continu o ec a or e
to appear n the lists f the periodicals B udgell practised

o o .
in The B ( 1 7 3 3 —1 7 3 5 ) the style f composition whi ch Addison

ee o
had taught hi and Ambrose Philips who had barely taken

m , ,
part in the greater perio di cals b ecame the hi ef writer in ,

c
The F e thi k r ( 1 7 1 8
r e n ein whi ch he had the assistance
of several f the most distinguished clergym en of the time
o .
I n Th P l i D e l ( 1 7 24—1 7 2 5 ) Aaron Hill collaborated

e a n a er
with William Bond The F e l S p e t t ( 1 744—1 746) and

. m a e c a or
Th P
e t ( 1 746) are interesting b ecause they were princi
arr o
pally ii not wholly the work f a woman at a time when

, ,
o
female writers were few But the fame f Eli za Haywood . o ,
once considerable is not likely to revive S ome f the

,
. o
periodicals of those years are nearly inaccessible all of them ,
have sunk into o b livion and good purpose would be served ,

no
b y resuscitating them Between the group already dealt .
with and Johnson the only man who needs to b discussed

,
e
is F ielding .
Henry Fielding ( 1 707—1 7 5 4) the novelist has s completely o
overshadowed Henry Fielding the essayist that there are

comparatively f w who realise his greatness in the latte
e r
capacity ; and yet t any o who thi nks o f the introdu tory
o ne c
chapters to the books o f T m j o s and bears in mind that o ne ,

IMITAT O RS OF STE ELE AND ADDI S O N 131
they are really essays it must b e obvious that the autho r

,
w a s a critic b oth o f life and o f literature o f singular power

, ,
and insight Th h0 pe whi ch this knowledge inspires is not

. e
disappointed when we turn to those half forgotten periodicals -

,
The C ha m p i o n ( 1 7 3 9—1 741 ) and The Co ve n t G ar de n j o u n a l -

r
Th e average level is n o t indeed equal to that o f t h e
To m j o n es essays Many o f the papers are careless and it

.
,
is evident that Fielding did not always exert his whol e

strength as he seems to have done in those essays in To m
,
j o n es but when he took trouble he wrote admirably

Though there is some dou b t as to the extent o f F ielding s
’
S hare in The Cha m p i o n the internal evidence points to the

,
con lusion that he was a frequent contri b utor I f they are

c .
n o t F ieldi ng s some o f the papers are the work o f an unknown

’
,
genius who had Fielding s large humanity and who S ym ’
a t hi s e d at least with hi s genial freedom o f life Captain

p , ,
.
Vinegar cools hi mself as is his ustom [ and as was t o o much

c
F ielding s ! with a huge dram of brandy He condemns

’ ”
.
,
”
roasting in the metaphorical sense and pleads to a coarse
, ,
“
and cruel age for humanity to animals A b y should . o ,
in my opinion be more severely punished fo r exercising

,
c ruelty o n a do o r a cat o r any other animal than for stealing

g , ,
a few pence o r S hi llings o r any o f those lesser crimes whi ch

,
our courts o f justice take notice o f ”

Th e ma gistrate and
.
lawyer S peaks here as well as in an earlier reference to the

,
impious severity o f o ur laws ”

S ome o f the essays are
.
weighty with the moral wisdom whi ch F ielding possessed ,
though he could not always guide hi s own steps by it S ome .
seek to reform a b uses by making them ridiculous I n o n . e
paper we have a very witty piece o f raillery o n the argum e n tum

ad b ac ulum another in a style worthy o f The S p e cta to r
, ,
compares the art of politics to the art o f fishi ng Tw o .
continuous papers give an admirable vision of covetousness

and the Palace of Wealth There is a moral for the present
.
132 T H E ENGLI S H E S SAY AND E SSAYI STS
a
g e as well as for the time o f F iel ding in the account o f a fall
from the Palace into the cave o f poverty
There were very high and S trong ra ils whi ch prevented
any possibility o f the spectators falling from the gallery to
the b ottom o f the cave and yet I o b served a great tremor and
,
paleness to seize every o n e w ho durst venture to cast their eyes

do w nwards ; notwithstanding whi ch it was very remarkable , ,
that not o n of the company could prevail o n hi mself to abstain

e
from surveying the abyss I had not b een here long when I .
,
perceived an o ld gentleman whose face I thought I had some ,
where seen b efore to raise him self with great agility to the t o p
,
o f the rail whence endeavouring to lay hold on something a

,
little out o f hi s reach it gave way and he tum b led down back
, ,
wards into the cave No t long after I saw a very grave man
.
, ,
standing n the top o f the rail attempting to lift others up

o , ,
whose pa ks he had before received tumbling down into the

c ,
cave and p ulling all those whom he had laid his hands on
,
down with hi m Upon thi s I heard several mutter to them

.
selves Ay a y I warrant he will not hurt himself we S hall

, , , ,
se ehi m soon again ; and indeed I soon perceived they were ,
in the right for I shortly after found hi m in the gallery look

, ,
ing mu c h fresher and plumper than before though the same ,
did not as I s aw happen to any o f those whom he p ulled

, ,
down with hi m This made me instantly conceive that there

.
,
was some very easy way o f ascent from the bottom of thi s
deep cave to the gallery whereon I S tood But I was soon .
delivered from this error and informed that from the bottom
, ,
o f the cave it was almost impossi b le for any o n e to ascend
again but that there was a resting place in the descent from
,
-
,
whence issued a pair o f private stairs up to the gallery ; that

the gentleman I had observed to fall had a very partic ular ,
knack o f lighting o n thi s place t hi s being the thi rd time ,
he had perf ormed in t hi s manner ; and that he w a s s o far

from being hurt that he grew vi sibly more lusty after
,
1 34 T H E ENGLI S H E S SAY AND E S SAYI STS
impatience to try the event of my first performance will not
”
s u ff er me to attend any longer the trepidations of the balance .
No one ever wrote like t hi s before Johnson and those who ,
have done s since have consciously or unconsciously imitated

o
hi m . F ortunately Johnson himself could write in another

style too and the vigorous English of the Lives of the P o e ts
,
is neither so Latinised nor so antithetical as The Ra m bler An .
t i t h s is and a Latin diction were features of Johnson s style

’
e
throughout ; but if we regard his works as a whole far more

, ,
than enough has been made o f them I n The Ra m ble r .

,
however whether through the influence o f the dictionary o n

,
whi ch he was labouring at the time or not they are very ,
S trongly marked features and the popular notion o f the mean

,
ing o f Johnsonese is s o far right Th adoption o f such a

. e
S tyle carried with it other consequences because such stateli

,
ness o f language was peculiarly unsuited t o the light subj ects

which had hitherto b een the favourite themes o f the essayists .
Accordingly we find that the themes o f The Ra m ble r are almost

as widely di ff erent from those of The S p e cta to r as the style .
S teele and Addison loved to suggest reform by r aillery o f paint

and patches and h o o p petticoats canes and wigs; Johnson
-
,
trained heavy artillery direct upon the strongholds o f vice .
Th e S pirit in whi ch he did hi s work is indicated in the prayer

in which he asks the guidan e o f the Holy S pirit in the com
c
position o f The Ra m bler and that I may promote thy glo r y

, ,
and the salvation o f mys elf and others Notwithstan di ng

.
the genuineness of Addison s moral purpose he would probably

’
,
have felt a certain incongruity b etween the lightness o f his

method and language s o solemn as this .
I t is not surprising that The Ra m bler was never popular as

a periodical Th e sale w s large when it w a s reprinted in
. a
volumes b ut f w o f the original numbers reached a circulation

,
e
o f more than 5 00 I n the losing number Johnson confesses

. c
that he has never been much a favourite of the public ”

It .
IMITAT O RS OF STE ELE AND ADDI S O N 135
is curious that the most popular paper o f all N o 9 7 was o n e ,

.
,
o f the very f e w that he did n o t write Tw o reasons may be .
assigned fo r the superior popularity o f the collected editions .
Partly we may suppose it was due to the fact that these

, ,
editions were in point o f fact b etter ; for while Johnson wrote ,
the original Ra m ble r s rapi dl y and with little or no revision he ,
S pent great care and pains upon the subsequent e di tions .
According to Chalmers the alterations made in the second

,
and thi rd editions far exceed s ix thousand ; and while many

o f the changes were trifling the total eff ect was considerable ,
.
Th e second reason however is more important

,
The Ra m ble
,
. r
h a s as a whole more the character o f a book for serious medi

, ,
t a t io n than for agreeable pastime The S p e ct to was a natural . a r
a djunct to the breakfast ta b le and many learnt to look upon

-
,
it as a necessary o n e The Ra m bler w a s more like what our

.
fathers alled S unday reading ; and rea di ng for S unday was

c
proba b ly shunned o n Tuesday and S aturday in the eighteenth

c entury as it certainly was in the nineteenth S erious minded
,
.
-
men therefore bought the volumes when they were reissued ,
and studied them in the hours they devoted to medi tation .
Those who wished to have the reputation o f seriousness bought

them also and slept over them
,
.
I t would be a mistake to leave t h e impression that the

original issue o f The Ra m ble w s a failure I t won for John r a .
s o n fit audience though few Young the author o f N ight

,
.
,
Tho ughts read it with a minut e attention whi ch pleased

,
Johnson There was t o o much solid sense and sound learn

.
ing in the papers to escape the notice o r fail to win the

admiration o f men o f powerful intellect Th e weight and .
dignity o f the paper on the superiority o f patience to S toicism ,
and the hi gh mindedness o f the es say on dedications S howed

-
,
that t h writer was a man o f no ordinary gifts There were

e .
lighter touches too Th e pungent essay on Prospero ( G arrick)

.
showed that the writer could when he chose wield the weapon , ,
1 36 TH E ENGLI S H E S SAY AN D E S SAYI STS
of satire Th e paper o n S uS pir ius the S creech—
. o wl from whi ch ,
Goldsmith dr ew his Croaker is also of the o ld fam iliar type

,
.
Pieces o f humour occasionall y lightened the severity of moral

di squisition and the constitutional melancholy whi h shone c
through the majority o f the papers But o n the whole the .
impression is sombre and it is evident that the periodical essay

,
had been turned to purposes widely di ff erent from those o f its

founders They are purposes for which it is less a dmirably
.
fitted Were he to be judged merely as an essayist Johnson s

.
,
’
place in li terature wo ul d b e far below that o f Addison and

S teele and it is not clear that it would b e as high as that of
,
F iel di ng Even apart from the To m j o nes essays there are

.
papers in The Cha m p io n and The C o ve n t Gar de n j o ur n a l whi ch -
S how more o f the true essay S pirit than anythi ng in The
Johnson hi mself seems to have felt that he had not quite

caught the tone He did n o t underrate the high merits of
.
The R m ble ; but in the papers which he contributed to The

a r
A dve tu e r and to The I dle

n r o f whi ch he wrote by far the
r,
greater part both the touch and the prevailing themes

,
are lighter ; and Boswell notes as a consequence that the

immediate s ale of the former was greater than that o f The
Ra m ble r I n The A dve tu e we have such papers as that
. n r r
on the ompanions f Mi s a r gyr us in the Fleet and the stage

c o
coach journey ; in The I dler we have o n the o n e hand the

pathetic paper suggested by the death o f Johnson s wife ’
(N o. and on the other characters such a s Betty Broom

,
and Dick Minim and the witty ridi c ule o f the b argain hunter
, ,
Mr s Plenty
. .
Th e success o f The A dve tu e whi h is o n e o f the best of

n r r, c
the whole series o f periodical papers was neither wholly n o r ,
even principally due to Johnson but to John Haw k e s w o r t h

,
( 7 5
1 1 a man of multifarious literary a tivity who is c ,
remembered now only as an essayist and a s part author part , ,

beautiful and uncommon Th e vast variety of scenes per
.
p e t ua lly shi fting b efore us the train o f unexpected events

, ,
a n d the many sudden turns in this di versified poem must ,
more deeply engage the reader and keep his attention more
alive and active than the martial uniformity o f the I li d a .
Th continual glare of a single colour that unchangeably pre

e
dominates throughout a whole piece is apt to dazzle and ,
disgust the eye o f the beholder I will not indeed presume

.
, ,
to s ay with V oltaire that among the greatest admirers of

,
a ntiquity there is scarce one to be found who could ever read
the I lia d with that eagerness and rapture whi ch a woman

, ,
feels when S h e peruses the novel o f Z y de but will however

a , ,
venture to a ffi rm that the s p e cio s m ir a cula o f the Odys s ey

,
a
are better calcul ated t o excite our uriosity and wonder and
c ,
to allure us forward with unextinguished impatience to the

c atastrophe than the perpetual tumult and terror that rei gn
,
through the I li a d ”
.
John son himself in The Ra m ble r had carried o n the critical

tradition o f the periodical essay I n o n e paper he discusses
.
the comparative merits o f ancient and modern romances in ,
a nother he examines the pauses in English poetry He .
examines the v e r s ific a t io n o f Milton and reaches the surpris

,
ing conclusion that the great poet has left o ur harsh cadences
yet harsher and he analyses S a m s o n Ago n is tes in order to
“
discover whether it is composed according to the indis
pensable laws o f Aristoteli an criticism ”
Evidently he pro
.
c e e d d upon principles widely di fferent from ours

e But more .
than enough ha s been made o f the li mitations of Johnson s ’
taste and o f hi s errors sometimes gross and provoking enough

, , ,
with regard to Milton and other poets with whom he was o ut

o f sympathy I t is more profitable to remember that there
.
i s much to set in the other scale and that Johnson s criticism

’
,
is by n o m e an s all negligible even now Take for example

~
.
the following passage from the preface to S ha k eS p e a r e :

IMITAT O RS o r STE ELE AND ADDI S O N 1 39
His adherence to general nature has exposed him to the

censure o f cr it ic k s who form their judgment upon narrower
,
principles D ennis and Rymer think hi s Romans not suffi

.
c ie n t l
y R oman ; and V oltaire censures his kings as not co m
p le t el
y royal .D ennis i s o ff ended that M n n ius,
a senator e e ,
o f R ome ,
should play the bu ff oon ; and Voltaire perhaps
thinks decency violated when the Danish usurper is r e pr e
sented as a drunkard But S hakespeare always makes nature
.
predominate over accident ; and if he preserves the essential

character is n o t very careful o f distinctions superinduced and
,
adventitious His S tory requires Romans o r kings but he

.
,
t hi nks o nl y o n men He knew that Rome like every other

.
,
city had men o f all dispositions ; and wanting a bu ff oon he

, ,
went into the senate—house for that which the senate house -
would certainly have a ff orded hi m He was inclined to S how

.
an usurper and a murderer n o t only odious but despicable ; ,
he therefore added d r unkenness to hi s other qualities know ,
ing that kings love wine li ke other men and that wine exerts ,
its natural power upon kings These are the petty cavils o f
.
petty minds ; a poet overlooks the casual distinctions of

c ountry and condition as a painter satisfied with the figure
, , ,
neglects the drapery ”

.
N ervous sense such as this never becomes antiquated I t .
is as needful n o w as it was when Johnson wrote He answers .
critics who complained that S hakespeare had not done certain

things by showing that he need not do them There are other
, .
critics o f the present day who have forgotten the answer and ,
who therefore in their anxiety to maintain the infalli bility o f

,
S hakespeare contend that he has done that which Johnson

,
knew he neither did n o r required to do O bsession is des t r uc .
tive of criticism— even obsession b y S hakespeare .
AS has been said already it is to Ha w k e s wo r t h hi mself that

,
the S uccess o f The A dve tur er is principally to be ascribed

n .
Th obscurity into which he has fallen is n o t due to lack o f

e
1
4
merit in the essays but rather to the fact that he has no ,
capital work with whi ch to support them ; for his poems and
dramas are deserve dl y forgotten and in connexion with the ,
voyages we thi nk rather o f Cook than o f Haw k s w o r t h e .
No w very f e w authors have succeeded in winning permanent

fame by reason o f fugitive essays I n The A dve n tur er more .
,
over Haw k s w o r t h is crushed under the weight of Johnson

,
e ,
though he S hows himself for the purpose in View the b etter , ,
writer of the two H w k s w o r t h deliberately imitated John . a e
son and thi s fact may have disposed the latter the more
,
readily to collaborate with him But while he is Johnsonian .

,
in style hi s touch is lighter and his themes more varied than

,
Johnson s He maintains the moral purpose o f the earlier

’
.
essayists is the champion o f religion inculcates milder

, ,
manners and in the excellent paper (No 5 ) o n various forms

,
.
o f cruelty advocates like F iel di ng kindness to the animal

, , ,
creation Th S pecial feature o f The Adve n tur e r however is

. e , ,
the frequency with which it resorts to the short story ; and

it w s here espe ciall y in the Eastern tale that Haw k e s wo r t h
a
-
, ,
a r t iC
iil excelled here were course stories astern
’
p a rl
y T f E .
,
o , ,
and Western in the earlier perio dicals ; Johnson hi mself

,
introduces several Eastern ones into The R bler ; b ut in am
none o f the earlier papers were they so numerous as in The

A dve tu e n and none o f the periodical essayists has excelled
r r,
Ha w k s wo r t h in S kill in the construction o f them

e All hi s .
E astern tales are worthy o f praise ; but perhaps the b est is

that of the avaricious C z an While Haw k e s w o r t h h as ara .
nothi ng that can be s e t beside the x q is it e D Coverley .

e .
e
papers Ca z n is quite worthy t f placed beside the

,
ra a r “
V is i o o
f n M i rz Th o de m n a t i
p ronoun
a ed
. b y t h e c n c e
Deity is impressive
Ca r z n thy wors hi p has n o t b een accepted b e c ause it
a a , ,
was not prompted by love o f G od ; neither can thy righteous

ness be rewarded because it was not produced by love o f ,
1
despair every moment increased as every moment augmented ,
my distance from t h last ha b ita b le world I reflected with

e .
intolera b le anguish that when ten thousand thousand years

,
ha d carried me beyond the reach o f all b ut that Power who

fills in fini t ude I should still look forward into an immense
,
abyss o f darkness through whi ch I should S till drive Without

,
succour and without society farther and farther still for ever , ,
and for ever ”

.
This is thoroughl y John sonian ; but the subj e t suits the c
stately periods and they are turned with a skill which the
,
originator hi mself rarely surpassed .
D uring and after the period o f the three Johnso ni an papers

the S tream o f periodical essays flowed o n b ut the possibilities ,
o f the form except in the hands of men of rare genius were

, ,
exhausted and only two o r three o f these publications de

,
mand notice Among the exceptions was The W r ld ( 1 7 5 3

. o
which was conspicuous b oth for its ability and for the
eminence in other S pheres o f o n e or two o f the contri b utors .
With respect to its tone and contents The Wo r ld may b e ,
regarded as a reaction from The Ra m ble r As the latter had .
scarcely anythi ng corresponding to the li ghter papers o f The

S p e cta to r s o the former had very littl e answering to the more
,
serious ones An d as regards immediate pop ularity the pr o

.
e c t o r and hi s assistants were justified by the res ults A ccord

j .
ing t o D rake the circulation of The Wo r ld in numbers was

,
unprecedente dl y great but he adds that t hi s w a s owing ,
in a high degree to the various titled and fas hi onable names

,
that were known to assist in its composition and that it is ”

,
n o w if we except The C o n o is s e ur less read than any o f what

,
n ,
may be termed the Classi c al Essayists ”

.
Th e contri b utors to The Wo ld num b ered over thirty b ut r ,
b etween o n e thi rd and o n fourth o f the total number of

-
e-
papers were written b y its proj ector Edward Moore ,

.
Moore however is not especially notable except for his

, ,
IMITAT O RS OF STE ELE AND ADDI S O N 1 43
position and the number o f hi s contributions His papers .
are essentially imitative R O Cambridge was also a toler

. . .
ably frequent contributor and Horace Walpole wrote nine

,
papers o f n o great merit By far the most notable in thi s

.
group was Lord Chesterfield ( 1 69 4 He had already

written essays in F og s j o ur n a l and in Co m m o n S en s e ; and
’
thes e as well as his contributions to The Wo r ld S how that if

, ,
he had devoted himself to literature he might have w o n a hi gh

reputation Th e t w o papers written to recommend Johnson s
.
’
dictionary are best known because o f the incomparable letter

which they drew from the lexicographer Th e essays o n t h e .
Drinking Club are good examples o f the lighter treatment o f

vice ; and there are Others which go some way towards prov
ing that Ch e s t e r fie ld s moral character was by no m eans i n all
’
respects s o low as it has commonly been supposed to be Th e .
essay on duelling is excellent But above all the character

.
,
o f the fashi onable man o f honour is delineated with a bitin

g
irony whi ch S hows that Chesterfield was capable of deep feel
ing and able to rise above the prejudices o f hi s class There .
are b ut two thi ngs he says whi ch a man o f the nicest honour
, ,
may not do whi ch are declining single combat and cheating

,
at cards .
”
Leader o f to n as he w a s Chesterfield could not ,
consent t o regard these as the whole duty o f man S trange ! .
that virtue should be s o difficult and honour its superior so , , ,
easy to attain to .
”
I t is evident that Chesterfield was c o n
scious o f the hi gh merit o f this essay ; fo r the paper in The
Wo ld is in substance a reproduction o f one w hi ch ha d appeared
r
many years before in Co m m o S e s e Th latter is in som

n n . e e
respects the better o f the t w o After a series o f imaginary

.
letters from the typical man o f honour Belville it contain s , ,
an admira b le summing up o f the character conceived in a ,
S pirit whi ch would have done honour to the best and purest
o f the perio dical essayists :
I t appears from these authentic pieces that Mr Belville ,

.
,
filled with the noblest sentiments o f honour paid all debts ,
but hi s just ones ; kept hi s word scrupul ously in the fia git io us

sale o f hi s conscience to a minister ; w a s ready to protect at ,
the expense of his friend s life hi s friend s wife whom by the

’
.
,
’
, ,
opportu ni ties that friendshi p had given him he had corrupted ; ,
and punished truth with death when it intimated however , ,
justly the want o f it in hi m sel f

,
.
This person of refined honour conscious of hi s o wn merit ,
and virtue is a most unmerciful censor o f the lesser vices and

,
'
failings o f o t he r s ; a n d lavishly bestows the epithets o f s co un
drel and rascal upon all those who in a subordi nate rank o f ,
life seem to aspire to any genteel degree o f immorality An

, .
awkward country gentleman who sell s his silent vote cheap , ,
is with him a s a d dog Th e industrious tradesmen are a pack

.
o f cheating rascals who shoul d be better regul ated and n o t

, ,
su ff ered to impose upon people o f con di tion ; and servants

are a parcel o f idle scoundrels that ought to be used ill and ,
n o t paid their wages in order to check their insolence

,
.
“
I t is n o t to b e imagined how perni cious the example o f
-
such a creature is to society ; he is a dmired and consequently ,
imitated : he not o nl y immedi ately corrupts his o wn circle o f

acquaintance b ut the contagion S preads itself to infinity as
, ,
c ircl es in water produce o n e another though gradually less ,
marked out in proportion as they are remoter from the cause

,
o f the first .
To such practice and such examples in hi gher life may ,
justly be imputed the general corruption and immorality ,
which prevail through the kingdom But when such is the .

,
force of fas hi on and when the examples o f people o f the first

,
rank in a country are s o prevalent as to dignify vi ce and im

morality in S pite o f all laws divine and human how popular
, ,
might they make virtue if they wo ul d exert their power in its

,
cause ? and how must they in their cooler moments reproach , ,
themselves when they com e to reflect that by their fat a l

, , ,
1
political M o n ito r ( 1 75 5 1 7 5 9) may be named in pas sing
Th e -
for the sake o f Beckford who proj ected it ; b ut in the literary

sense the next noteworthy pu b lications are Tbe B ee and Tbe
P ublic Le dge in which appeared Tbe C itize n of the W r ld
r, o .
These bring us into c ontact with a name greater in ,
the hi story of the essay than any from Addison s day to

,
’
hi s o wn .
Th ename o f Oliver G oldsmith ( 1 7 28—1 7 74) used to suggest ,
and probably still suggests to the minds o f many ideas o f

,
the most extraordinary sort O ne o f his contemporaries .
called him an inspired idiot ; another put the same judgment

into rhyme and declared that he wrote like an angel and
, ,
talked like poor Poll While o n e o f the foremost writers o f

”
,
the century after Goldsmith s pronounced this judgment just ’

.
An d yet we all know that Johnson hi mself when he came to ,
write the epitaph of his friend de clared that he had attempted ,
nearly every species o f composition and adorn ed every one ,
that he attempted ; and we all kn ow further that Johnson , ,
said no more than the truth N ow it is erta i n that geniu s . c
is not incompatible with that sort o f disorder of mind whi ch

leads to the madhouse ; but 1t is far more di ffi cult to conceive
o f genius united with imbecility than to imagine it united with
irregularity Le t it be granted however that some mysterious

.
, ,
force called inspiration may produce for once even thi s , ,
astounding u ni on and we are still o nl y at the beginning o f

,
the difficulty in the case o f Go ldsmith We have to suppose .
the union so constant whi le he has pen in hand as to make

, ,
Goldsmith o n e o f the most charming poets o n e of the best ,
dramatists and o n e o f the greatest essayists o f the eighteenth

,
century We have to suppose it so constant as to give even

.
his hack work a literary value However worthl es s it may

-
.
be as science Goldsmith s hi story of A n im a te d N a tur e is

,
’
very pleasant reading and if it were possible to ignore the

, ,
question o f accuracy would be better adapted for conveyi ng

,
IMITAT O RS OF STE ELE AND A D DI S O N 1 47
to young minds ideas on the subj ect treated than any other
book we possess .
I t is remarkable that Boswell who is largely responsible ,
for thi s astonishing view o f Goldsmith has had almost ,
the same fate and that the critic who thought the phrase
, ,
an inspired idi ot appropriate to the I rishman declared of

, ,
the S cot that if he had n o t been a great fool he would

“
,
”
never have been a great writer Carlyle ha s made this .
opinion about Boswell impossible and the simple process of ,
reading Go ldsmith s works ought to be fatal to the other

’
Opinion A very little reflection s ufii c e s t o show that Gold

.
’
smith s exquisite style is inseparable from soundness of

’
intelligence The steady and certain evolution o f thought in

.
Tbe Tr a ve lle r and Yk e D es e r te d Village indicates not inferior

but most exceptional intellectual power and the humour of ,
Tbe Vi car of Wa k efie ld and o f the plays is surely an evidence

o f a mind remarkably sane and well balanced I f further .
evidence were needed probably the most convincing o f all

,
would be found in the essays These have been unduly .
neglected I n Drake s table o f periodical papers such

.
’
mediocre productions as Tbe C o n n o is s e ur and Tbe Obs er ver

are di stinguished with capitals as standard works ; while
Tb e B ee and Tbe C itize n of tbe Wo r ld appear in ordinary type ;
and to thi s day when we thi nk o f Goldsmith we usually call
, ,
to mind Tbe Vi ca r of Wa leeyi eld or S be S to op s to Co n q uer o r

, ,
Tbc D e s e r te d Village Probably not o n e in ten thinks for a

.
moment o f Tbe Citize n of tbe Wo r ld as o n e o f the finest co lle c

tions of essays ever written and a work quite worthy o f a
,
place bes ide its author s more popular writings Goldsmith s

’
.
’
literary greatness may be measured by the fact that he has

equalled Addison o n Addison s o wn ground and greatly ’
,
surpassed him elsewhere .
Go ldsmith contributed to Yk e M o n tbly Review in 1 7 5 7 ,
and to several other periodicals as well ; but his articles have

1 48 THE ENGLI S H E S SAY AND E S SAYI STS
not been identified Th earliest periodical with which his
. e
name is permanently associated was Yk e B e e I t was

publi shed weekly and contained n o t a single essay but a
, , ,
variety o f papers each number filling about twenty pages in

,
Bohu s edition I f Goldsmith wrote the whole o f the papers

’
.
,
as he is supposed to have done hi s productiveness was sur ,
prising ; and it was not gained at the expense o f quality .
Ye t excellent as was the matter he supplied Tb e B ee survived

, ,
‘
for only eight numbers They were however suffi cient to

.
, ,
prove the greatness of the writer There is keen observation .
in the paper o n dre s s and in the admirable C ity N igbt P ie ce .
A deli cate though hardly catholic gift of criticism is shown in

the remarks o n the theatres and in the exquisite reverie , ,
Tbe F m e M a cb i n e
a Th latter s h o ws t ha t Goldsmith was
. e .
already o n e o f those who understood the greatness of Johnson ,
and it probably helped to b ring about the friends hi p between

the two men which b egan soon afterwards A fe w months .
subsequent to the close of Tbe B ee Yk e Ci tize n of tbc Wo r ld ,
( 7
1 60 — 1 7 6 1 ) began to appear in a journal called Yk e Pu bli c
Le dge r .Whether G oldsmith from the first proj ected a

lengthy series o f letters is not clear ; it seems probable rather
that he proposed to act a cording to circumstances and thec ,
desi gn w a s o f a very elasti c sort Undoubtedly one o f the .
advantages o f the n e w venture as compared with Tbe B ee , ,
was that it did start with a c lear and intelligi b le design This .
design was not original G oldsmith hi mself had translated

.
for Tbc B ee the passage in which Voltaire comments upon

the surprise with whi ch an Asiatic visitor mi ght contemplate
the religion o f Europe ; and there were other sources from
which he got hints or might have go t them Horace Walpole
,
.
had a f w years b efore written the Lette r fr o m X o —Ho a

,
e , ,
Cb in es e Pbilo s opb er at Lo n do n , to b is F r ie n d Lie n Cb i at
Pe king S wi ft had long ago conceived the idea o f an I ndian

.
vi siting England and S t eele had used it

,
There were besides .
“
150 TH E ENGLI S H E S SAY AND E S SAYI STS

Perhaps a touch o f fellow feeling and personal experience -
,
and certai nl y a kindly sympathy inspired G oldsmith in thes e ,
papers But still for an equal to S ir Roger we must go out

.
,
side the essays to Yk e Vi ca of Wa k efie ld So far then if wer .

, ,
confine the View to the essays the palm must be assigned to ,
Ad di son I n point o f style both are admitted to be masters

.
,
but G oldsmith is the greater o f the t w o He is greater just .
b ecause style in the last resort is insepara b le from thought ;

, ,
just because of that provinciali ty that commonplaceness o f ,
idea whi ch Matthew Arnold detected in Addison and which

, ,
is not in Goldsmith .
Th point is s o important that it deserves a somewhat care

e
ful examination Wherever we test him it will be found that

.
’
G oldsmith is perhaps the m o st original man o f his time W . e
do n o t commo nly associate hi s name with political ideas ;

and yet he gives expression to political conceptions more
profound than any contemporary except Burke had grasped , ,
.
I n the first place Tbe C itize n of tbe Wo r ld makes it evident

,
that Goldsmith w a s a criminal law reformer b efore the days -
o f criminal la w reform ; and the well—

-
known prison scenes in -
Yk e Vi ca r of Wa k efie ld show that hi s protest was not a mere

passing thought but the outcoming o f a deli berate and fixed
,
conviction Again Goldsmith s aw the menace o f the strength

.
,
o f R ussia long b efore those who called themselves statesmen
were awake to it He detected the danger o f the position of

.
England in the American colonies and analysed in a masterly ,
fashi on the pretensions o f England and F ran e to regions c
whi c h b elonged to neither

Wherever the F rench landed they called the country their ,
and t h En glis h took possession Wherever they came

'
o wn ; e ,
upon the same equitable pretensions Th e harmless savages .
made n o opposition ; and could the intruders have agreed ,
together they might peaceably have shared this desolate

,
country b etween them ; b ut they q uarrelled a b out the boun

IMITAT O RS OF STE ELE AND AD D I S O N 15 1
d ari cs Of their settlements ; about grounds and rivers to which

neither side could show any other right than that Of power ,
”
a n d which ne i ther could occupy b ut by usurpation .
I n other S pheres Of thought we find almost equal depth and

originality Th e essay O tbe E nglis b Clergy a n d P op ular
. n ,
P r e a cbe r s is unsurpassed Of its kind and the criticism Of the

, ,
‘
a ttempt t o make converts by appeals to reason shows sound
psychology : Reason is but a weak antagonist when head

long passion dictates in all such cases we should arm one
,
passion against another : it is with the human mind as in

nature from the mixture Of two Opposites the result is most
,
frequently neutral tranquillity ”

.
We even find this inspired idiot in the S phere of

e cono m i cs Th e orthodox economists o f the nineteenth
.
c entury taught that the way to advance w a s to implant

new desires Goldsmith knew it before them S peaking of
. .
the benefits Of luxury in making a people wiser and happier ,
he says : Examine the history Of any country remarkable

for opulence and wisdom yo u will find they would never have
,
been wise had they not b een fir s t luxur io us ; you will find
poets philosophers and even patriots marching in luxury s
, , ,
’
train Th e reason is obvious We then o nly are c urious

. .
after knowledge when w e find it connected with sensual

,
happiness The senses ever point out the w ay and reflection

.
,
c omments on the discovery

”
I t would be easy to carp at
.
t hi s and to point o ut that it is untrue to say that we are

,
c urious after knowledge o ly when it is connected with n
sensual happiness Here is to o ur next discovery and may

.
,
it do no good to anybody is said to have been the toast

”
,
a t a meeting of s a va ts and whether the tale be true o r not

n ,
it faithfully represents the intellectual detachment O f the

,
man Of science I f G oldsmith had b een writing a s ientific

. c
treatise he would dou b tless have been more guarded ; but

,
though he has laid hi m self Open to a superficial criticism what ,

152 T H E ENGLI S H E S SAY AN D E S SAYI STS
he says is sound at the core I t is true that the desire t o .
gratify the senses was at the start and remains still o n e o f the , ,
great causes of the activity o f intellect I t must be admitted .
that Goldsmith w a s not always consistent I n a well known .

-
couplet in Yk e D es er ted Village he insists upon the evil stat e

o f the land
W h e w lt h a u ul t s
er ea d d ycc m a e an m en ec a .
An d though this particular line may be explained in a sens e

consistent with the meaning o f the essay in Tbe Citize n of tbe
Wor ld the whole passage can hardly be s o explained ; nor can
,
the argument with Johnson on the same subj ect whi ch is ,
reported by Boswell Goldsmith then was inconsistent He

.
never harmonised the phases Of truth whi ch he s aw succes

s iv e ly ; but there were f e w men Of his time who s a w s o many .
Perhaps however the most remarkable essay Of all is that

, ,
whi ch tells the Eastern tale Of Asem and in doing s o antici ,
pates one Of the profoundest philosophical theories Of the

nineteenth century I n all ages men have pondered the
.
problem o f evil and it would be rash to s a y that they hav e

,
solved it now But at least it will be confessed that a solutio n

.
which commended itself to Hegel to Hawthorne and t o ,
Browning is worthy o f attention What then shall be said .

, ,
about the man w ho anticipated them all and who long befor e , ,
the earliest Of them taught the doctrine which marked them a s

,
among the most original minds o f their time ? This is what

Goldsmith has done in the extraordinary essay entitled A s e m ,
o r a Vi n di ca ti o n o tbc Wi s do m o
a n E a s te r n 7 a le f f P r o vi de n ce
i n tb e M o r a l G o ve r n m e n t of tbe Wo r ld Th e fact that this essay .
seems to have attracted no great attention is probably to be

explained by its very originality Just a s there were r e .
1
formers before the world w as ripe for reformation s o there may ,
1
A r i w r i B l k w d M g zi
ev e e n ac lu
oo
’
67 d s t auh a ne , vo m e , evo es m c
s p e t th
ac o y b ut i ply t d i gr w it h it th ugh h i
e es s a , s m o th sa ee , o e s on e
wh l ppr i ti e f G ld it h
o e a ec a v o o sm .
15
enjoy ; fortitude li berality friendshi p wisdom conversation
, , , , ,
and love o f country all are virtues entirely unknown here :

,
thus it seems that to b e unacquainted with vice is not to kn ow

, ,
virtue Take me O my Geni us b ack to that very world

.
, ,
which I have de s Pis e d : a world which h as Allah for its contriver

is much more wisely formed than that whi ch has b een pro
e c t e d by Mahomet this is the origin O f the viceless world
j [
it is made by All ah because M ahomet disliked the vice Of the
,
other! I ngratitude contempt and hatred I can now su ff er

.
, , , ,
for perhaps I have deserved them When I arraigned the .
wisdom Of Providence I o nl y showed my own ignorance ; ,
henceforth let me keep from vice myself and pity it in Others ,

.
’
S urely t hi s is far more profound than Addison s Vis io n of

’
M ir za o r any other similar comp s ition Of the eighteenth

,
o
century Go ldsmith is two o r three generations before hi s

.
time : we seem to hear the voice of Browni n g welcomi n g the

b lessed evil and condemning the neutral best O f R e pha n
”
.
,
I f triteness Of idea be the test we can s e ho w Addison may be ,

e
provincial and Goldsmith Of the centre ”

Th e massive .
sense o f Johnson is worthy o f all honour ; but Johnson is in

every fibre a man of hi s o wn time his intellect rarely reaches ,
o ut ,
li ke Goldsmith s to the future There is nothing in
’
, .
Ra s s e las to rival the originality O f A s e m .
There is less need to demonstrate the other merits of Gold

smith once the inspired idi ot is out o f the way and the
, ,
great original genius established in hi s stead Everybody .
acknowledges the wonderful charm o f hi s style Every b ody .
feels the humour Of Beau Ti b bs There is but o n e Opinion .
about the essay o n Westminster Abbey with its solemn ,
beginni ng its satire embittered perhaps by personal r e m in is

, ,
cence on the answerers Of books its excellent ridi cul e O f

,
”
,
the monuments Of nobodies and Of the contemptible demand ,
fo r pay to s e e the show with the gate — keeper s answer As ’

,
for your questions replied the gate—keeper to be sure t hey

,
’
,
IMITAT O RS OF STE ELE AND AD D I S O N 155
may be very right fo r I don t understand them ; but as fo r

,
’
,
that there threepence I farm it from o n e — w ho rents it from

,
another— who hi res it from a thi rd— w ho leases it from the

uardians o f the temple —and we must all live I t is i m
’
g ,
.
possible to m iss the humour Of the N ewgate prisoner s anxiety ’
for the Englishman s prerogative liberty the porter s convi e

’
, ,
’
tion that the F ren h are only fit to carry burthens and the
c ,
s oldier s zeal for religion whi ch is s o impressive to the China

’
,
man Ma y the devil sink me into flames (such was the ,
solemnity O f hi s Objurgation) if the F rench should c ome over

, ,
o ur religion would be utterly undone

”
I t would be easy to
.
multiply examples O f this kind to show that in his lighter vein

,
G oldsmith is the equal o f the b est ; the di ffi culty is rather to

find where there is anythi ng fit to s t in the balance against
e
the political and phi lOS Ophic wisdom O f his weightier papers .
I t is the inspired idiot theory that has prevented the general

recognition Of thi s ; and it may be that as Mr F rankfort ,
.
Moore maintains the origin Of that most unfortunate and

,
most obj ectiona b le theory is to b e found in an Engli sh (and

S cottish) misunderstanding of I rish humour I f so G oldsmith .
,
hoodwinked hi s contemporaries to the serious detriment Of

his o w n fame .
After G oldsmith the periodical essay w a s in decline and no ,
m a n o f fir s t rate ability touched it — the periodical essay o f

-
the literary type that is to s y ; for party men were active

,
a
enough and the warfare between S moll ett in Yk e B r ito n and

,
Wilkes in Yk e N o r ik B r ito n shows that political feeling co ul d

s t ill enlist in its service the most eminent names in literature .
S ome of the Old hands continued to write Colman in Tbe

.
,
Ge i us ( 1 76 1 1 7 62) and in Ter a F ili us

n -
r ,
carried o n the
s ort o f work he had begun in The C o n n o is s e ur Ne w hands.
too were enli sted and some O f them were at least respectable
,
.
Th Es s ay s M o r a l a n d Li te r a ry ( 1 7 7 8 1 779) Of Vic e s im us K nox

e -
,
though they were issued in volumes possess all the character

,
is t ic s the periodical essay Their popularity showed that
o f .
they suited the taste of the time and the fact that many o f ,
them may still be read with pleasure is a proof that they are
compositions Of distinct merit Tbe M ir r o r ( 1 779 —1 7 80) brings
.
us into co n tact with another new writer Henry Mackenzie .
—1 8 1 is best known as the author of Yk e M a n o F eeli n

( 745
1 3 ) f g ,
the very name Of which is apt to excite prejudice in an age

whi ch can hardly bear sentimentali sm from any lesser men
than S terne and G oethe But S cott tells us that Mackenzie w a s
.
gayest o f the gay though most sensitive Of the sentimental ;

,
”
and while 7 be M a n of F eeli ng is the work with whi ch his name

is usually associated he is really at his best in hi s essays in
,
Tbe M irr o r and it s successor Tbe Lo un ger ( 1 7 85 to

,
which also he was the principal contributor .
TO win success with a periodical paper in a narrow society

like that o f Edinburgh in the eighteenth century was far more
diffi cult than it would have been to do s o in London ; and in the
concluding number O f Yk e M ir r or Mackenzie showed that he
wa s fully aware O f the disadvantages under which he laboured .
Th e popularity o f this paper therefore and o f Yk e Lo un ger

, , ,
is all the better testimony to their merits Though they are .
not o f course equal to the best of the London papers they

, , ,
deserve a high place in the second class and o f Mackenzie s ,

’
contributions it is n o t t o o much to s ay that a few Of them wi ll

bear comparison with the best essays by the best essayists .
The character Of the man who is no one s enemy but his o w n

’
is excellent and so is the letter Of Homespun o n the great

,
lady s visit though the debt to Yk e Vi ca r of Wa k efield is too

’
,
great The paper o n Burns (Lo unger N o 9 7) is most honour

.
,
.
able to Mackenzie But his masterpiece is the Godmother

.
(L o un er
g N o L,
amb himself
. could hardly have dra w n
more skilfully the picture of her home and character : S he
had an excellent memory for anecdote ; and her stories though ,
sometimes lo n g w r e never tiresome ; for s he had been a woman

,
e
and the result is that hi s tales are remarkably good Perhaps .
the bes t is the story o f Nicholas Pedrosa .
Witness to the reaction in favour O f a simpler style than

Johnson s is borne also by Yk e M i cr o co s m ( 1 7 86
’
an
E tonian paper whi ch wo uld be worthy Of note even apart
from its quite considera b le merits I n the Ope ning number .
G regory Griffin as the editor called himself says that in the

, ,
miniature world o f Eton the Observer may s e the embryo e
statesman who hereafter may wield and direct at pleasure

,
the mighty and complex system o f European Politics now ,
employing the whole extent of his abili ties to circumvent hi s

companions at their plays o r adjusting the important differ ,
e n c e s whi ch may arise between the conten di ng heroes Of his
little circle ; or a general the future terror o f F rance and S pain

, ,
n o w the dread only o f his equals and t h undisputed lord and ,

e
president o f the boxing ring S O true is thi s that o n e Of the

-
.
”
principal writers to Tbe M icr o co s m w a s Canning destined

‘
,
afterwards to wield the whole power o f the state ; and though

Arthur Wellesley had left a few years before he had fought ,
there B o b us S mith another o f the contributors and con

, ,
quered hi m as he afterwards conquered mightier foes Yk e .
M i cr o co s m was not quite s o happy in i t s assertion that the

Grays and Wallers o f the rising generation here tune their
little lyres ”
Th e authors of the Ly r i ca l B alla ds were n o t
.
reared at Eton n o r were the other leaders Of the revolutions

,
in poetry except S helley who was unborn in the day o f Yk e

, ,
M i cr o co s m .S till the man to whom Byron owed the stanz a o f

,
B epp o and Do n yua n is n o t altogether negligible in the hi story

o f poetry ; and John Ho o kh a m F rere too was a contributor to
the Eton paper There was abundance o f talent in these

.
young writers and their periodi cal shows a maturity both O f

,
thought and o f style which is surprisin g in View Of their

b oyish years At the same time it cannot be pretended that
.
,
their own merit would gi ve these papers a permanent place in

IMITAT O RS OF STE ELE AND ADDIS O N 15
9
literature . After
the lapse o f a century they are interesting
not s o much in themselves as for the after history of the -
wri ters.
Drake continues his indispensable guidance till 1 809 ; b ut

o f the fifty papers o r more that he enumerates after Yk e
Obs e r ver o nl y one had gained a place in the classical canon ;

and though D rake calls Yk e Lo o k e r o n ( 1 79 2 by William
-
”
Roberts an elegant and inst r uctive work it is s o entirely a
, ,
weak imitation o f Yk e S p e ta to r as to be hardl y readable at

c
the present day Th e periodical essay was dying I t had

. .
survived for a hundred years some new paper from time t o ,
time rising b y the merit o f an unusually brilliant contributo r

o r group o f contributors above the mass Of mediocre stuff .
But change of circumstances made the decay n o w permanent .
Th e novel was displacing the short story and a new class O f ,
periodicals was S pringing up a class catering by a mor e , ,
complex organisation for more varied needs ,

.
S trictly perhaps it is only the writers of periodical essay s

, ,
who ought to be described as imitators o f S teele and Addison ;

but in some degree all the essayists o f the eighteenth century
were indebted to them and it will be convenient to notice here
,
a few writers who have been passed over in tracing the line
o f the periodi cals Th e first in order is Henry S t John Lo rd
. .
,
Bolingbroke ( 1 67 8 Like most writers o f his time ,
Bolingbroke occasionally contributed to the periodical papers ;

but it is not for his essays in Yk e Exa m in er and Yk e Cr afts m a n
that he is remembered I n all hi s works it must be confessed
.
that he is exceedingly disappointing His skill is indisputable .

,
and yet the m odern reader is left wondering at the reputation

he once enjoyed He has nothing to commend him but style ;
.
and style somehow refuses to be divorced from substance

, , ,
d loses it s power to charm when it is s o divorced Boling .
b roke has been praised by no less a critic than Lord Morley

as ranking in all that musicians call execution only belo w
, ,
1 60 T H E E N GLI S H E S SAY AND E SSAYI STS
the thr ee o r four hi ghest masters o f English prose But the .
fl
same writer adds that Of a ll the writing in o ur literature hi s ,
”
is the hollowest the as hi es t the most insincere
, ,
An d .
certainl y the second pronouncement is required to qualify the

first As far as mere device of words and structure of sentence
.
go the praise emphatic as it is is probably deserved

, , ,
But .
for really effective style something more is required Th e .
decisive condemnation o f Bolingbroke is that faultless as his ,
writings are when regarded analytically hardly a sentence of ,
his grips the mind and remains there— a thing whi ch cannot
b e said o f any writer who deserves to be called great I t can .
b e said of none of Bolingbroke s more prominent contempo

’
raries S wift Ad di son S teele F ielding have all wr itten

.
, , ,
t hi n s that refuse to b e for otten S have hi s successors

m an
y g g o .
,
Johnson and Goldsmith I n Bolingbroke memorable phrases

.
like that about Ben Jonson He invades authors like a

monarch ; and what would be theft in other poets is only
.
victory in him — are the rarest thi ngs imaginable .
Th e reasons why Bolingbroke is so unsatisfactory are two .
His thought is platitude He makes a parade Of philosophy

.
,
b ut gives expression to not one memorable principle even in ,
that S phere o f poli tics with which he ought to have been

familiar F amili ar with it in a sense he certainly was but
.
,
fa m iliar with its trickery rather than it s underlying principles .
An d hence he is best not in a pretentious piece like Yk e I de a

,
of a P a tr i o t K i ng but in t h e Le tte r to S i
,
Willia m Win dba m
r ,
with its caustic criticism of the Pretender and in the three ,
papers Yk e Occas io n a l Wr ite r satirising Walpole S uper

, ,
.
ficiality in p hi losophy might however be alleged against

, ,
many who have nevertheless been e ff ective essayists Addi son

was not partic ularly profound and still less was S teele A
,
.
more serious defect is the insincerity o f Bolingbroke Thi s .
precludes that sense o f contact with the man whi ch atones for
simplicity o f thought and sometimes even for tritenes s
,
.
1
77 )
6 the profoundest o f British philosophers in the eighteenth
century is a long step But the greatness of Hume cannot be
.
adequately shown here ; for in S pite o f hi s admirably lucid

,
style it is a greatness in phi losophy more than in literature ;

,
and though he posse s sed some o f the most enga ging qualities
of the essayist he was too formal in hi s essays to show them
,
freely That he possessed such qualities is evident chi efly

.
from his letters and from hi s admirable autobiography These .
show the loathed and dreaded sceptic as o n e of the most

amiable and honourably independent of men I n respect Of .
independence he is not unworthy o f comparison with Words

worth hi m self for he was as resolute as the poet to preserve
,
by frugality his intelle tual freedom c .
Hume has put it o n record that in his youth he was as

much attra c ted towards belle s le ttr es as towards philosophy ;
but excellent as is his literary style there can b e little
, ,
doubt that his choice of phi losophy was fortunate I f he .
had devoted himself exclusively to pure literature he would ,
certainl y have been far less original than he was in philosophy ,
and no revolution would have been associated with his name ,
as it is with that o f the man w ho roused K ant from his dog

matic slum b er ”
Hume s li terary tastes were wholly those o f
.
’
the eighteenth century As regards appreciation o f S hake

.
S peare he w a s a Philistine O f the Phi listines He w a s a great .
“
adm irer of the F ren h and held that with regard to the
c ,
stage they have excelled even the Greeks who far excelled the ,
English He admired that extraordinary epi c Tbe Ep igo i d

”
.
,
n a
o f Wilkie ; and though friendship may in thi s instan c e have

led hi s judgment astray he is s o purely classical in the
, ,
’
eighteenth century meaning o f the word that we who have

-
,
been touched b y romance can sympathise with Coleridge s ’
contempt for his literary judgments .
N evertheless it is impossi b le not to regret that Hume di d

,
not infuse a larger portion o f the literary in another sense ,

IMITAT O RS OF STE ELE AND ADDI S O N 1 63
than the critical into his essays O ne great section o f these

,
.
are simply the Tr e a tis e of H um a n N a tur e boiled down and

rewritten with the more skilful pen o f a w r it e r n o w experienced .
They are an integral part o f philosophy O thers are described

.
as moral political and literary

,
”
I t is here principally that
.
the Hume with whom we are concerned sho ws himself and ,
here w e may legitimately regret that the literary element is

not predominant Th whole atmosphere is phi losophi cal
. e ,
and though the style is such as phi losophers — English phi lo

S ophers at least— have rarely written w e should hardly ,
suspect that the essays were written by a man who had been
at any time equally interested in things literary They reveal .
a mind extraordinarily keen to detect fallacy and fertile o f

profound suggestions drawn from philosophy and history .
A few sentences expose the fallacy of the arguments that

friendshi p cannot be disinterested and that the virtuous are
,
virtuous for the sake o f praise A single sentence in the ess ay

.
Of tbe Li ber ty of tbe P r es s condenses the result o f much reading

and much reflection ; and it is a result worthy o f attention in
these days of triumphant and confident democracy : I t will
be found if I mistake not a true observation in politics that
, , ,
the two extremes in go v e r n m e n t lib e r t y and slavery commonly

, ,
approach nearest to each other S ometimes Hume s illus

.
’
t r t io n s combine simplicity and aptness in a remarkable degree

a
and clinch an argument s o that there is no more to be said .
I n the essay Of Elo q ue n e he is arguing that where a number

c
of men are nearly equal the fact o f their equality is probably

due to their mediocrity and he goes o n : A hundred cabinet
,
makers i n London can work a table o r a chair equally well but ,
no one poet can write verses with such S pirit and elegance as
M Pope
r . .
”
Hume in a confidential moment explains hi s o w n method ,
and reveals the secret o f his e ff ectiveness in argument

and o f t he gr at influence he exercised in several fi lds — i n
'
e e
16
'

metaphysics in economi s and in political speculation
,
c .
’
When I am present he says at any di spute I always con

”
, , ,
s ider with myself whether it be a question o f comparison o r

,
not that is the subj ect o f the controversy ; and if it be whether ,
the disputants compare the same o b j ects together o talk o f ,

r
things that are wholly different ”

Th e most famous of all
.
Hume s essays is that on miracles I t w a s this even more

’
.
,
than the profoundly sceptical character o f hi s p hi losophy that ,
made his a name of fear to hi s contemporar ies ; because co m

ar a t iv e l f w c ould understand the argument about cause
e
p y ,
while all could follow more or less the reasoning on miracles

, ,
.
I t proceeds o n precisely the principle laid down above Th e .
matter is a question o f c omparison between the weight to be

a ssigned to human testimony and that to be attributed to the
c onjoint experience o f mankind as to the uniformity of the
laws of nature Hume s contention that the latter must

.
’
.
always outweigh the former made a profound impression at

the time To the modern man o f science it is less satisfactory
. .
We may take Huxley as representative and Huxley s view is ,

’
that human testimony if it be only su fficient in quantity and

,
s atisfactory in quality will not only shake but overthrow

,
an
y
‘
law based ’
o n experience I t is less generally.re og c
n is e d that the argument o f the essay is inconsistent with the
fundamental principle o f Hume s o w n phi losophy I f cause ’

.
itself is only invariable sequence how can we refuse to credit ,
a concurrence o f testimony t o the fact that the sequence has
c eased to be invariable ? U nconsciously Hume had gone ,
b ack to that necessity which he had before rej ected and ,
a rgued very much as if there was something in nature i r r e v o c
a bly fixed and immutably certain .
Th e storm that broke over Hume s head on o n e occasion

’
threatened hi s life if we may believe the story o f the woman

,
who refused to pull hi m out o f a bog hole until he had repeated -
the Lord s Prayer ; but it produced nothing worth remember

’
CHAPTER VI I
T HE T RA N S I T I O N FR O M T HE I
E GH T E E N T H C E N TU RY
HE inherits more o f the S pirit o f S teele than any man since

his time .
”
S uch is the Opinion pronounced in Ta ble Ta lk by -
Hazlitt a b out Leigh Hunt and if there be any doubt about

,
its soundness it can onl y be with respect to the eighteenth

, “
century imitators Of S teele I f we limit ourselves to the nine

.
t e e n t h century it is lear that Leigh Hunt has more a ffi nity

,
c
to the Queen An ne essayists than any contemporary o r s uc
fl
cessor Th e c lose association O f Hazlitt himself with Hunt
.
in some o f the enterprises in which this a i n it y was shown

makes it convenient to take the two together and to treat them ,
as the writers who illustrate the transition from the charac

t e r is t i c manner o f the eighteenth century .
Leigh Hunt ( 1 7 84—1 85 9) was a literary man O f all— work - -

,
whose struggles fo r a livelihood fill an interesting and not un

important chapter in the history o f literature Like S teele .
,
he was important not only perhaps n o t even chiefly for what

, ,
he hi mself wrote b ut also for what he occasioned others

,
to write Like S teele he was extraordi narily and indeed

.
,
culpably improvident I t is difficult to pardon hi s dealings

.
with hi s friends in the matter Of money I n o n e year he .
borrowed from S helley £ 1 00 which he never repaid

4 ,
O n the .
contrary he borrowed further sums and left these likewise

, ,
unpaid Ye t the generous lender in the dedication o f Tbe

.
,
Ce n ci calls hi m gentle honoura b le innocent and brave ”

.
, , ,
There were t wo sides to the character o f Hunt ; a side whi ch

w o n the love o f such men as S helley and Lamb and another ,
which is pardonable only o n the supposition that he w a s in

TRANS ITI O N F R O M THE 181 11 C ENTURY 1 67
certain respects abnormal and was hardly more responsible

,
than a blind man is fo r failure to s e e I t is well known that .
Dickens was supposed to have painted him in Harold S ki m

pole and that the novelist denied having done s o But
,
.
Macaulay who knew the facts Of Hunt s life in some Of the

,
’
,
last lines he ever wrote expressed his surprise at the denial

,
.
There is much truth in the judgment o f Byron lively and ,
sarcastic but not ma lignant : Leigh Hunt is a good man and

,
a good father— see his O des to all the Masters Hunt ;— a good
husband— see his sonnet to Mr s Hunt ; —a good friend— see .
hi s Epistles to di ff erent people —and a great coxcomb and a

”
very vulgar person in everything about hi m Hunt brought .
upon hi mself the publication o f this letter which contains ,
other severe things a s well as the phrases just quoted ; fo r

Moore notes that he had omitted the part dealing with Hunt ,
but decided t o restore it o n account Of the tone o f Hunt s book ’
—that is to say Lo r d B r o n a n d b is C o n te m p o r ar ies with

, y
regard to which the best that can be said is that Hunt himself
repented that he had written it .
F rom 1 80 8 when in alli ance with Hazlitt he started Tb e

, , ,
Exa m in e r as a S unday paper for the discussion O f politics ,
domestic economy and theatricals for about thirty years , ,
Hunt w a s the most active o f literary journalists playing in his
fl
,
time many parts and editing many periodi cals About t wo .
years after Tbe Exa m i er he started Tbe Re e cto ( 1 81 0—1 81

n r
a quarterly magazine dealing with politics as well as literature ,
for whi ch Lamb and others wrote as well as Hunt But .
Hunt s politics were o f a kind which in those days were not

’
altogether safe He was charged with libelling the Prince

.
R egent in Tb e Exa m in e r and was imprisoned for two years

,
.
Th e most serious consequences Of the case however were the , ,
expenses in whi ch it involved Hunt and his brother ; and these

s a t lightly enough on a person o f Hunt s peculiar ideas on
’
questions Of m e um and tuum The imprisonment did not inter

.
rupt hi s literary work while it gave hi m a prominence to attain
,
whi ch he must otherwise have worked fo r years S ome time .
after his release he made a notable new development in Tbe

E xa m i n e
r . He planned a series o f papers in conscious imita
tion o f Tbe S p e cta to r and Tbe Ta tler and these papers were ,
pu b lished in Tbe Ex m i n e under the title Of Tbe Ro u d Table

a r n .
But circumstances caused the plan to be modified and made ,
the resem b lance to the Queen Anne w riters less close than it
wa s meant t o be Hazlitt has related how the landing of
.
Napoleon from El b a dissolved the Round Table and drew the

attention o f the editor from the characteristic part o f the work
to politi s Thus it came about that Tbe Ro un d Ta ble as it
c .
,
was actually executed was mai nl y the work of Hazlitt and

, ,
that it consists prin ipally o f literary riticism

c c .
Before the close o f hi s editors hi p o f Tbe Exa m i n er Hunt had

started Tbe I n dic to whi ch lived for about a year and a half
a r, ,
from the autumn o f 1 81 9 to the S pring of 1 82 1 The title was .
taken from a b ird o f that name who shows people where ,
to find wild honey and it is a better guide to the contents

,
than most titles Th editor flattered hi mself with a charac

. e ,
t e r is t i c touch o f vanity that there was nothing temporary

,
whatsoever in it I t was followed b y Tbe Li be r a l ( 1 82 2—1 82

”
.
in whi ch Hunt w a s associated with Byron and S helley Then .
c ame Tbe Li te r ry Exa m i n e r

a and after a few years , ,
Tbc Co m p a n i o n which was practically a revival o f

Tb e I n di c to a r I t is the t w o last named periodicals which
.
-
make Hunt pre eminently the nineteenth century e m b o di

- -
ment of the Queen Anne S pirit A little later still Hunt .

,
figures as a sort o f nineteenth century D efoe edi ting and -

,
hi mself writing for more than a year a daily paper Tb e ,
Ta tle r ( 1 83 0 Even D efoe had at no time issued

more than five numbers o f the Re vie w a week— great and
little together Hunt had not D efoe s marvellous abundance
.
’
,
the strain was too great and his healt h w as seriously shaken
, .
worth s second chil dh ood had followed close o n the first and
’
,
makes Apollo between anger and mir t h a s k whether there

, ,
were ever such asses o n earth as the two of them S cott w a s .
abused as well Wa s it a pure accident that all the three

.
po ets thus reviled were Tories ? I t seems possible that when

the chi ef o f the Cockney S chool as Hunt w as thought to b e
, ,
was attacked by B la ck wo o d he was o nl y hoist with a petard

,
s imilar to hi s o wn though it may be even more evil smelling

, , ,
-
.
Th vir us o f party would seem to have attacked Hunt as well

e
as his Opponents There is o n e other failing to remember

.
as against the praise which some have showered upon Hunt s ’
criticism That vulgarity with whi ch Byron charged him

.
a ff ected the mind as well as the manners and it is the secret ,
o f the extraordinary coincidence o f expressi on as well as feeling
whi ch Lang has noted between K eats Hunt s friend and ,

’
,
Lockhart hi s enemy as we may not unfairly call the

,
B la ck wo o d reviewer Each in identical words and doubt

.
, ,
less without knowledge the o n e of the other charges Hunt ,
with making beautiful things hateful ”

I t is a very .
severe condemnation o f any critic Th e first impulse is to .
recoil from it ; for the edited and expurgated Hunt is Often

highly attractive But the second and b etter thought is to
.
try to explain it ; and the explanation seems to lie in Hunt s ’
vulgarity We can s e e traces o f t hi s even in the edited

.
volum es ; and the fault is more conspicuous in the une dited

essays Hunt was a sentimentalist— there is a hi nt o f thi s
.
too in the quotation from Byron ; and like other senti ,
mentalists he was apt to overdo thi ngs to b e mawkish By

, ,
.
the very type o f his intellect he tended to reduce the beautiful

to the pretty We need not sym pathise with the virul ent con
.
de m n a ti o n pronounced upon the poem by Lockhart in order

to see something o f thi s in Tbe S to ry of Ri m in i Contrast it .
with the S tern simplicity o f the passage in Dante o n whi ch it is

founded and at once the sentimentalist the devotee of the
, ,
TRANS ITI O N F R O M T H E I ST H C E NTURY 171
pretty is apparent What Hunt exhibited in his o w n works

,
.
he not unnatu r ally admired in the works Of others This j arred .
fl
upon the fastidious mind o f Lockhart and shocked the Greek
taste o f K eats .
it would be unjust to leave the impression that Hunt

a s a critic is deserving merely o f censure O n the contrary .
,
within his o wn limits and for purposes S imply of appreciation ,
he is admirable Those who have lavished praise o n hi s

.
criticism have been wrong only in neglecting the other side .
I n order to strike the just mean it is necessary t o remember

two thi ngs : first that where any sort o f prej udice is roused
,
Hunt s j udgment is worthl ess Hence the censures o f Tbe

’
.
F e a s t of tbe P o e ts He was no worse than his contemporaries

.
,
b ut neither was he any better Th second point to r e . e
member is that in censure even when it is unprejudiced Hunt , ,
is seldom happy Th e reason is that though he makes a S how

.
o f reasoning he merely feels He w a s singularly sensitive and

.
,
s o when he trusted feeling he w a s almost invariably right .
This is the secret of the charm of such o f hi s critical work as

remains still easily accessible Hunt communi cates to the .
reader hi s own happy enjoyment He has an atmosphere o f .
genial good nature Th e partisan is forgotten ; he w a s never

-
.
the real Hunt ; it was the force o f circumstances rather than

predilection that made him play the part He does himself .
justice only when he forgets that he has a part to play ; and

it is then that we get glimpses of the man whom S helley and
Lamb lo v ed and o n whom Carlyle and Ma aulay looked at
,
c
least with friendly eye .
Th other side o f Leigh Hunt s work is more important for

e
’
the present purpose F o r the last century w e have had many

.
c ritics but comparatively fe w essayists who coul d and would

,
b e confidential Hunt w a s s o always ; it w as hi s nature and

.
,
nature will o ut even in criticism But there are degrees ;

,
.
and while the man Hunt is never far in the background there
, ,
1 72 THE ENGLI S H E S SAY AND E SSAYI STS
are essays— many in Tbe I n di ca to r and Tbe C o m p a n io n some ,
in most o f the collections— in which he comes prominently

into the foreground S uch essays are his most pleasing pro
.
duc t i n s
o Th A uto bi gr p by so readable so likea b le some
. e o a , , ,
times s o uncons iously amusing may be regarded as an

c ,
e nlarged essay o f the sort I t is thi s intimacy whi h gives

. c
charm to those favourites o f Lam b the papers o n Co a cbes ,
a n d tb e i H o s e s and the pathetic o n e on the De tbs f Li ttle

r r a o
Cb ildr e n There are reminde r s o f Lam b himself i n su h

. c
papers Th e likeness is very striking in that admirable o n

. e,
the I s i de f
n Om n ibus in M e Wo m e n a n d B o o k s W
o an ,
n, ,
. e
seem to b e reading Lamb hi mself when Hunt calls the omnibus

the man—o f—war among coaches — the whale s back in the ,
’
metropolitan flood and when he goes o n W cannot s y

”
, ,
e a
much for the beauty o f the omni b us ; but there is a certain

might o f utility in its very b ulk whi ch supersedes the necessity
,
o f beauty as in the case o f the whale itself o r in the idea that

, ,
we entertain o f D r Johnson w ho shouldered porters as he went

.
,
and laughed like a rhi no eros

‘
Hunt s kin dl y humanity
c .
’ ’
is pleasantly ill ustrated in the remarks o n an imprisoned eagle

in A Vis it to tbe Z o o logic l G r de n s ; the very S pirit of the
a a
country is in Tbe M auth of M y and it wo ul d b hard to cona e
c e iv e a better rendering in words of the impression produced
by a hot day in summer than that whi ch he gives in A N o w .
Evidently it was a sound instinct that turned Hunt for a

model t o the Queen Anne essayists ; for the qualities he di s
plays are mu c h the same as theirs But there is a difference .
in the proportions in whi c h the ingredients are mingled .
Addison and S teele were almost wholly men o f the town ;

Hunt was a man o f the town too ; b ut he was by nature and ,
he never ceased to be a man o f the country as well Hence

, .
arti cles such as those last mentioned are far more frequent
in his case than in theirs while arti les on the follies of the
,
c
town and the fripperies o f fashi on are less frequent .

'

reading observation disposition into o n e web Of experience
, , ,
—all t hi s is seen and heard in a single passage

What a walk is this to me ! I have no need o f book or
companion— the days the hours the thoughts o f my youth
, ,
are at my side and blend with the air that fans my cheek
, .
Here I can saunter for hours bending my eye forward stop

, ,
ping and turning to look back thinking to strike o ff into some

,
less trodden path yet hesitating to quit the one I am in afraid

, ,
to snap the b rittle threads o f memory I remark the shi ning .
trunks and S lender branches of the birch trees waving in the ,
idl e b reeze ; o r a pheasant S prings up o n whi rring wing ;

or I recall the spot where I once found a wood pigeon at the -
foot of a tree weltering in its gore and think ho w many

, ,
seasons have flown S ince it left its little life in air D ates .
’
,
names faces come ba c k— to what purpose ? O r why think

,
o f them n o w ? O r rather why not thi nk o f them oftener ?

-
We walk thr ough life as through a narrow path with a thi n

, ,
curtain drawn around it ; behi nd are ranged rich portraits ,
airy harps are strung yet we will not stretch forth o ur hand
-
and lift aside the veil to catch glimpses o f the o n e o r sweep

, ,
the chords o f the other As in a theatre when the o ld

.
,
fashi oned green curtain drew up groups of figures fantastic , ,
dresses laughing faces rich banquets stately columns

, , , ,
gleaming vistas appeared beyond ; s o we have o nly at any

time to peep through the blanket o f the past to possess ,
’
ourselves at once o f all that has regaled o ur senses that is ,
stored up in our memory that has struck o ur fancy that has

, ,
pierced out hearts : yet to all thi s we are indi ff erent insensible , ,
and seem intent o nl y o n the present vexation the future ,

”
di sappointment .
I t was long however before Ha z litt reached s o hi gh a

, ,
point as this where for wealth o f intellect and imagination

,
and for nervous English he is the rival o f t h e greatest He .
himself says strangely an improving poet never becomes a

, ,
TRANS ITI O N F R O M TH E I STH C ENTURY 1 75
great o ne He forgets S hakespeare though he criticised

.
’7
,
hi m s o often and so well ; for up to the mid dl e o f his career

S hakespeare w a s an improving poet if ever there was o n ,
e .
He forgets hi mself ; for though he wa s not a poet there are

, ,
poetic qualities all through the work o f Hazlitt as there are ,
in the passage just quoted ; and we have his o wn word fo r it

that hi s power o f expression was o f slow growth I t is true .
he was precocious and wrote well enough at thirteen to be

,
accepted by a newspaper But in the essay On P ubli c Op in io n

.
he says with truth that his writings are not s o properly the
works o f an author by profession a s the thoughts o f a meta ,
physi cian expressed by a painter ; and again : Till I began

to paint o r till I became acquainted with the author o f Tbe
,
A n cie t M ar i n e r I could neither write nor S peak S till

”
n ,
.
more emphatic testimony to the influence o f Coleridge is

borne by M y F ir s t A cq ua in ta n ce wi tb P o e ts .
1
S uch then is the genesis and such the character o f the style
o f Hazlitt He started a metaphysician accustomed to
.
,
meditate o n F ate F ree Will Fo r k n o w l dge absolute

, ,
”
e e .
Encouraged by Coleridge he wrote hi s first book a philo ,
sophical o n e ; and it was as hard and dry as the hardest and

driest treatise o f the S cottish school— in fin it e ly harder and
drier than that Tr ea tis e of Hum a n N a tur e whose superiority ,
to the essays of its author Hazlitt was o n e o f the first to

appreciate Th e latter are by comparison he says mere
.
, ,
elegant trifling light summer reading

,
”
Then the meta .
physician becomes a painter and colour and glow are added “

,
to the style Most o f this work had been done before Hazlitt
.
began to write the essays by whi ch he is n o w known ; but still ,
wi thi n the period of the writings whi ch are read to this day
there is ample evidence of that improvement whi ch he deemed
1
A n d y e t it a pp z
e ar s th at H a litt w o e t h e h i hlrt g y
o b jec t io n a b le
ar t icle ab o ut C g
o le r id e in The E di n b ur h R e vi e w g 1 81 6 V e r il
, t he . y
y t y
wa s o f t h e c r i ic s o f t h e e ar l n i n e t e e n t h c e n t u ar e ry
as t fi n in o utp d g .
the mark o f me diocrity at least in poets I f a list of favourite
,
.
essays were drawn o ut a very large percentage o f them would

,
b e found to belong t o the last decade o f Ha z lit t s life

’
.
E arly in hi s career Hazlitt w a s associated with Co b bett ,
to whose Regis te r he contributed letters in reply to Malthus .
Th e t w o men were uni ted by common politi al principles and c ,
b oth in particular hated and tried to despise Malthus But .
the personal relations between them were slight : Hazlitt

s ays that he s w Cobbett only once
a F a r more important .
wa s the connexion between Hazlitt and Hunt Much of .
Ha z lit t s best work was done fo r periodicals o f which the

’
latter was or had been editor His connexion with Tbe

, , .
Ex m i n e r to whi h he continued to contribute after Hunt

a ,
c
had ceased to be editor was S pecially important Among ,

.
periodicals outside the Hunt group he contributed to Tbe ,
N e w M o n tbly M ga z i e Tbe E di burgb Re vie w and from its

a n ,
n , ,
foundation in 1 820 to the memorable Lo n do n M ga zi n e

,
a .
Ha z lit t s essays like Hunt s are divisible into t wo classes

’
,
’
,
essays in literary riti cism and essays o n miscellaneous

c ,
4 subj ects the latter b eing often o f an intimate and personal

,
nature I n b oth S pheres Hazlitt stands very high ; in both

.
he is di stinguished above all for just that quality whi ch Hunt

lacked— virili ty As a critic he is hardly surpassed in Engli sh
.
,
unless it be by Coleridge and Lamb both o f whom had the ,
indescribable and incommunicable power of divination the ,
hi ghest and rarest o f all critical gifts whi ch Hazlitt lacked ,

.
He achi eves hi s ends in criticism b y virtue o f a sound but not

an inspired taste an understan di ng o f ultra masculine strength
,
-
,
trained powers o f reasoning and a most incisive style He .
had thus the two gifts o f which Hunt possessed o nl y o n

,
e .
These critical gifts are displayed in two volumes o f essays

— Cba r cter s o
f S b k es pe a r e s P lays and Tbe S p ir i t of tbe
’
a a
Age and also in three volumes o f le c tures whi ch have

,
much t h e character o f essays— Le ctur es o n tbe Englis b P o ets

o
f tbc Age in
; the former because it was H a z li t t s special
’
subj ect ; in the latt er notwithstanding some blurs from the

,
acid b ecause it was written by Hazlitt at the very acme of

,
hi s po w e r s and dealt with subj ects his interest in which

'
could not fail to be personal N o critical document more .
instructive has come down to us Every judgment it . ,
contains is worthy of careful consideration though not ,
all are likely to b e accepted now But the instruction .
is hardly les s from what is omitted than from what is in

cluded I t is one o f the enigmas o f the criticism o f the
.
period that there is no essay o n S helley or o n K eats Had .
the author been Je ff rey o r Lo ckhart there would have been

little cause for surprise ; but how are we to explain such
omissions o n the part o f a leader o f the romantic school o f
criticism— o f a member moreover o f that s o called Cockney
, ,
-
S chool t o whi ch K eats also was supposed to b elong ?

,
Judged by what it contains Tbe S p ir i t of tbe Age is Open to

,
the criticism that it shows the prejudice whi ch is the S pecial

danger o f the criti ism o f contemporaries as well as that
c ,
acidity already noted Fo r illustration o f the former it is

.
suffi cient to contrast the articles o n Giff ord and on Jeffrey .
Th e severity with which the former is treated w a s in Hazlitt , ,
natural and excusable There is moreover much truth in

.
, ,
the criticism But assuredly the essay was not written in a

.
j udicial S pirit I t is prejudiced a personal grudge is as gall

.
,
in the ink Je ff rey certainly deserved better than Giff ord ;

.
but from Hazlitt Je ff rey gets more generous treatment than

is accorded to men who are unquestionably superior in turn
to him But for the purposes o f literature Gi ff ord was the
Q
,
.
,
ua r te r ly and Je ff rey was the Edin burgb and the organs are ,
contrasted as well as the men Here it is that the obli quity

.
o f H a z li t t s vision is betrayed
’
.
“
I n Tbc Edi bu gb Revie w the talents o f those o n the
n r
opposite side are always extolled ple n o o r e —in Tbe uar ter ly , Q
TRANSITI O N F R O M T H E I ST H C ENTURY 17
9
Review they are denied altogether and the justice that is in

,
this way withheld from them is compensated by a proportion

able supply o f personal abuse A man o f genius who is a lord
.
,
and who publishes with Mr Murray may now and then S tand
.
,
as good a chance as a lord who is not a man o f genius and who

publishes with Messrs Longman : but that is the utmost
Q
.
extent of the impartiality o f the ua r te r ly F rom its account .
you would take Lord Byron and Mr S tuart Rose fo r two very
.
pretty poets ; but Mr Moo re s Magdalen Muse is sent to Bride

.
’
well without mercy t o beat hemp in silk stockings I n the

Q
.
,
uar te r ly nothing is regarded but the political creed o r external

circumstances of a writer ; in the Edi burgb nothi ng is ever n
adverted to but hi s literary merits O r if there is bias o f

.
any kind it arises from an aff ectation o f in agn a n im it y and

,
candour in giving heaped measure to those o n the aristo

”
c ratic side in politics and in being critically severe o n others
,
.
Th e c ritic of the critics doth protest too much I t would .
have been wiser to admit the existence of a few S pots in the

s un ; the reader is put upon hi s guard by the unmeasured
praise fo r impart iality o f an organ written a lmost wholly by
Whigs and an unqualified condemnation o f a rival organ
,
written almost wholly by Tories I t is the extreme o f the

.
partisan S pirit to s e e nothing but stai nless whi te o n o n e side

and only the blackness o f the pit o n the other Clearly Hazlitt .
will prove no safe guide where party prejudice can enter .
Evidences o f the bitterness o f Hazlitt are to be found every

where They are s o frequent as to give a tone to the whole
.
o f his criticism and they leave the impression o f a c e r t a in J

,
want o f generosity I t is true he a wards praise as well as

.
censure but there is hardly an essay in Tbe S p ir i t of tbe Age

, e
whi h would be described as warm hearted unless it be t h

c -
,
e
page o r two devoted to Leigh Hunt Even where Ha z lit t s .

’
prejudices incline hi m to favour the writer he is criticising , ,
he usually qualifies his approval s o a s to make it hardly

180 TH E ENGLI S H E S SAY AN D E S SAYI STS
palatable to the subj ect of it Thus he does more than j ustice
.
to S ir James Mackintosh but hi s panegyric is almost annulled

,
by the remark that there was nothing original in hi m Mr . .
Macki n tosh s Lectures he says

’ ”
were after all but a kind of
, ,
philosophical centos They were profound b rilliant new to

.
, ,
hi s hearers ; b ut the profundity the brilliancy the novelty , ,
were not hi s own He w as like D r Pangloss (not Voltaire s

. .
’
,
but Coleman s) who S peaks o nl y in quotations ; and the pith

’
, ,
the marrow of S ir James s reaso ning and rhetoric at that

,
’
memorable period might be put within inverted commas .

”
O r take again the essays on Coleridge and on Wordsworth .
Though the critic is conscious that the poets are men o f high
endo wment there is somethi ng grudging in the a ck n o wle dg
,
ment and there is n o s t in t when he comes to pointing o ut

, .
d efects Even though most of the defects are real a more

.
,
generous man wo uld either not have pointed them o ut at all ,
o r he wo uld have contrived a di fi e r e n t w a of doing so

y .
Tru t h is goo d but not all truth at all times ; and a llusions to
,
Wordsworth as the S poiled child o f di sappointment o r to ”

,
Co leridge s Opium habit are in bad taste : Alas ! F railty

’
, ,
thy name is Ge n i us — What is become O f all thi s mighty

heap o f hope o f thought of lear ning and humani ty ? I t h as
, , ,
ended in swallowing doses O f oblivion and in writing para

graphs in the Co ur ier — S uch and s o little is the m i nd of man !
.
He who wishes to understand why notwithstanding draw ,
backs s o serious Hazlitt remains unsurpassed in English e riti

,
c is m except by Coleridge and Lamb— perhaps if allowance be ,
made fo r the mass o f his work unsurpassed by any— has o nl y ,
to turn to the S plen di d paragraph imme di ately prece di ng thi s

quotation— where through t w o pages before we reach a full
,
stop in English crystal—

,
clear though loaded with thought and
rich with colour Hazlitt traces the hi story o f Coleridge s mind
,
’
from his absorption in the system o f Hartley Wh o else could .
have written it ? Here in the proverbial nutshell are the

, ,
182 T H E ENGLIS H E SSAY AND E S SAYISTS
great poet a n d in these days would have had a n extensive
,
knowledge o f records ”
He was alive to the S hortcomings
.
o f the man who limited his interest to books and wrote pun ,
gently o n the ignorance o f the learned Were he livin g

.
no w ,
he woul d be among those educational reformers who
insist that the most serious defect of o ur system is that it is
too booki sh He liked to satirise men of one idea A philo
. .
sopher himself he yet saw as clearly as any one the absurdity

,
o f drag i ng formal p hi losophy into everything ome he

”
g S .
,
says descant o n the K antean phi losophy There is a con

,
.
c e i t e d fellow about town who talks always and everywhere
on this subj ect He wears the Categories round his neck

.
like a pearl chain ; he plays o ff the names o f the primary and

-
transcendental qualities like rings o n hi s fingers He talks o f .
the K antean sys tem while he dances ; he talks o f it while he

di nes he talks of it to his chi ldren to his apprentices to his
, , ,
customers ”
Elsewhere he remarks that
. he must be a poor
creature indeed whose practical convictions do not in almost
all cases outrun his deliberate understanding ”
.
Hazlitt knew well the charm of snatches o f autobiography ,
J and has given many M y fir s t A cq ua in ta n ce witb P o e ts is

.
wholly of thi s character and Of P er s o n s o n e wo uld wis k to b a ve

,
s e e n its successor among the Wi n te r s lo w essays partakes of it

, , ,
though there we lear n more about Lamb than about Hazlitt .
We have it again in the admirable essay On Living to On e s ’
S elf and another phase in the no less admirable one On a S u

,
n
Di a l as well as in that F ar e well to E s s ay wr iti g already

,
-
n ,
quoted Almost everywhere in short w e have such revela

.
, ,
tions He pictures his father he tells us the reason why he

.
,
hi mself is irreclaimably o f the o ld school in painting he ”

,
reveals tastes and pursuits in a quotation modified for hi s

o wn ends if thou hast not seen the Louvre thou art
damned ”
.Th e most serious phases o f hi s mind are brought
to light in the more philosophical essays His stubbornness .
TRANS ITI O N F R O M T H E 18TH C ENTURY 183
and tenacity of view appear in the essay On Co n s is te n cy of

Op in i o n .
“
I would quarrel he says with the b est friend
”
, ,
I have sooner than acknowledge the absolute right of the

Bourbons I s e e Mr N orthcote seldomer than I did because
. .
,
I cannot agree with him about the Ca ta logue Ra is o n n é I r e .
member once saying to thi s gentleman a great whi le ago , ,
that I did not seem to have altered any o f my ideas since I

was sixteen years old On the P a s t a n d F utur e reveals the
.
’
man who notwithstanding his intense inter e st in the present

, ,
lives in the past : What is it in fact that w e recur to oftenest ?

What subj ects do we thi nk o r talk of ? N ot the ignorant
future but the well S tored past -
”
.
Northcote had an eff ective retort to the extraordinary

statement just quoted as to the fixit y of Ha z li t t s ideas : ’
Wh y then y o u are no wiser now than you were then ; and

,
Ha z li t t s attempt at a reply is not very successful

’
No doubt .
what he said about himself indicated a real weakness ; b ut

if it had been the whole truth he would have been a poor “
creature indeed I n point of fact it is true mainly o f the

.
”
understanding—opinions as to the absolute right o f th e

Bourbons and s o o n — and Hazli tt himself bears witness that
, ,
he who does not go beyond that is negligible An d if hi s .
Opinions remained unchanged hi s eff ective mastery o f them,
and his power o f expounding them were incomparably greater

at forty than they were at sixteen .
Hazlitt is one of the masters of aphorism We s e e this .
power constantly in hi s essays— a pregnancy of expression ,

V
where a S ingle sentence would bear expansion into an essay ,
as in the sayi ng common sense is tacit reason

,
”
B ut o f .
‘
course the place where such condensed wisdom is most fr e

quent is the Cbar a cter is ti cs a collection whi ch gives its author
,
a place beside Ben Jonson and Bacon and Halifax though ,
somewhat lower than these He could also be c 0 pio us though

.
,
never verbose When in the mood— though this was rare

.
he could be extremely e fie ct iv e in grotesque portraiture .
Look at S ir Will iam Calipash and calipee are written

i n his face : he rolls about hi s unwieldy bulk in a sea of
turtle soup How many haunches o f venison does he carry
-
.
o n hi s back ! He is larded with jobs and contracts ; he is

s t ufi e d and swelled o ut with layers o f bank notes -
and in ,
vi t a t i o n s to dinner ! His face hangs o ut a flag Of defiance to

mischance : the roguish twinkle in his eye with whi ch he lures
fl
half the city and beats Al derman hollow is a smile r e
,
e c t e d from unsunned gold ! N ature a n d F ortune are not so

much at variance a s to di ff er about thi s fellow To enjoy the
.
goo d the Gods provide us is to deserve it N ature meant

.
hi m for a K night Al derman and City Member ; and F ortune

, ,
-
”
laughed to s e e the goodly person and prospects of the man !
If this were read in Hen ry I V it would be held worthy of the
context An d yet o n e masterly touch of S ydney S mith s on
.
’
the same character surpasses it all : A cayma n has some

times come o ut o f the Or o o n o q ue at An gustura near the
, ,
public walks where the people were assembled seized a full ,
grown man as big a s S ir Willia m Cur tis after din n er and

, ,
hurried him into the bed o f the river for hi s food .
I t is obvious that the relations between Hazlitt and Leigh

Hunt were external o r at least that they did not imply
,
similarity o f mind and character Hunt liked and admired

.
Hazlitt and Hazlitt liked Hunt well enough to suppress the

,
contempt which probably mingled with hi s liking They .
worked s o much together that it is impossible to disjoin their

names ; but to S peak o f them as members o f the same school ’
is to misuse words even more seriously than they are misused

in the similar conjunction o f S outhey with Wordsworth AS
a critic Hazlitt was nearly everything Hunt was not He .
built as we have seen o n a firm foundation of the intellect

, , ,
whi le Hunt s criticism w a s es sentially emotional and was

’
,
untrustworthy whenever it attempted to be somethin g

186 T H E ENGLI S H E SSAY AND E SSAYI STS
hi s po litics and the virulence with which he wrote about
England naturally enough blinded many contemporaries to
hi s merits At the distance o f more than a century we can
.
regard him di S pa s s io n at e ly and the resul t of such regard is

,
that he i s seen to be no inconsidera b le m an of letters and o n e ,
who in S pite of excesses embodied in hi s writings much sound

, ,
thought .
By birth Paine was English in hi s life and work he was ,
mai nly American Like other Americans of hi s time he

.
became partly F rench and some of his pamp hl ets were written
,
in the F rench language He began his literary career in t he

.
journals of Philadelphia Some o f his early papers are imita

.
tions o f the Queen Anne essayists and it seems probable that , ,
had Paine lived in quiet times and e arned his bread as a

journalist he would have ranked among their later followers
,
.
F o r example we find among hi s writings A O cca s io n a l Le tte r

,
n
o n tbc F e m a le S e x whose very title proclaims its affi ni ty to

,
them ; and an imaginative paper entitled C up id a n d Hym e n ,
wherein the former is the champion o f marriage for love while ,
the latter promotes the marriage o f convenience would have ,
caused S teele to welcome hi m as a contributor N e w .
A n e cdo te s of Ale xa de r tbe Gr e a t is o f the class of dreams

n
whi ch figure in Tbe S p ecta tor but Paine s political interes ts ’
are apparent in the degradation o f Alexander who is seen in ,
the shades under the guise o f a horse and afterwards o f a ,
b ug whi ch is chopped up by a t o m tit Horatio thought that -

.
to trace the noble dust o f Alexander till it was found S topping

a bung hole was to consider too curiously What would he
-
.
have said about thus tracing the nobler soul o f Alexander ?

Th e divinity that o f Old hedged kings was no longer a very
effi cient fence on the eve o f American independence .
What determined Paine s career was the movement whi ch

’
had that great result He hi mself contributed not in co n s ide r

.
a b ly to it His pamphlet C o m m o n S e n s e issued in 1 7 76

.
, ,
TRANSITI O N F R O M T H E I ST H C ENTURY 187
had an extraordinary eff ect I t is forcible lucid and acute ;

.
,
and ,
though marred b y an absurd straining o f theory in
o bvious contradiction to facts as in the assertion that in,
England the will Of the king was as much the law o f the land
as in F rance it contains much that is sound and true At
,
.
thi s stage in his career Paine found himself the ally o f

Burke whose Opposition to the American policy of the English
,
government w a s of course welcome to the party to which

, ,
Paine belonged Afterwards when Burke recoiled from the
fl
.
,
excesses of the R evolution Paine s chief work the Rigbts f

,
’
,
o
M a n was written as a reply to the Re e cti o n s

,
Th e Rigbts .
of M a n however and Tbe Age of Re as o n a kind of theo

, , ,
logical companion piece are not essays but treatises ; and

-
,
Paine s chi ef claim to rank as an English essayist rests upon

’
the series o f papers entitled Tbe Cr is is which he contributed

to Tbe P en n sylva n ia j o ur n a l between 1 77 6 and 1 7 83 They .
are political in purpose but they are also literary in S tyle

,
.
There is no b etter example o f Paine than the Opening sentences ,
the first o f whi ch especially became famous ; the paper is all

the more worthy of note because at a critical j uncture it
was read by the command o f Washington to hi s soldiers
These are the times that try men s souls Th e summer
’
.
soldier and the sunshine patriot will in thi s crisis shrink , ,
from the service o f their country ; but he that stands it n o w ,
deserves the love and thanks o f man and woman Tyranny .

,
like hell is not eas ily conquered ; yet we have this consolation
,
with us that the harder the conflict the more glo rious the
, ,
triumph What we Obtain too cheap we esteem too lightly

.
,
°
it is dearness o nly that gives anything its value Heaven .
k nows ho w to put a proper price upon its goods ; and it woul d

be strange indeed if so celestial an article as F RE E D O M should
”
not be hi ghl y rated .
Thi s has the ring o f oratory Th e note though somewhat

.
,
metalli c is highly effective ; and after all the clash f metal

, , ,
o
was in the air I t w a s right that the literary note should be
.
in unison The Marseillaise also is metalli c ; and here as

.
,
in the Marseillaise t o o a tone of poetry softens the blare of

,
the trumpet Th e fervour o f th e love o f freedom and hatred

.
o f tyr anny is almost Milto ni c By such gleams o f imagin ation

.
Paine vindicates his position in literature They are not very .
frequent for the subj ects with which he dealt were n o t usually
,
of a kind to encourage them but they are su ffi cient to reveal

,
the man A better illustration o f t his phase o f Paine s mind

.
’
may be found in the paper addressed to S ir William Howe

n ear the end o f Tbe Cr is is
However men may di ff er in their ideas o f grandeur o r o f
government here the grave is nevertheless a perfect republic
,
.
D eath is n Ot the monarch o f the dead but of the dying Th e ,

.
moment he Obtains a conquest he loses a subj ect and lik e , ,
the fooli sh king yo u serve will in the end war hi mself o ut o f

, , ,
”
all hi s dominions .
Th e prevalent atmosphere o f Tbe C is is is however that of r , ,
logical argument satire and invective Th e invective is

,
.
powerful and the satire pungent O f the numerous um

,
.
maskings o f Junius more than o n e has revealed Thomas

,
fl
Paine ; and if it were merely a matter o f power o f invective ,
Paine certai nl y had it in s u i cie n t degree I t would be easier .
to match the most biting passages in j un ius from Paine than ,
it would be to adduce from 7 un ius passages showing the

imagina t ive gift o f Paine .
I n the same group may be put William Godwin ( 1 75 6

Th e author of P o li ti ca l j us ti ce belongs to the class o f philo
sophers and the author of Ca leb Willia m s to that o f novelists ;
,
but Godwin also wrote Tbc En q uir er and for that reason
he has a small place among the essayists But the qualities .
o f Godwin were n o t such as to make the place a high one He .
is far t o o much o f a pedant and a do ctr i n a ir e his manner is t o o ,
dictatorial He is rather a formal thinker tha n a wise man ;

.
1
9
that he was swayed by any such consideration ; violen e was c
natural to him I t has unfortunately S poilt as literature great

.
part o f the P o litica l Regis te r and it may be said that it ,
is o nl y in the Ru l Rides extracted from the Regis te that

ra ,
r,
Cobbett still lives and deserves to live These are simple

,
.
,
idiomatic and racy to a rare degree Th e short sentences as .

,
a rule contain the plainest statement o f fact But unadorned

, .
,
as it is the statement is always effective

,
.
Co b b e t t s earnestness makes him always respectable his

’
,
fervour o f heart renders hi m e ff ective I n di gnation makes .
hi s prose a s it made Juvenal s verse He rode a b road in the

’
.
,
country and turned upon it an eye made keen and intelligent

,
by hi s o wn peasant upbringing I n S pite o f much violence .
and exaggeration and many incons istencies there is n o t a ,
little in hi s writings that is praiseworthy in substance as well

a s in style No one else in his time was s o keenly alive to the
.
danger whi ch threatened the country from the disproportionate

growt h Of cities London was a foul wen ; wholesome life
.
demanded the fostering o f the rural population farmers and ,
labourers alike Whatever told against their interest he

.
denounced whether it was the action o f a landlord who rack

,
rented hi s tenants or o f a statesman who impos e d a tax that

,
pressed heavily o n the rural interest What wo ul d he have .
said about Cobdenism and the decay o f agriculture it has

brought about ? There w a s a foundation of reality to nearly
“
all his invective He is loud in abuse of the locusts called
.
middlemen ; and however innocent the indi vidual middl e

man may be no one will now di spute that the m ul titude of
,
middlemen and the magnitude o f their share in the product

of industry are serious evils He denounced tithes and .
parsons t o o indiscriminately but not always without reason

, ,
.
There is a telli ng satiric touch in hi s railing at pluralities ,
whi ch he liked as little as he liked absenteeism in th e

“
landlord .
“
A jo urneyman parson comes ”
he says and , ,
TRANS ITI O N F R O M T H E 18TH C ENTURY 1
9 1
works in three o r four chur ches of a S unday : but the

”
master parson is not there He would have delighted
.
(perhaps he did delight ) the heart of R uskin wi t h hi s scorn
of much that the nineteenth century boasted of as progress .
Visiting a rotten borough he meets a woman whom he q ues

tions as t o her travels Th e utmost distance s he has ever
.
been from home proves to be two and a half miles Le t .
no o n e laugh at her he goes o n and above all others let

”
, , , ,
not me who am convinced that the facilities whi ch now exist

, ,
o f moving human bo di es from place to place are among the ,
curses o f the country the destroyers o f industry o f morals

, , ,
and o f course o f happiness I t is a great error to suppose

, ,
.
that people are rendered stupid b y remaining always in the

same place Thi s woman was a very acute woman and as
.
,
well behaved as need to be ”

.
Cobbett was good hearted and the rage and violence whi ch
-
,
sometimes mar even the Rur a l Ri de s were generally caused by

thi ngs in themselves deplorable He was dou b tless spea k ing
.
the literal truth when he declared that he was ashamed to ride

a fat horse to have a full belly and t o wear a clean shirt while
, ,
he saw the wretched peasants reeling with weakness and their

faces reduced to S kin and bone Thi s goodness o f heart robs
.
his egotism and self satisfaction o f off ence though it reveal s

-
,
itself naively enough o n innumerable occasions Thus he .

,
revisits the haunts o f hi s boyhood describes some of hi s habits

,
then and proceeds to contrast himself with hi s inferiors in a

,
higher rank : This was the S pot where I was receiving my

education ; and thi s was the sort of education ; and I am
perfectly satisfied that if I had not received such an education ,
or something very much like it ; that if I had been brought ,
up a milksop with a nurserymaid everlastingly at my heels

, ,
I shoul d have been at thi s day as great a fool as ineffi cient a ,
mortal as any o f those frivolous idiots that are turned o ut

,
from Winchester and Westminster S chool o r from any o f ,

1
those dens of dunces called colleges and universities Cobbett .
”
is n o t quite logical He ought to have pitied those poor idiots

.
who had received an education s o vile that it wo ul d have

ruined even him ; but it is his habit to be indign ant with them ,
and this leads him astray .
I t is plain from these extracts that Co b b e t t s style is in a

’
remarkable degree S axon in its diction I t is plai n also that

.
he does n o t shrink from words and phrases that savour o f

slang S ometimes he revels in them and yet by some
.
, ,
singular skill he keeps hi s slang free from vulgarity I t

, .
would n ot be easy to surpass hi s outburst about paper money

What a false what a deceptious what an infamous thing
, , ,
this paper money system is ! However it is a pleasure it is

-
, ,
real it is a great delight it is boundless joy to me to contem

, , ,
plate this infernal system in its hour of wreck : swag here

crack there : s cr o o p thi s way : souse that way : and such a
rattling and such a squalling : and the parsons a n d their wives
looking s o frightened begin ni ng apparently to thi n k that
, , ,
the day o f judgment is at hand !

So great was the popularity of thi s periodical that according ,
t o Johnson i t s proprietor Cave used to sell ten thousand

, , ,
copies ; whil e Hawkins declares that during the period when ,
John son was contributi ng those parliamentary reports in

which he took care that the Whig do gs should not have the
best o f it the circulation rose to fifteen thousand S uccess
”
, .
so brilliant provoked imitation and withi n a few years many ,
magazines arose and perished Tbe Lo n do n M aga zin e how .

,
ever survived to 1 7 85 A northern imitator Tbe S co ts

,
.
,
M aga z i n e begun in 1 7 3 9 had a still longer career ; and as

, ,
the original won such strong regard from Johnson that

“
when he first s aw S t John s Gate the place where that
.
’
,
deservedly popular miscell any was originally printed he ,
beheld it with reverence so the imitatio n impressed

’
,
Boswell with an a ff ectionate regard which still survived when

he wrote his great biography .
Johnson contributed many papers to Tbe Ge n tle m a n s M aga ’
zin e besides the parliamentary debates and what Johnson ,
wrote was invariably forcible S till it cannot be pretended

.
,
that his contributions s o far as they are known are o n the

, ,
same level o f importance as Tbe Ra m ble r and Tbe I dle r .
Fa r less di d the papers o f the other contributors rise to that

level Johnson himself notwithstanding his reverence
.
, ,
”
S peaks o f some o f them in the preface to the volume o f the

magazine for 1 7 3 8 with a vigorous frankness that is piquant
in such a context They deserve he says no other fate
.
, ,
than to be hissed torn and forgotten

, ,
”
Ye t though Tbe .
,
Ge n tle m a n s M aga z in e was certainly not worthy to be set

’
beside Tbe Ra m bler Tbe Ra m bler died while Tbe Ge n tle m n s

,
a
’
M ag z i e lived o n
a n .I n a way its very mediocrity was co n
duciv e to its longevity Th e saying that there is n o man who
.
is neces sary was true of it I f not Johnson then some o n e

.
,
else would S upply parliamentary reports not perhaps as good ,
as hi s not perhaps o f the sort to keep the circulation up to

,
EARLY REVI EWE RS OF 1 9 1 11 C ENTURY 1 95
fifteen thousand but still such as to satisfy many readers

, .
But S teele and Addison wer e Tbe S p e cta to r and Johnson was ,
Tbe Ra m bler Th e design o f these papers was such that

.
certain men were indispensable and if they flagged and grew ,
weary the paper must stop To thi s is due no small part Of .
their literary charm Tbe Ge n tle m a n s M ga zi n e gets rid o f

.
’
a
thi s condition and thereby loses the charm but becomes ,
almost immortal— becomes at least capable o f reachi ng an

indefi nite age I t may survive indefinite deterioration By
. .
the year 1 804 it had become in the opinion o f S outhey the , ,
Oldwo m a n ia . I t does amuse me he writes

”
by its , ,
exquisite ina nity and the glorious and intense S tupidity o f

,
its correspondents ; it is in truth a disgrace to the age and

, ,
the country ”
.
I t would clearly be absurd to explain the longevi ty o f a ny

perio di cal merely by its inferiority to others whi ch have n o t
lived s o long Me n are not s o stupid ; they prefer the better ;
.
but in li terature as in morals they may sometimes follow

, ,
the worse They do s o when the worse is convenient when

.
,
it supplies a need whi ch the better does not meet Thi s .
Tbe Ge n tle m a n s M aga zi n e did Th e reports o f debates in

’
.
parliament are a case in point No doubt the earlier political .
perio di cals had partly satisfied the same need But the basis .
o f Tbe Ge n tle m a n s M a a z in e was f ar broader Th e very

’
g .
pseudonym o f the editor S ylvanus Urban hints as much , , .
Th e intention was to appeal to both to wn and country Th e .
new perio di cal took up again and greatly widened and enlarged
, ,
a part o f the work whi ch S teele had originally designed to

do in Tbe Ta tler and had abando n ed I t was work which
, .
co uld not very satisfactorily be done by the personal periodical ,
as we may call it There was needed a variety o f writers a n

.
,
organised S taff .
The title page o f the first volume of Tbe Ge n tle m an s M aga

-
’
zin e gives an insight into the design O n the S ide o f news .

,
1
readers are promised an account o f the most remarkable
events foreign and domestic ; births marriages deaths
, , , ,
promotions and b ankrupts (s ic) ; the price o f goods and stocks

and b ill Of mortality Th country is S pecially catered for in
. e
O bservations on gardening O n the literary side there is to

.
b e a register of b ooks ; and eighty years later we find the

M aga z i e contrasting itself in this matter to i t s o wn advantage
n
with certain anomalous competitors who under the novel , ,
allurement of appearing o nly once a quarter assert their ,

”
claims t o curiosity and attention Th e M aga z i ne we are
.
,
told exhi b its a complete conspectus o f the literature of the

,
country while the perio di cals whi ch thus vul garly bid for
,
populari t y b y appearing but once a quarter o nly make

selections B esides the register o f books there are to be sele t
. c
pieces of poetry and— what concerns us here

,
essays con
t r o v e rs i a l humorous and satirical ; religious moral and
, , , ,
poli tical : collected chi efly from the pu b li ck papers ”

I n its .
early days therefore Tbe Ge n tle m a n s M aga zin e w as among

, ,
’
,
other things an eighteenth century Revi ew of Re vie ws gather

,
-
,
ing t o it s own pages whatever seemed most lik ely to be interest

ing from contemporary periodicals I t attempted to be all .
things to all men I t discussed manners and monsoons

.
,
des cribed battl es and analysed beauty I t gave legal news .

,
lists o f sheriff s and circuits of judges I t advised unmarried .
la di es and debated the question o f the fall o f man No

,
.
periodical had ever before attempted to occupy s o much

ground o r to appeal to s o many classes I t is the true original .
b oth o f the modern review and o f the modern magazine .
Th e rise o f t hese is o n e o f the S triking featur es o f the early

part o f the nineteenth century as their extr aordinary multi
,
plication is of its later part and o f the present day They are .
of S pecial importance in the hi story o f the essay because , ,
while they have been used for many o t her purposes they have ,
been and are pre eminently the medium o f the essay ; and
, ,
-
are worth quoting as indicating what most influenced the mi nd
o f o n e at least o f the founders and most active contributors :
Th e Catholics were not emancipated— the Co rporation and

Test Acts were unrepealed— the G ame Laws were horribly
oppressiv e —S teel Traps and S pring Guns were s e t all over the
country— Prisoners tried for their Lives co uld have no Counsel
-
Lord Eldon and the Court of Chancery pressed heavily upon
mankind— Libel was pu nished by the most cruel and vin di c
tive imprisonments— the principles of Political Economy were
little understood— the La w o f D ebt and of Conspiracy were
upon the wors t possible footing— the enormous wickedness of
the S lave Trade was tolerated— a thousand evils were in exist
ence whi ch the talents o f good and able men have since
,
lessened o r removed ; and these e ff ects have been not a little

assisted by the honest boldness o f the E din burgb Review .
This passage gives a sound general idea o f the scope o f S ydney

S mith s ( 1 77 1 1 845 ) o wn contributions to the Re vie w He
’
-
.
writes o n prisons and prisoners o n game laws and S pring guns

, ,
in a style all the more e fi e c t iv e because it is generally moderate .
He is not for example Opposed to all game laws but only to

, , ,
th e injustice o f the game laws as they then existed He is

.
the friend o f the helpless and oppressed and the champion o f

unpopular causes He is among the earliest advocates o f a
.
more liberal system o f education for women and writes with

,
excellent sense on the subject He condemns the poor laws

.
,
holding that they must be abolished but again with practical

, ,
good sense that they must be abolished very gradually ; and

,
the reason why they must be aboli shed is not that they
,
make the rich poor but that they make the poor poorer
,
.
He takes up the cause o f the chi mney sweepers and b y a

-
,
series o f quotations shows the horrible nature o f the work

whi ch the poor boys had to do on whom Lamb s fancy played
’
,
humanely inde ed but not with that practical helpful ness which
,
w e find in S mith Ye t while we respect the writer it must

.
, ,
EARLY REVI EWE RS OF 1
9 TH C ENTURY 1
99
be admitted that the practical end he usually had in View has

made much O f his work ephemeral whi le Lamb s is a possession
,
’
for ever S mith is liberal in reality as well as by professio n

Q
. .
Th e essay entitled M a d ua k e r s had it come from some other

,
clerical pen might have been a di atribe against a long

,
maligned and persecuted sect S mith s purpose is to praise

.
’
the generosity and courage the sense and humanity of the

,
Quakers in their treatment o f the insane He is not prone to .
b o w do wn in wors hip of a f etish His criticism of public

.
schools is still worthy o f attention and the statement of his

,
conviction that that education is the best which mingles a

domestic with a school life shows an attitude of mind whi ch
was rare in En gland then as it is rare still .
To suppose that S mith w a s free from preju di ces o f his o wn

would be a mistake He pursues the Metho dists for example
.
, ,
with extraordinary malevolence The liberality of mind with

.
whi ch he views the Quakers and the Roman Catholics seems

in t he case O f Methodism wholly to desert hi m Their faul ts .
were o f a sort to which he could not be tolerant He is able .
to quote from their journals passages of extraordinary n o n

sense ; but nothi ng could justify the language in whi ch he
S peaks of the S ect Much has been written and with good
.
,
reason against the virulence and bad taste o f the literary

,
criticism o f the time But these faults were by no means

.
confined to the literary critics N either Je ff rey n o r Gi ff ord

.
nor any o f the B l ck wo o d group ever wrote with worse taste

a
than S ydney S mith against the Methodists

We are a good deal amused indeed with the extreme dis
, ,
relish which Mr John S tyles [who had answered a previous

.
article in the Review! exhibits to the humour and pleasantry

with which he admits the Methodists to have been attacked ;
but Mr John S tyles should remember that it is not the
.
,
practice with destroyers of vermin to allow the little victims

a veto upon the weapons used against them I f thi s were .
otherwise we should ha ve o n set of vermin banishing small
,
e
tooth combs ; another protesting against mouse traps ; a -
thi rd prohi biting the finger and thumb ; a fourth exclaiming

a gainst the intolera b le infamy o f using soap and water ”
.
S mith s w it is hi s most valua b le weapon in controversy and

’
literature We find it everywhere the very first sentence

. :
o f his first contribution to the Revie w is an example Th . e
subj ect o f the essay is D r Parr and Parr s wi g is made whi m

.
,
’
s ic all
y to illustrate his method o f construction I t is big in .
front but scorns even Episcopal limits behi nd and swells

, ,
o ut into boundless convexity of frizz the p y G p o f ,

e a av a
barbers and the terror o f t he literary world

,
”
S o too in the .
,
sermon under review the Doctor subjoi ns to a discourse o f n o

,
common len gth an immeasurable mass o f notes o n every

learned man and thi ng S mith s wit has usually as here a
.
’
, ,
pungent application to the person dealt with S o it is again .
in the criticism o f a cert ain Archdeacon (and Canon) N ares ,
who had preached a sermon condemning farmers for charging

hi gh prices fo r their grain and suggesting that penalties
should be levied upon them Af ter an argument economic .
ally faul tless S mith goes O n : The poor are n o t to be s up

,
ported in time o f famine by abatement o f price o n the part

, ,
o f the farmer but by the subs c ription o f residentiary canons

, ,
archdeacons and all men rich in publi o r private property ;

,
c
and to these subscriptions the farmer should contribute

accor di ng to the amount o f hi s fortune ”
Edgewor tb o n B ulls .
naturally gives scope for the witty manner o f treatment and ,
the description o f i t s sty le is excellent : Th Essay o n Bulls e
is written much with the same mind and in the same manner , ,
as a schoolboy takes a walk : he moves o n fo r ten yards o n the
straight road with surprising perseverance ; then sets o ut

,
after a butterfly looks for a bird s nest o r jumps backwards

,
’
,
”
and forwards over a ditch .
S mith seldom writes on purely literary subj ects and when ,

soon find that this w a s the case O f whatever partook o f the .
eighteenth century S pirit and s o appealed to him personally

-
, ,
he was a generous as well s an a c ute critic Campbell did a .
SO,
and t h r e fo r h praises Camp b ell with a warmth whi ch
e e e
n o w appears excessive F o r the same reason he over estimates

.
-
Rogers . But in b oth cases though the modern critic would ,
tone down his eulogies he would hardly condemn them as ,
inherently unsound An d except as regards Wordsworth

.
,
and Coleridge Je ff rey s strictures upon contemporary poets

,
’
do not seem n o w altogether unjust To his w n ost and to . o c
his regret he ran athwart o f Byron ; but the Ho ur s of I dlen es s

are not among the works o f Byron that we still admire I t is .
more surprising that he irritated S cott the least irritable of ,
men o f letters by a criticism o f M a m i an whi ch was at least

,
r
ungenerous But the general S ketch o f his opinions about a

.
number o f contemporary poets whi ch he gives in an article ,
o n Campbell s S p e ci m e s
f tbe P o e ts reads not so far amiss
’
n o , ,
except with regard to the position assigned to Camp b ell him

self : Th e r —if the future editor have anything like the
“
eu
indulgence and veneration for antiquity o f hi s predecessor

there S hall posterity still hang with rapture o n the half of
Campbell— and the fourth part o f Byron— and the sixth of
S cott— and the scattered tithes o f Crabbe— and the thr ee per
cent o f S outhey — while some good—natured critic S hall s it in
.
,
o ur mouldering chair and more than half prefer them to those

,
by who m they have been superseded !

C aes a r p g
’
s a e a n t , s h o rn o f B r ut us b us t
’
,
D i d b ut o f Ro m e s
’
b es t fr i e n d r em in d h e r m o re
and the absence o f the names o f Wordsworth S helley and K eats ,
from thi s passage written in 1 81 9 for ibly recalls these poets to

, ,
c
us and b rings home more vividly than anythi ng else could do

,
the critical limitations o f Jeff rey He did not understand the .
romantic revival To a new poet he too often applied the

.
9 TH C ENTURY 20 3
test o f a bygone criticism a s a chemist drops an acid o n the

,
substance before hi m I f the poet reacted in one way he

.
,
was gold if in another pinch b eck Allowance is seldom

, ,
.
made for the possible something wholly n e w in the poet Ye t .
it would be unjust to press this to the extreme against Je ff rey .
To the critics of that time the greatest stone o f stumbling and

rock of offence was K eats a n d so it is worth whi le to ask how
,
Jeffrey endures the test of his name No t perfectly it is .

,
true for he did not thi nk Hyp e i o n worth completing ; yet

,
r
not altogether with discredi t R eviewing the P o e m s o f 1 820.
he says that he has b een ex c eedingly stru k with the genius c
they display and the S pirit o f poetry whi h b reathes through

,
c
all their wild extravagance ”

An d there is surely taste in
.
the j udgment he pronounces upon the Ode To A utum n

W know nothing at once so truly fresh genuine and
e , ,
English— and at the same time so full of poetical feeling and

,
Greek elegance and simplicity Ho w many modern critics .
could improve upon this ? Jeff rey had detected the G reek
element before it had beco m e a critical commonplace S c ott .
expressed the doubt whether Jeffrey had any f ee ling o f poetic

genius and S cott was rarely unjust But the man who wrote
,
.
thus a b out K eats was certainly not wholly destitute o f such

feeling Th e just criticism and the skilful choice o f extracts
.
in the essay o n F o d s D a m a ti c Wo k s support the same

r
’
r r
conclusion .
As Macaulay said o f hi mself that he w a s nothing if not

hi storical s o it may be said o f Je ff rey that he is nothing if
,
not critical Ye t it must be added that a considerable part o f

.
the value o f the essays lies in remarks suggested by a vigorous

understanding and a wide experience o f the world o n points
n o t strictly literary I t is this whi ch makes him pronounce
.
B ur n s s belief
’ “
in tbe disp e n s i ng p o we o f genius and social r
feeling in all matters o f morality and common sense his

,
l eading vice An d from the same source came the admirable

.
20
remarks o n courage in the essay o n By r o s Tr age dies n
’
.
Courage Je ff rey tells us is at least as necessary as genius

,
”
,
to the success o f a work o f imagination ; sin e without this it c , ,
is impossible to attain that freedom and self possession with -
o ut which no talents can ever have fair play and far less that , , ,
inward co n fide n C and exaltation of spirit whi ch must a e c om

e
pany all the higher acts o f the understanding ”

He goes on .
to instance S cott as the supreme example in his time o f this

form o f courage and adds W are confident that no person
, ,
e
can read any o f his wonderful works without feeling that their ,
author wa s utterly careless o f the reproach Of small imper

f e c t io n s ; di sdained the inglorious labour o f perpetual correct
nes s and has co n s e q ue n tly imparted to his productions that
,
1
S pirit and ease and variety which reminds (s i c) us o f better

,
times and gives lustre and effect to those rich and resplendent
,
passages to whi ch it left him free to aspire ”

That ca s e . n
q ue n tly is worth pages o f ordinary criticism and should be ,
laid to heart by every critic o f S cott who is n o t conscious o f

being already above the need of it Critics of S hakespeare .
need it too although the vice in their ase is rather indis

,
c
criminate adulation Many o f those who praise the flaws

.
due to carelessness are utterly blind to the fact that their sole
justification is that the brave translunary thi ngs would
have b een beyond the reach o f a pedantically orrect writer c .
Am ong Je ffrey s faults are a somewhat di ff use style and

’
,
a tendency to dwell too much o n trivialities and details which ,
swell s still more the bulk o f the essays He w a s a b usy man .

,
he always wrote in haste and it is surprising that under the

, ,
circumstances what he wrote was s o good But posterity

,
.
makes no allowance for circumstances and this want o f con ,
centration has contributed with the change O f taste to depress

his reputation almost as much below its proper level as it once
S tood a b ove it Th e famous sentence about Tbe Excu s io n
. r
Th i t li J ff r y
e a cs ar e e e
’
s .
2 06 T H E ENGLI S H E S SAY AND ESSAYI STS
to his memory in the House o f Commons There is n othi n g .
in his scanty literary remains that explains it The case o f .
Henry Brougham ( 1 779 —1 868) is di ff erent He w as an active .
and voluminous contributor writing about eighty articles

,
in the first twenty volumes Of the Re view But Brougha m .
admirably illustrates the dangers attachi ng to the r Ole O f

omniscience and the defects of the Jack—
,
o f all—trades I t was -
.
hinted o f him that he knew most things better than he knew

law ; and certainly he knew t o o much law t o o much science i
, ,
too much o f almost everythi ng to be a good man o f letters

, .
He always wrote in haste and in co n s e q ue n ce his style though

, , , ,
vigorous is rough and careless His great power o f sar c asm

,
.
w a s not always used in a S pirit of justice Th e dust of time .
has settled o n his works and there is no need to disturb it

, .
O ne faul t whi ch was justly charged against the early

Edi n burgh Re vie w h a s not yet been mentioned I t was .
political which it had every right to be and it carried politics

, ,
into li terature and pronounced critical judgment not solely

,
according as books were good o r bad but partly as they were,
Whig o r Tory which it had n o right to do This was a natural

,
.
enough consequence o f the fact that the founders were all o f

the Whi g party that the interests o f three o f them were only
,
in a secondary way literary and that eve n Je ff rey had as the

, ,
phrase goes several irons in the fire Th e political preoccupa

,
.
tions o f the Reviewers diminished the value o f their cri ticism

because as Matthew Arnold insisted the first obligation o f
, ,
criticism is to be disinterested Unfortunately for English

.
literature the evil was combated n o t by the establishment

, ,
o f a di sinterested organ but by setting up another partisan

,
one An d s o fo r many years n e arly all English criticism was

.
vitiated by the importation into it o f regards that stand

aloof from the entire point ”
I t would be dangerous to s a y
.
that even n o w the evil has been completel y eradicated An .
ingrained habit o f mind is n o t easily altered and there are ,

EARLY REVI EWE RS OF I 9T H C ENTURY 20 7
journals still which are not above suspicion But one interest .
ing resul t o f the development o f periodicals may be noted .
Th e mere multiplication o f them has i n great measure pro

duc e d that reform which Matthew Arnold hoped might come
from the establishment o f a British Academy Whe n there .
were o n ly t wo reviews that mattered and these concern ed

'
themselves with party politics as well a s with literature there ,
w a s some temptation t o view even literature through S pectacles

of the party colour I f loaves and fishes could be go t for the
.
poet why sho ul d n o t the good Whi g reviewer do his best to

,
get them for the good Whi g poet ? and o n the other hand why
shoul d not the Tory reviewer give to the Whi g do g o f a
poet the treatment o f a dog ? But when the name o f the
reviews and magazines is legio n when many o f them are of no
,
party colour at all but will welcome the advocates of both

,
sides if o nl y they are able enough why should even a party

, ,
journal distort the truth by the importation o f irrelevant

considerations ? I n those days it was a weighty matter that
the author of Tbe S to ry of Rim i n i was supposed to have libelled
the Prince Regent and that the author Of A do n a is w a s a ra di cal
and an atheist But who stopped before admiring Tbe
.
Ever la s tin g M e r cy to ask what were the politics o r what was

the religion of Mr Mas e fie ld ? .
I t had n o t b een originally intended to give Tbc Edin bu gb r
Revie w a partisan character and for a time the edi tor and the
,
leading writers would have denied the charge of partisanshi p .
They sought and obtained help from Tories like S cott ; but
he soon s a w reason to believe that he was not treated as he
would have been treated had he belonged to their party in
politics I t is impossible either to substantiate o r to refute
.
S cott s belief : a s Gladstone once said of a criticism of

’
Becky s the imputation of motives partakes too much of the

’
,
business o f the day of judgment But S cott was not a .
s uS i io us man and the fact that he entertained suspicion in

p c ,
this case is itself impressive Besides there are so many .
,
concurrent circumstance s s o many other cases that it is , ,
hardly t o o dangerous to undertake for once the function of , ,
the day of judgment Unfortunately the w ay that was taken

.
,
to right o n e wrong was as has been explained to commi t

Q
, ,
an Opposite o n e Tbe ua r te ly Revie w was S tarted as the

. r
organ o f Toryism I n the first e di tor William Gifio r d ( 1 75 6

.
,
its founders were far less fortunate than w a s the rival

review in Je ff rey Gifford was a man who then enjoyed a
.
reputation whi ch has since become puzzling Even Byron .
spoke with great respect of the author of Tbe B a via d and Tbc
M wvi a d satires whi ch rouse no enthusiasm in the minds o f the
,
few who read them n o w G iff ord is said to have been personally
.
a good natured man ; but judged by his writings he would be

-
, ,
pronounced o n e of the worst tempered in the whole history o f

literature Living and dead friend and foe all su ff er though
.
, , ,
in different degrees from a virulence scarcely to be paralleled

,
.
His best work was done in edi ting the Eli zabethan dramatists ,
and o n Jonson he is particul arly use f ul B ut though the story .
o f the alarums and battles o f Jonson s life was two hundr ed

’
years o ld Gifio r d took sides and wrote with the violence o f a

,
man whose passions were roused and whose interests were

threatened He treated his o wn contributors with a hi gh
.
handed discourtesy that seriously damaged the Review .
N aturally therefore Opponents and those who diff ered from

, ,
him whether on poli tics o r o n points o f literary criticism had

, ,
lit t le to h0pe for from hi s sense of fair play They were .
personal enemi es N o o n e ever carried to a greater extreme

.
the vice of criticism o n political grounds N o o n e was ever .
less sympathetic with new forms of art Like Jeff rey s his .
’
,
taste was the taste o f the eighteenth century but he expressed ,
it with less than Je ff rey s wi t and with far more than Je ff rey s
’ ’
brusqueness He seems to be fo r ever address ing the author

.
criticised in the phrase Prisoner at the bar ; and most ,

210 TH E E NGLI S H E S SAY AND E S SAYI STS
in terpreta t io n were doubtful there is ample evidence on the
po int in Lo ckhart s Lif e I n this respect Campbell whom he
’
.
,
was criticising was the exact contrary o f S cott and S cott

, ,
points o ut with perfect justice yet without the least suggestion

,
o f self laudation
-
the evils o f over elaboration and strained
,
-
revision .
S cott s good nature produced in hi s criticism a tendency to

’
-
praise rather than censure I n hi s reviews thi s is naturally

.
not so marked as it was in those personal recommendations

whi ch caused Constable to s ay with good reason that he , ,
’ ”
liked well S cott s a in ba ir n s but dreaded those o f his father
,
ing He could o n occasion be severe as w e see in his caustic

.
,
review o f Godwin s absurd story F le e two o d But as a rule

’
.
t h e geniali ty o f his tone contrasts very pleasantly with the

:
bitterness and frequent malignity o f so much o f the cr iti

c is m o f the time Th e review— excellent after the clumsy
.
pleasantries at the start —o f Ma t ur in s F a ta l Reven ge is typical

’
.
I t is clear—sighted as to defects yet generous in the recognition

,
o f merits Th e same may be said Of the essay on Cr o m e k s ’

.
fl
Reli q ue s of B ur n s No one was ever better fitted than S cott
.
for the di i cul t task o f com m enting on the character of Burns .
Calm good sense clear vision and large charity were all
,
necessary and he possessed them all in a rare degree The

,
.
faults o f Burns were not hi s yet while recogni sing their , ,
gravity b e handled them as sympathetically as if they had

,
been hi s o wn Th e essay is not nearly s o brilliant and illu

.
m in a t i n g as that o f Carlyle on Burns but in some impo ,
respects it approaches nearer to polar truth .
Th e essays o n chivalry romance and the drama all

, ,
t r i b ut io n s to the supplement to the En cyclop
are more careful and complete than

Q
O ff for Tbe ua r te r ly Review They .
D ealing with subj ects whi ch had e

from his youth and o n whi ch he ha
EARL Y REVI EWE RS OF 1
9 TH C ENTURY 21 1
could hardly fail t o illustrate some o f the best qualities o f

his mind .
But S cott s miscellaneous writings are va r ied as well as

’
(
voluminous and some o f the best o f them are in no way
,
related to his o wn craft o f authorship N owhere perhaps .

, ,
does he appear as essayist to more advantage than in the

papers On P la n tin g Wa s te La n ds and On La n ds cap e Ga r de n ing ,
—papers written towards the close o f hi s life after the crash ,
o f hi s fortunes when he w a s labouring far beyond his strength

,
.
Y t they are sin gularly easy fresh and bright

e
.
, ,
Th e reason .
is that they are the natural outflow o f S cott s o w n mind and

’
taste As he wrote many a day spent with To m Purdi e in

.
,
the woods with which he had surrounded Abbotsford rose in

his mind he regained the zest o f happier years and the joy
, ,
he felt in writing is transmitted to the reader .
N ext in fame to S cott among the contributors to Tbe

Q uar te r ly Review was Robert S outhey ( 1 774 whose
indefatigable industry found in the task of the reviewer suit
able occupation fo r those odds and ends of time which were n ot
occupied with tasks more ambitious and as S outhey fondly ,
believed more li k e ly o r rather more certain to win immortality

, , ,
for the author But already Je ff rey s estimate o f three per

.
’
cent is seen to err o n the side o f liberality S outhey s epics

. .
’
rest undi sturbed o n the upper shelf with his hi stories beside
them ; only his Lif e of Ne ls o n and a few lyrics are still read .
His voluminous works have never been collected and most of ,
his miscellaneous essays have still to be searched fo r in the

pages o f the periodicals to whi ch they were originally co n
tributed I n S pite o f hi s remarkable endowments and very
.
great acquirements thi s Oblivion cannot be said to be un

,
merited I t is sometimes said that a man can become what

.
ever he determines t o be i f he o nl y pursues his end with

,
suffi cient persistence ; but S outhey refutes the assertion .
He injured his o wn reputation by aiming at thin gs which were

beyond his reach Great as were hi s gi fts he over esti mated
.
,
-
them Havin g n o doubt that he was o n e o f the foremost o f

.
poets and o f historians he accepted as a payment o n

,
account the respectable measure o f f ame he wo n from hi s

contemporaries and drew on po sterity for the bala n ce
, .
Posterity has pronounced that the account is already over

drawn S outhey might have done better if he had limited
.
fl
himself to a less extensive field But he tried everyt hi n g .
,
not always o f his o wn free choice The story o f his un aggin g

.
struggle o n behal f o f wife and children is most honourable to

him but painful to read The j aded mind sank beneath it s
,
.
o wn level S outhey would have written better had circum

.
stances allowed him more leisure ; but neces sity accentuated

an inherent tendency to be t o o much o f a bookworm ; for
in t his respect S outhey sto o d in strong contrast to hi s
friend Wordsworth Th e latter read too little the former
.
,
read too much N early all that is valuable in Wordsworth

'
comes from the world around him S outhey lived among the .
same lakes and mountains and had fo r neighbours the same

statesmen but they had little e ff ect on his writings
, .
Th e essays o f S outhey deal partly with litera r y and partly

with social and political subj ects Th e latter section ill us .
trates his extraordinary dogmatism and self co n fide n ce On -

.
whatever point he touches he lays down the law with un

wavering assurance although the recollection o f his own days
,
o f belief in Pantisocracy might have suggested caution and
moderation But in truth S outhey was o n e of the most

.
intell ectuall y arrogant of men and his dogmatism is the

,
outcome o f that arrogance Fo r some o f hi s views there is

.
more to be said than the Whi gs o f hi s day would allow We .
are no longer enamoured o f the beauty Of that manufac t uring

system which So uthey denounc e d and Macaulay de f ended .
Many n o w would agree with the view whi ch Macaulay seems

to think re futed by the mere statement of it that the manu ,
21
far more faulty writings give But they are written in limpid .
,
graceful and easy prose There are no purple patches nor is

-
.
,
there anything unworthy NO S tyle not even Goldsmith s is .

,
’
,
more free from mannerism .
O ther poets besides S outhey wrote prose as well as verse ,
and were n o t content to be taught their o wn trade but pre ,
sumed to expound its principles S helley interested hi mself .
in public questions in I reland and in the prosecution o f Eaton

,
for publishing Paine s Age of Re a s o n as well as in literature

’
, .
I n the minor ritical essays some o f hi s Opinions are curious

c
enough He was greatly influenced by personal considerations

.
,
ranking F r a n k e n s te in and Ca le b Willia m s among the greatest

o f books His o nl y prose es say o f real importance is the
.
D efe n ce of P o e try and that belongs to the history of criticism

,
rather than to the history of the essay .
Wordsworth s prose essays are more numerous and more

’
varied and in the mass more valuable than S helley s They

,
’
.
are admirably written and extremely interesting— n o t o nly

t h e celebrated preface but the whole body o f essays and
, ,
letters o f the n ature o f essays in the collected prose works ,

.
They S how that though Wordsworth s method was di ff erent

’
,
from Byron s he was no more inclined than the fie r i e r poet

’
,
meekly to kiss the rod of the reviewers Th e essay o n P o e try .
as a S tud
y contains some vigorous and just comments upon
those who have applied themselves to the consideration of t he
laws o f poetry Among them are both those w ho are best and
.
those who are worst qualified to judge it

As thi s Class comprehends the only judgments whi ch are
trustworthy so does it include the most erroneous and per
,
verse F o r to be mistaught is worse than to be untaught ;

.
and no perverseness equals that which is supported b y system ,
no errors are s o di fficult to ro o t o ut as those whi ch the under

standing has pledged its credit to uphold I n this Class are .
contained censors w ho i f they be pleased with what is good

, , ,
EARLY REVI EWE RS O F I 9T H C ENTURY 215
are pleased with it only by imperfect glimpses and upon false ,
principles ; who S hould they generalise rightly to a certain

, ,
poi n t are sure to su ff er for it in the end ; w ho if they stumble

, ,
upon a sound rule are fettered by misapplying it o r by strain

, ,
ing it t o o far ; being incapable of perceiving when it ought to

yi eld to o n e o f higher order I n it are found critics too
.
petulant to be passive to a genuine poet and t o o feeble to ,
grapple with hi m ; men who take upon them to report o f the

,
course which be holds whom they are utterly unable to

accompany— confounded if he turn quick upon the wing ,
dismayed if he soar stately into the region — men o f palsied

‘
imagination and indurated hearts ; in whose minds all healthy

action is languid who therefore feed as the many direct them
, ,
or,
with the many are greedy after vicious provocatives ;
,
judges whose censure is auspicious and whose praise is

, ,
ominous !
Th e date o f this essay is 1 81 5 and as the E di n burgb Revie w
,
article o n Tbe Excur s io n appeared in November 1 81 4 there ,
c a n be little doubt as to what was i n Wordsworth s mind as

’
he wrote o r in whi ch section o f the class o f students o f poetry

,
he would have placed the author o f the phrase thi s will ,

”
never do .
Th e Ap o logy f o r tbe F r e n cb Re vo luti o n and the paper o n

Tbe Ca tb o li c Re lief B ill are o f great value as measuring the
‘
distance Wordsworth had travelled in the interval between

them Th e latter is highly conservative Th e writer is very
. .
“
much afraid o f Rome and even hi s trust that it is the
,
intention of Providence that the Church o f Rome should in

due time disappear gives o nl y partial consolation Clearly
”
, .
he woul d like to help Providence The apology is a bold and

.
power fully written expres sion o f Opinion in favour o f the

-
revolution Th e poet w as not to be frightened even by the

.
execution o f a king ; and if Burke could wield the weapon o f

style o n o n e side Wordsworth had both the power and the will
,
216 T H E ENGLI S H E S SAY AN D E S SAYI STS
to do s o on the other I t is however in the essays on literary

.
, ,
and kindred subj ects that he is at his best There are other .
thi n gs besides criticism in them ; nor is the excell ence o f the

criticism itsel f confined to th e widely known P r efa ce The -
.
thr ee essays Up o n Ep itapbs are all adm irable That which .
was contributed to Tbe F r ie n d in 1 81 0 is s o full o f j ust and

weighty reflection as to deserve the praise La mb b es towed
upon it : Your Essay o n Epitaphs is the only sensible thing
whi ch h as been written o n that subj ect and it go es to the ,
”
bottom . Th discussion Of Liter a ry B iog apby is al so
e r
excellent NO o n has written more powerft than Words

. e
worth against unsparing revelation The paper (whi ch is in .
the form o f a letter) w a s evoked by the strictures in Currie s ’
Life of B ur n s ; and the living poet w ho had s o little o f B urn s s

’
,
weakn ess to plead guilty to generously defends the dead one

,
.
Th e biographer ca n n o t he insists have kn o wn enough to

, ,
justify hi m in his revel ations Thi s es say is a criticism o f life

.
rather than a criticism o f literature ; but it contains admirabl e

criticism o f the latter sort too and shows a catholic taste and
,
an Open minded tolerance in Wordsworth which may come as

-
a surprise to some readers .
Th e poet treating of primary instincts luxuriates among

, ,
the felicities o f love and wine and is enraptured while he ,
describes th e fairer aspects o f war : nor does he shrink from

the company of the passion of love though immoderate— from
convivial pleasure though intemperate— nor from the presence
o f war though savage and recog nised as the handmaid o f
,
desolation F requently and admirably has Burns given way

.
to these impu lses o f nature ; b oth with reference to hi m self

”
and in describing the condition o f others F requently and .
a dmirably ! Perhaps Wordsworth s standard of intoxica

“ ’
tion was not S O miserably low after all ; at any rate he

was not incapable o f appreciating Willie b r e w d a pe c k ’
o
’
maut .
find glimmerings of principles ethi cal poli tical and ae sthetic
, , ,
t o reduce them to a coherent system would be almost to r e
write Tbe F r ien d There are pregnant suggestions here and

.
there on a great variety of subjects— the value Of great men ,
the liberty of the press religious toleration the errors o f the

, ,
party system and a hundred other thi n gs Th e parts which

,
.
come most strictly within the province o f the essay are the
V arious La n din g P la ces or groups o f essays interspersed for
-
,
amusement retrospect and preparation

,
”
These are enriched .
with suggestive comparisons and contrasts stories and ,
biograp hi cal papers They are brightened b y occasional

.
S triking remarks At one point w e come upon Coleridge s

.
’
well known reply to the lady who asked him whether he

-
believed in ghosts : NO madam I have S een far too many

, ,
myself . At another we find hi s anticipation o f Carlyle s

’
retort to the saying that no man is a hero to hi s valet I t is .
N elson s friend and captain S ir Ale x an de r Ball whom Coleridge

’
, ,
deems fit to stand the test and it is o f Ball that he tells a story

,
admirably illustrative Of the power o f law Th e passage is s o .
free from the vices o f Coleridge s prose style and s o nobly

’
eloquent that it deserves to be rescued from a context where

in the present day few probably will go to find it Ball had .
been appointed captain o f a man o f war with a mutinous

.
- -
crew and had restored order not by exceptional severity but

, , ,
by the promulgation o f rules a s to Offences a n d their punish

ment as near a s possi b le to those of the ordinary la w and with ,
fl
precautions against hasty or arbitrary action
fl
S trength may be met with strength ; the power o f in ict
ing pain may be ba f ed by the pride o f e n durance ; the eye o f
rage may be answered with the stare of defiance or the ,
downcast look of dark and determi n ed resolve ; and with all

t hi s there is an outward and determined obj ect to which the
mind can attach its passions and purposes and bury its o wn ,
disquietudes in the full occupation of the senses But who .

9 TH C ENTURY 21
9
dares struggle with an invisible combatant ? with an enemy

whi ch exists and makes us know it s existenc e —but where it is ,
we a s k i n vain N o space contains it ; time promises no

.
control over it ; it has no ear for threats ; it has no substance

that my h ands can grasp or my weapons find vul nerable ; it
,
commands and cannot be commanded ; it acts and is in s us

c e t ib le o f my reaction ; the more I strive to subdue it and the
p ,
more I thi nk o f it the more do I find it to posses s a reality

,
o ut o f myself and not to be a phantom o f my o w n imagination ;

,
that all but the most abandoned men acknowledge its

, ,
authority and that the whole strength and maj esty of my

,
country are pledged to support it ; and yet that for me its

power is the same with that o f my o wn permanent self and ,
that all the choice whi ch is permitted to me consists in

having it fo r my guardian Angel or my avenging F iend ! Thi s
,
is the S pirit o f law ! the lute o f Amphion ! the harp o f O rpheus !

Thi s is the true necessity whi ch compels man into the social
,
state now and always by a still beginning never ceasing

, ,
-
,
-
force of moral cohesion ”

.
Hartley Coleridge ( 1 796 though otherwise much

inferior to hi s father had as an essayist a f ar lighter touch
,
.
His pleasantly written B iogr ap bi a B o r e a lis S tand in point of

-
length midway between short biographies and biograp hi cal

essays The S ketches of Marvell and Congreve gi ve S cope to
.
the taste and critical faculty of their author and all are char ,
a c t e r is e d by a genial and attractive humanity But it is in .
the miscellaneous papers that the essayist is best revealed .
Like Hartley Coleridge s poetry— and for that matter like

’
, ,
his father s too —they are exceedingly tantalising ; there is s o

’
,
much promise and so little performanc e —just a handful o f

pieces i n all yet in these conclusive evidence o f the capa ity
,
c
to have produced many essays o f all but the highest quality

had he been grante d only o n e gift more Th e missing gift .
was unfortunately that indispensable s t alk Of carl hemp '

i n man the lack o f which leaves the whole character flaccid
,
”
.
This handful o f essays ranges from gay to grave but the s un ,

~
faced little man incli nes to lightness B o o k s a n d B a tlings . n
and B r ief tbo ugbt s up o n B r evity are pleasant enough fooling
fl
.
He can also hide real thought under the appearance o f a light

treatment as in A tr a bilio us Re e cti o n s up o n M el n cb o ly or
,
a
he can be wholly grave as in A n tiquity an excellent essay

, , ,
fertile in ill ustration and rich with literary allusions The .
distinction dra wn in S ba k es pe a r e To ry a n d a Ge n tle m a n

a
between Go d Almighty s Gentleman and the very

’
respectable G e n tleman is admirable Th e former may do .
just as he pleases subject to no restrictions but those o f

,
”
honour virtue and religion
, ,
But your very respectable
.
g en tle m a n l
y man succeeds very wel l so long as he is quite
correct and well with the world— s o long as he preserves his
gra vity keeps perfectly sober o ut of love and o ut o f debt
, , , .
But a sudden S pring o f laughter a drappie in his e e a touch ,

’
,
in the heart o r o n the shoulder dissolves the illusion at once

, ,
and leaves hi m worse than nothing— for he is t o o like a

Gentleman to appear well in any other capacity
”
.
Linked with the elder Coleridge by the fact that they were
hi s followers and that they t o o had a phi losophical aim in
, , , ,
their case unencumbered by any pretence to system were the ,
brothe r s Hare Augustus William ( 1 79 2—1 83 4) and J ulius

-
8 — whose Gues s es a t Tr utb first published in 1 82

( 79 5
1 -
1 5 5) , 7
and afterwards e nlarged at o n time powerfully influenced
,
e
the minds of the more thought ful young men A curious .
little link with the younger Coleridge t o o may be noticed in

passing Just as he has happily discriminated between the
.
true ge ntleman and the respectable imitation s o in another , ,
way have the authors of G ue s s es a t Tr utb

,
A Christian
”
.
,
“
they s a y is Go d Almighty s gentleman ; a gentleman in
,
’
,
the vulgar superficial way of understandin g th e word is the

, ,
”
D evil s Christian
’
.
22 2 T H E ENGLI S H E S SAY AND E SSAYI STS
CHAPTER IX
T HE E AR L Y M A GAZ I N E S OF T HE N I N E T E E N T H C E N T U RY
FOR many years the two great quarterlies stood alone and ,
while periodicals o f many sorts rose around them there was

none that sought to invade their territory To a certain .
extent it is true Leigh Hunt s publicatio ns which have

, ,
’
,
already been noticed di d s o ; as also still more notably did

, , ,
B la ck wo o d s M aga z i n e Th younger Tories were by

’
e
Q
no means fully contented with Tb e ua te r ly Review as Gi fford r
had made it They felt that it lacked some of the qualities

.
which rendered it s rival s o e ff ective an instrument of th e

Whi g party To some extent the difference was due to age
. .
Je ffrey and S ydney S mith were the o n e just under and the
,
other just over thirty when their review was started ; and their
principal coadjutors were still younger Gi fford o n the other
Q
.
,
hand was over fifty when he became editor of the ua r ter ly

,
.
Partly also it was a matter o f endowm ent S ydney S m i th had .
no rival fo r wit and the intellect of Je ff rey was altogether

,
more nimble than that of the Tory editor Th e more eager .
and fiery spirits therefore felt that the repres entative periodical
o f their party lacked th e necessary verve and brilliancy and ,
they conceived the idea o f making good the defect As . .
Edinburgh had delivered the first thrust s o it was le f t for ,
E dinburgh to find the parry I t was the home at th e time

.
o f two o f the most reckl essly brilliant o f the younger men of
letters Wilson and Lockh art and of t wo of the most daring

, ,
publishers Constable and Blackwood The latter had just

,
.
started a monthly magazine under the editors hi p o f t w o local

pe rsonages Prin gle a n d Cleghorn Their failure gave an
,
.
EARLY MAGAZINE S O F 1 9T H C ENTURY 2 23
ope ning to John Wilson ( 1 7 85 1 85 4) and John Gibso n Lock

-
hart ( 1 794 and the result o f this union o f publi sher

editor and critics was the celebrated B la ck wo o d s M aga z in e ’
.
Th e commotion it caused is as well kno wn as the story o f the

foundation o f Tbe Edin burgb Review Locally at least this .
commotion was mai nl y due to Tbe Cbalde e M a n us cr ip t an ,
extremely amusing and in the main good natured but utterly -

,
reckless S kit directed against a number o f the best known

,
-
men in Edi nburgh from S cott down wards This article made
,
.
the fortune yet threatened the existence o f the magazine S o .
great was the outcry that Tbe Cb ldee M a n us cr ip t was not

a
reprinted in the subsequent issue of the first number which ,
was due to the keen local interest aroused by it O ther early .
articles inherently more obj ectionable roused little comment ,
b ecause the victims were di stant and were less able to enforce
respect for their just complaints S uch were the articles o n
.
Coleridge s B iogr apbia Lite r ar ia and o n Tbe C o ck ney S cbo o l

’
,
i e practically Leigh Hunt U nfortunately the new ma gazine

. .
, .
,
whose r a is o n d é tr e in part wa s to protest against the partis an

’
, ,
ship and unfairness o f the criticism in Tbe Edi bu gb Review n r ,
was itself following the worst form o f a bad tradition Th e .
blam e must be shared by all concerned but it seems o nl y fair ,
that the least weighty share should rest o n the shoulders that
bore the most at least until the publication o f Lang s Life of
,
’
Lo ck bar t S urely Lo c k hart the youth o f twenty three w a s

.
,
-
,
less blameworthy than Wilson the man o f thirty two But

,
-
.
further o nl y those who have read much o f the periodical

,
literature o f that time can fairly award the censure There is .
at least some truth in the view that morality varies with

generations o f time and degre e s o f latitude ; and in this
matter of the e t hics of criticism what would be intolerable
,
n o w was the almost u niversal custom then No t o nly the .
B la ck wo o d and the E di n burgb me n wrote thus but Hazlitt and ,
Leigh Hunt and Coleridge himself as well I t is doub tful if .

22
4 T H E ENGLI S H E S SAY AND ESSAYI STS
any man o f th time was wholly free from blame u nless it w as

e
,
Lamb who never intervened i n controversy except with his

,
admi rably dign ified Le tte r to Ro ber t S o utbey An d thus it .
comes that the same writer may exhi bit the most inconsistent
quali ties according as his passions and prejudices are o r are
not engaged Hence the puzzling diversity of the judgments
.
pronounced upon those men Thus in Willia m Bla ckwo o d a n d

.
,
b is S o ns Mr s O liphant wh o may be regarded as a sort o f

,
.
,
o ffi cial defender o f the M ag z ine pronounces the Vi cti m of

a ,
“
Tbe C o ck ney S cb o o l as evi l tongued a critic as could be
-
”
found ; while the writer o f hi s life in Tbc Di cti o n a ry q/
N a tio n a l B iogr ap by declares tha t he was as an appreciative
critic hardly equalled and that hi s guidance is as sa f e as it
,
”
is geni al . An d both judgments are essentially just though ,
the latter is perhaps over emphatic -

.
AS essayists the two B la ck wo o d men are disappointin g .
Wilson in deed wrote nothi ng that is n o t disappointing Ye t .
Carlyle declared that he seemed to him by far the most

”
gfi te d of all o ur literary men either then o r sti ll He added .
,
however that thi s most gifted o f literary men h as written

,
”
nothi ng that can endure and he gave the rea s on ,
the
central tie beam seemed always wanting
-
”
That is the .
precise truth about Wilson He had fervid imagination an.

,
irresistible flow of spirit abundant intellect but n o backbone

, ,
of intellectual principle To the day of hi s death he was a

.
bo y of ge nius Hence he is far better when condensed in Tbc

.
Co m e dy of tbc N acte s A m br o s ia n w than in hi s o wn f ull and over

flowing abundance At times he is swept on by the rush o f
.
his feelings ; and then he would be admi rable coul d he ,
retain just a modicum of self control But the very thi n g -

.
which makes him good also makes hi m ine ff ective We s e e .
this for example in hi s essay on Tbc Ge n ius a nd Cba r a cter of

, ,
Bu s rn . I t sweeps the reader on wi th it s fervour and yet ,
wearies him Contras t it with Carlyle s magnificent essay

.
’
,
good and hi s Life of S co tt is great Ye t i n hi s ess ays he is
,
.
,
except for two or three even more disappointing than Wilso n

, . .
He does not posses s Wilson s extraordinary verve I n youth

’
.
at least he was like Wilson guilty of critical sins of extreme

Q
, ,
gravity After he became edi tor of Tbe ua r te r ly Re view the

.
surprising thing about many of his papers is that they are dull .
There are exceptions : the article on Tennyson s P o e m s o f

’
18 3 3 is irresis t ibly laughable ; and if there is critical blindn e s s

in it there is also critical acuteness I n writing it he seem s
,
.
to have been as it were blind o f o n e eye But the impression

, ,
.
g iven by his essays as a whole is one o f dulness Lang states .
as the reason that Lockhart had deliberately adopted the

theory that the reviewer s function was to make the reade r
’
acquainted with the general purpo rt o f the book criticised .
He therefore describes and summarises instead of using the ,
book after the fashion of Macaulay as a peg o n whi ch to hang ,
hi s o wn essay There is evidence th at Loc k hart had formed

.
this theory at the very outset o f his career I t is embodi ed .
in one o f the best o f his essays the Rem k s o n tbe P er io dical

,
ar
Cr i ti cis m of E ngla n d I n that arti cle the imaginary Baron v o n

.
Laue r win k el contrasts the German system with the Engli sh

the humdrum but painstaking and conscientious man o f books
who there gives his account instructive though it may be dull
, ,
fl
of the book he is reviewin g with the English editor brilli ant
, , ,
smart Often ippan t who thinks o f himself first and the book
, ,
fl
a fterwards He proceeds to give a very able though sever e
.
”
cri t icism of the critics Gifford and Je r ay as the great
, ,
Edi n burgh R eviewer is called throughout .
Lan g s palliation of Lockhart s early criticisms guarded

’ ’
,
as it is is n o t wholly s uccess fu
,
l He clears him o f the guilt o f
.
the attacks upon Coleridge a n d Wordsworth he condem ns ,
Wilson for hi s gross inconsistency and he praises Lockhart ,
for hi s adm ira tion o f Words worth and Coleridge But un .
fortunat ely he would not have been able to deny had t he ,

EARLY MAGAZINE S OF 1
9 TH C ENTURY 2 27
question been pressed against him that in a minor degre ,

e
Lockhart too is strangely inconsistent Thus in condemnin g .

,
the B la ck wo o d attack o n the B iogr apb i a Li te r ar i a he S peak s

in the warmest terms o f Co leridge “
I f he says there
”
.
, ,
b e any man o f grand and original genius alive at t hi s moment

in Europe such a man is Mr Coleridge
,
”
. Ye t in Tbe C o ck n ey
.
S cbo o l he had S poken o f Coleridge as a greater Quack still

th an Hunt the vilest apparently o f all that pestiferous
, ,
“
,
c rew.
”
We can o nl y once more note and wonder
-
Disappointment with Lockhart s essays is all the keener

’
,
because it is evident that he ha d in a hi gh degree the

‘
requisite gifts No reader o f the Life of S co tt needs to be

.
told that the biographer was master o f a S tyle far more pure
and eff ective though less showy than tha t o f Wilson Th . e
scene o f S cott s death is a masterpiece Further P ete r s

’
.
,
’
Le tter s to b is K i nsfo lk makes it evident that he had the gi f ts of

humour and keen observation and de s cript io n whi ch are among ,
the most valuable o f the qualities o f the essayist Both with .
pe n cil and with pen Loc k hart had a rare knack o f hi tti ng o ff
a likenes s His caricature sketches especially those of the
.
,
S cotch mi ni ster and the S cotch judge are adm i rable ; but ,
not more admirable than the contrast between th e S cott ish

peasant and the Gloucestershire farmer in P e te r s Letter s ’
A S cotch peasant with his long dr y visage his sharp ,
prominent cheek b ones his grey twi n kling eyes and peaked
-
, ,
chin would seem a very Argus if s e t up close a gainst the sleek

, ,
an d ponderous chubbiness of a Gloucestershire farmer

”
.
But though among the earli er periodi cals it w as the two

great reviews that were the most influential and B la ckwo o d ,
that made the greatest noise there was a fourth periodical

, ,
comparatively obs c ure and short lived Tbc Lo n do n M aga zine

-
,
( 1 82 0 w hi ch duri n g
, the period of its existence made ,
the largest contribution o f permanent value to literature .
The tragic connexion between it and B la ckwo o d is well k n own .

22 8 TH E ENGLI S H E S SAY AN D E SSAYI STS
Loc k hart went to London i n order to fight a duel with its
editor John S cott ; who however evaded the meeting in
, , ,
what Lockhart thought a cowardly manner S oo n afterwards .
S cott f ell by the hand o f Lockhart s friend Christie though

’
, ,
the latter w a s s o anxious to prevent disaster that he fired hi s

first shot in the air .
Th e ill starred S cott w a s a man w ho had the geni us to

-
attract ge nius and the tact to discern tha t particular type o f

,
endowment which w as suited fo r hi s purpose Me n as highly .
gifted have served upon the staff of other periodicals than hi s ,
b ut it may be questioned whether any English magazine has

ever had the help o f s o many who possessed in an eminent
degree that gift for essays whi ch is so pec uliarly serviceable
to a periodi cal Early in its career Tbe Lo n do n M agaz in e
.
num b ered among its contributors Charles Lamb a host in ,
himself Hazlitt and D e Quincey ; while among the lesser

,
lights were the poet Darley R eynolds the frie n d o f K eats

, ,
and of Hood and Wa in e wr ight afterwards notorious as a

, ,
murderer Even such a band as this was noticeably

.
strengthened by the accession a little later o f Mary Russell

, ,
Mitford .
S cott s death was a serious but not a fatal blow to the

’
M aga zi ne He had already gathered hi s group o f writers

.
together and they continued after hi s death to serve t h e

,
perio di cal he had made Though however it flourished for

.
, ,
a while even the very high literary merit of its contents was
,
n o t enough to pres erve it permanently I t woul d seem tha t

.
at that ti me no periodical could long survive in England un

less it linked itself with a political party N ow Tbe Lo n do n .
M aga zi n e w as n o t indi ff erent to politics but it appealed only

,
to a sm all b and o f the most advanced Liberals This was in .
the literary sense its salvation As the faithful were few it

.
,
wa s necessary to go i n p ar te s i fi de li um for material ; and

n
as Whi g and Tory were alike outside the pale to be just to ,

b low had fallen too full on the heart and for his o wn sake as
, ,
well as fo r the sake of the hapless sister who did the deed ,
Lamb closed his lips ti ght upon t h e tragedy and upon every
thi ng that coul d call it back to mind Again Lamb lived .
,
the life o f a celibate ; yet there is no writer whose works bear

more deeply the impres s o f a character sensitive to and
capable o f the fires ide happin ess of wife and children I t is .
n o t merely the exquisite reverie D r e a m Cb ildr e n though that ,
alone wo ul d be enough Th e evidence is scattered every

.
where No t only are there numerous references elsewhere to

.
Alice W n as he chose to call that An n S immons whose

,
c hil dren called Bartrum father but there is a flavour an

, ,
aroma in essays where S he i s not name d as for example i n

every word he wrote about the da u
, , , ,
ghters Of Captain Jackson .
Why di d such a man remain single ? He s known to have i
made o n e pr Opo s al o f marriage in the course o f hi s life appa ,
r en tl
y with the consent and approval o f M a r y Lamb Th e .
danger o f the taint in the b lood though it was not unknown

,
then was less clearly understood than it is n o w But the

,
.
obligation to hi s sister was never absent from Lamb s mind ’

.
I t seems probable that after hi s boyish love o f An n S immons ,
fo r her sake he put aside all other thoughts o f marriage except

that which led to the pr Opo s al to Miss K elly Ye t no taint .
o f gall passed into the nature s o severel y tried I n an age .
when the bitterness o f the heart was allowed t o o often to

disti l from the pen Lam b alone was never either wrong
,
headed o r wrong hearted His only rival for almost perfect

-
.
goo dness o f nature is S cott .
Much has been written and with good reason abo ut the
, ,
humour o f Lamb his power o f infini te j est his exquisite sense

, ,
o f style I t may be well to begin fo r once by insisting upon

.
, ,
his wisdom as the greatest o f all his qu alities ; for the sense of
it h as been dull ed partly by his own habit of hi ding it by a
,
j est and partly by a misconception by contemporaries cognate

,
9 TH C ENTURY 23 1
to, though less gross than that from whi ch Go ldsmith had
,
s u ff ered before . Though Hazlitt in Ta ble Talk calls him the

most sensible as well as the wittiest o f men there is sometimes
,
a trace o f condescension in the referenc es o f Lamb s friends ’
to him He hi mself justly complained of Coleridge for the

.
mawkish phrase gentle hearted Charles and said roundly

-
”
,
”
that he would rather be called drunken dog Th e phrase.
w as no mere accident . I t was the outcome of a habit o f

mind ; and the friends o f Lamb never wholly conquered the
habit ; to Wordsworth als o it was Lam b the froli c and the
“ ”
gentle who in 1 83 4 vanished from his lonely hearth
”
.
Lamb s friends loved hi m and admired hi m ; and yet they

’
h a d more than a suspicion that in the weightier matters they

were hi s superiors They were not Lamb w as among
. .
,
o ther thi ngs o n e of the wisest men of his t i me

,
.
Th e evidences o f t hi s wi sdom are to be met with every

where It is the essence o f Lamb s cri ti ci sm N o o n e but
.
’
.
a man endowed with the very genius of common sense coul d

have been so uniformly right as he Taste alone will not do
.
,
fo r taste is apt to have a bias — Lamb s certainly had for the

’
quaint and the antique But good sense makes him s ub

.
s t a n t i a ll
y right even where hi s own preferences do not guide
hi m ; and where they do guide hi m he has at hi s best as in , ,
the essay On tbe Gen i us a n d Cb ar a cte r of Hogar tb a marvellous ,
power o f comprehension and interpretation which can be

explained only a s the fruit o f a rare wisdom Again Tbe Old .
,
a n d tbe N ew S cb o o lm as te r is the work o f a man who has looked
upon life with the shrewdest and most penetrating eye There .
is a s o und philosophy of life in Old Cbi a and excellent prin

n ,
c i le s o f education are laid down in Re co lle cti o n s o C b

f
’
r is t s
p
H o s p i ta l Th e author o f M o der n Ga lla n try had delved
.
b eneath shows to reality ; and Tbe To m bs i n tbe Abbey is as

just in thought as it is vi gorous in style Gr a ce befo r e M ea t is
.
from begin ning to end instinct with wisdom I t also illus .

trates well the reason why this quality in Lamb has s o often
passed undetected There is a playfuln ess in it th at turns
.
the mind from the expectation o f serious thought But the .
serious th ought is there He flings down a profound truth i n

.
a phrase true thank f ulness (which is An d

in this li es hi s whole philosophy o f the grace beautiful at a ,
poor man s table less b eautiful at a rich man s and not

’
,
’
,
beautiful at all at a city banquet When I s e e a citizen in .
bib and tucker I cannot imagine it a surplice

,
”
Yo u are .
start led at the injustice o f returning thanks— for what —for

having too much whi le s o many S tarve ? “
Th e proper
obj ect of the grace is sustenance not delicacies ; the means of ,
life and n o t the means o f pamperin g the carcass

,
”
I t is uh .
answerable ; the profoundest t hi nker could have taught no

more Take again the essay o n A ua k er s M ee ting —the
.
Q ’
Quakers b y the way are pronounced t o have more right to

,
-
a grace than their neighbours because they are n either ,
glutto n s nor wine bibbers as a people

-
”
Though Lamb in .
e ludes the Quaker with the Caledonian the Jew and the ,
N egro among hi s imperfect sympathi es the Quaker essay

“ ”
,
is a model of comprehension and sym pathetic comprehension ,
too. There is no better g t

t o f wisdom To b g gble to co m
!
prehend and do justice to that which is widely di ff erent from

ourselves is o n e of the thi ngs most di ffi cult o f achievement .
La mb s o wn words in I m p erf e ct S ym p a tb ies show how grea t

’
for hi m the achi evemen t was ho w impossible to any but a ,
mind most richly endowed with good sense an eye most ,
penetrating to detect reality

I love Quaker ways and Quaker wors hi p I venerate
,
.
the Quaker principles I t does me good fo r the rest o f t he

.
day when I meet any o f their people in my path Wh en I am .
ru ffl ed o r disturbed by any occurrence th e sight o r quiet , ,
fl
voice o f a Quaker acts upon me as a ventilator lighte ni n g
, ,
the air and taking O a load from the bosom But I cannot
,
.
23
4 TH E E N GL I S H E S S A Y AND E S S A Y S TS I
lwhi ch he exaggerates in the Co f es s io ns of a D u k a d He n r n r
was temperate in hi s meals and diversions but always kept ,

”
a little o n thi s side o f a b stemiousness .
A man may however be most sagacious and yet fail to

, ,
wi n love as Lamb won and still retains it

,
Th e secret o f that .
is the nobility o f nature whi ch the facts Of La mb s li fe s o ’
eloquently attest the gentleness o f heart which Coleridge

,
praised not in error but in the wrong way the goodness to

, , ,
which Wordsworth bore his emphatic testimony Thi s too .
is graven deep upon th e essays They are full o f phr ases that .
reveal it What but the kindli est o f hearts could have thought
.
a s Lamb did about a kindly face ?

“
When a kindly face
greets us though but passing by and never kn ows us again
, , ,
nor we it we should feel it an obligation

,
”
I n his thoughts .
o n his o wn childhood we s e e t h e genesis of thi s S pirit of hi s
manhood : Th e solitude o f chil dhood is not s o much the

mother o f thought s it is the feeder of love and silence and
,
a , ,
admi ration ”
There are whole essays irra di ated with i t
.
the t wo just quoted Gr a ce befor e M e a t Tbe P r is e of Cb im ney

, ,
a
S weep er s Cap ta in j a ck s o n
,
There is an una ff ected gusto in
.
the story o f Jem Whi te in the Cb i m n ey S weep er s Th e -

.
economic wis dom o f A Co m p la in t of tb c D e cay of B egga r s may

b e dubious : we kn ow that Burn the author o f the history of ,
the Poor Law would even have made it penal to give to

-
,
begga rs But there can be no doubt o f the charity of the

.
hea rt that wrote : S hut not thy purse S trings always against -
painted distress Act a charity sometim es

.
”
But perhaps .
the most impressive o f all proofs o f the boundless kindliness

o f Lamb is to be found in C p ta i n
j a ck s o n I f the character
a .
were read a little di ff erently what a subj ect for Tbc ,
B o o k of S n o bs ’ N otw ithstandi ng his reputation for cyni

.
ci s m Thackeray was no unkindly man ; but he could

,
never have looked upon a Captain Jackson with the la rge

hearted charity of Lamb Genteel pover t y is treated in .
9 1 11 CEN TURY 23 5
Tbe B o o k f o S no bs but what we

to o ; see there is the pre
tentio s host lifting the pretentious cover from the dish
n
where he t wo o r three lean chops I n Lamb imagina .

,
tion conquers reality the remnant rind o f cheese becomes a

,
g enerous meal the

,
sensation o f wi ne was there
”
though no ,
wine and you reeled under the potency o f his unper forming
,
Bacchanalian encouragements ”
Yo u s a w wi t h your bodily
.
e yes indeed what seemed a bare S crag— cold s avin gs from the
'
foregone meal— remnant hardly su ffi cient to send a mendicant

from the door contented But in the copious will— the
.
revelling imagination o f your host— t h e mind the mind ‘

, ,
Master S hallow whole beeves were S pread before yo u

,
’
—
hecatombs no end appeared to the profusion ”
O r again .
,
is not the very soul o f goodness in that passage in De ta cbe d

Tbo ugb ts o n B o o k s a n d Re a di n g where Lamb praises the
Circ ulating Library copy o f a novel t
“
How beautiful to a genuine lover o f rea di ng are the
s ullied leaves and worn o ut appearance nay the very odour
,
-
, ,
( beyond R ussia ) if we would

,
not forget kind feelings in
fastidiousness o f an o ld Circulating Library To m Jones or

, ,
f
V icar o f Wakefield ! Ho w they speak of the thousand thumbs ,
that have turned over their pages with delight — o f the lone
sempstres s whom they may have cheered (milliner or harder
, ,
working mantua maker) after her long day s ne e dle toil

-
’
-
,
running far into midnight when s h e has snatched an hour

, ,
ill spared from sleep t o steep her cares as in some Lethean

-
, ,
cu
p ,
in S pelling o ut their enchanting contents ! W h o woul d
have them a whit less soiled ? What better condition could

w e desire to s e e them in ?
There is nothi ng aff ected or insincere about thi s I n his .
o w n way Lamb was a champion of the poor as well as Dickens ,
and one hardly less catholic in his sympathi es or less tolerant .
Th e story o f the beggar who left a legacy o f five hundred

pounds to the bank clerk who had given hi m alms for twenty
23 6 T H E ENGLI S H E SSAY AND E SSAYI STS
yea r s had no power to dry up Lamb s charity : o n the contrary ’
,
he s aw in it rather a beautiful moral of well directed charity -
”
o n the o n e part and noble gratitude on the other
,
Had he .
lived to see London reproduced in all its complexity in P ick

wi ck and its successors what would he have thought ? He
,
was a s o n o f the great city and for hi m t o o N ature was to

,
b e found in Fleet S treet rather than in the Lakes .
A character such as this freely self revealed could not fail

,
-
,
to be among the most attractive things in literature An d .
Lamb is constantly autobiograp hi cal No t that it is safe to

‘
take hi s statements without examination as literal facts : He

had a turn for m ys ti fica t io n s he delighted in weaving threads
,
o f fiction in a web o f truth But rarely if ever do the fictions

.
seriously interfere with the genui n eness o f his co n fide n c e s I t .
matters nothing that the real name o f Mr s Battle was Burney \6 .

,
a n d that o f Alice W n S im mons o r that the Cousin ,
Bridget was really a sister or that when he says Brother o r

, ,
sister I never had any to know them his statement will not
,
”
,
s quare with facts . S uch deviations from precise truth the ,
disguises usually transparent which he chose t o assume do

, , ,
not alter the essential fact that throughout to a degree almost ,
unexampled in English Lamb is personal and auto b iographical

,
.
He is s o not only in the essays just referred to but in what he ,
wrote about Christ s Hospital in Tbe S up er a n n ua te d M a n in

’
, ,
Oxf o r d i n tbe Va ca tio But to be exhaustive would be

n .
almost to make a catalogue Every where he takes the reader

.
into hi s confidence He is personal in his criticism almost as

.
much as elsewhere The De ta cbe d Tbo ugb ts are admirable

.
criticism ; b ut they are Lamb s and they could not possibly ’

,
belong to any o n e else Th e same may be said o f the famous

.
essay on the artificial comedy o f the eighteenth century .
F rom childhood to o ld age he gives the reader the means o f

tracing him M a ck ery E n d and Bla k es m o o r give the r e m in is
.
cences o f early childhood Re co lle ctio n s of Cbr is t s Ho sp ital

,
’
lodging puzzles an d discomposes me My household gods
,
.
-
.
plant a terrible fixed foot an d are not rooted up without ,
blood They do n ot willingly seek La vini an shores A n e w

. .
state O f being staggers me ”

.
This was probably o n o f the passages which caus ed S ou t hey

e
to lament the want in Elia o f a s ounder religion S outhey .
would doubtless have been quite contented had Lamb chant e d ,
like hundreds o f congregations and with as little meani ng as ,
they ,
0 P di 0 P di ar a s e, ar a s e,
Ti w y w iti g h
’
s ear a n e re .
Ye t whi ch is the more soundly religious— thi s silly insincerity ,
o r tha t ma nly truth ?
In the style o f the passa ge just quot e d there is a touch o f

“
S ir Thomas Browne that fantastic Old great man whom
,
Lamb loved so well and s o wisely There are many othe r .
traces o f the s ame influence elsewhere —traces in thought in ,
turn o f expression in the us e o f quaint and unus ual words

, ,
'
such as p e r ieges is Th matter is o f some importance In
. e .
point of style Lamb is not wholly a moder n His exquisite .
but manner e d English w as bas ed upon the prose masters

the seventeenth century men like Bro wn e and B urton o f the
, ,
A n a to m y and F uller
,
To them he w as dr awn by a natural
.
kin shi p Their thoughts were largely hi s their quai n tnesses

.
,
fl
and conceits fitted in with hi s humour their anti que flavour ,
pleased his critical palate This natur al a i n i t y combined

.
,
with the thoroughn ess O f Lamb s knowledge o f them made ’

,
the imitatio n— if a thi ng S O natural can be called by that name

— successful and explains the genesis o f a style at once u ni que
,
fl
a n d for the purposes to whi ch it is turned
,
unsurpassed in , .
e e c t iv e n es s Though itself based upon models in the past

.
,
it is obviously an extremely unsafe style to imitate N o o n e ‘
could advise the student to give his days an d hi s ni ghts to

9 1 11 C ENTURY 23
9
Lamb , if the purpose was to learn how to write English Ah .
imitation o f Lamb to be successful would require a co n

, ,
j unction of three qualities First there must be the same

.
,
natural a ffi nity to the seventeenth century writers ; and of -
thi s there has been probably no example fo r a hundred years

except La mb hi mself S econdly there must be the same
\
.
,
tho rough knowledge ; whi ch though attainable is nevertheless

, ,
bo th rare and di ffi cult Thi rdly there must be that unfailing
.
,
tact that instinct for style which Lamb possessed ; and wher e
,
that is present the possessor will find his own way without
advice .
fi m b s style is inseparable from hi s humour o f which it is

’
’
J
,
the expression His whi m whams ‘ as he called them

.
-
, ,
found their best expression i n the quaint words and antique

phrases and mul tipli ed and sometimes far fetched yet never -
forced comparisons in which he abounds S trip Elia of these .
and he is nothing N either the brilli ancy o f Hazli tt nor the

.
,
harmony of De Quincey n o r the vigour o f Ma caulay n o r the

, ,
eloquence o f Ruskin nor the purity o f Goldsmith could for a

,
moment be thought capable o f expressing the meaning o f

Lamb . In argumentative passages no doubt o n e or other
migh t suffi ce Hazlitt might have maintained the thesis o f
.
Tbe Ar tifi ci al Co m edy with e qual skill But when we co m e .
to the most characteristic essays such as Tbe Two Ra ces of M e n ,
and P o o r Rela tio ns and A Cbapte r o n Ear s what style is co n ‘
c e iv a ble except that in which they are couched ? O f no one else

is the saying that the style is the man more tr ue t ha n o f Lamb i
.
I n the deepest sense therefore hi s s t yle is natural and all his

o wn . I ts basis in t he seve n teenth century writers is af ter -
,
all n o t s o much imitation as the expression of hi s natural

,
affi nity to them .
What is the true character of Lamb s humour ? I t has ’
been called American by a n Englishma n tho ugh there is a ,
suggestion o f I reland in the compariso n But apart from the .

2 0
question of the propriety of attributing sonship to the elder ,
the comparison is superficial I t means no more than that .
there is an element of exaggeration in Lamb s humour as there ’
is in American humour We s e e it in A Cbap te r o n E ar s

.
S cienti fically I could never b e made to understand (yet

have I taken some pains) what a note o f music is ; or how
one note should differ from another Much less in voices can .
I distingui sh a S Opr a n o from a tenor O nly sometimes the .
thorough bass can I contrive to guess at from its being ,
supereminently harsh and disagreeable Th e e xa gge r a .
tion is evident We know that we must not take quite

.
literally thi s ina b ility to distinguish a soprano from a tenor .
W smile without b elieving when Lamb says he has been

e
practising G od save the K ing all hi s life and ha s n o t

”
,
arrived within many quavers of it Exaggeration even .
greater is of course the most conspicuous quality in the

, ,
humour we call American But compare Mark Twain s advice

.
’
to t h e serenaders to gag their tenor lest hi s overwee ni ng ,
conceit S hould tempt him to let o ut too soon his in s ufie r a bl e
S creech and it will be found that the m a n n er is wholly di ff erent

,
.
Besides exaggeration has b y no means the prominence in

,
Lamb s humour that it h a s in the American

’
What is there .
o f it what in the faintest degree suggestive o f America in the

, ,
far more characteristic opening of the essay just quoted

I have no ear .
Mistake me not reader nor imagine th a t I am by nature

, ,
-
destitute o f those exterior twin appendages hanging orna ,
ments and (archi tecturally S peaking) handsome volutes to

,
”
the human capital .
Here we are closer to the real Lamb Here ar e t wo .
characteristics whi ch are far more general in hi s writings and ,
what is even more important far more di stinctive of him , ,
than mere exaggeration That he shares with many English

.
,
as well as American ; the others are his o wn They are first .

, ,
2
to your friends — the o n e thing not needful — the hail in
, ,
,
—
harvest the ounce o f sour in a pound o f sweet ”
.
I t is idl e to compare thi s with anything else I t is unique . .
There is no humorist more original than Lamb .
Th e element of the grotesque which is present here may , ,
be further illustrated by the description of Boyer s wigs in ’
Cb is t s Ho s p ita l He had two wigs b oth pedantic but o f

’
r , ,
di ff ering omen The o n e serene smili ng fresh powdered

.
, , ,
b etokening a mild day Th e other an Old discoloured un

.
, ,
kempt angry caxon denoting frequent and bloody execution

, , .
Wo e to the school when he made his morning appearance in

,
hi s p as sy or p as s i o n a te wig
,
No comet expounded surer
.
”
.
But there i s something o f the poetic as well as o f the grotes que ;

and thi s too was characteristic o f Lamb Though he wa s not
, ,
.
much o f a poet in verse there is an unmistakable atmosphere

of poetry about his more serious prose and it S hows occasion ,
ally even in the most humorous essays There is a touch of .
“
the poet in the comparison o f the b orrower to the true
Propontic whi ch never e b b e t h ; there is more than a touch
in the reference to dusty maps of Mexico di m a s dreams ,
in Tbe S o utb S e a Ho us e and in that fine phrase in D is ta t

-
,
n
Co r r es p o n de n ts referring to the changes that may have

,
occurred in the S pace between the writing and the receipt of

the letter t hi s con fusion o f tenses this grand solecism o f ,
two pr es e n t s
”
Th e whole o f Dr e a m Cb ildr e n is poetic and
Q
.
,
much of A ua k e r s M ee ting F requently the poetic element

’
.
is brought in under the shape of a li terary allusion o r q uo t a t io n l

which no one coul d manage more s kilq y than Lamb He .
drew either from English or from Latin sources and always ,
wi th taste .
La mb must have been conscious that the essays were by far

hi s greates t contribution to literature and it wo ul d have been ,
strange if he had left s o remarkable a faculty unused after

discovering that he possessed it and finding an outlet for it .
9 TH C ENTURY 2
43
I n point of fact essay writing was his principal li terary occupa

-
tion from 1 820 when he began to contribute to Tbe Lo d

,
n on
M agaz i e to 1 83 3 when the L s t Es s ys of Eli appeared

n , ,
a a a .
All the essays by whi ch we now know hi were thus the pro m
duct o f hi s intellectual prime and f the fulness of his xp r i o e e
ence He w about forty fiv when he first wrote under the

. as -
e
name o f Elia and fift y eight when he last used that name
,
-
.
An d his days were then numbered Th death o f Coleridge in . e
the summer f 1 83 4 shocked hi m terribly He was heard to

o .
mutter from time to time Coleridge is dead Coleridge is dead ; , ,
and just before the close of the year he himself followed his
friend to the universal bourne Th season of Christmas has . e
been peculiarly fatal to great essayists Tw o later Christmases .
were desti ned to be darkened by th deaths o f two others e
Macaulay and Thackeray .
I n 1 824 while Lamb w as still writing f r Tbe Lo d

,
o n on
M g z i e there began in the same periodical a series f

a a n , , ,
o
sketches whi ch displayed no small portion of the grace and

humour of the master hi mself Th writer Mary Russell . e ,
Mitford ( 1 7 87—1 85 had already produced j uli and while an , ,
for the nine years from 1 824 to 1 83 2 s h e was turning o fi those ,
bright and easy descriptions of vill age life and thi nking lightly
enough o f them s h e continued t o batter with tragedies the
,
gates f t h temple o f fame Sh thought s h had succeeded

O e . e e
in opening them and her contemporaries agreed with her

, .
W know n o w that s h was right but that the gates opened

e e , ,
not to the heavy battering but to the quiet voice o f the ,
sketches Miss Mitford s tragedies are forgotten ; her

.
’
S ketches f Our V ill ge are among the permanent possessions

o a
o f Engli sh literature Their charm is woven f many threads

. o .
Miss Mitford had a keen eye for character and an equally keen
eye f r nature S h had humour sympathy and animation
o . e ,
.
Th e whole group o f qualities will be found ill ustrated in hn o t a s
any of the essays Take that excellent description f an old

. o
2
44 TH E E NGLIS H E SSAY AND ES SAYI STS
custom then still surviving— B m ley M y ing I t is S pirited ra a .
from beginning to end rich in atmosphere humorous in the, ,
sketch o f the friendly butcher who gives the proper , ,
customary and unintelli gible directions as to the lanes and

,
turni ngs— fir s t to the right then to the left then round , ,
F armer Jen nings close then across the Holy Brook then to
’
, ,
the right again ”

I n Tbe Wo o d o r in Tbe F a ll of tbe Le f
.
,
a ,
indeed everywhere we see evidence of her keen feeli ng for

,
nature Her eye was very alert in her c ountry walks a n d her
.
,
mind active Quiet as her themes are her treatment of them

.
,
is always animated D escription which is often dreary is

.
, ,
never so in her fo r it is s o rapid O ne point leads without

,
.
pause to another ; still life is enlivened with life that is any

t hi ng but still ; occasionally but rarely a great public ques
, ,
tion is touched in passing— j ust touched for to dwell upo n it ,
would be to introduce the worst sort o f irrelevance— a

thi ng that is out o f harmony with the spirit o f the piece .
A passage from Vi o le ti n g illustrates a ll thi s variety and

a ni mation
We have the good fortune to live in an unenclosed parish ,
and may thank the wise o b stinacy of two or three sturdy

farmers and the lucky unpopularity o f a ranting madcap
,
lord o f the manor for preserving the delicious green patches

, ,
the islets o f wilderness amidst c ul tivation whi ch form , ,
perhaps the peculiar beauty o f Engli sh scenery The common

,
.
that I am passing now— the lea as it is called— is one of the ,
loveliest o f these favoured spots I t is a little sheltered scene .

,
retiring as it were from the village ; sunk ami dst hi gher lands
, ,
-
hi lls would be a hn o s t too grand a word : edged o n one side
by o n e gay highroad and intersected by another ; and sur
,
rounded by a most picturesque confusion o f meadows cottages , ,
farms and orchards ; with a great pond in one corner usually

, ,
b r ight and clear giving a delightful c h e e r f ln e s s and daylight

,
p
to the picture Th e swallows haunt that pond ; s o do the
.
a cquaintance amongst them and I can almost say that I , ,
know good of many and harm o f none I n general they are .

,
an open S pirited good humoured race with a proneness to

, ,
-
,
embrace the pleasures and eschew the evils o f their condi tion ,
a capacity for happiness quite unmatched in man or woman, , ,
o r girl They are patient too and bear their fate as scape
.
, ,
goats (for all sins whatsoever are laid as matters of course to , ,
their door) whether at home or a b road with amazing res igna

, ,
tion ; and considering the many lies o f whi ch they are the
,
obj ects they tell wonderfully few in return Th e worst that

,
.
can be said o f them is that they seldom when grown to man s

, ,
’
estate keep the promise o f their boyhood ; but that is a fault

,
to come— a fault that may n o t come and ought not to be ,
anticipated I t is astonishing how sensible they are to notice

.
from their betters o r those whom they think such I do not

,
.
S peak of money o r gifts o r praise or the more coarse and

, , ,
common briberies— they are more delicate courtiers ; a word ,
a nod a smile o r the mere calling of them by their names is

, , ,
enough to ensure their heart and their services ”

.
I f any one requi res a reason better than the pleasure o f it

fo r readi ng Our V illage he may find it in the fact that the
,
book depicts a rural England whi ch is to a considerable degree

a thing of the past Th e haunts o f ancient peace are rarer
.
now than they were when Tennyson was a bo y and Miss

Mitford a woman of mid dl e age But such as they were when .
industrialism w a s but half developed and railways were not

yet they will nowhere be found more charmingly deli neated
,
than in that beauti f ul and wise and generously human book ,
Our V illage
Hazlitt has been dealt with elsewhere and De Q
.
uincey soon ,
became a member of the B la ck wo o d group ; but as Tbe Lo n do n

M agaz i e w as the m edium o f publication o f the work for
n
which he is still most famous he may fairly be treated alo ng ,
wi th Lamb and Miss Mitford O f Thomas de Quincey ( 1 7 85 .

EARLY MAGAZINE S OF I
9 TH C ENTURY 2
47
185 9) it may be said that he has left little that is not close to ,
if n o t withi n the province o f the essay ; and yet he was a man

,
whom nature di d not intend for an essayist I t was hi s defects .
rather than hi s merits that made him o n e and s o though the , ,
bulk of hi s writin gs can hardly be brought under any other

head there is scarcely anythi ng he has left that can be
,
regarded as a wholly satisfactory example o f the essay form .
Th perfect essay is brief and though it may be discursive it

e , , ,
has nevertheless a unity o f its own ; but if any law guides the
wanderings o f De Quincey it is Often very hard to discover
,
.
D e Quincey divided hi s o wn works into three sections to ,
o n e o f which he gave the general name o f essays But he .
uses the word in a sense in o n e way narrower in another ,
perhaps wider than that in whi ch it is employed in this book

,
.
Th e examples he chooses to comment upon are Tb e Es s e n es ,
Tb e C e s a s and C i ce o No w Tb e C e s a r s fills the greater part

c r ,
r . c
o f a volume I t appears that D Quincey means by essay

. e
hi story o r philosophy in the making ; for there is no reason

why the two former papers S hould not have been expanded ,
the one into a hi story o f Rome in the imperial period the ,
other into a philosop hi cal treatise o n the nature o f Christianity

and its relation to the teaching of the Essenes NO reason or .
,
rather none except that infirmity o f will and insta b ility o f

purpose which forbade D e Quincey as it forbade Coleridge , ,
hi s fellow victim t o opium to realise more than a fraction o f

-
,
that which was withi n him He had the scholars hi p the

.
,
intellectual interest and the S peculative power necessary for

the construction of massive works of either t h e historical or
the p hi losophical sort ; b ut in hi m as in hi s friend John Wilson ,
the central tie beam was wanting and thus he w a s co n

-
,
de m n e d to produce merely fragments His essays there .
fore are literally attempts at the various subj ects with whi ch
they deal They bear the sort o f relation to what he might
.
have written that the essays o f Macaulay bear to hi s hi story ,

248 TH E E NGLI S H E SSAY AND E SSAYI STS
or Carlyle s D i m o n d N eckla ce to hi s F r e n cb Revo lutio n
’
a .
There is an incomplete n ess about them all .
De Quincey further explains that he includes under the

name o f essays those papers whi ch address themselves purely
to the understanding as an insulated faculty ; o r do s o
primarily ; and he adds that generally he cl aims the merit
of rectification applied to absolute errors or to injurious ,
limitations of the truth ”

Th e essay then so understood is
.
, , ,
part o f the literature o f knowledge and has nothing directly ,
to do with the literature o f power Th e pure play o f fancy .
o r imagination whether serious o r humorous is excluded ;

, ,
there is no room for Lamb s D r e a m Cb ildr e n o r for hi s Ro a s t

’
P ig. But there is room for many o f D e Quincey s papers ’

.
There is room for such an exercise o f critical ingenui ty as

j u d a s I s ca r i o t T
.here is room for papers illustrative of his
learning like the essays o n Bentley and on Tbe P aga n
,
Or a cles ; fo r biographical papers like his Go lds m i tb and ,
Go e tbe ; for papers o n the philosophy o f literature li ke ,
hi s S tyle and his Tbe o r y of Gr ee k Tr age dy ; and for that

peculiarly interesting group o f criticisms o n contemporaries
Coleridge Wordsworth Lamb Hazlitt— where the value
, , ,
imparted by De Quincey s native acumen is indefinitely

’
increased b y th e fact that he is an authority at first hand and

a s such can never be superseded Elsewhere hi s deplorable
.
incapacity t o concentrate enormously dimi ni shes the value of

hi s work ; but S tudents must always turn back to di scover
what impression these men produced on a contemporary so
well qualified to understand them and s o hi ghl y gifted with
the power o f expression Even o f those whom he did not
.
personally know his criticisms though marred by di ff us eness

, ,
are worthy o f careful consideration Probably no contem .
p o r ar
y but Coleridge had given more thought to the principles
o f criticism and none but Coleridge had o n occasion more
, , ,
power o f illuminative suggestion— witness Tbe K n o ck ing a t

marred by pages Of t hi n jocul arity most commo nly at the
,
beginni ng but frequently enough embedded in the body o f the

,
paper too .
There remains the third and last S ection which De ,
Quincey rightly considered to be a far higher class of com

position than the others I t embraces Tbe Englis b Op i um
.
E a ter and the S us p ir i a de P r ofun dis I t em b races likewise

.
parts o f the A uto biogr apb i c S k e tcbes — those parts to whi ch

the author himself refers as having a higher aim than the
or di nary stream o f the narrative Clearly also it embraces
.
parts o f Tbc Englis b M a il Co a cb A portion at least o f thi s

-
.
di vision o f his works falls withi n the province o f the essay ;

and s o D e Quincey has to be considered as the r e creator for -
the nineteenth century o f that impassioned prose whi ch the

seventeenth century had kn own and the eighteenth had fo r
fl
gotten I t is by far hi s most memorable achi evement N ot
. .
since S ir Thomas Browne had such e e c t s as hi s been pr o

duc e d ; without him Ruskin a s a s t h e t ic critic would have been
something di ff erent from the man we know .
No one knew better than De Quincey himself where the

excellence of hi s style lay for he applied to hi s o wn work that
,
talent for critical analysis which enabled him to detect both

beauty and defect in others But it is not given to any man
.
to b e a complete critic of himsel f and while De Quincey

,
understood perfectly well the excellence it is certain that he

,
was not so fully aware o f the defect ; otherwise he would have

prune d away hi s redundancies and spared the reader many
a page o f matter s o trivial and thought s o superficial that
even the most melodious English cannot conceal the inherent
poverty . S till he was partly aware o f t hi s defect t o o
,
.
Ther e is a passage in his essay on Charles Lamb whi ch

throws an instructive light upon his conception of hi mself .
After commenting upon Lamb s insensibili ty to music he

’
proceeds .
9 TH C EN TURY 25 1
I t was a coroll ary from the same large s ub t tu in hi s

‘
s ra m
n
. ature that Lam b had no sense o f the rhythmical in prose
,
c omposition Rhythmus or pomp of cadence o sonorous

.
, ,
r
a scent f claus es in the structure f sentences were e ff ects

o ,
o ,
o f art as much thrown away upon b i m as the voice o f the

c harmer upon the deaf adder W ourselves occupying the . e ,
very station f polar opposition to that o f Lamb being as

o ,
morbidly perhaps in the one excess as he in the other

, , ,
aturally detected thi s omission in Lamb s nature at an early

n
’
s tage in u acquaintan e
”
o r c .
I n the author s own view then D e Quincey s style is based

’
, ,
’
upon the us of the periodic sentence and the grand obj e t in

e ,
c
the construction of the sentence is to secure volume of sound ,
pomp of cadence Th individual word is important it is. e ,
true Every scholarly instinct in D e Quincey cried out

.
against the misuse f words in respect o f meaning Again o .
and again he digresses t o explain the accurate and scholarly use

o f a word which is suggested to him as he writes just as ,
R uskin afterwards digressed for the same purpose and

insisted upon the importance f knowing the history of words o .
So t every musical instinct w s outraged by the us f a

oo a e o
word ill sounding either in itself or in the context and he

-
,
d ilates upon the immeasurable pains he took to find j ust the

right word for the place S till though all this w s indis .
,
a
pensable it was only a means to an end— the harmonious

, ,
s onorous s w inging sentence,

But the most interesting poi t . n
in the passage quoted is the suggestion that he himself is

perhaps as morb idly in the excess as Lamb is in t h other o ne e .
An d thi s is exactly the truth Where D Q uincey falls short f . e o
greatness is in the substance f his work Pomp of language o .

,
merely as such has a charm of its wn R L S tevenson

, o . . .
found great comfort in the name Jehovah Ts idk u when he en ,
knew nothing about it s meaning S till for most men sound .

, ,
h s to be supported by sense and there must be a reasonable

a ,
proportion between the o n e and the other— the little fishes
must n o t talk like whales Pomp o f S peech is fitted for grea t
.
occasions Pericles pronouncing the funeral oration over the

.
dead Athenians Ab raham Lincoln consecrating fo r all time

,
the soil o f Gettysburg already consecrated with blood not ,
only may but must be stately But Pericles giving an .
inventory o f the resources o f Athens is simply business like -

,
and no one could be more homely then Lincoln habitually was .
Now if D e Quincey had pres erved this perfect balance

between sound and meaning he would have been equal to
the greatest o f English prose writers ; perhaps he would have
-
been the greatest o f all for it is doubtful whether any

,
one else except S ir Thomas Brown e has written s o much

, ,
prose with the highest qualities o f rhy thm But the .
b alance is n o t perfectly kept Th Opium dreams are go r

. e
geo n s b ut somewhat too vapoury Bring him to the

,
.
test o f a comparison with the passages quoted in an earlier

chapter from Brown e I n the elder writer there is a b ack
.
b one o f thought such as we do not find in D e Quincey .
Brown e is a dreamer it is t r ue but hi s dreams have a savour

, ,
o f reality Th e ashes o f an urn call up the whole pageant of

.
human hi story Contrast with this D r e a m F ugue o r any

.
-
,
part o f it
S weet funeral bells from some incalculable distan e wail c ,
ing over the dead that die before the dawn awakened me as ,
I slept in a boat moored to some familiar shore Th e morning .
twili ght even then w as breaking ; and by the dusky revelations ,
whi ch it spread I s aw a girl adorned with a garland of white

, ,
roses about her head fo r some great festival running along ,
the solitary strand in extremity o f haste Her running was .
the running o f panic ; and often s h e looked back as t o some

dreadful enemy in the rear But when I leaped ashore and
.
,
followed in her steps to warn her of a peril in front alas ! from ,
me s h e fled as from another peril and vai nly I shouted to her ,

25
but he is crude in comparison with D e Qui ncey An d wher e .
else is such an impression conveyed o f the suspense o f England

in those years o f war ; o f the joy o f the news o f victory and ,
t h e grief from the sense o f bereavement ? To him who pro

duc e d such eff ects we o w e a debt of gratitude ; and though he
is n o t among the greatest though he had grave faults he is
, ,
nevertheless among o ur b enefactors .
Th e year 1 820 was memorable not o nl y for Tbc Lo n do n

M g z in e b ut fo r the establishment o f Tbe Re tr o s p e tive Re view
a a c
( 1 820 to whose excellen ce in criticism Professor S aints

bury has borne emphatic testimony Among the contributors .
was Lamb s friend and literary executor Thomas Noon Talfo ur d

’
,
( 1 79 5 whose articles in it and in Tbc Ne w M o n tbly

M aga zi ne are marked alike by vigour o f understanding and
by generosity of S pirit These newer publications all reverted
.
,
as regards the periods o f their publication to the custom of ,
the eighteenth century magazines the departure from whi ch

-
,
by the quarterli es w a s s o curiously distur b ing to the mind o f

an o ld fas hi oned editor Tbc A tbe wum and Tbc S p e ta to r
-
. n c ,
when they appeared in 1 82 8 still further shortened the in

,
t e r v al b etween issues to one week They addressed a class .

,
however not widely diff erent from that to which the quarter
,
lies and the monthli es ali ke appealed— the upper and upper
middle classes But an impo rtant step in that sense down
.
,
wards was taken in 1 83 2 by Cba m ber s s j o ur n al the organ

,
’
,
o f the b rothers William and Robert Chambers I ts establish .
ment marks a distinct stage in the democratisation o f litera

ture As publishers the brothers worked fo r this end and
.
,
sometimes the very titles o f their publications proclaimed

their purpose— fo r example I nfo m tio n f o r tbc P eop le They
,
r a .
were a potent force in that movement which Peacock satirised

in the phrase the S team I ntellect S ociety With reference to
,
.
hi s contributions to the j o ur n a l itself the younger and more ,
literary o f the broth ers wrote that it was his design from the
9 1 11 C ENTURY 25 5
first to be the essayist o f the middle class ; and by that he

meant a class whi ch no essayist had yet addressed .
Robert Chambers ( 1 80 2—1 87 1 ) w a s a person o f remarkable

gifts When he was still a young man he astonished S cott
.
b y the extent o f hi s information about o ld Edinburgh and in ,
mid dl e life he raised no small commotion by his Ves tiges of

Cr e a ti o n a theory o f evolution before the days Of evolution
, .
But besides substantive books he wrote some hundreds o f

essays to the j o ur n a l They are o f the most varied kinds
.
”—
gay grave sentimental philosophical
, , ,
but Chambers ,
rarely fails to be interesting To be interesting was hi s de

.
liberate aim .Everywhere he says I have sought less

, ,
to attain elegance or observe refinement than to avoid that

—
,
last o f literary sins dulness ”

His reward is that he may
.
sti ll be read with enjoyment and with profit He had a great .
power o f imparting interest through his knowledge o f detail ;

and he had a surprising amount o f information o n many other
subj ects as well as o n Edinburgh A paper o n Lo ng Liver s
.
a ff ords an example o f thi s power Hi s pleasant humour is

.
seen in Tbe I n n o cen t Ra ilway an amusing account of a

,
journey from Edinburgh to Dalkeith ; and again in Ha n dles ,
an inge nious application o f the idea that the most peculiar

”
and di ffi cult men are most easily managed once the
han dl e has been found I n Jonson s language it is
.
’
,
necessary to understand the humour Thus A wife o f any .

,
ingenuity might in great measure dress herself o ff her hus

”
b and s hurricanes Th e secret is to submit and make hi m
’
.
,
penitent Humour is the essence likewise of the excellent

.
essay entitled Tbc S tr uggles of Ado les ce n ce for whi ch S earch ,
ha s to be made in the o ld volumes o f the j o ur n a l ; fo r

it has been strangely omitted from the tolerably copious
selections .
Another notable periodical whi ch also produced genuine

and memorable literature was Hugh Miller s ( 1 80 2—1 85 6) ’
paper Tbc Wi tn es s which was the organ o f the S cottish Dis
, ,
ruption R arely h s a periodical founded for a purpose s o

. a
polemical left anythi ng o f permanent value ; but the edi tor

was a man of notable literary gifts and hi s o wn contri b utions , ,
even if they stood alone would entitle Tbc Witne s s to a place

,
in literary history I n its columns appeared b oth Tbc Old Re d

.
S a n ds to e and M y S cb o o ls a n d S cbo o lm a s te r s the works by

n ,
which Mi ller is best remembered Thes e though they have .

,
in part the character o f essays have collectively a wider ,
range than the word can legitimately cover But b esides .

,
Miller w a s the author of an extraordinary number of papers
fl
o n miscellaneous subj ects He was a fertil e as well a s an in
.
e xib l
y honest journalist He was the leader
. w riter o f his -
o w n paper ; and the volume o f Le a di n

g A ti cles printed under r
hi s name is o f a quality to which journ alism rarely attains .
Th e interest o f many o f the articles has waned with the pass

ing o f the matters to whi ch they refer ; but there are others
which are still fresh There is pungent satire in the article
.
entitled Cr iti cis m — I n te r n al Evi de n ce ; and there is a touch of

imagination in the comparison between the elaborate and
formal sentences o f the time o f D ugald S tewart and the
manner in whi c h th e writers wore their hair the period is
contemporary with the peruke— the period is the peruke of
style .
”
But naturally there is more material that is still in
t e r e s t in g in the Es s ay s His to r i al a n d B i ogr apb i ca l P o li ti ca l
,
c ,
n d S o ci al Lite a d S cie n tific These we are told are

a , y rar n .
, ,
the gleanings from about a thousand articl es contributed ,
during Mi ller s sixteen years editorshi p o f Tbe Wi tn es s and

’ ’
this in addi tion to the multitude o f leadi ng articles written

during the same years Th e Es s ay s are journalistic ; but it
.
is the journalism o f a man o f literary geni us and o f one who , ,
like S cott had as much sense as genius They S how that he

, .
possessed a keen and penetrating eye wide sympathies an d ,
c lear intelli genc e The biographical ones display a just

.
touches o n Brown s father his Rhadamanthi n e grandmother
’
, ,
and other members o f the family S till the dogs are the pri n .
,
ci a l figu r es — the inimitable Toby Wylie the wee fell yin ”

p , ,
Wasp the marvellous mother Jock who was insane from , ,

”
his birth and John Pym who must have been related to the
, ,
dog whose life w as fu o s airio us n e s s because he could not

’ ’
get enu ff 0 ’
There is no other dog in all litera
ture equal to Toby There have been many more beautiful
.
,
for Toby was the most utterly shabby vulgar mean look , ,
-
ing cur his owner ever beheld ; and yet in a deeper sens e
there is none s o beautiful for none has found a va te s s ce r to
,
a
delineate him with such loving care from his ethi cs —h e was ,
a dog o f great moral excellence —to his u n ique tail o f ,
which we are told that it w as a tail per s e it was o f im

mense girth and not S hort equal throughout like a poli ceman s
,
’
baton ; the machi nery for working it w as o f great power and ,
acted in a way as far as I have been able to discover quite

, ,
”
original .
Thi s is Brown in hi s lighter mood whimsically humorous ; ,
but no reader o f Ra b a n d b is F r ie n ds can doubt that he had a

graver mood as well Though he h as written best o n dogs
.
,
o r o n men and women in some relatio n to dogs he had no ,
in considerable range of interests and gifts He was hi ghly .
skilled in drawing character sketches— witness hi s Le tte r to

-
o b n C a ir n s about hi s o w n father and his paper on Mr S yme

j ,
. .
M a j o ie F le m i ng is a mosaic Of quotations from the wonder

r r
f ul child herself but they are put together with genius

,
.
M in cb m o o r and Tbe E n te r k in ill ustrate his feeling for nature

and hi s power o f conveying th e impression o f natural scenes ,
which is a better thing than describing them His exquisitely .
delicate gift of literary criticism is shown in Ob I m wat wa t ,

’
,
and N o te s o n Ar t proves that he had the same gift for the

criticism o f painting F e w have possessed such a power of
.
tra n scribi n g a picture i n to words Take fo r example hi s .

EARLY MAGAZINE S OF 1 9TH C ENTURY 25 9
des cription of the British Lion s head i n Leech s Disraeli ’ ’ “
m ea suri n g the British Lion

What a leonine simpleton ! What a visage ! How much
is in it and how much not ! Look at his shi rt collar and
,
chubby cheek ! What hair ! copious and rank as the s o n o f

Manoah s each particular hair growing straight o ut into
’
,
S pace and taking its o wn noway particular way ; hi s honest

, ,
simple eyes well apart ; his snub infanti le nose ; hi s long

, ,
upper lip unreclaimed a s N o man s land o r the Libyan de

,
-
’
-
,
sert unstubbed as Thornaby Wa as t e his mouth closed and

,
'
down at the corner partly from stomach in di scontent (Giles

,
is always dyspeptic) partly from contempt o f the same

, .
An ima gination akin to the poetic humour ready power , ,
o f illustrating from literature and from art and a sound ,
psychology are the qualities which give Brown s papers their

,
’
value His metaphors are illuminating— as when in the

.
,
”
paper o n Mr S yme he speaks o f S yme as a solar man
.
, ,
“
who had his planets pacing faithfully about him ; his ”
illustrations are happy— as when in the same paper he , ,
describes the orchi d radiant in beauty whi te with a brown , ,
freckle like I mogen s breast and like it right proud o f that

,
’
, ,
most delicate lodging Th e fineness o f hi s psychology is

.
’
sho wn in the character sketches ; or the paper o n John Leech

-
may be quoted in illustratio n Like all true humourists ,
he had the tragic sense and power— for as is the height s o is

the depth as is the mirth s o is the melancholy ; Loch Lomond
,
is deepest when Ben dips i n to it ”

But over all is the im .
pression o f Bro wn hi mself observant sympathetic sensitive ;

, , ,
and the deepest debt o f the reader is for the privilege o f inter
course with a beautiful and pure mind .
F r a s er s M aga z in e had come into the field two years before

’
Cba m ber s s j o ur n a l F o r sheer weight o f genius its s t a fi

’
.
surpassed any that has ever gathered round an English

ma gazine fo r it incl u,
ded Coleridge Carlyle and Thackeray ;
‘
,
2 60 T H E ENGLI S H E SSAY AND E SSA Y ISTS
b ut l i t ha rdly
r
’
. equall e d Tbe Lo n do M aga z ine in r es pect o f n

' '
those gifts whi ch make the ess ayist Coleridge and Carlyle .
are treated elsewhere Both like Thackeray hi mself are

.
, ,
'
more eminent in other S pheres o f literature than as essayists ;

but unlike them Thackeray had in very lib eral measure the
, ,
temperament o f the essayist He has moreover practised the .
art of essay writing t o an extent whi ch many hardly realise

-
.
Every o n e knows the Ro un da bo ut P ap e s and every o n e looks r ,
upon them as a collection of essays But Tbe B o o k f S o bs is . o n
a collection o f essays too and though it is thrown into the , ,
form of letters from an uncle t o a nephew S k e tcbes a n d T a vels ,

r
i n Lo do n is another
n F urther it is one whi h S hould be read
.
,
c
as a corrective to Tbe B o o k of S o bs for the latter by itself n
leaves a somewhat painful impression N ot that Tbe B o o k of .
S n o bs is wholly without a corrective in itself I t is true the .
author preaches the universa lity of snobbery : I f you want

to moralise o n the mutability of human a ff airs go and s e e the ,
fl
figure o f Go r gius in his real identical robes at the wax work , ,
-
.
Admittance o n e shilling Children and un k e ys S ixpence

. .
Go a n d pay s ixp e ce But there are degrees o f o ff ensiveness

”
n .
,
in snobbery Ab out snobbery in hi gh pla es Thackeray s

. c
’
satire is stinging He writes bitterly of Tbc Co ur t C ir cula r and

.
all its meannesses Th e G erman King Consort o f Portugal he

.
-
,
tells us had a keeper to load his guns who handed them to a

, ,
no b leman who handed them to the Prince who blazed away

, ,
.
All concerned were sno b s but t h e keeper was the least snob b ish
,
.
There is bitterness also in the satire o f the b rutal ignorant , ,

”
peevish bully o f an Englishman w ho travels over the Conti ,
nent with hi s eyes bli nd and hi s ears deaf to all beauty goes ,
to church only to call t he practices there degrading and super

”
s t i t io us as if b is altar w a s the o nl y one that w as acceptable
, ,
and is moved by nothi ng except when a very great m an comes

,
fl
his way and then the rigid proud self c o n fide n t inflexible
, , ,
-
,
British S nob can be as humble as a un k ey and as s upple as a '

26 2 TH E ENGLI S H E S SAY AND ES SAYI STS
poverty and o f the great gulf between the well dressed a nd
,
-
the poor Tbe C ur a te s Wa lk that sad contrast to A D in ner

.
’
,
i n tbc C i ty S hows the same interest in social questions and close

,
observatio n o f the con di tions o f life combined with a S pecial

,
tenderness towards the chi ldren of the poor Go ing to s ee a .
M a n Ha nge d is a powerful and impressive account o f the

actual emotions o f the writer at an execution Th e greater .
'
part of it would be almost t o o painful to quote but as a matte i , ,

'
by the way it embo di es an e ff ective satire of the party system

,
in politics which is S till worth bearing in mind “

Three
hu ndred and ten gentlemen o f good fortune able for the ,
most part to quote Horace declare solemnly that unless S ir

,
Robert comes in the nation is ruined

,
Three h un dr e d a n d
.
'
fiftee n o n the other side swear by their great gods that the
o f the nation depends upon Lord John ; and to thi s
'
s a fe t
y
end they quote Horace too ”
A certain percentage of the
.
gentlemen ar e no longer of good fortune and comparatively ,
f e w o f them can quote Horace ; but in essence there has been

no change .
I n the Cbr is tm a s B o o k s and in t he S k e tcb B o o k s t o o there

are essays ; but unquestionably Thackeray the essayist is see n
at hi s best in the delightful Ro un dabo ut P ap er s The very .
title is felicitous The author rambles both in his choice of

.
theme and in hi s manner o f treatment Anything will serve .
him from the death of a great general o r a great author to a

,
chalk mark on a door ; and the range o f tone is from heroism

to boyish playfulnes s Th e latter tone is audible in the
.
pleasantly rambling paper On s o m e la te g e a t Vi cto r ies with r ,
its gleeful delight over the success of Tbe Co r n b ill M agaz in e ,
the former in S tr a ge to s ay o n Club P ap e r and in On a j o ke

n , ,
I be a r dfr o m tbe la te Tb o m a s H o o d Th e last mentioned paper

.
-
well illustrates Thackeray s method ; fo r he does n o t tell the

’
joke which the title proclaims to be the subj ect o f his essay .
His remark about Montai gn e that an essay might he a r almost

,
9 TH C ENTURY 2 63 .
any title is not without its application t o hi mself But he

, .
himself ha s given the bes t descriptio n of his own method : In '
thes e humble e s s ayk in s I have taken leave to egotize I cry .
o ut about the s hoes which pinch me and as I fancy more , , ,
naturally and pathetically tha n if my neighbour s corns were ’
trodden under foot I prattle about the di sh whi ch I love

.
,
the w ine which I like the talk I heard yesterday— about

Brown s absurd airs —Jones s ridiculous elation whe n he t hinks
,
’ ’
he has caught me in a blunder (a part o f the fun you see is , ,
that Jones will read thi s and will perfectly well know I mean
,
him and that we shall meet and grin at o n e another with entire
,
politeness) Thi s is not the hi ghest kind o f S peculatio n I

.
,
co n fess but it is a gossip which amuses some folks A brisk

,
.
and honest small beer will refresh those who do not care fo r
-
the frothy outpourings of heavier taps A two o f clubs may .
be a good handy little card sometimes and able to tackle a ,
king o f diamonds if it is a little trump S ome philosophe r s

, .
get their wi sdom with deep thought and o ut o f ponderous ,
libraries ; I pick up my small crumbs o f co gitation at a di nner

table ; o r from Mrs Mary and Miss Louisa as they are
.
,
p r a t th n
g over their five O clock tea ” ’
.
All the lea ding characteristics o f Thackeray could be illus

t r a t e d from the Ro un dabo ut P ap e r s — his healthy scep t icism ,
the warmth of heart and sensitiveness that corrected it his ,
tendency to preach— everythi ng that S pecially characterises

hi m as a novelist
-
There is a touch o f the sardonic in his
.
treatment o f such popular sayings as have an Optimistic cast :

Yo u s ay M agn a e s t ver i ta s e t pr a vale bit
, ,
Psha ! Great '
.
lies are as great as great truths and prevail constantly and, ,
day after day .

”
An d he proceeds to support hi s view with
exampl e s whi ch are har dl y to be de nied But the warmth of .
heart is abundantly evident in what he wrote about Maca ulay

and Hoo d and Lo rd Clyde ; and Tbo r n s i n tbe Cus bio n is
evidence o f a sensitiveness that is eve n excessive AS to th e .
264 TH E ENGLI S H E SSAY AND .
ES S AYI S TS I
preacher he is to be seen everywhere ; but o f all the in n u

, m er
able sermons Thackeray preached the re is none that more ,
unmistakably bears his o w n stamp than On be ing F o un d Out : ‘
Wo ul d you have your wife and children know you exactly

for what you are and esteem yo u precisely at your worth ?
,
I f s o my friend you will live in a dreary house and yo u will

, , ,
have but a chilly fireside D o you suppo se t h e people round .
it don t s e e your homely face as u n der a glamour and as it

’
, ,
were with a halo o f love round it ? Yo u don t fancy you a r e

,
’
,
as yo u seem to them ? N o such thing my man Put away .
, .
that monstrous conceit and be thankful that tbey have not ,

”
found yo u o ut .
He who wishes however to find a compendium o f the man

, ,
Thackeray must turn to the paper entitled Ogr es N owhere .
else probably is there s o perfect a conspectus o f hi s qualities

in such brief compass There is embodied in it both that
. .
whi ch people call his cynicism his h atred of S hams and , ,
what students know as hi s Chi valrous tenderness Th e more .
sardonic side of the man is seen in his remarks o n the numbe r

and variety o f ogres They are as omnipresent as the snobs
.
themselves They are o f many kinds and are found in all ages
.
,
and under all sorts o f disguises They are by n o means all ugly .
— n o r are t h e ugly the most dangerous Th e ugly Polyphemus .
was an ogre But s o were the S irens ogres— pretty blue

.
eyed things peeping at you coaxingly from out o f the water

, ,
and singing their melodious wheedles An d the bones round .
their caves were more numerous than the ribs skull s and ,
”
thi gh bones round the cavern o f hulking Polyphemus
-
This .
is o n e phase o f Thackeray more playfully revealed than it is in,
some other passages Th e opposite phase is shown in the

.
adjuration to men o f hi s o wn profession : Ah ye knights of

the pe n ! May honour be your shi eld and truth tip your ,
lances ! Be gentle to all gentle people Be modest to women . .
B e tend er to chi ldren An d as fo r the O gre Humbug out

“
.
,
266 TH E E NGLI S H E SSAY AN D E SSAYI STS
CHA PTER X
TH E H I S TO R I A N -E S S AY I S T S
TH E R E was no class o f writers to whom the rise o f th e reviews

a n d magazines proved more convenient than it did to the
historians Their subject being human was o f wide interest
.
, , ,
s o that it commended itsel f to editors ; and the hi storians were
practised in the art of expression s o tha t they could present

,
it attractively F urther it was a subj ect easily susceptible of

.
,
subdivision Th e man who has undertaken the hi story o f a

.
great period is not thereby precluded from discussing S ide

issues as they aris e o r delin eati ng the great characters with
,
whom hi s studies have made hi m familiar or presenting con ,
clus io n s whi ch he means afterwards to embody in the longer
work O n the contrary he is just the man who above all

.
,
others is capable o f doing thi s ; and it may be desirable from

every point o f view that he should do it A Gibbon might by .
choice as well as of necessity move alone o n hi s stately march

to the fall o f the Roman Empire ; but there were others who .
were n o t s o circumstanced that they coul d thus postpo n e

gain as well as fame for half a life time I t was the di fficul ty
-
.
o f fi n ding practicable alternatives that made the path o f
letters in the eighteenth century s o rugged that eve n John son

o nl y just managed to live I t was thi s that made dedications
.
so tumid and gave them a tone s o fuls ome that we ca n scarcely
refrain from blushing as we read Th e questio n of pot boili ng

.
-
is one from which the literary ma n ca n no more escape than

t h e laundry woman ; and the machi n ery o f pub lication whereby
-
the i n dispensable f uel is supplied has to be seriously con

s ide r e d in connexion with the history o f literature The .
TH E H I ST O RIAN E S SAYI STS
-
nineteenth century was as much subject to this necessity as

the eighteenth ; but it had resources which were u n developed
fl
then and thes e modified though they could not do away with
,
the di i cult i e s Carlyle had to earn his bread and it was

.
,
a serious matter for the household in Cheyne Ro w when in

18 3 5 he recorded that it was n o w nearly two years S ince
he had earned anything by literature Fo r some eight years .
before that he had lived mainly by contributions to periodi cals .
Had they not existed coul d he ever have devoted himself

,
to the F rench R evolution ? Macaul ay t o o had to earn hi s

bread ; but he more fortunate than Carlyle w as popular
, ,
.
Th e point however is that for some years reviewing was hi s

, ,
m ainstay . In a doggerel epistle addressed to hi s sisters

o n e o f those which give such a charming view of the great
author s home life— he enumerates as a principal item of hi s

’
wealth the ninety pounds at least which the editor o f the

Yellow and Blue owes hi m for his last review .
O f the hi storian essayists Thomas Carlyle ( 1 79 5 1 881) is

- -
by far the richest and profoundest But his essays have been
.
overshadowed by hi s greater works and though everybody is ,
aware of the excellence o f some o f them comparatively few ,
a ppreciate the fact that almost the complete Carlyl e could
be reconstructed from the M is cella n ies alone They stretch .
across the whole o f his literary life from Ri cbte r in 1 827 to

,
S b o o ti ng N iaga r a in 1 867 ; and though the papers are sparse

after the first twenty years still his occasional utterances
,
help to link up the successive stages o f his career They touch .
upon all the great departments o f his literary activity : they

are critical biographi cal historical soci al and political Um
, , ,
.
questionably the loss would be enormous if S a tor and the r
F r e n cb Revo luti n and F r e de r i ck were gone but all the char

o ,
a c t e r is t i c dogmas and beliefs woul d still be found expressed
in o n e o r other o f the essays Thus o n e o f the greatest o f

.
,
Carlyle s services was his mediation b etween the mind O f

’
2 68 TH E ENGLI S H E SS AY AND ES SAYI STS
.
Germany and the mind o f England No w the essa ys alone ’
wo uld make Carlyle the chief mediator F or the first eight .

‘
years o f hi s career as author hi s themes are nearly a ll German .
His translation o f Wi lbe lm M e is te r is followed b y a Life of

S eb iller and Ge r m a n Ro m a n ce and for the first five years of
the M i s cella n i es n early three quarters of the subj ects dealt
-
with are German Th e name o f Goethe appears again and

.
again as is natural seeing that to him Carlyle owed hi s

, ,
S piritual r e birth He criticises S chi ller whose life he had

-
.
,
written He discusses German literature at large early and

.
,
late and through its whole course Twice he deals with .
Richter But perhaps the most notable though certai nly not
.
the greates t name upon his list is that o f N ovali s —notable

because N ovalis is a mystic of the mystics and it is just m ys t i ,
cis m and the things akin to mysticism that Carlyle finds to

di scriminate Germany from England Th e G ermans (in those .
days ) actually believe d in a light that never was o n sea or

land . I n England a poet might s ay such things but if he
, ,
belie ve d in them England thought the worse o f hi m An d so .
Wordsworth was left for many a lo ng year to think as hi ghl y

as he liked and to live as plainly as the physical needs o f
,
humanity would let him Th e important things were S team .
Engines and blessed was he who had many o f them

,
I t was .
the Age of Machinery and the greatest o f all machines w a s

,
the Machine o f S ociety .
When Carlyle used these phrases and poured ridicule u pon

them in S ign s of tbc Ti m es — a n essay o f thi s period —h e w as ,
applying the principles he had learnt from G ermany I ndeed .
a ll the essays o f the period even those whi ch are not German
,
in subj ect are saturated with these principles S o fo r that

,
.
,
matter are the works o f Carlyle s whole life He is applying

,
’
.
them when in the essay o n Burns he S hows how unsatisfactory

in the spiritual S phere is the law of s upply and de m and .
That law finds a place for a gauger o f beer barrels but n o t -

,
meditation upon the measureless power o f thought is to be
found in a remark of the greatest living Da ni sh critic S pe ak .
ing o f hi s country and countrymen he points o ut that small ,
and poor as D enmark is S he can nevertheless boast a few sons

,
whom not Denmark o nly but the whole world has agreed to
rank among the great An d yet he goes o n the Dane who
.
, ,
counts for most to the world he upon whom most thought is

,
spent who is most widely known is not Tycho Brahe o r

, ,
Thorwaldsen or any other man who was ever born in D en

,
mark but a D ane who never lived at all— Ha m l et Prince of

, ,
Denmark the creature o f the brain o f Willi am S hakes peare

,
.
An d so airy nothing may be more real and more important

than the most solid substance The poet and dreamer buil ds .
more firmly and more enduringly than the man o f action .
I f to be a p hilosopher means to be the disciple or apostle

o f a complete system o f thought then Carlyle was no philo ,
S opher O n the contrary in Cbar a cter is ti cs he pronounces

.
,
”
metaphysics to be a chronic malady just as if he were the ,
upholder o f the commonest common sense and ready like , ,
Dr Johnson to demolish wire dr awn subtleties with the

.
,
-
a r um e n tum
g a d ba cu l um But on .the other hand
,
in Tbe ,
S ta te of Ge r m a n Lite r a tur e we see him at one wi th the Germans

in the contention that thi s common S ense affords no basis for
ul timate belief at all Good enough in most cases as a
.
, ,
practical guide it is useless for the discovery of truth Co m

,
.
m o n sense tells us that the s un go es round the earth and yet ,
in this matter nobody believes common sense Th e business .
o f the thi nker is just to sift these u niversal persuasions and ,
distinguish between the sound and the unsound among them .
Now in thi s sense in the sense that he has adopted from philo
,
sophy great wide reachi ng principles and that he applies

-
'
them always and in eve r y S phere Carlyle was n o t only a ,
philo sopher but th e most e ff ective philosopher o f his time

,
‘
His whole literary li f e was o n e long warf are against popular

TH E H I ST O RIAN E S SAYI STS -
O pinion and hi s weapons in the struggle were dra wn from

,
the armoury o f German philosophy F rom this he derived .
hi s scorn o f the Machi ne o f S ociety thi s revealed to him ,
the limits of the law o f supply and demand His measureles s .
contempt o f the mud philosophy springs from his under

.
lying idealism Th e popular mind o f England thought that

.
there was one thing certain matter because a ma n might , ,
dash hi s foot o r break hi s head against it ; all other things

were more o r less doubtful Carlyle as the passage already
.
,
quoted shows was far more certain o f thought and o f force

, .
No t a brick in London but thought had made it ; not a lea f

rotting on the highway but force enabled it to rot The .
popular mind o f England was convinced that the age of

miracles was past N o said Carlyle the age o f miracles as
.
, , ,
it ever was n o w is ,
”
Popular conceptions o f a negative sort
.
had recently produced terrible convulsions in France These .
popular conceptions had been drawn from the armoury of

another p hi losophy deriving ultimately from the English .
That philosophy had inferred from the premise that all thi ngs
change the conclusion that there is no such thing as per
m an e n ce . Carlyle s answer in D ide r o t is an excellent example
’
o f hi s manner
D iderot has convinced himself and i n deed as above , ,
became plai n enough acts o n the conviction that Marriage

, , ,
contract it solemnise it in what way you will involves a

, ,
solecism which reduces the amount o f it t o simple zero I t .
is a suicidal covenant ; annuls itsel f in the very forming .
Thou makest a vow says he t wice o r thrice as i f the argu

’
, , ,
ment were a clincher thou makest a vow of eternal co n

,
s t an c
y under a rock which is even
,
then crumbling away .
’
True 0 D e nis ! the rock crumbles away : all things are

,
changing ; man changes faster than most o f them That in .

,
the mean while an Unchangeable lies under all thi s and

, ,
looks forth solemn and benign through the whole destiny

, ,
TH E ENGLI S H E SSAY AND E SSAYI STS
'
2 72
and working of man is another truth ; whi ch no Mecha nical

,
Philosophe in th e d ust o f his logic mill ca n be expected to

,
-
,
grind o ut fo r hi mself Ma n changes and will change : th

- .
,
e
q uest i on th en arises I s it wi se in him ,to tumble f or t h in ,
headlong obe di ence to hi s love o f change ; is it s o much as

possible for hi m ? Among the duali sms o f man s wholly ’
d ualistic nature t hi s w e m igh t fa n cy was an observable o n e :

,
'
that along with hi s unceasing tendency to ch ange there is a ,
no less ineradicable tendency to persevere Were man only .
here to Change let hi m far from marrying cease even to

, , ,
hedge in fields and plough them ; before the autumn season

-
, ,
he may have lost the whi m o f reaping them Le t hi m return .
to the nomadi c state and s e t hi s hous e o n wheels ; nay there

,
t o o a certain restraint must curb hi s love o f change or his ,
cattle will perish b y incessant driving without grazing in the ,
intervals 0 D enis ! what thi ngs thou b abb les t in thy sleep !
.
,
How in this world o f perpetual flux shall man secure himself

, ,
the smallest foundation except hereby alone : that he tak e ,
preassurance o f hi s F ate ; that in this and the other high act

o f hi s life hi s Will
,
with all solem nity bdica te its right to
, ,
a
change voluntarily become involunta r y and say once fo r

.
,
all Be there then no farther dubitation o n it !

,
Th e same philosophy inform s all Carlyle s wor k critical

’
, ,
biographical historical I t w as by the application Of prin

,
.
c i les that he s o profoundly influenced criticism ; fo r though

p ,
hi s influence has sometim es been exaggerated it was p ro ,
fo und Th defect o f English criticism hi therto had been

. e
that much o f it was the mere expression o f unreasoned per

s onal preference while another great part was built up by
,
t h e application to an author o f cano n s whose v a lidity he would
n ot have acknowledged These faults cannot be charged .
a a in s t a ll o f Carlyle s predecessors a mb n ever approached

’
L
‘
g .
ia n author except in the S pirit of sym pathy and Coleridge and ,
Hazlitt were crit iCS who believed in the necess ity o f having
' ‘
27
and other contemporaries in the Re m in is ce n ces and in letters
and journ als show that S cott s case was not solitary I t is a
’
.
painful conclusion to come to but it would seem that there ,
was a certain j ealousy wholly unworthy o f s o great a man

, ,
in Carlyle s nature I t is significant that perhaps the only

’
.
thoroughly generous criticism o f a contemporary Englishman

deals with one who could in no sense be a rival— Ebenezer
Elliott Th e Corn La w Rhymer is praised n o t extravagantly
.
-
, ,
but whole heartedly-

.
Among the other essays the dis quisitions o n hi story and

,
biography woul d be interesting were it only because they

present the views o f s o great a master o f both arts But it is .
not the essay o n biography alone that illustrates hi s un w av e r

ing contention that history is the essence o f innumerable
biographi es ”
That conviction is embo di ed in nearly every
.
o n e of the essays He conceives that he has done nothing

.
until he has revealed the ma n John son and hi s Boswell .

,
Burns Goethe Richter Mi rabeau — one and all are men

, , , , .
This is the great charm of the essays I n hands like Carlyle s .

’
history can never be dry fo r it is living N o o n e had a keener

,
.
appreciation o f the value o f facts ; but neither did any o n e

more heartily despise the man who thought the facts were all .
Dryasdust was but a poor creature in hi s eyes for he had for ,
gotten a n indispensable point— to relate the fact to life To .
Carlyle the most trivial f act about John son o r about Mirabeau
had an importance but not in itself Th e one threw light upon
,
.
Johnson and through him on the S piritual condition— the

,
inner reali ty—o i England i n the eighteenth century The .
other fact threw light upon the tremendous convulsio n the

hi story of whi ch he was writing F urther even the men .
,
themselves were o f importance to hi m mai nly i f n o t wholly ,
fo r what their lives could teach hi s own time Wherever .
he might tur n fo r a subj ect Carlyle always had one eye upon
,
hi s o wn cou n try and his o w n time He wrote F r e der ick .

TH E H I ST O RIAN E S SAYI STS
-
b ecause he foresaw the rise o f Germany t o the first position in

Europe and judged therefore that its past w a s not a dead
,
past This interest in the present comes to the surface in

.
many of the essays I t is shown in a fashi on peculiarly

.
Carlyle an in S ign s of tbe Ti m es and in Cb ar a cter is ti es ; in a

w a y more commonplace in S b o o ti g N i ga r a and less wisely
n a
Q
in Yk e N igger ue s ti o n Cba r tis m again is either a very long
.
,
essay o r a short t reatise o n contemporary social problems ; and

,
L tte r Day P a m pble ts is a group o f essays o n the same class of

a -
problems They are somewhat turbid yet essentially

.
,
At the di stance of sixty years we can s e e that generally speak ,
ing in respect o f the great points Carlyle was right He

,
.
rightly diagnosed the di seases o f society and though he had no ,
cure to o ff er it was still a great service to point o ut the nature

,
o f the ill S ome of the diseases have been cured ; others we

.
,
may h0 pe are in process o f cure ; with respe t to yet others

,
c
progress has perhaps been more doubtful I t remains as .
true n o w as it was when he wrote it that the problem o f

problems is the organisation o f labour Much organising .
has been done but we are still far from the goal Carlyle had
,
in View .
Maca ul ay says that he had a premonition before he ,
learnt German that the end fo r which he was sent into this
,
vale o f tears was t o make game o f certain G ermans ”

Th . e
statement though playful is illuminating N o two contem

, ,
.
o r a r i e s coul d well stand in sharper and completer contrast

p
than the apostle o f G ermanism and the great contemporary
who though his junior by five years had wo n fame when
, ,
Carlyle was known o nly as an obscure translator from the

German Thomas Babington Maca ul ay ( 1 800—1 85 9) fo r all
.
practical purposes made his entry into literature in 1 82 5 ,
when the essay o n Milton the earliest o f the famous Cr iti c l

,
a
a n d His tor i ca l Es s a s
y appeared in T
,
be E di n burgb Re vie w .
Th e suddenness o f the author s rise to fame is a common

’
place o f literary hi story Christopher N orth compared him
.
to a b urnished fly in pride o f May bursti ng suddenly

“
,
upon the sight Here was a new star in the fir m a m e n t ;

.
a nd,
at a time when the o ld leaders in li terature were
rapidly passing away many thought that it was destined to
,
b ecome the most brilliant o f all Th e fame thus early won .
was never eclipsed Macaul ay moved from succes s to success

.
,
in a career which never s ufie r e d a reverse and hardl y even a

check until he died Baron Maca ulay of R othley
, .
As essayist Macaulay is represented by his contributions

,
to Tbe Edin b urgh Revie w from 1 825 to and to these

J must be added the biographi es written fo r the En cy clop a dia ’
B r ita n n i ca which stretch from 1 85 3 to the year of hi s death

, .
Thus they afford S pecimens alike o f hi s early his intermediate ,
and his mature styles and they deal with the whole range o f
,
subj ects critical biographical hi storical phi losophi cal he

, , , , ,
r J was capable of writing about They are all unmistakably the

.
product of o n e mind ; b ut a notable development can be trac e d

between th e begi nning and the end When the printing of .
the essays in the United S tates compelled hi m in self defence -
to gat her hi s contributions together Macaulay s o wn taste ,

’
pronounced upon his M ilto n a condemnation as severe as the

harshest criti c coul d desire I t contains scarcely a para
.
graph such as hi s matured judgment approves it is over

loaded with gaudy and ungraceful ornament I f we turn .
to the last and longest of the biographical essays Willia m P itt , ,
1 we can measure the extent of the di ff erence ; and it is grea t

. .
I n the latter essay there is no gaudy and ungraceful orna

ment .
”
I t is a masterly narrative for the most part as a d ,
mir able in its restraint as in its lucidity O ccasionally there .
is a flash o f the old hyperbole as when he is speaking o f the

,
li f e o f Pitt by hi s Cambridge tutor Pr e t ym a n which enjoys ,
the distinction o f being the worst biographi cal work for i t s

”
size in the world But usually a surprising judgment is
.
27 8 TH E E NGLI S H E S SAY AND E SSAYI STS
the eighteenth century writers generally Where he is really
-
.
weak is in his general principles when he enunciates t hem ,

.
Unlike Carlyle he contributed none o f the slightest value .
S ometimes he is almost ludicrously wrong O ur judgment .
ripens ; o ur imagination decays he tells us ; and the examples

”
,
with which he supports the assertion are those of Os s ia n and

Ro bin s o n Cr us o e Th e young reader he explains likes but is
.
, , ,
una b le to appreciate the latter ; he probably thi nks it not hal f

so fine as Macpherson s rant Th e mature man despises Ma c
’
.
pherson and he admires the skill o f Defoe but is no longer

, ,
greatly interested in hi s story Against the in f erence that

.
imagination decays early is the staggering fact that S hake

S peare was about forty s ix when he wrote Tbe Te m p es t and
-
,
Milton was nearly sixty when P a a dis e Lo s t was published r .
Th e ethi cal paradox o f the essay on Machiavelli and the ,
literary paradox about Boswell are other cases in point But .
the most concl usive proof o f Macaul ay s poverty in the matter ’
o f general principles is to be fo u nd in the essay o n Bacon ,
with its panegyric o n the phi losophy of fruit and its utterly ,
un sound contrast betw een Aristotle and Bacon Here again .
he is far better as critic than as philosopher : the analysis of

B acon s S tyle is admirable
’
.
We must recur to Macaulay s own judgment o n hi mself : I

’
am nothi ng if not historical ; and wherever we open hi s works

”
we s e e evidence o f its truth Except M o n tgo m ery there is

.
,
hardly an essay that is not historical in essence ; the S peeches

are hi storical ; the Lays are historical Thi rty years ago the .
young lions o f various perio di cals thought they had demolished

Macaul ay the hi storian as well as Macaulay the poet — ii indeed
they condescended to notice the latter But older lions were .
Silent or else they roared in another key F reeman S poke

,
.
most respect fully o f Macaulay s command of facts ; and in

’
later days Lord Acton who did n o t like the man S poke with
, ,
asto nishi ng warmth of the historia n Macaul ay had pre .

T H E H I ST O RIAN E S SAYI STS -
j udices and he fell into mistakes ; and the prejudices were

strong and some o f the mistakes were serious There is .
abundant evidence of both in the essays I n these days when .
there are few Whigs left we can easily pull to pieces the gospel
,
accor ding to the apostle o f the Whi gs I ndian hi story as it .

,
is presented in the essay o n Warren Hastings has had to be r e ,
written But when the full est allowance fo r defects is made

.
there remains an immense amount that is hi ghl y valuable .
I f Wa r e n Ha s tings is superseded as hi story it is still among

r ,
the most S pirited pieces of English prose and the pictures o f ,
Chatham o f William Pitt and of Madame d Ar b lay and the

, ,
’
society in which s h e lived are excellent .
Th e style of Maca ul ay has been criticised again and aga i n

—
as metallic An d the cr i t i a s m l S j ust that is its defect
.
J .
But criticism which stops short at defects is bad criticism ;

and s o is criticism whi ch demands o f a man that whi ch he did
n o t try to give o r what
,
from his nature he could n o t give
, ,
.
No w Macaulay had certain well de fin e d limits -

His w a s not .
the still small voice but a voice rather loud and insistent
,
.
He was compelling rather than persuasive argumentative , ,
not insinuating He addressed hi mself almost exclusively to

.
the understandi ng I n consequence there are no dim vistas

.
in his writings ; no man could be les s o f a mysti c than he .
His habit of mind was s o positive that there could be no such

thing a s li ght and shade in his style We know then what we .
need not look for in such a man ; but the facts ought to con
vi nce us that there is somethi ng for whi ch we ought to look .
I f we do not find it we are probably at fault All that i m .
mense reputation had a cause behi nd it Je ff rey would not .
have lost his head over Macaul ay s style if there had not been
’
great merit in the style An d in truth there is great merit

. .
I ti s ener getic vivid pictu resque I t

, , . fert ility
o f ill ustration .There is no style more rousing Th e reader .
o f Macaulay may be stirred to active opposition

; the o n e
thi ng that is hardly possible is that he should b left in e
diff erent Examples in the essays are numerous— the pic

.
ture o f th Black Hole o f Calcutta o r that o f the trial o f

e ,
Warren Hastings o r the passage o n t h Catholic Church

,
e
whi ch closes with the traveller from Ne w Z ealand sketching

the ruins o f S t Paul I t is vain to deny to the autho r
. .
of passages su c h as these the title o f a great master of

English prose I t is ungrateful to ignore th e immense servic e
.
he has done in stirring the minds of generation after genera

tion o f boys and young men and teachi ng them as it h as b een
, ,
truly said he did more about the history of their country than
,
anybody else has ever succeeded in teaching them .
What ~
we do not find in M aca ul ay— that the a b sence of
whi ch de nies him a place among the essayists in the mor e
esoteric meaning o f the word i s intimac y o f personal con ,
I n a sense every line he wrote is instinct with his

.
fide n c e .
personality Th e li kes and dislikes the certitudes and the

.
,
rare incertitudes are all Macaulay s But they all come from
,
’
.
what Carlyle called the argumentative region ; and that as ,
we also learn from Carlyle is merely the outer covering W ,

. e
kn ow from his writings ho w Macaulay argued and what

Opinions he held but we know very li ttle o f ho w he felt Th
,
. e
b iography shows a man o f the warmest domestic a ff ections ;

the writings show rather a man of strong dislikes and con
fide n t Opinions but sugges t that he was somewhat cold of
,
heart He is merely then gua essayist the essayist hi s

.
, , ,
-
torian W have the writer b ut not the man

. e , .
When we pass from the t w o great Early Victorians t o their

successors who were destined to reign in the middle o f the
period there is a distinct decline in the qu a lity ali ke of the
,
essays and o f the hi stori es James An thony F roude ( 1 81 8.
1 8 ) had it is true the gift of style and his limpid English

94 , , ,
is always delightful to read but when S bo r t S tudie s of ,
Gr e a t S ubje cts by reason o f whi ch he has a place among the

,
criticised former chief N ewman hi mself in an article on
hi s , ,
A Gr a m m a r of A s s e t Close association with the N ew

n .
m a n i t e s had produced a profound distrust o f their methods
and serious dou b t o f their intellectual sincerity There are .
among the S b r t S tudies many other indications of interest in

o
ecclesiastical and theological questions F roude writes about .
the book o f Job and gives a lecture on Calvinism and a series

o f lectures o n Erasmus and Luther He has a paper o n Tbe
.
Pb ilo s opby of Ca tho li cis m and discusses Tbe Co n di tio n a n d

,
.
P r o sp e cts of P r o tes ta n tis m on the one hand and Tbe Revival

m a n is m on the other ; and it was almost inevitable that
o
f R o
a man who had passed through hi s experiences should sooner ,
o r later di scuss Tb e Ox
,
fo r d Co un te r Refo r m a ti o n S oon after
-
.
the ecclesiastical world had been shaken by Es s ays a n d Re

vie ws he enters A P le a
f o r tbe D is cu s s io n o
f T b e o lo i ca l D
g ifi
cultie s,
and himself discusses Cr iticis m a n d tbe Go sp el H is to ry .
This interest indeed amounts almost to an o b session Though .
F roude divested himself o f his orders as soon as the la w

allowed hi m to do s o it was totally beyond hi s power to
,
divest hi mself o f the atmosphere created for hi m by his uni

versity and his family— for the Tractarian Hurrell F roude
fl
was hi s elder brother and hi s father was a High Churchm an
, ,
s o bigoted that he would n o t s u e r a co of b P ’
py T e il gr im s
P ogr es s to enter his house

r .
I n work of this sort F r o ude s weakness in philosophy tells

’
heavily against him He had read Carlyle at Oxford and

.
,
soon after he left the university he came to know the man

hi mself ; and the books and the man combined turned hi m
to the great thi nkers of G ermany But his knowledge o f them .
was superficial they never penetrated hi s blood and hi s bones

,
.
Tb e Life of C ar lyle though it is o n e o f the most readable

,
o f books ,
proves ho w little he understood his master and ,
how imperfectly he comprehended Carlyle s S pirit F roude ’

.
was at his best where no demand fo r origin al thought

TH E H I ST O RIAN E S SAYI STS -
was made upon hi m in discussing forgotten worthies o r

,
bishops of far— o ff ce n turies He coul d deal gracefully

.
if not profoundl y with figures o f classical literature and

history and he loved to do so More than o n of the
,
. e
S bo r t S tudies show that interest in the colonies which

afterwards inspired Oce a n a and made F roude after S eeley
, , ,
the most efficient o f the literary advocates o f the policy o f

making the British Empire a reality and not merely a name
.
.
O nly once o r t wice is he personal A F o r tn igb t i n K er ry

.
reveals at once the historian interested in the I rish problem ,
and the S portsman bent o n pleasure Th e curious dream or .
reverie A S iding a t a Ra ilway S ta tio n is after the manner

, ,
o f the eighteenth century rather than the nineteenth But .
F roude had n o t the gi f ts indispensable for the personal essay .
Th e first and c hi ef of all is humour and o f that he w a s more

,
completely destitute than any contemporary author o f equal

eminence .
F r o ude s virul ent critic Edward Augustus F reeman ( 1 82 3

’
,
demands a passing mention also as essayist but rather ,
for the bulk o f what he wrote in thi s form than for any literary
excellence that can be ascribed to it He marks the passing .
o f the literary historian .He belonged to a school which

believed that it had discovered a new method a n d was in
S pired by a more scientific S pirit than had a ni mated the hi s
t o r i a ns o f the past
. I t was conceived to be possible to attain
an almost flawless accuracy ; nay more that such accuracy ,
had actually b een attained by its members Time has .
already written its commentary o n that belief F reeman s .

’
account of the battle of Hastings has been riddled with cr iti

c is m
, and the foundation o f S tubbs s ecclesiastical hi story has
’
been S hattered to fragments Meanwhile the work of certain

.
,
Cambridge men in particul ar S eeley and Maitland inspires

, ,
the h0 pe that it may even now be possible to be both literary

and as scientific in the treatment o f history as the nature o f
4.
the subj ect matter allows Ma n is somewhat intractable to

-
.
sci ence Th e calipers have not yet been forged to take his
.
measure nor the formulae devised that will express hi s relation

,
to the universe Th e O xford school however had boundles s

.
, ,
belief in the power o f res earch and utterly di strusted ima gina
tion F reeman was o n e o f its most distinguished members
.
,
and under its influence he wr ote hi s essays I t is n o t S ur

.
prising that as literature they are o f no value They are long

.
,
forml ess and dreary I t is a necessary consequence o f the

.
very theory o n whi ch they are based that they pass away as
soon as thei r res ul ts are woven into the fabric of kn owledge .
Th e sci ence of last year is o ut of date thi s year F reeman is

.
already antiquated ; but Tacitus remains for ever and that ,
not merely because he is for us an origin al authority who can

, ,
never be superseded He would remain just the same if

.
every f act he records were guaranteed by some other and n u

questionable authority .
286 TH E ENGLIS H E S SAY AND E S SAYI STS
e n titled Las t Le aves containing a selection from S mith s con
,
’
t r i b uti o n s to magazines several o f which— in particular A n

,
Es s ay o n n Old S ubj e ct and On D r e m s a n d Dr e a m in g— were

a a
quite worthy of the au t hor o f Dr e a m tb o rp But time has .
proved that the friendly critics were mistaken at least as to ,
the reputation S mith was to enjoy There always have been

.
some readers who have recognised the excellence here and ,
there supreme o f S mith s essays ; but such readers have been

,
’
few and there neither is nor ever has been any indication that
,
he would take hi s place in the general es timation as an essayist

inferior o nl y to the greatest masters Ye t that place is his.
by right Though Dr e a m tbo rp is a small volume and the

.
essays are o nl y twelve in number the range is wide Th e

,
.
quotations from S mith in the introduction to this volume

show that he understood as well as any man ever did the
essentials o f hi s craft as essayist Th e pleasant chat about
.
the literary and artistic temperament in M e n of Le tter s and

the easy gossip o f A S be lf i n m y B o o k cas e illustrate other
phases o f critical ability Ar t is joined with n ature in B o o ks
.
a n d Ga r de n s ,
and Vaga bo n ds shows no less inter est in that
sort o f nature which we qualify with the adj ective human .
Th e poet peeps o ut in the wealth o f metaphor and illustration .
There are numerous phrases s o striking as to drive home the

thought they ill ustrate Fo r example : To denude death o f
.
its terrible associations were a vain attempt Th e atmos .
e r e is always cold round an iceberg e whole of t h e

”
p h Th .
essay Of Dea tb a n d Dy i ng illustrates the truth o f S mith s ’
saying elsewhere that the world is not s o much in need o f

,
new th oughts as that when thought grows old and worn with
usage it should like curre n t coin be called in and from the
, , , ,
min t of ge nius reissued fres h and new

,
”
Throughout Of.
De a tb a n d Dy i n g S mith h a s that sort of originality a n d it is just ,
the sort which is proper to the es say Many o f the thoughts

.
are trite enough as are Montaigne s t o o but they are t e min ted
,
’
,
-
LATTE R H AL F o r THE I
9 TH CENTUR Y 287
with the stamp o f genius S o it is again in the essay On tbc

.
I m p o r ta n ce of a M a n to Hi m s e lf . Yo u cannot define the i n

di vidual.
”
We all know this : it is a truth too familiar to be
very impressive ; yet S mith contrives to express it freshly °
Th e globe has been circumnavigated but no man ever ha s ; ,
you may survey a kingdom and note the result in maps but ,
all the s a van ts in the world could n o t produce a reliable map

”
of the poorest human personality .
The gems o f the collection however are the title essay

, ,
-
Dr e a m tb o rp and A Lar k s F ligbt Th former gives a charm

’
. e
ing description o r rather impression o f the village of which

, ,
the writer has become a denizen We s e the moss o n the

. e
walls hear the j ackdaws chattering in the ruined castle feel

, ,
and share in an idleness which may have more meaning than

bus tle has : Here I play with my o wn thoughts here I ripen ,
for the grave Tennyson hi mself has hardly depicted more

beautifully a haunt o f ancient peace ”
Th e theme of A
.
Lar k s F ligbt is not very promising Me n do n o t thi nk with

’
.
pleasure o n death by public execution and its eff ect o n the

S pectator— for o f course when the essay was written the
, ,
thi ng was still a public show But the incident o f the lark s
.
’
flight is superb I n the knocking at the gate in M a cbe tb

.
S hakespeare has imagined a n incident comparable to it .
Here nature provides the incident and Alexander S mith ,
describes and interprets it in a fashi on that even S hakespeare

need n o t have disdained z
Whether the authorities were apprehensive that a rescue
wo uld be attempted or were anxious merely to strike terror
,
into the hundreds o f wild I rishry engaged on the ra ilway I ,
cannot s ay ; in any case there was a display o f military force

,
quite unusual The carriage in whi ch the criminals

.
Catholics both— and their attendant priests were seated was ,
guarded by soldiers with fixed bayonets ; indeed the whole ,
regiment then lying i n the city was massed in front and

behind with a cold frightful glitter of steel Besides the
, , .
foot soldiers there were dragoons and two pieces o f cannon ;

, ,
a whole little army in fact With a slenderer force batt les

,
.
have been w o n whi c h have left a mark in hi story What did .
the prisoners t hi nk o f their strange importance and of the ,
tramp and hurly b urly all around ? When the procession

-
moved out of the city it seemed to draw with it almost the

,
entire popul ation ; and when once the country roads were
reached the crowd S pread over the fields o n either side ruth
, ,
lessly trea di ng do wn the tender wheat braird I got a glimpse .
o f the doomed b lanched faces which had haunted me so long

, ,
at the turn of the road where for the first time the black , , ,
cross beam with it s empty halters became visible to them

.
-
.
Both turned and regarded it with a long steady look ; that ,
done they again bent their heads attentively to the words of

,
the clergyman I suppose in that long eager fascinated gaze

.
, , ,
they practically die d— tha t for them death had no additional

b itterness When the mound was reached o n whi ch the
.
sca ff old stood there was immense confusion Around it a

,
.
wi de S pace was kept clear by the mili tary ; the cannon were
placed in position ; o ut flashed the swords o f the dragoons ;
fl
beneath and around on every side was the crowd Betw een .
two brass helmets I coul d see the s ca o ld clearly enough ,
and when in a little while the men bareheaded and with their ,
fl
attendants appeared upon it the surging crowd became
, ,
s ti e n e d with fear and awe An d now it was that the in .
c ide n t s o simple s o natural and yet s o frightful in its tragic

, ,
suggestions took place Be it remembered that the season

,
.
w as early Ma y that the day was fin e that the wheat fields

, ,
-
fl
were clothing themselves in the green of the young cr0 p and ,
that around the s ca o ld standing on a sunny mound a wide , ,
S pace was kept clear When the men appeared beneath the
.
b eam each under hi s proper halter there w as a dead silence

, , ,
—every o n e gazing too intently to whisper to his neighbour

9
2 0 TH E E NGLI S H E S SAY AND E S SAYI STS
Re cr e a tio ns f C o un tr
o
ya P a r s o n and the Gr a ver Tb o u bts o
g f a
C o un try P a r s on S how much in genuity and versatili ty of mind .
Th e bes t o f the papers ha ve the character o f pleasant chat ;

th eir weaknes s is that they betray at ti mes a certain pettines s
o f mind and also a remarkable want o f self knowledge If
fl
-
, .
we may judg e from a passage in Tbc M o r al I n ue n ce of “
Dwellin gs no author ever more seriously misunderstood hi m

,
self than Boyd “

I f there be a thing which I detes t he
.
”
,
“
says it is a di ff use and rambling style Le t any write r
, .
always treat hi s subj ect in a manner terse and severely logic al .
My o wn model is Tacitus and the earlier writings o f Bacon

, .
Le t a man say in a straight forward way what he has got t o

-
”
say ; and the more briefly the better There could b e
.
—
nothing much less like Tacitus and Bacon tha n th ese essays .
I t is not that the words employ e d are too man y but t h e ,
things treated are so often trivial Compare th e famous .
essay Of S tudies every sentence a thought and every thought

, ,
falling with the weight o f a sledge hammer with t h e questio ns

-
,
which concern the country parson An y o n e sick in t h e

°
parish ? How w as the church attend e d o n the S undays

’ ‘
y o u were away ? H o w is Jenny w ho had the fever ;

’
,
and
John who had the paralytic stroke ? how is the horse ; t h e
,
co w ; the pig ; the dog ; ho w is the garden progres sing ? how
about fruit ; ho w a b out flowers ? All this is legitim at e

enough and the questions are put as di rectly and a s briefly
,
as Bacon hi mself could put them But there is a wo rld o f

.
di ff erence between thi s sort o f brevity and the trem e n dous

se ntentiousnes s o f the great Roman o r the great Englishm an .
I n suggesting such comparisons Boyd is his o wn worst enemy .
In fairness to hi m we must forget what he would fai n have been

and take hi m as he was S ometi mes he is engagi n gly simple ;
.
occa sion ally it is di fficult to determin e whether he is simple

o r sl
y I
. s it simplicity or slynes s when he writes of N orma n .
“
Macleod tha t he was a great jolly Chr istian Bohemian ,
LATTER HALF OF TH E C ENTURY
'
TH
1
9 29 1
using the mos t unconventional la nguage freely in his talk ,
sitting with the Prince of Wales in the smoking—

.
room at
Dunrobin Castle till half past three in the morning y e t never
-
,
-
1
sinking below the highest level of the respect o f even such as

knew him most famili arly ?
Robert Louis S tevenson stands on a very much higher
plane S ince Lamb there has been no more accomplished
.
essayist than he N ature made hi m an essayist and he

.
,
c o operated with nature

- developing and strengt he ning the
,
g ifts with which he was e n dowed at birth T he training he .
gave hi mself if it were generally followed would probably in

, ,
nine cases o ut o f ten produce literary prigs o f the most in

sufferable sort There is wisdom a s well as wit in Lewis
.
Carroll s rendering o f the popular proverb take care o f the

’
,
sense and the s ounds will take care o f themselves ”

S ome .
at least o f the greatest stylists have followed it F roude .
w as impatien t wh en he was questioned about hi s style ,
and gave the querist to understand that he said what he

wanted to say and there was no more secret about it Matthew
,
.
Arnold wa s o f precisely the same opinion People think .
that I can teach them style he said to Mr G W E Russell

”
,
. . . . .
What stu ff it all is ! Have somethi ng to s a y and s ay it as ,
c learly as you can That is the o nly secret o f style

.
”
But .
S tevenson sys tem atically and laboriously S tudi ed the sou nds .
F ortunat e ly he did not make hi mself a prig for he had no n e ,
o f the eleme n ts o f priggishn ess to begi n with ; while the habit
o f looking upon everything eve n the in o s t trivial scene or

,
event in stre e t o r in coun try as material fo r literature , ,
fostered the S pirit o f the essayist Fo r by t h e nature o f the .

,
case the essayist is the man who kn ows ho w to make use o f

,
small thi n gs A stately Gibbon needs a stately Rome fo r

.
theme But Rome because o f it s very gr e atness is o f small

.
, ,
w e to the essayist Only now a n d the n ca n he deal with a

.
T h e it alics ar e m in e .
2
s tately theme directly ; and yet on the other hand he h s to , ,
a
remem b er that every road leads to Rome Th e small things .
that remain small count for nothi ng in literature The skill .
o f the essayist li es in showing o r rather in hi nting ho w the , ,
vill age path leads to Rome O f thi s s kill S tevenson was .
master There is an excellent ill ustration in A n I n la n d

.
V y age a b ook which like Tr a vels w itb a D o k ey is essentially

o , ,
n ,
a collection of essays wrought into a whole Th e passage in .
question is the con c lusion o f La F i e of cur s e d M e m o y Th r r . e
pretty domestic scene f the Bazins and the eff ect o f it and
o
o f their politeness o n the spirits f the hurt and sore travellers o
are matters simple and even tri v ial in themselves yet s ugge s ,
tive of far rea hi ng reflections

-
c
Little did the Bazins know how much they served us .
W were charged fo r candles fo r food and drink and for the

e , ,
b eds we slept in But there was nothi ng in t h e bill for the

.
husband s pleasant talk ; n o r fo r the pretty spectacl e of their

’
married life An d there was yet another item uncharged

. .
F o r these people s poli teness really s e t us up again in o ur o wn

’
esteem We had a thirst for consideration ; the sense of

.
insult was still hot in o ur S pirits ; and civil usage seemed t o

restore us to o ur position in the world .
How little we pay our w a y in life ! Al though we have o ur

purses continually in o ur hand the better part of service go es
still unrewarded But I like to fancy that a grateful S pirit
.
gives as good as it gets Perhaps the Bazins knew how much

.
I liked them ? perhaps they also were healed o f some sli ghts
, ,
b y the thanks that I gave them in my manner ?

There is nothing more characteristic o f S tevenson as
essayist than in the first place the intimacy of this passage
, , ,
and in the second place its m oralising tone Everyw here

, ,
.
we get personal experiences— in Tbe A m a te ur Em igr n t in a ,
M e m o r ies a n d P t a its in Ra n do m M e m o r ies in F o n ta i n e

or r , ,
ble u Th writer hi mself is very frequently in the fore

a . e
metaphysical divinity ; a n d the whole o f two divergent
systems is summed up not merely S peciously in the two first
, ,
q u estions o f the rival catechisms the English tritely inquiring , ,
What is your n ame ? the S cottish striking at the very roots

o f life with What is the chief end o f man ? and answering
,
nobly if obscurely To glorify Go d and to enjoy Him for

, ,
ever .
’
This hum o f metaphysics is abo ut S tevenson always .
Concrete as hi s mind was it was also S pecul ative and the , ,
S peculation finds expression sometimes in the most un e x

e c t d places The Cb a a cte r of D o s — a race of creatures
p e .
g r
that S tevenson like his countrymen S cott and John Brown

, ,
han dl es with remarkable skill and sympathy— Opens o ut into

meditations of no narrow range and shows the writer by no ,
means co nvinced of the universal truth o f Bacon s saying that ’
man is the dog s deity Generally however S tevenson s

’
.
, ,
’
phi losophy limits itself to man and in the great majority o f ,
cases it is ethi cal in it s nature Thus the lantern bearers who .

-
,
are a b surd enough in their action if the imagination behi nd it

be left out become the text fo r a discussion of the p hi lo sophy
,
of literature which leads to a decisive rejection o f that realism

,
whi ch was dominant before Tr e a s ur e I s l n d There is a a .
haunting and truly S pe c tral unreality in realistic books

”
,
because they miss the joy o f life the personal poetry the , ,
enchanted atmosphere that rainbow work of fancy that ,

”
clothes what is naked and seems to ennoble what is base .
More purely ethi cal is Old M t lity and above all the or a , , ,
magnificent Cbr is tm as S e m o n o n e o f the finest o f modern

r ,
essays rich in wisdom noble in feeling transparent in

, , ,
sincerity :
Her e lies o ne wb o m e n t we ll t ie d a little fa ile d m ucb
a ,
r ,
surely that may be his epitaph o f whi ch he need not be ,
ashamed Nor will he complain at the summons whic h calls

.
a defeated so ldier from the field : defeated a y if he were Paul , ,

LATT E R HALF '
OF TH E 1
9 TH C ENTURY 2
95
o r Ma rcus Aurelius — but if there is sti ll o n e inch o f fight in

his o ld S pirit undishonoured
,
The faith which sustained him
.
in hi s life long blindness and life lo ng dis appointment will

- -
s carce even be required in this last formality of laying down
his arms Give hi m a march with his old b ones ; there o ut

.
,
Of the glorious s un coloured earth o ut o f the day and the dust

-
,
a n d the ecstasy— there goes another F aithful F ailure !
Profoun dly ethical then S tevenson is ; but it has to be

, ,
repeated that the ethics are not precisely the ethi cs o f Puritan
is m . I n order to correct any tendency to think that they are
we have onl y to turn to A Go s s ip o n a No vel of D um as There .
we se e the S horter Catechist translated almost as e ff e ct u

a lly as Bottom ; but there at the same time we find the most
, ,
conclusive evidence that S tevenson is always a moralist

“
There is no quite good book without a good morality ;
but the world is wide and s o are morals O ut of two people
,
.
who have di pped into S ir Richard Burton s Tbaus an d a n d ’
o n e N i b ts one shall have been o ff ended by the animal details ;

g ,
another to whom these were harmless perhaps even pleasing , ,
s hall yet have been shocked in hi s turn by the rascality and
cruelty o f all the characters O f two readers agai n o n e shall

.
, ,
have been pained by the morality o f a religious memoir one ,
by that o f the Vi co m te de B r agelo n n e An d the point is that

.
n either need be wrong We shall always sho ck each other

.
bo th in life and art ; we cannot get the s un into o ur pictures ,
n o r the abstract right if there b e such a thing) into our books ;

(
enough if in the o n e there glimmer some hi nt o f the great
, ,
light that blinds us from heaven ; enough if in the other , ,
there S hine even upon foul details a S pirit of magnanimity

, ,
”
.
Th e closing words are inspired by a love of the heroic ,
another S tevens o nian quality whi ch ought never t o be for

go tten It is the es sence o f the Cbr is tm as S er m o n as well and
.
,
we detect it in all his frequent meditations upon death— fo r

example those in Or de r e d S o utb and in Aes Tr iplex They are
, .
2 96 THE E NGLI S H E SSAY AN D E SSAYI STS
a touching reminder o f S tevenson s hi story They take us

’
.
.
into his confidence wi t h respect to subj ects whi ch circumstan c e

b rought closer to hi m tha n t o most men They S how him
.
b uil di ng up that philosophy whi ch nerved him to make hi s

li fe active at whatever risk o f ending it I t is better he
”
,
says to lose health like a spendthrift than to waste it lik

, e
a miser I t is b etter to live and be done with it than to di e

.
,
daily in the sick—room By all means b egin your folio ; even

.
if the doctor does not give you a year even if he hesitates,
about a month make one b rave push and s e e what can be

,
accomplished in a week Th e same S pirit inspires the saying

”
.
in the title piece o f the volume whi ch contains these essays :

“
To avoid an occasion for o ur virtues is a worse degree o f
failure than to push forward pluckil y and make a fall ”
An d .
in the Cbr ist m as S e r m o n he insists that thi s was the principle

of the morality of Christ hi mself Tb o u s ba lt was ever his
word with which he superseded tbo u s b a lt n o t
, .
This is the phi losophy o f the invalid who is resolute not to

sink to mere invalidism I t is the voice o f a man who forced
.
,
to endure is determined also to do How gallantly S tevenson

,
.
lived up t o the spirit o f hi s o wn philosophy is well kn own .
I f he had limited hi s admiration to heroism o f thi s sort such ,
o n e sidedness would have b een easily pardonable

-
But he .
was far from doing s o N o one more heartily admired the

.
careless light hearted heroism o f the strong and active All

-
.
hi s romances proclaim that admiration haracters like Alan

,
c
Breck are an em b odi ment of it Th e essays ma nifest it t o o

. .
Nowhere is there more of it than in Tbe E nglis b Adm ir a ls .
S tevenson had boundl ess admiration for D uncan facing the ,
whole D utch fleet with hi s o wn flagshi p and only o n e other

vessel and saying t o its captain I have taken the depth o f
,
“
,
the water and when the Ve n e a ble goes down my flag will
,
r ,
still fly ”
He had written the story o f the Re ve ge i n prose
. n
b efore Tennyson published his great b allad o n the sam e

8 TH E E NGLI S H E SSAY AND E SSAYI STS
“
2
9
not perha ps in the composition of the a ct ual ess ay before us

, , ,
but in the years of trai ning before it could be compo se d I t .
is this lo ng trai ni ng whi ch enables S tevenson to impart that

eas y gli di n g movement to F o n ta i ne ble a u with its pleasant ,
picture o f the society o f artists i n the forest and their singular

inn and to the excellent Ta lk a n d T lk er s F rom boyhood
,
a .
onwards S tevenson o b served nature with a view to the

description of scenes in words ; an d thus he was enabled to im
part the sense o f landscape t o Ro ads to Tbe Co as t of F ife and
,
to many another essay I n thi s respect it may be doubted

.
w hether he has any equal So metimes a scene is painted in

.
a sentence as in the description o f the little to wn s o n t h e

,
coast of F ife posted along the shore as close as sedges each

, ,
with its bit o f harbour it s o ld weather beaten church o r publi c

,
-
building its flavour o f decayed prosperity and decaying fish

,
”
.
S ome great writers produce a profound e ff ect by their work

a s a whole but are not readily quotable ; others have the gift
,
of condensing their meaning into a striking phrase The con .
scious and deliberate literary artist will generally be found to

belong to the latter class Pope fo r example is the mo st
.
, ,
fl
quotable writer in English after S hakespeare S tevenson .
stands intermediate O n the whole he rather di us e s hi s

.
,
meaning and makes it an atmosphere enfoldi ng everything ;

,
but at times his S kill in words concentrates its elf in a sentence
fl
o r phrase or even in a word
,
Th e skilled artist is seen in the
.
witty description o f the e e ct o f marria ge upon generosity :

Y esterday he would ha ve shared hi s last shilli ng ; t o da y -
his first duty is to his family and is fulfilled in large measure

’
,
by laying down vintages and husbanding the health o f an

inva luable parent ”
He is revealed in a sudden turn o f ex
.
pression as in the same essay : Man is a creature who lives

,
fl
not upon bread alone but prin cipally by catchwords
,
”
An .
un exp ected phr ase may produce an extraordinary e e ct He .
is S peaking o f the light hearted merriment of dwellers on the

-
LATT E R H AL F OF T H E 1 TH
9 C ENTURY 2
99
S lopes o f a volcano : I t S eems not re di ble that res pectabl e c
married people with umbrellas should find appetite for a bit

, ,
o f supper wit hi n quite a long distance o f a fiery mountain

”
.
O r again take the description o f the victor o f Camperdown

,
An d you observe this is n o naked Viking in a pre h istoric

period ; but a S cotch member o f Parliament with a smatter ,
fl
in g of the classics a telescope a cocked hat o f great size and
, , ,
annel underclothing ”
.
While it is true that S tevenson is as ha s already been said

, ,
eminent fo r hi s skill in conveying the eff ect o f scenes o f nature

perhaps relatively to others more eminent fo r that than fo r
-
, ,
anything else — it would be a mistake to suppose that thi s is

,
f o r hi m the principal poi n t o f interes t Th opposite is im . e
plied in what has been already said o f him as a moralis t His .
first interest is man He found much in the country but

.
,
e ven more in the street Like S cott he loved nature but

.
, ,
a bove all nature associated with man Th e princip a l though

.
,
by no means the o nl y charm of Fontainebleau is it s society

o f painters He sees Magus Muir with the eye o f historical
.
imagination and the central figure is not even the wounded

,
Archbishop but the enigmatical Ha c k s t o n o f Ra t hi lle t

,
I t is .
man that he is perpetually weighi ng in the balance and man s ,

’
e stimate o f himsel f that he often pronou n ces wrong Thus .
he examines the views o f age and youth and finds no good ,
reason for believing that all wisdom is embo died in the former .
Th o ld man praises Prudence but does he fully believe hi s

e
,
o w n praise ?
“
I f a man lives to any considerable age it ,
cannot be denied that he laments hi s imprudences but I ,
notice he often laments hi s youth a deal more bitterly and

with a more genuine intonation ”
Herein he agrees with the
.
a uthor o f that excell ent st ory D a vi d Ha r um who makes hi s ,
her o lament the good times he did n o t give himself in his youth .
Again in A n Ap o logy f o r I dle r s he weighs the gospel o f work

,
a n d finds it wanting Perpetual devotion to what a man

.
ca lls hi s business is only to be sustained by perpetual neglect
,
o f many other t hi ngs Th e true business o f life is living and

”
.
,
living in the full sense is impossi b le if a man is for ever oc upied c
with o n e thi ng in which hi s whole nature cannot find expres

sion ”
. Many make a large fortune who remain pathetically
stupid to the last An d meanwhile there goes the idler w ho
.
,
began life with them— b y your leave a di ff erent picture He ,

.
has had time t o take care o f his health and hi s S pirits ; he h as

been a great deal in the open air whi ch is the most salutary o f ,
all thi ngs for b oth b ody and mind ; and if he has never read the
great B o k in very recondite places he has dipped into it and
o ,
ski mmed it over to excellent purpose Might not the student .
a ff ord some He b rew roots and the business man some of his
,
half crowns for a share o f the idler s knowledge of life at large

-
,
’
,
and Ar t o f Living ? I f we probe below the surface we find

that S tevenson s view is at b ottom the wise Old Greek view that
’
,
the end o f business is leisure F o r what he desires is not really

.
idleness but occupation congenial to his o wn nature I n this

,
.
respect hi s life was all of a piece N o o n he tells us more . e, ,
perseveringly played truant in boyhood and youth But he .
did it not in order to be unoccupied but that he might be

,
‘
congenially b usy .
I t would b e hard to onceive a man with the tastes o f

c
S tevenson and trained as S tevenson trained himself who w a s ,
n o t also a critic S tevenson w s a most ac c omplished o n e

. a .
In hi s letters as well as his essays we s e e the result o f a life o f

thought about the principles o f composition As a critic he .
,
is at once philosop hi cal and intensely personal He is at hi s .
b est in papers like A G o s s ip o Ro m ce where the method is

n an ,
easy informal and personal and the principles are rather

, ,
suggested than S pecifically stated ; but from time to time he

brings to the front o n e or other of the two convictions whi h c
underlie all his work— the conviction that truth o f art is n o t

identical with truth o f fact and the conviction that the first
,
3 02 TH E E NGLI S H E SSAY AND E S SAYI STS
”
scholarly cold sort o f a man he calls Helps ; and thi nness
, ,
and coldness are exactly the words t o indicate the defects of

the essays N ext to Helps in age were Charles Kingsley
.
8
( 9 75)
1 1 -1 8 and John R uskin ( 9
1 81 o f whom the
S maller man w a s the greater in this particular S phere N ot .
that Kingsley is wholl y satisfactory as an essayist any more ,
than he is in any other o f his manifold acti vities An drew .
Lang justly says o f hi m that like R L S tevenson he was ,

. .
,
always at heart a boy ; and the inference whi ch he draws that ,
no o n e who has read hi m after the age o f 1 6 can be a fair critic

o f him is also sound
,
But it must not be applied to S teven
.
so n. There is a subtle diff erence in the boyishness whi ch

makes it quite possible for the man o f sixty to appreciate
S tevenson while he will be only tolerant of Kin gsley
,
As .
ess ayist Kingsley s merits are in the critical es says vi gour

,
’
, , ,
rapi di ty and decision in the descriptive essays the combina

, ,
tion o f the heart o f a poet with the hi gh S pirits o f a sportsman

.
.
He is seen at his best in Cba lk S tr ea m S tudies Th e description .
of the climb to the mountain lake to fish is as fresh as the

mountain breeze itself : Th e pleas ure li es not in th e prize
itself but in the pains whi ch it has cost ; in the upward
,
fl
climb through the dark plantations beside the rock walled ,
-
st ream ; the tramp over the upland pastures o n e gay o w e r ,
bed o f purple butter wo rt ; the steady breathless climb up the

-
crags which lo oked but o n e mile from where you started so

, ,
clear agai n st the s k y stood o ut every knoll and slab ; the first
stars o f the white saxifrage golden eyed blood be dropt as if a

,
-
,
-
,
fl
fairy had p r ic k ed her finge r in the cup which shi n e upo n some ,
green cus hi on of wet mo s s in a dripping crack o f t h e cli ; the

,
first gray tufts o f the Alpine club moss the first shrub o f cran -
,
berry o r sea green rose root with it s strange fles hy stems and
,
s - -
,
leaves w hi ch mark the two thousand fee t line a n d the begin

,
- -
,
ni n g o f the Alpine world ”

I f Ki n gsley had often reached or
.
long remained upo n this level hi s place would have been a ,

LATTER HAL F OF THE 1
9T H C ENTURY 3 3
0
high o n e But the P r o s e I dylls from which the passa ge is

. .
,
tak en are like everythi ng else that K in gsle y has written o nly
, ,
half satisfactory ; and un fortunately for the au t hor few men

, ,
of th e present age have rea d them before they were sixteen .
With Ruskin the fault seems to be precis ely the Opposite .
I f Kingsley remained t o o you n g Ruskin a s essayist was from ,
the first t o o o ld I f all he has written more o r le ss of the es s ay

.
,
nature could be accepted as genuine essays hi s place must be

, ,
a very high one Many of his smaller volumes are groups o f

.
essays or o f lectures o r of letters whi ch might prove to be

, ,
essays Un to tb is La s t M un er a P ulve r is A j oy f o r Ever

-
, , ,
S es a m e a n d Lilie s Ti m e a n d Ti de
,
But there w as somethi ng .
in Ruskin s na t ure that did not fit in with the essay form

’
.
No t o n e of the volumes above named gives the impression o f

the e ssay even to the degree that es sayists in the looser s ense ,
su ch as Carlyle and Macaulay give it Th e reason seems to be ,

.
tha t instead o f merging the letter in the essay as Howell does

, , ,
o r the lecture in the essay as Hazlitt does Ruskin merges

, ,
bo th letter and essay in lectur e He is invariably the master .

,
and t he reader must be content to be disciple But this is .
utterly foreign to t h e S pirit o f the essay The typica l essayi st .
treats the reader as a friend ; even the stately essayist Bacon , ,
fo r example allo ws hi m to s e e thought in process o f formula

,
tion Unless he is blessed with a singularly good conceit of

.
himself the reader is aware o f hi s inferiority and voluntarily

,
accepts the position o f p upil ; but he is not thrus t into it By .
Ruskin he is thrus t into it Ruskin lays down the law and it

.
,
is as absolute as the law o f the Me des and Persians The .
reader has no more freedom to dissent or even to s hare i n the ,
pleasur e s o f discovery than the child who repeats the answers

,
already provided in the Catechism O f all values including .

,
the value o f what he has himself writte n R uskin is j udge a n d , ,
there is n o appeal The preface to the second e dition o f Un to

.
tb is La s t contains an instructive note in which the a uthor ,

3 0
declares th at volume to b e the most precious in its essential ,
contents o f all that I have ever written ; and he makes thi s

,
pronouncement the more impres sive by calling attention t o

the fact that after a certain foot note he prints it word for
,
-
,
word and page fo r page s o as to make it as accessible as he can

, ,
to all I t s inspiration is plenary N ow this does n o t proceed

. .
from a sill y and un di scriminating va nity : Ruskin was quite

ready to condemn as unreservedly thi ngs he had formerly
writte n but no longer believed to be true What it does .
indi cate is an overwhelm i ng sense o f a mission Th e prophet .
may prophesy and his prophesies may be divided i n to

,
chapters short and long ; but none o f them whatever the

, ,
length can possi b ly have the characteristics o f the essay

,
.
Th e papers in the collecti on entitled On tbc Old Ro a d are

e ssays in the sense in which Macaul ay s E di n bur b Rev
’
’
g
articles are essays They are interes ting and hi ghly char
.
a c t e r i s ti c and o f course being Ruskin s they are adm i rably ’

, , , ,
written Ye t even they especi ally the series entitled F i ctio n

.
, ,
F a ir a n d F o ul are not merel y dogmatic as Maca ulay also is

, , ,
b ut po n t ific a l Th e best are those o n art ; and of these again

.
the best are the delight ful paper on S amuel Prout and that
o n Pre Raphaelitism Ruskin s strong expression of belief in
’
-
.
the permanent value o f Prout s work may b e quoted for t h ’

e
s ake o f its resemblance to and di ff erence from o n e o f the

, ,
“
most famous sentences o f Macaul ay His works will be °
c herished with a melancholy gratitude when the pill ars o f

V enice shall lie mouldering in the salt shallows of her s e a and ,
the stones o f the goodl y towers o f Rouen have become ballast

”
f o r the barges o f the S eine S e t thi s beside the celebrated
.
fl
N ew Z ealander o n the broken arch o f London Bridge study ,
the di e r e n ce in cadence and eff ect and the means whereby ,
the di ff erence is produced and the secret o f two styles is in ,
great part revealed .
Perhaps Ruskin s disciple Walter Pater ( 1 83 9

’
may ,
3 06 TH E ENGLI S H E S SAY AN D E S SAYI STS
We are all as Victor Hugo says : we are all
co n da m n é s ,
under sentence o f death but with a sort o f indefinite reprieve

— les b o m m es sont to us co n da m n é s d m o r t a ve c de s s ur s is in
defin is we have an interval and then our place knows us n o ,
more S ome S pend thi s interval in listlessness some in high

.
,
passions the wisest at least among the children o f t hi s

, ,
‘
world in art and song

,
’ ”
.
Wa s anything more self centred— whi ch means anythi n g -
more decadent—ever written ? N o wonder that the next

stage in evolution produced O scar Wilde A wiser and a .
deeper philosophy than Pater s— the philosophy o f Greece as ’
well as that of Judwa— teaches that man cannot b e man with ‘
out society and that society involves giving as well as taking

, .
I n Pater everything has to be identified with ourselves

, .
This is the secret o f the Oppressiveness o f Pater s atmosphere ’

.
Th e hi gh wrought English is indeed beauti f ul ; but the

-
beauty is artificial and the sense it leaves is not a sense o f

,
happiness .
I n di rect contrast to Rus k in Matthew Arnold ( 1 822—1 888) ,
tended to mo ul d all hi s prose material into the form o f essays .
Th letters in F ie n ds b ip s Ga r la n d are essays the lectures

’
e r ,
On Tr a n s la ti ng Ho m e r and the D is co ur s e s i A m e r i ca are n
essays t o o Ye t Ar nold as well as Ruskin was conscious o f

.
a mission and was through life a preacher But Ar nold s .

’
method was ironic F requently he confesses hi s o w n in

.
f e r io r it y ; he is humble before the young lions of the Da ily

Te legr ap b and kisses the rod when he is chastised for the
,
want o f principles coherent interdependent subordinate

“
, ,
and derivative ”
I t is possible that the wielder o f the rod
.
was not altogether happy after the submission .
Though Ar n old was onl y three years younger than Ruskin ,
it was nearly twenty years after Ruskin that he became a

force in the prose literature o f the country I n the main hi s .
,
verse belo n gs to the former and his prose to th e latter part of

LATTE R H AL F OF THE 1
9 TH C ENTURY 3 07
his career Except for prefaces to his poems he published

.
no prose until 1 85 9 and it w a s n o t till the sixties that he

,
became an active contributor to periodicals Th e admira b le
fl
.
essays of the first series f Es s ys i Cr i ti cis m had all except

o a n
,
the preface and the paper o n Tbe Li ter ry I n ue ce of A c a n a
de m ies appeared during the years 1 863 and 1 864

, Th e lec .
tures On Tr s l ti g Ho m er had preceded them in 1 861

an a n .
These essays and lectures made Arnold the most influential

of contemporary literary critics and b y the many di cta n o t ,
S trictly limited to literature in n o small measure moulded the

,
minds o f the young men o f the time Tbe S tudy of Celti c .
Li te r a tur e followed and then came C ultur e a n d A n cby

, Th ar . e
former for good o r for evil has b een the parent o f a whole
, ,
school o f criticism All these volumes were critical and the

.
,
criticism w s mainly literary ; but alongside o f the literary

a
criticism there ran a vein o f social criticism and Cultur e a n d ,

“
A n a r cby is des ribed as c an essay in social and political
F r i en ds b ip s G r la n d though more ironical is of
”
criticism .
’
a , ,
Similar character But before the letters which make up

.
F r ien ds b ip s G ar la n d had been collected Arnold s criticism

’ ’
,
had taken yet another turn S t P a ul a n d P r o tes ta n tis m was

. .
the first o f the volumes i n whi ch he took the character o f

critic o f popular conceptions o f religion ; and it was followed
by Lite r a tur e a n d D ogm a and Go d a n d tbe B ible M ixe d Es s ays .
,
I is b Es s ay s and D is co ur s es i n A m e r i ca were the product o f

r
Arnold s later years

’
.
Arn old then is a critic in a triple sense— a critic o f litera

tu re a critic o f society a critic o f religion I t is unnecessary
, ,
.
here to do more than allude t o hi s services in the S phere o f

literary criticism — his insistence on the imperative need o f dis
interestedness ; the lesson of urbanity which he taught by
example as well as by precept ; his condemnation o f the S pirit
o f provinciality But it is desirable to note that there is
.
much besides purely literary criticism in the literary e s s ays a n d ,

3 0 8 TH E ENGLI S H E SSAY AN D E S SAYI STS
that once and again they bear witness to the fact that Ar nold
possessed in a rare degree the S pecial qu aliti es o f the essayist .
His picture in the es say o n Wordsworth o f the S peaker at a

, ,
S ocial S cience Congress reading from a manuscript written

withi n and without and producing in the heart of th e poo r
,
chi ld o f nature lamentation and mourning and woe ill us ,
trates his manner Th e delightful preface to the Es s ays i n

.
C r iticis m again and again reveals the man hi mself Th . e

“
principle to try and approach truth from o n e side after
,
another was his guide through life and in all departments o f

”
,
his work He expounds it again many years after in the

.
S peech to the Eton b oys on the signi ficance o f e utr ap eli and a,
t h e varying estimation in whi ch the word has been held .
There is a touch o f sadness in the confession that “

the
world will soon be t h Phi listines e There i s playful
’
sarcasm in the shyness he avows o f assuming the honourable

! style o f Professor Arn old s sarcasm is all pervadi ng : it is
’
-
.
pres ent even in the nobly eloquent apostrophe to O xford

—
there are our young barbarians all at play ! ”
But it is
perhaps the most good natured sarcasm th at ever was s o
-
effective There is humour t o o in the consolatio n addressed

.
to the travellers o n the Woodf ord Branch when they were ,
agitated by a murder committed o n a neighbouring railway

Myself a transcendentalist (as the S a tur day Review kn ows ) ,
I escaped the infec t ion ; and day after day I used to ply my
, ,
agitated fellow travellers with all the conso lations whi ch my

-
transcendentalism would naturally suggest to me I r e .
minded them ho w C aesar refused to take precautions agai n st

assassination because life was not worth havin g at the price
,
of an i gn oble solicitude for it I remin ded them wha t in .
signi ficant atoms we all are in the li f e of the world S uppose .
the worst to happen I said addr e ssing a portly j eweller from

’
, ,
Cheapside ; suppose even yourself to be the victim ; il n y ’
a
p
'
as d bo m m e n e ces s a ir e
’
W e should miss
.
y o u for a da
y or
3 10 TH E E NGLIS H E S SAY AN D E SSAYI STS
s chools are perfect ; and least o f all is t he land question ‘
solved .
Th e core of Arnold s social doctrine is in C ultur e

’
d an
A n ar cby . Every o n e of the essays it contains is significant ,
and still worth studying Ye t it seemed hopelessly un pr a c

.
tical to preach culture as a cure for such evils as force them

selves upon us in our slums England is practical and cries .
,
“ ” “
out for practical men But retorts Arnold what if
.
, ,
fl
rough and coarse action ill calculated action action without
,
-
,
s u i ci e n t light is and has fo r a long time been o ur bane ?

, , ,
With a quietly sarcastic touch he pictures the result o f such

action in P o r r o m e um es t Ne ces s a r i um I f we are sometimes
a little troubled b y o ur multitude of poor men yet we know ,
the increase o f manufactures and population to be such a

salutary thi ng in itself and o ur free trade policy begets such
,
-
an admirable movement creating fresh centres o f industry

,
and fresh poor men here while we were thi nking about o ur
,
poor men there that we are quite dazed and borne away and
, ,
more and more industrial movement is called for and o ur ,
social progress seems to become one triumphant and enjoy

able course of what is sometimes call ed vulgarly outrunning , ,
the constable .
”
This from a Liberal in the days when the ,
Manchester S chool was in it s glory !

O ther sarcasms abound for it was Arn old s w a y to point
,
’
out unmistakably though with all urbanity the defects o f

, ,
t h e people he was addressing When he went to America o n e

.
o f the subjects he chose was N um be r s or Tb e M aj o r i ty a n d ,
tbc Re m n a n t a n d in treating it he pointed out to a people in

ordinately proud of their unprecedented growth in numbers
and in material prosperity that in the Opinion o f Plato the
,
m ajority in Athens and in the Opinion o f I saiah the majority

,
in I srael had been unsound I n Cultur e a n d A n ar chy he is

,
.
addr essing England ; and he does not S pare her Th . e
Dissidence of Dissent and the Protestantism o f the Protestant

LATTE R H AL F OF T H E 1
9 TH C ENTURY 3 11
religion ; preparing ourselves b y the study o f modern

languages t o fight the battle of life with the waiters in
foreign hotels ; the doing into British o f the Divine In

junction Be ye Perfect ,
‘ ”
in the sentence Sir Daniel
“ ’
Go och s mother repeated to him every morning when he was

’
a boy going to work : Ever e m e m be m y de a D a n tb t y o ur r, r ,

a
fl
s b o uld lo o k fo r wa r d to be i n
g s o m e da
y m
g f
n a e r o tb a t co n ce r na
—these are S pecimens o f the sarcasms he in gs at his fellow

countrymen I t can hardly be denied that there was and
.
,
is occasion for them Th e Gospel of Getting O n is still

, .
preached ; a narrow and vulgar conception o f what is pr a c

tical still underlies popular conceptions o f education ; the
dissidence o f dissent still flourishes and S till produces though , ,
in diminished measure the fruit Arnold saw S pringing from

,
it.
“
I remember he says in the preface to C ultu e a n d
”
,
r
A n ar cby “
I remember a Nonconformist manufacturer in a
,
town o f the Midland counties telling me that when he first ,
came there some years ago the place had no Dissenters ; but
, ,
he had opened an I ndependent chapel in it and now Church ,
a n d D issent were pretty equally divided with S harp contests ,
between them I said that thi s seemed a pity

. A pity ? .
‘
cried he ; not at all ! O nly think o f all the zeal and activity
which the collision calls forth ! Ah but my dear friend , , ,
’
I answered only thi nk o f all the nonsense whi ch you now

,
hold quite firmly which you would never have held if you
,
had not been contradicting your adversary in it all these

years .
’
We no longer boast of o ur incomparable civilisation ;

we admit that the evils to whi ch Arnold pointed are real evils .
Perhaps it might be worth while for the practical men w ho ,
have achi eved no such brilliant success after all to consider ,
what the unpractical apostle o f culture h as to suggest by way

o f cure I n essence it is the D ivine I njunction Be ye
.
,
'
Perfect done not into British but into Ar n o lde s e I t is

‘
.
, ,
3 12 TH E ENGLIS H E S SAY AND E SSAYI STS
the pursuit of perfection and that is the pursuit of S weetness
,
and li ght I t is the assertion o f self — in a sense b ut not in

.
,
any sense w e please Th e conception of freedom as a thi ng

.
good in itself and indistin guishable from licence must be
fl
abandoned Th e great thi ng
. is to find o ur bes t self ,
and to seek to a ffirm nothi ng but that ”

But this is di i cult
. .
Perfection absolute may be an ideal but certainly it can ,
never be attained ; and the best self is n o t altogether easy to

be dis covered S till less to be e ff ectively a ffirmed On the
, .
other hand the creation o f fresh poor men here while we are
,
thinking o f o ur poor men there has proved to be disastrously

easy I t has been the same ever sin ce the Choice o f
.
Hercules Pleasure dwells near at hand and the way

.
,
is smooth and easy ; but the way o f virtue is hard ,
and the gods have ordained sweat of the b row to the

traveller .
Evidently Arnold had the endowment o f an es s ayist of the

most intimate sort and it is o nl y b y reason of hi s choice o f
,
theme necessitating a treatment in the main less intimate

, ,
that he has to be placed in the outer ring Th e same is true .
of Walter Bagehot ( 1 826 whose most valuable essays

are contained in Liter a ry S tudies and B iogr apb i cal S tudies .
There is somethi ng personal in B a ge ho t s epigrammatic say

’
ings When he says o f D ickens that he describes London

.
like a S pecial correspo ndent for posterity o r when he sum s

”
,
up Macaulay s indi ff erence to contemporaries in the phrase

’
,
he regards existing men as painful pre requisites of great -
grandchildr en the man himself seems to S tand revealed

”
,
.
His wit smacks o f hi s o wn person a lity Th e sentence Th

.
,
e
English now and then produce a learned creature like a

”
thistle prickly with all facts and incapable o f all fruit is
, , ,
more than the expression o f a critical Opinion : it throws a

flood of light upon the writer Clearly he does not admire .
“
this lea rned creature and if he is true to hims e lf in ,
1
Th e literary characteristics o f Thomas Henry Huxley ( 1 82 5
1 8 5 ) were not dissimilar to those o f Bagehot Huxley too
9 .
possessed the gifts o f wit and humour Huxley t o o b uilt .
upon a foundation o f philosophy Huxley too had t h . e
knack o f pregnant expression His style was smoother than

.
B a g h o t s and quite as eff ective His scientific pursuits did

’
e ,
.
n o t tend to the early development of hi s literary qu alities ;
and had circumstances n o t made him the gladiator general -
o f science and D arwin s bull dog it is quite possible that

” ’
-
,
they would never have been fully developed As it was he .

,
found himself called upon to do this work and in the process ,
made hi mself the most consummate controversialist that has

ever written English But in S pite of his great merits both
.
as man o f science a n d a s man of letters Huxley s writings ,

’
cannot long hold the position they deservedly held in his o wn
fl
day I n the first place it is o f the very nature o f science that
.
,
the work o f every e i cie n t contributor to it tends to supersede

that o f his predecessor O f M a n s Pla ce i n N a tur e Huxley
.
’
himself near the close o f hi s life wrote that it had achi eved
, ,
the fate whi ch is the euthanasia o f a scientific work of being

, ,
inclosed among the ru b ble o f the foundations of later know

ledge and forgotten
,
”
I n the second place there is a certain
.
,
vice in controversy— and none was more fully aware o f it than

Huxley— which in no long time empties o f interest even the
most skilful o f controversial writings “
I f I may judge by .
“
my o wn taste writes Huxley few literary dishes are less
, ,
appetising than cold controversy An d again : O f polemical .
writing as o f other kinds o f war fare I thi nk it may be said

, , ,
that it is often useful sometimes necessary and always more

, ,
o r less an evil
”
I n Huxley s case it was perhaps necessary
.
’
,
and certainl y bo th useful and in some degree an evil He took .
t o it with the delight which the bonny fechter takes in

the play o f his sword ; and his controversies with Gladstone
about G enesis and abo ut the Gadarene swine will always
LATTE R H AL F OF THE 1
9 TH C ENTURY 3 15
remain an intellectual delight to eve r y man whose eye is qui ck

enough to follow the thrusts But S till the stress of battle has
.
,
shi fted to other parts o f the field and it cannot be said that
,
these papers are n o w o f high intrinsic importance Ne v e r th e .
less even in the most controversial writings there are passages

,
whi ch reveal the great soul of Huxley and s t it in a light ,

e
a stonishing enough to those who know him only superficially .
He is or w a s popularly supposed to be an enemy o f the

, ,
Bible because he coul d not believe the legends o f the deluge

,
and the creation ; yet he was the author o f o n e o f the S trongest

p leas for the study o f the Bible : T hroughout the hi story of
the western world the S criptures Jewish and Christian have

, , ,
been the great instigators of revolt against the worst forms

o f clerical and political despotism Th e Bible has been the
.
M agn a Cbar ta o f the poor and o f the Oppressed ; down to

modern times no S tate has had a constitution in which the
,
interests o f the people are so largely taken into account in ,
which the duties s o much more than the privileges of rulers

, ,
are insisted upon as that drawn up fo r I srael in Deuteronomy

,
and Le viticus ; nowhere is the fundamental truth that the

welfare of the S tate in the long run depends o n the upright
, ,
ness o f the citizen so strongly laid down Assuredl y the .

,
Bible talks no trash about the rights o f man ; but it i n sists o n

the equality o f duties on the liberty to bring about that
,
righteousness whi ch is so mew hat di ff erent from the struggle

for rights o u the fraternity o f taking thought for o n e S
-
’
neighb our as fo r one s self ”

S ome o f Huxley s most telling
’
.
’
S trokes at those whose interpretation of the Bible he challenged

are drawn from the armoury of the Bible itself and are de ,
livered in a manner which _de m o n s t r a t e s his profound a d

m ir a t io n of it
. S peaking o f the great saying of Micah
An d what doth the Lord require o f thee but to do justly , ,
and to love mercy and to walk humbly with thy Go d ?

,
he asks : What extent of k nowledge what acuteness o f

“
,
scientific insight can touch thi s if any o n possessed o f know
, ,
e
ledge o r acuteness could be absurd enough to make the

,
’
attempt ? Will the progress o f research prove th at justice is

worthless and mercy hateful ; will it ever soften the b itter
contrast between our actions and our aspirations ; o r S how us
the bounds o f the universe and bid us say Go to now we
, , ,
comprehend the infinite ? A faculty o f wrath lay in those

ancient I sraelites and surely the prophet s S taff would have
,
’
made swift acquaintance with the head o f the scholar who

had asked Micah whether peradventure the Lord further r e
, ,
quired o f him an implicit b elief in th e cosmogony of Genesis !
fl
An d peradventure if the prophet had b een reincarna t ed a
,
mi ll ennium o r two later his s t a would have made equally

,
swift acquaintance with the head o f the scholar who had

asked whether the Lord r equired impli cit belief in apostolical
succession likewise .
I n some o f the essayists who came into prominence rather

later than those who have just been discussed there is a pre ,
do minance o f literary criticism whi ch in the main excludes

them from treatment here Thi s is especially true o f Walter
.
Theodore Watts D unton ( 1 83 2

-
who was unsurpassed
and probably unequalled in his o w n generation as a literary
pioneer but whose multifarious interests outside literature
,
are revealed rather in his poems and in his prose romance

Aylwi n than in his essays I n less degree it is true also o f
.
Leslie S tephen ( 1 83 2 the e di tor o f the earli er volumes

o f the great D i cti o n a r of N a tio n a l B i o r a b As essayist
y g p y .
S tephen is best known for hi s sound and sane criticisms and

hi s excellent biograp hi cal sketches But he wrote also a few
.
essays o f a more personal sort Th e intense emotion o f A n

.
Agn o s ti c s Ap o logy is due to the quasi persecution to whi ch

’
-
the holders o f unpopular opinions are even n o w exposed .
While it reveals S tephen in his gravest mood Tbe Playg o un d ,

r
r op e 8 1 ) sho w s hi m bent o n holiday These pleasant

o
f E u ( 1 7 .
3 18 TH E E NGLI S H E SSAY AND E SSAYI STS
mysticism— however it may be described— whi ch though in ,
the main a development of his later years was evidently pre ,
sent in his heart from the beginning I t was fully expressed .
in Wo o d M agic which appea red only three yea rs after Tbc

,
t Ho m e He paints a dreamy slumberous

'
Ga rn e k eepe r a .
,
place where the sedges slept and the green flags bowed their
, ,
painted heads U nder the b ushes in the distant nook the

.
moorhen reassured b y the silence came o ut from the grey

, ,
green grass and the rushes S urely Calypso s cave could not .
‘
’
be far distant where s h e with,
w rk d g t h ti di i d o an so n e m e v es
A d th r ugh t h l
n th g ld h utt l guid s
o e oo m e o en S e e .
Fo r the I mmortals are hiding somewhere S till in the woods ;

even now I do not weary searc hi ng fo r them This is .
beautiful ; but it is a sort o f beauty o f which prose is s us

c e t i ble only n o w and then and w hi ch seems more appro
p ,
r i a t e in romance o r in autobiography as in Tb e S to of m
p y y ,
r
He ar t than as the S taple o f the essay

,
.
I n Je ff eries a s essayist it is another phase which is

most prominent He is the observer chronicling patiently
.
, ,
minutely and as experts declare with absolute fidelity the

, , ,
facts o f nature But it seems legitimate to doubt whether

.
this part of Je ffe ri e s s work will long be read N o doubt he

’
.
takes us as Lowell said o f Whi te o f S elborne into the open

, ,
air ; and no doubt that i s a service and o n e which has long ,
kept Whi te s memory green But there is a somethi ng i n

’
.
Wh ite that is not to be found in Je fi e r ie s Bare facts are n o t .
science n o r yet are they literature and in far too many

, ,
passages Jefferies gives mere catalogues o f thi ngs he has seen .
S ometimes he saves himself by interweaving a human interest

with his observation of nature ; not s o much in Ho dge a n d b is
M a s te r where perhaps hi s observations as critic o f society are
,
les s impressive than hi s observations as naturalist but rather in ,

LATTE R H AL F OF T H E 1 9TH. C ENTURY 3 9 1
Tbe A m a te ur Po a cbe r , where

the human element is drawn from
fl
his o wn boyish experiences The boys with their love o f S port
.
,
their experiments with the old in t lock in the garret the ruth
-
,
less burning o f it the single barrel with reduced charge that

,
-
killed the wood pigeon— these are things which give infi ni tely
-
more interest than any but the naturalist can easily take in
the mere catalogue of Wild Life i n S o utbe r n Co un try N o
a .
doubt it is accurate observation ; but what other value does

it possess ? A comparison of such a passage as the follow
ing (o n e o f many) with Our Village shows how greatly the
,
literary value of this part o f the work o f Je ff eries has been

exaggerated :
S uch places close to cultivated land yet undisturbed are
, ,
the best in which to look for wild flowers ; and on the narrow
strip beside the hedge and on the crumbling rubble bank o f the
rough track may be found a greater variety than by searching
the broad acres beyond I n the season the large white bell like
.
-
flowers o f the convolvulus will climb over the hawthorn and ,
the lesser striped kind will creep along the ground Th e pink .
pimpernel hi des o n the very verge o f the corn which presently ,
will be strewn with the beautiful bluebottle flower than ,
whose exquisite hue there is nothi ng more lovely in o ur fields .
fl
Th e great scarlet poppy with the black centre and eggs and ,
butter — curious name for a o w e r — will o f course be there :

, ,
the latter often flourishes o n a hi gh elevation o n the very ,
ridges provided only the plough has been there

, .
He was a reporter o f genius ; and he never got beyond

reporting is the judgment o f He nley in a notice which if it
”
, ,
errs does n o t err o n the S ide o f severity Th e justifi ation

, . c
of the judgment appears in a hundred passages such as that

above quoted .
CHAPTER X II
SOM E E S S AY I S T S O F Y E S T E R D AY
TH E R E remain a few essayists who seem to stand closer to our
o w n time than those who have just been reviewed Ye t in .
some cases the closer proximity is apparent rather than real .
Andrew Lang was born before R L S tevenson and Lafcadio . .
Hearn in the same year with hi m ; whi le George Gissing and

F rancis Thompson b e long to the same decade I t was how .
,
ever later b efore they made their mark in literature and

, ,
later before they made their exit from it .
Andrew Lang ( 1 844—1 9 1 2) w a s a man who seemed to have

all the qualities necessary to make a great essayist Th e .
wider his knowledge the l ess likely is the essayist to exhaust

himself ; and few have surpassed Lang in width o f in formation .
He w a s a classical scholar he had read extensively in hi story

,
and in literature he was at home in anthropology he could

, ,
discuss ghosts and the occult He was moreover a sports

.
, ,
man and was familiar with li fe in the open air as well as in

,
the library I n all his many fiel ds o f intellectual activity

.
h e was surpassed in knowledge it may be by a fe w but o nl y

, , ,
b y a few Tw o o r three had read more widely two o r three

.
,
had penetrated more deeply into the b y ways o f S cottish -
hi story But the S pecialists who occasionally corrected him

.
could rarely make eff ective us e o f their superior knowledge .
An d after all if their knowledge was superior at o n e point

, ,
it was in most cases incomparably inferior o n the whole .
Lang had what they mostly lacked— a n easy and graceful

style N ever perhaps did he S how it to greater advantage
.
, ,
the noblest moral tales in the language— K a r m a ; and the
di sciple o f Herbert S pencer is the interpreter to England o f the
S pirit o f o ld Japan Upon the value o f this last phase o f
.
hi s work Hearn s position in literature and es pecia lly among

’
,
the essayists will finally depend His early journ alistic work
,
.
in America s o far as it can be judged from t he fragments

,
accessible is better forgotten Much o f it seems to have

, .
been unwholesome in the extreme Th e writings whi h were . c
the outcome o f his stay in th e West I ndies are greatly superior .
Two T e a r s in tbc F e n cb We s t I n dies is a collection o f

r
sketches o f li fe in Martinique in whi ch Hearn proves hims e lf

t o be a rarely gifted impressionist
-
An d t his was the part .
he was destined for Like the fil m of the photographer hi s

.
,
mind absorbed whatever was presented to it ; but it c oul d

rarely react upon its materials without spoiling t hem Hence .
Hearn s earliest writings o n Japan are the best N othi ng

’
.
that he afterwards wrote quite equall ed Glim p s es of Unfa m ili a r
ap n where he S imply allowed novel scenes and strange

j a ,
customs to play upon his mind and reproduced in words ,
their eff ect upon hi mself I n the art o f doing thi s Hearn is
.
unsurpass e d There are fine things in the later volumes as

.
well from Out of tbc E as t to j ap n A n A tte m p t a t I n terp r e ta

,
a
ti o n in the latter of whi ch he attempted to sum up all that

,
he had lea rnt from the East But in all there is greater .
self consciousness than in th e first volume ; and with Hearn

-
self consciousness means weaknes s Th e very fact that he

-
.
held the S pencerian phi losophy along with s o mu h that is c
irreconcilable with it is a proof that he had no capacity for

systematic thi nking Th e character o f hi s style with its
.
,
suggestion o f dim vistas and vaguely alluring colour leads to -

,
the same conclusion Th e fact that though he lived for

.
,
many years in Japan and married a Japanese wife he ,
never learnt the Japanese language is itself su fficient ,
proof that though we may go to hi m fo r impressions it woul d

, ,
S O ME E SSAYI STS OF YE STE RDAY 3 3
2
be dangerous to trust his reasoned conclusions beyond t h e

point where we s e e them guaranteed by impressions .
An interesting feature o f the recent intellectual hi story of

En gland is the rise o f the provincial universities and G eorge ,
Gissing ( 1 85 7 1 90 3 ) and F rancis Thompson ( 1 85 9—1 9 07)

-
illustrate it ; for both were alumni o f the Owen s College whic h ’

,
has since developed into the University of Manchester .
Both were men o f tragical lives and both were exquisite,
writers I t is true we think o f Thompson primarily as a

.
po et and o f Gissing as a novelist I n Thompson s case the

.
’
view is right but in Gis s in g s it is very questionable and if

,
’
, ,
wrong is most unjust to Gissing Good as his novels are

,
.
,
they are certainly n o t of a quality to secure hi m a place in the

first rank But those who know Gis s in g s work well know
.
’
, ,
from hi s admirable monograph o n D ickens that he was also ,
a critic o f rare insight ; and above all they know from his ,
P r iva te P ap er s of He n ry Rye cr oft that he w as one of the

,
foremost of recent essayists Hen ry Rye cr of t is fiction o f a

.
sort But it is n o t a novel fo r it has neither plot nor pro

.
, ,
perly S peaking S tory and o nly o n e character unless we count

, , ,
the housekeeper as a second N either has it any unity

.
,
except that whi ch the personality o f Ry e cr o ft who in essentials ,
is Gissing himself imparts , Probably Gissin g began with

.
some more or less defi nite idea o f making the bo ok a unity .
He hi nts as much in the preface where he S peaks o f the papers

,
o f the imaginary Ry e cr o ft :
“
I suspect tha t in his happy ,
leisure there grew upon hi m a desire to write one more bo ok

, ,
a book whi ch S hould be written merely for his o wn satisfaction .
Plai nl y it would have been the best he had it in hi m to do

, :
But he seems never to have attempt e d the arrangement o f

these fragmentary pieces and probably because he co uld not
,
decide upon the form they should take I imagi n e hi m .
shrinking from the thought o f a firs t person volume ; he -
woul d feel it t o o pretentious ; he would bid hi mself wait fo r

3 2
4 TH E E NGLI S H E SSAY AND E S SAYI STS
the day o f riper wisdom An d s o the pen fell from hi s hand
. .
An d so instead o f an unreal u nity we have i n thi s volume

, ,
o n e of the most fascinating collections of dispersed medi ta

tion s in the language ; o n e o f th e most pathetic t o o when ,
we contrast Gis s in g s anxious and frustrated life i n N ew

’ ‘
Grub S treet with the deli cate sensitiveness here revealed

’
,
to the beauty o f s k y and field and flower Alone of all hi s .
bo oks He n ry Ryecr of t w as written for his o wn satisfaction

and it is s o greatly superior to anythi ng else he has written
that we are tempted to S peculate as to what has been lost
through the untoward circumstances which denied him th e
liberty to write always for his o wn satisfaction He himself .
asks what would have been the result upon hi m if he had

a chi ev ed success early and he answers Nothing but good
, , .
We may accept the answer Th e world would have been .
richer had it made Gissing richer He n ry Rye cr of t gives

, .
Gissing a place among that group of essayists o f whom Lamb

is chief a place higher than that o f any recent writer except
,
S tevenso n He who knew s o well the value o f time and who

.
,
has writte n about it with unsurpassed wisdom was co n ,
de m n e d to write fo r money and to write what was not hi s

,
best because his mind was n o t in tune Time is money

says the vulgarest s aw known t o any age o r people Turn .
it round about and you get a precious truth— money is time

,
.
I think o f it o n these dark mist blinded mornings as I come

,
-
,
down to find a glorious fire crackling and leapi n g i n my S tudy .
S uppose I were s o poo r that I could not a fio r d that heartsome

blaze how di ff erent the whole day would be ! Have I not
,
lost many a n d many a day of my life fo r lack o f the material

comfort whi ch was necessary to put my mind in tun e ? Money
is time With money I buy fo r cheer ful use the hours which
.
otherwise would not in any sense be mine ; nay whi ch would ,
make me their miserable bondsman Money is time and .

, ,
heaven be thanked there needs s o little of it fo r this sort o f

,
3 2 6 TH E ENGLI S H E SSAY AND E S SAYI STS
Here wake at what hour I may early or late I lie a m i d
, , ,
gracious still ness Perchance a horse s hoof rings rhythmically

.
’
upon the road ; perhaps a dog barks from a neighbouring

farm ; it may be that there comes the far soft murmur o f a ,
train from the other side o f Exe but these are almost the only
sounds that could force themselves upon my ear A voice .
,
at any time of the day is the rarest thing

, .
But there is the rustle of b ranches in the morning breeze ;

there is the music of a sun n y shower against the window ;
there is the matin song o f birds S everal times lately I have
.
lain wakeful when there sounded the first note o f the earlies t
lark ; it makes me alm ost glad o f my restles s ni ghts Th e .
onl y trouble that touches me in these moments is the thought

o f my long life wasted amid the senseless noises of man s world
’
.
Year after year thi s spot has known the same tranqui llity ;
with ever s o little o f good fortune with ever s o little wisdom
, ,
beyond what was grant ed me I might have blessed my man

,
hood with calm might have made for myself in later life a
,
long retrospect of b owered peace As it is I enjoy with some

.
,
thi ng o f sadness remembering that this melodious silence is

,
but the prelude o f that deeper stilln ess whi ch waits to enfold
us all
”
.
O f a man o f thi s t e m pe rm e n t we learn without surprise that

every instinct of hi s being is anti—democratic ; that he dreads
to thi nk o f what o ur England may become when Demos
rules irresistibly ; that to hi m ,
democracy is f ull o f menace
,
to all the finer hopes o f civilisation ; that though there has

been a day when he called hi mself a socialist he is in reality ,
in every fibre an individualist S o surely must the artist

.
, ,
always be Gis s in g s is no bad defini tion of art : An

.
’
expression satisfying and abiding of the zes t of life

, ,
But .
each man must feel the zest hi m s elf o r fo r hi m it does n o t

,
'
exist An d great part o f the charm of He n y Ry ecr of t is due

. r
to the fact that it is a revelation of the temperament o f a n

S O ME E S SAYI STS OF YE STE RDAY 3 7
2
a rtist There are co n fide n ce s as intima te and almost as

.
delightful as those o f Lamb Th e story of the purchase o f

.
He yn e s Ti bullus and the quarto Gibbon is n o t unworthy to

’
s e t beside the essay o n Old Cb i n a Th e essay in which Gissing .
describes the effect upon hi m o f the ro om hung with prints

after English landscape painters where as a child he used ,
to sleep has not indeed a ll the charm o f B la k es m o o r i n

,
H s bi e but it b elongs to the same order o f writings

r ,
.
With Tbc S up e r a n n ua te d M a there is n o t resemblance but

n ,
contrast Lamb represents hi mself as stunned and over

.
whelmed by his liberation He misses hi s old chains and has

.
,
to go back and visit hi s o ld desk fellows Ry e cr o ft s freedom -

.
’
contrasts with a harder and more grinding S lavery than Lam b s ’
had ever been He chuckles over the sympathy o ff ered to

.
him in hi s supposed loneliness Though the rich humour of .
Lam b is not to be found in Gissing he has enriched the English ,
language with a book whi ch b elongs to the same order as the

immortal book o f Elia .
I f G issing is the most charming hi s fellow coll egian ,

-
Thompson is the most eloquent o f recent essayists Thompson .
has suff ered from injudicious and excessive praise but he is ,
great enough to survive that as well as the depreciation it ,
provokes Th e story o f his life in whi ch ill fortune and good

.
,
are s o strangely mingled (for surel y it w as the best of good

fortune to find such friends as they who sheltered the latter
part o f his career) is t o o well known to need recounting ;
,
but it is not irrelevant to note that the ill fortune which dogged
him so long is exemplified in the hi story of his principal prose
work the essay on S helley as well as in the events o f hi s life
, ,
.
Written in 1 889 it was sent to Tbe D ublin Review but was

, ,
not published there till 1 90 8 after the hapless poet s death ;

,
’
and to heighten the irony it w a s received wi t h a burst of

, ,
praise tha t was more than adequate to even its high merits .
F ull of insight and rich in striking sentences the essay certai nly
is ; and at the close it ris es to a grand burst o f eloquence .
Ye t li ke most of the poems it leaves an impression o f excess

, , .
Th e style is somewhat t o o gorgeous .
Th e bulk o f Thompson s prose is like the essay o n S helley

’
, ,
critical ; and much o f it has that S pecial interest which belo n gs

to t h e utterances o f a poet o n his o wn art But Thompson .
was more tha n an occasional critic ; he was an arti st in pros e

as well as in verse Hi s o wn example helps to establish the
.
“
truth o f hi s saying that it m i ght almost be erected into a
rule that a great poet is if he pleas e also a master o f prose
,
”
, .
His o wn prose always di stinguished though never free from

, ,
faults rises in a small group o f essays nearly t o the highes t

,
excellence Th e faults mi ght even o n a theory Of hi s o wn

.
, ,
be regarded as the last touch that made t h e style supreme .
That remarkable essay Tbe Way of I m perf e cti o n shows how

, ,
paradox may be made n o t merely to titillate the mind but t o ,
reveal truth Thompson gives expression to the f ear that

.
u nles s some voice be raised in timely protest English

art (in it s widest sense) must soon dwindl e t o the extinct ion
S poken by O scar Wilde this
”
of unendurable excellence .
,
would probably have b een merely a scintillation o f wit dyi n g

as soon as born To the graver and deeper mind o f Thompson
.
it has a profound meaning and he wins his reader s assent ,

’
to i ts truth : Thi s pure white light o f S tyle [i e S tyle entirely . .
free from mannerism! is as impossible as undesirable ; it

m u s t be S plintered into c olour b y the refracting me di a o f the
in di vidual mind and humani ty will always prefer the colour

,
.
Theoretically we ought to have no mannerisms ; practically
fl
we cannot help having them and without them sty le would be ,
a v o ur les s — faultily faultless icily regular S plendidly null

,
”
,
.
Thi s is not only true b ut it is a truth whi ch h a s a wi der

,
application than Thompson was here concern e d to S how .
I t holds o f the substance o f thought as well as of the form o f

it s expression . Th hi storian free from prejudice is like the
e
3 3 0 TH E ENGLI S H E S SAY AND E S SAYI STS
unless it be that both are redolent o f opium Th e subject is .
0 0 0 0 0 which both write beauti f ully a n d with a wisdom born ,
o f pain I know h e r s ay s Thompson and praise knowing

.
”
, ,
.
F o o lis hly we S hun this shunless S adness ; fondly we deem o f

her as but huntres s o f men who is tender and the bringer o f ,
tenderness t o those s he visits with her fearful f avours A world .
without joy were more tolerable than a world without sorrow .
Without sadness where were brotherliness ? F o r in joy is no

bro t herliness but o nl y a boon companionship She is the
,
- .
S partan sauce which gives gus to to the remainder viands o f -
life t h e broken meats o f love

,
”
That s what all the blessed .
’
”
e vil s fo r says Browning Probably the Catholic Thompson
’
.
,
wo uld have hesitated to follow Bro wning the whole lengt h ;

yet it seems to be all in a logical concatenation .
Th e most intimate o f all the essays however is that pro , ,
fo un dly thoughtful and penetrating one entitled He a ltb a n d

Ho li n es s , A S tudy of tbc Re la ti o ns be twee n B r o tber As s tbe
B o dy an d Here again we find the ascetic

b is Ride r tbe S o ul .
and mystic Thompson coming singul arly near to Bro wning .
L e t us n o t al w a ys s ay ,
p
S it e fl ht d y
of t hi s es o- a
—I st d h d gi
r o ve , m a e ea . a n ed gr o un d u p on th e w h o le !
A t h b i d wi gs
s e rd si g n an n s ,
L t u
e y All g d thi g
s cr , oo n s
A re ou ul h lp fl
rs , n o r s o e s es h m o r e , n o w, th an fl es h h elps so ul !
Asceticism , Thompson holds is wise and indeed necessary ; ,
b ut Brother As s has rights too and at times Brother AS S has ,
been unmercifully ridden Wise asceticism is that whi ch .
will secure health in the deepest sense the health o f both b ody ,
and soul the health whi ch is holiness An d such asceticism

, .
will vary with time and circumstance Th e weak dastardly .

,
—
and selfish body of to day needs an asceticism never more
-
”
,
— but it must not be the asceticism whi ch the robuster ,
undegenerate body of o ld bore Thi s essay is clearly the .

S O ME E S SAYI STS O F YE STE RDAY 33 1
product o f the pen whi ch always inscribed a cross on the top

o f the page before it wrote the poem or the essay More than .
a nythi ng else he has written in prose it is a revelation o f the ,
s oul o f Thompson .
No essayist who has passed away in recent years can rival

t hese three in importance There have been several who
.
have shown high gifts— for example Hubert Bland o f the ,
S u day Cbr o n i cle

n But Bland provides the word whi c h
.
indicates hi s o wn limitation He lacks fundamentality

.
”
,
the somethi ng whi ch makes what is written interesting not

o nly for the time but for a later generation Mary E Cole . .
ridge however ( 1 861

,
would deserve at least a passing
n otice were it o nly fo r the illustration she a ff ords o f that
e xtraordi nary power to transmit the literary faculty whi ch the

Coleridge f amily exhibits in a degree unrivalled by any other .
S h e deserves notice for her o wn merits also That S h e .
inherited the poetic gift her little volume of verses proves ; and
indeed w e s e e it in her prose as well I n thi s respect it is true
.
, ,
s h e stands immeasurably below not merely the great poet of

,
her name but his s o n Hartley as well But s h e had other

, .
gifts less great than this yet valuable to the essayist in which
, , ,
s h e surpassed them S h e had humour and she had lightness

.
,
o f touch These qualities are well blended in the papers

.
On N o is e s M o r e Wo r lds tba n On e and Tr a ve lle r s Ta le s

’
.
, ,
Richard Middleton who died recently at the age o f twenty

,
nine demands notice o n another score Tbe Day befo r e

,
.
Ye s te r day is a charming volume o f essays belonging to that

c lass of books for children o r about chi ldren for which the last
two generations have been distinguished beyond all other

p eriods since that indefinite time when the fairy tales and the
,
n ursery S tories o f giant killers were invented

-
I t is the work .
O f a man who retained the heart o f childhood till his death ,
and whose poetic imagin ation kept open fo r hi m a world that

c loses for the great majority o f Olympians ahn o s t before
332 THE ENGLI S H E SSAY AND E S SAYI STS
they have become Olympian Th e effect o f the essays is .
cumul ative ; while all are pleasing there is har dl y o n e o f such ,
merit as to make it memorable in itself B ut whoever reads .
the volume will find that he has gained an insight into the
imaginative life of children such as is hardl y to be obtained
elsewhere Thus Middleton s essays have a place o f their
.
’
o wn ,
where they have scarcely a rival except the books of ,
Mr K enneth G rahame Th e point o f view is the child s to

. .
’
,
whom the Olympian is a tiresome being who is always inter ,
f e r in g with that whi ch he does n o t understand Even o n the .
rare occasions when Middleton steps as it were outside and , , ,
takes up the position o f the critic his sym pathy is with the ,
child ; as is clear from the closing sentences o f the essay On

Cb ildr e n
’
s Gar de n s
When a child has wrought a fine morning s havoc in its ’
li ttle patch of ground it has added it may be an ocean it may ,
b e only a couple of stars to t h e kingdom o f imagination whi ch

we may no longer s e e I t only needs a sunny hour o r two a
.
,
trowel and a pair o f dirty hands to change a few S qu are yards

,
‘
o f earth into a world An d the child may be considered for

.
t un a t e in being able to express itself in terms o f dust Our .
books and pictures cumber the earth o ur palaces S trike the ,
skies and yet it is o ur common tragedy that we have n o t found

,
expression ; whi le down the garden behind the lil ac bushes at -
this very moment Milton may have developed Lycidas into

a S ticky marsh and S hakespeare may have compressed Haml et
,
into a mud pie Th e works o f the children end as they begin

-
.
in dust ; but we cannot pretend that ours are more permanent ”

.
That imaginative sympathy not critical whi ch is the S pecial , ,
characteristic o f these essays may be illustrated from almost

any o f them taken at random ; but it is perhaps specially
marked in Tbe M agi c P o o l A Rep e r to ry Tbe a tr e and Tbc Wo o l
, ,
Ga tber e r Th e last nam ed deals with the dreamer o f mature

.
-
years who is viewed with pitying contempt by the Olympians

, ,
3 3 4 T H E ENGLI S H E S SAY AN D E S SAYI STS
‘
Wi ck low and In Wes t

as well as hi s dramas have fin e
K er ry , ,
literary and even poetic qualities But to claim that he is .
almost if not quite the peer of th e greatest is to S how want

, , ,
o f critical balance What is true is that S ynge was a

.
gifted man and that nearly all he h as written h a s the authentic

,
stamp o f genius He was delicately sensitive He t o o as

. .
,
well as Hearn received impressions as surely as the photo

,
r a h e r s plate and he had the specially li terary gift o f render

’
g p ,
ing those irn pr e s s io n s intelli gible to others who themselves

could receive them only imperfectly if at all He S eldom .
makes a description but he does better he gives the nearest

, ,
literary e q uivalent to an instantaneous photograph— but that

phrase is unjust to him fo r the S pecial characteristic of hi s
,
papers is the something of S ynge hi mself which they contain .
Take for illustration a sentence from I n Wes t K er ry : Th e

procession along the olive bogs between the mountains and ,
the s e a o n this grey day o f autumn seemed to wring me with

, ,
the pang o f emotion o n e meets everywhere in I reland— an

em otion that is partly local and patriotic and partly a S hare ,
o f the desolation that is mixed everywhere with the supreme

”
beauty o f th e world Ho w few and simple are the touches
.
of description— the olive bogs the grey day the desolation , , ,
and yet how surely they carry the impression he wished to

convey An d then the glimpse of the poetic soul whi ch has
.
felt this and interpreted it for us I f we turn again to I n .
Wi ck lo w we find in Tbc Opp r es s io n of tbc Hills the same keen

,
feeling fo r nature conveyed with the minimum o f description ,
co n veyed in a phrase o r two and with it the same sense o f t h e

,
compa ni onshi p o f a poet s soul : N ear these cottages little

’
b ands of half naked children fill ed with t h e excitement of

-
,
evening were running and screaming over the bogs where the
, ,
heather was purple already giving me the strained feeling of

,
regret o n e has s o often in these places when there is rain in the

air.
”
I n both there is manifest that sym pathy with man whi ch
S O ME E SSAYI STS OF YESTE RDAY 335
is the essence of all truly poetic love o f nature is in fact the , , ,
essence of the difference between the poet s love o f nature and

’
that of t h man o f science S ynge can throw a world of pathos

e .
into a phrase N o o n e else touches so surely as he the sadness

.
of I reland Tbc Pe op le of tbc Gle n s is full o f pathos He

: .
S peaks o f the e motions o f the night and in them hi s high

,
strung nature finds the secret o f o n phase of the sadness o f his

e
countrymen : Among these emotions o f the night one cannot

wonder that the madhouse is S o often named in Wicklow ”
.
I t is o n e o f the three S hadowy countries that are never for

gotten in Wicklow— America (their El Dorado) the Union ,
and the Madhouse ”

There is something cognate in Mr
. .
fl
F ilson Young s I r ela n d a t tbc Cr o s s Ro a ds but it would be
’
-
,
di i cult t o find a parallel elsewhere .
Th e note is a s d one but sorrow rather than m irth has in

a ,
all ages b egotten great literature Th e pencil o f the Holy

.
fl
Ghost ,
”
says Bacon hath laboured more in descri b ing the
,
”
a l ic t io n s o f o b than the felicities o f S olomon
J .
338 T H E ENGLI S H E S S AY AND E S SAYI STS
C AM B R ID G R O 1 4 3 E, i 80 i 2 0 1 f 2 1 7 22 5 6
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C ha r ac te r of a Tr i m m e r D AN IE L T H O M A S 8 , ,
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v e n an , r , 93
Ch a r a cte r s o f S ha k e s pe a r e s la P y s, D id H u 299
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G as co ne , eo r e, H e ar n L f di 3 3 3 3 334
a ca o 20 , 21- 2
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, o e , 2
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, eo e, 1 - 2,
3 40 THE ENGLI S H E S S AY '
AND E S SAYI STS
H ill A a o n 1 3 0
, r , K e r , W P , uo t e 94 . . q d ,
H o b b es T h o m as 9 3 g
Ki n s ley h ar les , 3 0 2 - 3 0 3 C
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7 2 82 1 0 6 1 1 7 1 5 6 1 66 1 7 1 f
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6 9 ft ; t h p
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hi s e v el a t i o n , r
222 f .
, 2 27 o f s e l f 2 3 6 fi ; h is h um o u 238 . r ,
y y
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I n di ca to r The 1 6 8 f 1 7 2 L a s t L e a ve s 286
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10 1,
I r en e, 69 103 ; 1 04
L e tter to a D
i s s e n te r A , 9 0
J AM E SI 2 Le tte r to S i r Wi lli a m Wi n dha m ,
j a pa n A n A tte m pt at I n te r pr e ta 1 60
ti o n , 3 2 2 L e ttr e s Pe r s a n e s 1 4 9 ,
Je fi e r ie s R ic h ard 3 1 7 3 1 9 L i be r a l Th e 1 6 8
Lin c o ln A b rah a m 2 5 2
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2 0 1 -2 0 5 , 2 06 , 20 8 f . , 211, 222, L i ttle R e vi e w The 1 0 2 , ,
Lo c k e J o h n 1 f
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34 2 T H E ENGLI S H E SSAY AND E SSAYISTS
Re tr o s pe cti ve R e vi e w The
fl 2 54 S o ut h e y R o b e rt 20 1 , 21 i 2 14,
-
, , , ,
Re vi e w of the A a i r s of F r a n ce , 238
99 fi . S pe cta t o r , The , 99 f 1 02 fi
’
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TH E E N GLIS H E S SA Y

By Pr o fes so r F E S C HE LLI N G, D Li8

E NG L I SH P H I LO S O PH ERS AND S CH OOLS

By Pro fes s o r JA ME S S ar a , MA , U ni ver s i t y

By Pr o fes s o r RI C HA R D LO DGE Uni ver s i ty

IT is hoped that i n most respect s thi s volume o n Tbc Englis b

a word o f explanatio n may perha ps be n ecessary There is .

i n English a great ma s s o f literary criticism o f whi ch mu ch ,

the greater part is i n the form o f essays I f thes e critical .

essays ha d been here treated in accorda nce with their in

tha n has been given to them But i n . Cba rm el: of Euglis b

I n the pr ese n t volume therefore my purpose has bee n to

touch upon the subj ect as lightly a s the nature o f my o wn task

criticism has aided i n the developme n t o f the essay a n d ,

sometimes reference to an essayist s critical work has bee n’

necessary to round o ff a gener al estimate o f him I t is clear .

fo r exa mple that Matthew Arnold could not be ignored i n a

book professing to discuss the English Essayists ; a n d it is

ever has been made to di scuss hi s critical principles in full

Thi s then is the explanation i f I seem to ha ve said t o o little

about the critics I f I have said t o o much it is from failure

to strike the just mean between f ull discussion and total

THE A H O RIS T I C E SSAYIS T S

THE C HARA C T ER W RI T ERS

M IS C E ANE O U S E SSAYIS T S O F T HE S E V EN T EEN T H C N

THE E ARL Y M A GAZ INES O F T HE N INE T EEN T H C EN TU RY

THE L A TT ER H A F O F T HE N INE T EEN T H CEN TU RY

WHAT isan essay ? Perhaps the notions most widely pre

a composition comparatively short and second that it is , ,

somethi ng incomplete and unsystematic Th e latter clearly .

w as Johnson s conception and he was n o t only a great le xi co

grapher but himself a notable essayist He deﬁnes an essay

to Jae a loose sally o f the mind an irregul ar indigested , ,

E nglis h D i cti o n ary combines the two conceptions I ts de .

ﬁn it io n runs thus A compositio n Of moderate length o n any

ing want o f ﬁnish an irregul ar indigested piece

vague and Johnson s is essentially negative—a sure Sign of

di ffi c ul ty But vague as they are these deﬁnitions are too

narrow and precise to embrace all essays s o called I f we co n -

c e iv e the essay t o be short and incomplete on the other hand ,

we certai nl y conceive the treatise to be lengthy and systematic .

But while Hume writes A Tr e a tis e of H um an Na tur e Locke ,

writes An Es s ay co n cer n i g Hum a n Un de r s tan ding ; and the

latter work attempts as seriously as the former to be systematic ,

whi le it is the longer o f the two .

At least it may be thought the essay is a species of prose

between prose and verse ; and not o nl y do we ﬁnd in the

in th nineteenth we ﬁnd a metrical Es s ay o n M in d I ndeed

the word is actually older in English as the name of a co m

P o es ie preceded Bacon s Es s ays ’

While therefore we know fairly well what to expect O f a

poem call ed a lyric and even of one called an epic or a tragedy

we have hardly the vaguest idea o f what we shall ﬁ n d in a

is partly inherent inthe nature o f the thi ng

have led to the vague name instead Of one

An d the vaguenes s became more vague by the Opera

enclosures stray cattle found their way t o the unfenced

common s o the strays o f litera t ure have tended towards the

ill de ﬁn e d plot o f the essay

A t e m ea n s little o r nothi ng just because it

means anything I f we call Locke s great work and Lamb s

di ssertation o n roast pig alike es says we have in e ff ect emptied ,

the word of content Apparently there is no subj ect from t h

may not be dealt with in an essay N either in respect of .