Then shake from sleeves and pockets their broad-pieces and lockets, Fools, your doublets shone with gold, and your hearts were gay and bold, "And She of the Seven hills shall mourn her children's ills, And tremble when she thinks on the edge of England's sword; And the Kings of earth in fear, shall shudder when they hear What the hand of God hath wrought for the Houses and the Word." Looking back on older times, Macaulay saw Horatius halting on one knee, while comrades hacked down the bridge on which depended the safety of Rome. By a few wondrous lines are shown "the dauntless three" withstanding the advance of the Etrurian warriors and "false Sextus, who wrought the deed of shame." No one but Macaulay had power to bring us into the crowd,-fierce descendants of the She-wolf's step-son,- -as they gathered around the minstrel who sings that noblest of the four Lays, or "the Battle of Lake Regillus. If we less feel his power in the sad tale of "Virginia," saved from the insult of Appius Claudius, we recognize the fiery inspiration again in "the Prophecy of Capys," that tells the punishment of Proud Tarentum for scorn to Rome, and how, to cleanse the soil from the robe, it was washed in blood. It is not by ordinary poetic beauty, but by their impetuous rapidity and vigour, that these Lays have so enchained attention. The classical learning which speaks in them is not pedantically obtruded. They have the ease of native-ballads, conjoined to those strangely thrilling associations of scholarship which Milton so well understood. By a few names of places and men-with an allusion to some quality or feature particularised as if by chance-he recals to the student's mind a whole volume of ideas. The rapidity of motion in the incidents, and in the style of verse, compels the reader to become almost a singer in perusal. The ferocious pleasure in battle, the class antagonisms, the love of country, the scorn of danger and of cowardly indecision, are all duly remembered and displayed, so that we feel ourselves carried into the tumult of that time, and participating in the emotions which animated the men of old. Each line of the four Lays glowingly reveals Roman manners and Roman traditions. We are told that they were written in the War Office. It may be true; they have assuredly done much to retain the fervour of martial spirit in our own warriors, and will long continue to do so. We are glad of this result for many reasons, chiefly, because we have always held it to be true that the only way for Britain to possess peace, is by remaining ready for war, lest it should be forced upon her when unprepared. Except his own "Armada," and Campbell's "Battle of the Baltic," we have scarcely any thing so warlike and exciting as the Lay of "Horatius." It ends in simple homely music :— "For in the nights of winter, "When the oldest cask is opened, When the chestnuts glow in the embers, Around the firebrands close; "When the goodman mends his armour, Goes flashing through the loom; With weeping and with laughter How well Horatius kept the bridge Not many of our recent poets have retained, as Macaulay and Walter Savage Landor have done, the simplicity of manly utterance, so as to command the sympathy of robust natures. Verse-making has, in too many hands, become an effeminacy. But in Macaulay there is the ring of true metal-a glow of the genuine Homeric spirit, and that abrupt directness which forces its way straight to the native instincts of our race. We hear his voice and we are thrilled whilst we listen, as by the awakening summons of a trumpet. In the Preface to the English collection of his "Essays Contributed to the Edinburgh Review," Macaulay spoke slightingly of them as a whole, and particularly of the one on "Milton." 11 The public has refused to confirm this verdict of depreciation. Faults, almost in separable from hasty composition are visible, it is true, but we are Νο He says:-"The author of these Essays is so sensible of their defects, that he has repeatedly refused to let them appear in a form which might seem to indicate that he thought them worthy of a permanent place in English literature. Nor would he now give his consent to the republication of pieces so imperfect, if, by withholding his consent, he could make republication impossible. attempt has been made to remodel any of the pieces which are contained in this volume. Even the criticism on Milton, which was written when the author was fresh from college, and which contains scarcely a paragraph such as his matured judgment approves, still remains overloaded with gaudy and ungraceful ornament. The blemishes which have been removed were, for the most part, blemishes caused by unavoidable haste. The author has sometimes, like other contributors to periodical works, been under the necessity of writing at a distance from all books and from all advisers: of trusting to his memory for facts, dates, and questions; and of sending manuscripts to the press without reading them over. What he has composed thus rapidly, has often been as rapidly printed." unwilling to dispense with any of the Essays. Valuable are those on Clive, Bunyan, Horace Walpole, Byron, the Comic Dramatists of the Restoration, Chatham, Addison, and Warren Hastings: so are all that, with "Hampden" and the "Constitutional History," discuss the movement of the Civil War. His description of the Puritans in "Milton," was seldom equalled even by himself. Manfully he reproved the capricious idolatry, and intemperate abuse which Lord Byron encountered from the public. His summary of what caused the licentiousness in literature after the Restoration, deserves earnest attention, and shows the ease and playfulness of style attained by Macaulay in the sixteen years after he wrote on Milton (1825). We see in all his earliest papers, the "Athenian Revels," the "Fragments of a Roman Tale," the "Criticisms on the Principal Italian Writers;"-Dante and Petrarch-a sufficient evidence of classical learning, and in his paper on "The Long Parliament," (all published in 1823-4), the future historian can be plainly recognised. Early he felt his power; early he thought and spoke as a man who knew the attention of his fellow citizens would follow his judgment. We wish to learn more, from intimate acquaintances, concerning his college life. Yet we draw many inferences, with security, from his writings and his after-course in Parliament. That he may not have Son of Zachary Macaulay, the Philanthropist and Abolitionist, Thomas Babington Macaulay from boyhood may have looked towards public life. He was born in 1800, and, after private instruction at home, in his eighteenth year went to Trinity College, Cambridge. He distinguished himself there by the combination of many qualities. His scholarship gained him Academic honours, and he was regarded as one of the most brilliant debaters in the Cambridge Union, where W. M. Praed was often pitted against him. Literary successes increased his reputation. Some of his opinions regarding the West Indian Slavery aroused attention, and were discussed, from different points of view, by the Quarterly and the Edinburgh Reviews. In the latter, he made his appearance in 1825, by his Essay on "Milton." Through the interest of Lord Lansdowne, Macaulay entered Parliament as Member for Calne, and engaged in the Reform Bill discussion. On the passing of the Bill, he was returned for Leeds, and soon afterwards was made a Member of the Supreme Council of Calcutta. During his voyage to India he wrote his Essay on Bacon. The long calm sea-rest gave him an opportunity for meditation, which he knew to be invaluable. He returned to Britain in 1838, enriched by his short sojourn, although his exertions were not then found to have benefited India. Probably the complications of policy there obstructed even wiser measures. Next year he was returned Member for Edinburgh. As Secretary of War he took office under the Melbourne administration, and went out with the Whigs. In the house he secured attention, despite the sneers of some, that his oratory did not gain votes. His speech on the Maynooth Grant, in 1845, excited anger in Edinburgh. Two years later he was rejected in the Election. In the autumn of 1848, the two first volumes of his "History" were published. In 1852 he was again elected for Edinburgh. This connection closed in 1856; but he retained interest in our Scottish Metropolis, and was President of the Philosophical Institution until his death, December 1859. He was born at Rothley Temple, Leicestershire, remained unmarried, and his recently acquired title, Baron Macaulay, died with him. in The last honour that his country could pay to one who had wrought so well many departments of literature, was the public interment in Westminster Abbey. In solemn repose, he lies in Poets' Corner, near the monument of AddiBon, and the dust of Chaucer, Spenser, Beaumont, and Campbell. Bravely he earned his position in life and burial, true to his motto, Dulce Periculum. No more venerated shrine could be won than that which holds the tomb of Macaulay. been loved so generally and so fondly as his brilliant antagonist, Mackworth Praed, we can readily believe. Macaulay early forbade familiarity, by a chill of reserve, if not of haughtiness. He was unwilling to conciliate, and stubborn to retain position. We neither blame nor envy him. Steep and rocky are the paths to public eminence. The blows given and received in political conflicts task the sinews, more than the light fencing of ordinary literature. His training for the Parliamentary arena was no child's play. He purchased his triumphant oratory at a high price, for he had disciplined himself since boyhood, and, perhaps, scarcely needed the authoritative advice of Henry Brougham for his direction. We are not called at present to examine the political career of Macaulay; his labours as a statesman, at an important transition period. His knowledge of Indian affairs, no doubt, was largely increased by his residence in the land to which he refers so well in his papers on Clive and Warren Hastings. But he is not believed to have done much for practical advantage of those misgoverned provinces. On all this we suspend judgment. He did not escape blame for what at times appeared inconstancy to colleagues, but we are inclined to believe that his devotion to certain objects was invariable. Things changed around him, fresh combinations were formed, but not many of the ideas which he accepted in early life were relinquished before the end. His figure towers a firm granite mass above the shifting sands of politicians. He prized independence of action. Those who nominally won his support, knew that they could only retain him on a few broad principles. For many of their petty machinations he showed open scorn, for others a cold tolerance. We may regret that so much strength was sometimes wasted in debate, but we respect the man who gave his every moment to duties that promised to benefit his country. Good men and true there still are, and ever will be, while England retains her nationality, and of these not many will refuse to look back with gratitude towards Macaulay; even as he himself looked back to a few others who, in their several ways, fought valiantly of old with sword, with pen, and voice, for Civil and Religious Liberty. NIRGENDS COLLEGE, January 1860. HER PORTRAIT. The smile has faded from thy cheek: That for no earthly home doth seek. And voices in the sea-waves' moan. KARL. EDINBURGH. In stillest watches of the night More dearly-loved-more beauteous thou, And some might worship, some might chide:- J. W. E. ON NEW YEAR'S EVE, TO "THE OLD BACHELOR OF THE OLD SCOTTISH VILLAGE." Give thanks, give thanks! O Bachelor brave, By the lonely hearth this New Year's eve, That you hold yourself free, and no partner crave, As she on her way, he on his must go; For seldom is won the prize that first Since life can be never the same again Our marble palace must needs decay, And repair it with paltry brick? You have lost the blessing which might have stayed, You have memories left of an unsoiled heart, To dreamers like us, life still doth shew |