TH E
E N GLIS H
AND
E S SA Y
E S S A Y I S TS
T/z e Cb a r m els of 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
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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
E NGL I S H
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Un i vers i t y o f Glas go w
By E R
T HE
N ES
T a
s
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S C HE LLI N G,
o f Pen ns y lvani a
y
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E N G L I SH D RA MA
By Pr o fes so r F E
Un iv er s i t
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LY R IC PO ETRY
E N GL I S H
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D Li8
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E NG L I SH P H I LO S O PH ERS A N D 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 M A Uni ver s ity
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,
THE
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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 s Co lle ge , Lam pe t er
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TH E E N
G L I SH NO V E L
By P f
y
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GE O R GE
S u ur s n v n v , D Li tt ,
o f E din b u
r gh
r o es s o r
Un i v er s i t
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E NG L I SH E L E G I AC D I D ACTI C
RE L I G IOU S PO ETRY
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AND
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D Li t t , De an o f N or m
R ONAL D B u m s , M A
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ch ,
an d
the
Re v
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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
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H U GH
WA L K E R
,
5
M A LL D
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LO N D O N
AND
M
J
D ENT
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SO N S
NEW Y O R K : E
P
DUTT O N
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T O RO N T O
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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
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18
1 9 1 4.
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C O N TE N T S
C
HAP
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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
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
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
THE L A TT ER H A F O F T HE N INE T EEN T H CEN TU RY
S O M E E SSAYIS T S O F Y ES T ER D AY
I
P
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LL
E
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I ND Ex
EN G LIS H
T HE
E S SA Y
A ND
E S S A Y I ST S
INTRODUCTI ON
WHAT is an 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
A compositio n Of moderate length o n any
fin it io n runs thus
particular subj ect o r branch of a subj ect ; originally imply
b ut
ing want o f finish an irregul ar indigested piece
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
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
A
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TH E E NGLI SH E S S AY AND E SS AY I S T S
2
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
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
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want of system
have led to t he a dopggn o f the vague name instead Of one
re
ci m
igh t also seem more preten
ii it wag m
w
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
t e m ea n s little o r nothi ng just because it
A
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
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
I t is the literary fo o f
p
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
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
short
for
it
is
necessary
to
rule
a r a t iv el
o ut the Es s a
on
c
(
y
y
p
cer n i n
g Hum a n Un de r s ta n di n g) and in being more o r les s
incomplete This incompleteness may arise either from
treating a subj ect only in outli n e o r from handling o nly a
branch o r division o f some greater theme The theme its elf
may be in any department o f human thought ; it may be
scientific o r phi losophic hi storical or critical S uch essays
do not strictly belong to a separate literary form ; the historical
essay is an incomplete hi story the philosophi cal essay might
expand i n to a treatise But besides essays in t hi s looser sense
there are essays more strictly s o called in whi ch w e do detect
a special literary form Lamb s essays are the best examples
in English as Montaigne s are in F rench S uch essays co uld
under n o circumstances expand into treatises ; they are com
l
e 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
”
essay he says as a literary form resembles the lyric in s o
far as it is m oulded by some central mood— whimsical serious
or satirical Give the mood and the essay from the first
sentence to the last grows around it as the cocoon gro ws
”
”
around t h e silkworm
he says further
Th e essayist
does n o t usually appear early in the literary hi story o f a
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4
TH E E NGLI SH E S S AY AND E SS AY I S T S
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
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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 O F T H E E S S AY
WH I LE there is doubt as to the precise definition o f an essay
,
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
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
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
none F urther the very nature o f verse implies la w and t h
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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TH E E NGLI SH E S S AY AND E S S AY I S T S
6
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
Here literary rub b ish was
b the vice o f Elizabethan prose
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
imperatively demanded F o r the last century the
m ent S
tendency o f criticism though there are honourable exceptions
h a s b een towards a most uncritical laudation Of everything
I t is easy to praise even the poetry amiss and
Eliza b ethan
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
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
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
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
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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
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
I ts precise date has n o t been determined but it is
bo n ds
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
sympathy as well as knowledge But Mr G S Go rdon
has shown that charactery was already far more firm l y
rooted in English than we should infer from such slight
remains as these Th e passage he quotes from Wilson s A t
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
d th Cl
i s
tu
E gli h L i t
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TH E E NGLI SH E SS AY AND E S S AY I S T S
8
became popular i n the reign O f James but that it was
not already popular under his predecessor The explanation
n o doubt lay in the fact that the necessary instrument was
More even than other artists in prose the
n o t yet forged
c haracter writer needs a style concise pointed and lucid ; and
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
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
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
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
b
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1
c
o
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l
o
Ab
S
whi ch he dedicated
( 5 54
f
4)
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
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
like o f poets is great : He that goes to s e a must smell o f the
a ct e r s
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TH E E NGLI SH E S S AY AND E S S AY I S T S
10
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
t stoop to the abuse i n which Gosson and Lodge alike revel
Though it is fairly clear that the Ap o logy is an answer to Tb
S b l f A bus e no mention is ever made f the latter Though
an apology it is written in a strain f eulogy s o lofty as to
S how that S idney believed poetry to need hardly more
apology than in the opinion f G eorge I I I did the Bible
itself Th 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
writes about poetry F r from pleading that it is excusa b le
I t is superior alike to philo
S idney asserts its pre eminence
S ophy and to hi story I n respect f the true end o f all know
ledge i t is superior to every one o f the sciences
I n hi s judgments S pecial subj ects S idney is often happy
Th 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
ondemnation f the neglect f the unities in the English
drama and o f the intermixture of tragedy with comedy shows
that S idney had no more of the prophetic faculty than other
ritics Within a f 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 Ap o l gy f o P o e t y is written with fervour and strength
and is often felicitously expressed but the style is u
ertain and unformed Parentheses are too frequent and
relative clauses hang n e upon another S uch a period as
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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
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
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
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
hath spared
Agrippa has not only condemned poetry but
”
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
o f writing if they would take as much pains for their poor
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T H E E NGLI SH E SS AY AND E SS AY I S T S
12
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
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
But this w a s merely an o fis ho o t of t he
Ap o logy f o r P o e t y
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
tracts have even less of literary merit than those which wer
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
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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
”
Th controversy shaded
a much wiser ma n had been able
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 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
a farrago o f various
essa y in Tbe A a t m y of A bs u dity
matters presented with a great parade f learning ; in P ie ce
P e iles s b is S upplic tio t tbc D evil
where in a style
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
nd m i
ul us As t o l gi c l P g o s ti ti
f tb is 2 e ar of o u
a piece Of excellent fooling o f the sort
Lo d Go d
indicated by the F OO1 in Le r
e
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,
’
a
r
n
a
n
,
e
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n
,
r
o
o
a
nn
n
r
o
,
,
on
a
r ac
r
o
o
a
ro
n
,
”
on o
ca
r
r
a
es t h ti wh li t
Th t g i g sh ll b u d w it h f t
Th e n c o m
a
e
o n
a
m e,
e
v es
o
se
ee
o s ee
’
t,
”
.
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
”
Th e honey and the aconite are
aconite to thy enemies
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
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1
4
T H E E NGLI SH E SS AY AND E S S AY I S T S
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
R abelaisian that is not to be found in S wift
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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 E S S AY I S T S
a fe w o f N ash s tracts may fairly be classed as
essays it is obvious that he did n ot conceive himself to be
initiating a n e w fashion of writing No r did he in fact do
N either did the critics S till less can the forerunners
so
o f the character wr i ters be described as the founders o f the
essay : they are too unformed and non literary D ekker the
successor of N ash and his superior comes chronologically
after Bacon Th e latter consequently is the first o f English
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 o f essays and how he regarded these products
O f his pen
O bviously the general conception was b orrowed
from Montaigne whose essays had appeared seventeen years
before the earliest o f Bacon s r B a co n felt at once that the
form was suitable to receive many thoughts o f his own mind
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
A LT H O U G H
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hi
surpassed
m in depth of insight into subj ects which
p
he had S pecially studied fe w in any age have rivalled him in
tt r
the ca a
re nant thoughts o n almost any theme
We may accept the judgment 0 experts t at o k wa s a
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
o r an e s
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TH E E NGLI SH E S S AY AND E SS AY I S T S
16
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
treasures of hi s mind he f f f o b e a
m
and he willin I wasted none o f them
h he left proves hi s extraordi nary
Th e mass o f papers c
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
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
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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)
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TH E E NGLI SH E S S AY AND E S S AY I S T S
18
A dva n ce m e n t of Le a r n in g was publi shed i n
If therefore
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 f the
I
t
is
probably
to
be
found
in
a
change
i
n
no n
h
no m
p
Bacon s conception as to the function and the possibilities o f
J the essay form
I n the early
sentences are nearly
crisp sententious There are few connectives
all short
Each sentence st ands b y itself the co n centrated expres sion
of weighty thought But this is not be 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
f it s unfinished con di tion
It
o n i t s face the visible marks
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
rs 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 s are something 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
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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
we Observe indeed precisely the contrast which
of
points out Bacon finds room fo r conjunctions and
M
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
e r it
doth
best
discover
vice
but
adversity
doth
best
discover
y
p
“
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
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TH E E NGLI SH E SS AY
20
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
Fo r
w a y to the development o f a n e w S tyle o f English prose
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
h
e subj ect is still
i
T
c
t
o n of t h e e s s a y is still preserved
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
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
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
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T H 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
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TH E E NGLI SH ES S AY AN D E SS AY I S T S
22
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
”
I t is not an elevated o r a n
4 feign i f there be no remedy
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
”
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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
r a v in
r disabling the better deserver
o
Wa s ever moralist
g
p
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
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
“
A
light to the un der s t anding aid in the a fiair s o f life
”
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
,
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a
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TH E E NGLI SH E S S AY AND E S S AY I S T S
24
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
”
“
and b est servants though he adds that they are not
”
Evidently Bacon was both d
always the best subj ects
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
moral
principles
was
largely
prudential
and
was
destitute
Of
y
fervour I t had its root in the understanding ; the religion
Bacon s de
n d martyrs has its root in the heart
o f saints a
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
flames Th essay Of Un ity of Religio n is the work o f a
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
—
f
ost
remarkable
all
perhaps
is
the
essay
o
O
a
t
b
remark
D
e
M
f
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,
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v
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T H E E NGLI SH E SS AY AND E SS AY I S T S
26
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
“
is the denu n ciation o f the b ase and hasty
o f huma ni ty
”
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
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
.
,
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’
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r
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,
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T H E AP H O R I S T I C E S S AY I S T S
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
N evertheless there is not o n e
o f the discussion o f colonies
o f these essays which does not S how that Bacon had m a s t e r e d V
some principle whi ch probably no contemporary had grasped
Th e remark for example that
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
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 e t that style upon the road which it travelled
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 tica l P o lity was published in the same
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 o f elevation but ill adapt e d
to the pedestrian passages which must li n k such themes and
.
,
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m
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TH E E NGLI SH E S S AY AND E S S AY I S T S
28
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
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
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
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
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T H E AP H O R I S T I C E SS AY I S T S
and Antonio s letter in the scene
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
Johnson too k a S pecial
I m p e rfe ct Ofi er s
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
of Montaigne
m
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
Tb e M er cb an t of Ve n i ce ,
’
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a
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4
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,
,
TH E E NGLI SH E S S AY AND E SS AY I S T S
0
3
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
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
F rom the ethi cal point
An d again :
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
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
He
is
wro
n
g
rather
in
his
needless
y
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
f J
s ri gi al it y i ad ir b ly de lt with in
Th qu t i
C t l in
editi f D i
i
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-
,
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’
l
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’
,
.
1
e
as e a
es
’
s
on
o
on o
o nso n
’
o
s co ve r e s .
n
s
m
a
a
THE AP H O R I S T I C
E SS AY I S T S
1
3
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
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,
’
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’
’
,
’
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.
.
,
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
,
THE E NGLI SH
2
3
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
and bad men ; and the powerf ul discussion o f the love of
o n e who reads these notes wi t h care w ill de n y
money
N
o
4
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
,
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TH E E NGLI SH E SS AY AN D E S S AY I S T S
34
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
“
its soundness o f judgment its accuracy o f
S winburne for
”
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
It
co
I
n
a
degree
riv
allin
g
w
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
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
”
Th e self taught man if he be proud o f his tuition
course
,
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Q W
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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
”
This mastery Of e pi
by himself had a fool for his master
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
l ess formal than the Dis co ver ies But it is the concentrated
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T H E E NGLI SH E SS AY AND E S S AY I S T S
36
essence of immense learning and a life of thought I t is
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
”
An d in speaking o f religion to the question
S tate pleases
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
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T H E AP H O R I S T I C E S S AY I S T S
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
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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 O U G H Bacon was the founder o f a gen r e , he had no successors
his o w n sort except Jonson and S elden The 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
the other They like Jonson conceive
o f humours o n
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
is analytical not intuitive But greatest of all is the debt
N ot that they either did or could
o f the essayists to Bacon
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
o f
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TH E CH ARA CTE R WR I TE R S
39
-
character writers F o r they are precisely the prose analogue
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
1 1 enumerated no fewer than fift
Bliss
in
co s m o gr a b
1
8
p y
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 n De k k e r s B ellm a n of Lo n do n ( 1 60 8)
i)
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
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
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TH E E NGLI SH E SS AY AND E SS AY I S T S
0
4
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
bough
of
all
and
the
fairest
apple
O f all he counteth his
p
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
a
yet
he
observes
them
all
He
ives
considerably
:
g
g
y
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
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(
1 605
)
Now as touchi ng the seven leaved tree o f the deadly sins
n ile s s would have hewn down
w
hi
ch
P
i
er
c
e
P
e
n
hi
s
request
)
(
is unreasonable for that gro ws s o rank in every ma n s garden
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TH E E NGLI SH E SS AY AN D E S S AY I S T S
2
4
t i v e n ess
S winburne
.
was right in hailing hi m with the
words :
0
sw t t h
ee es
ear
t f all t h y ti e s e
o
av
m
o ne
.
Whatever the theme Dekker handles this quality is always
,
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
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T H E CH ARA CTE R WR I TE R S
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43
a n essayist Hall is worthy o f consideration and it is clear
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
for whether human vices and foibles be o r be n o t
s atirical ;
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
in the writing of his Virgi
o f English satire is ill founded
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 tu
e s a n d Vi ces is
Vi
f
o f ten years later date
Th e author had had time to grow
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
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
as
If
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TH E E NGLI SH E SS AY AND E S S AY I S T S
44
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
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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
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
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T H E CH ARA CTE R WR I TER S
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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
He is the stranger s saint
c r i t e is tainted with th is vice
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
a dde d m a n
is
:
A
W
i
e
W
b
e r e un to a e
4
f
y witty
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Cbar a cter s , a n d co n ce ite d Ne ws , wr i tte n by b i m s elf a n d o tbe r
le ar ne d Ge n tle m e n bis fr ie n ds
Thi s collection contained o nly
.
twenty o n e characters and even these as the title proclaims
were not all by O verbury The collection whi ch now goes
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 o f the weakness of James and the vice o f the
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
1
gotten but Ov e r b ur y s poem A Wif e has lost its savo ur and it
Th
s s Th Ch i f Wif h w e r st ill ret in th ir h
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e ver e
on
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o ce o
a
e,
o
ve
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a
e
c
arm
.
T H E ENGLI S H E S SAY AN D E SSAYI STS
6
4
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
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T H E CH ARA CTE R WRITE RS
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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
reaps them as if they
o f corn fall and kiss her feet when s h
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
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
alone
and
unfold
sheep
i
nights
and
fears
no
manner
t
h
o
g
”
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
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8
4
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
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TH E ENGLI S H E S SAY AND E SSAYI STS
0
5
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
O f A S ba r k he writes
Earle s wi t can be su ffi cien t ly biting
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
apprehends a j est by seeing
m e r e F o r m a l M a n is o n e who
men smile and laughs orderly hi mself when it comes to his
“
”
Th e best cure he has
turn
O f A m e r e D ull Pbys icia n
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
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
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TH E CHARACTE R WRITE RS
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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
Th e elder he grows he is a
to a draught o f worm wood
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
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
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5
TH E ENGLI S H E S SAY AND E SSAYI STS
collection o f unconnected sketches but a short treatise in
thi rty seven chapters each f which delineates a phase o f the
parson s life —his knowledge hi s praying his preaching hi s
comforting etc We have seen that the prevailing vi e with
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
b
the
expression
of
Herbert
s
sincere
feeling
and
e n uit
u
t
;
g
y
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
But even Herbert could hardly have
b eauty o f his style
produ ed thi s e ff ect if the thi rty seven chapters had bee n
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
but it is not in the
o n e o f the most charming o f essays
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
this strictest sense who had any touch of real greatness Th
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
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TH E CH ARA C TE R WRITE RS
53
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Cba r a cte r s up o n Es s ays , M o r a l a n d D ivi n e ( 1 6 1 5 ) is dedicated
.
subj ects are Wisdom K nowledge Love Peace Truth
D eath and s o on But the essays are mere exercises o f verbal
ingenuity and the beginning o f Tr uth will suffi ce to show how
far they are removed from Bacon
Truth is the G lory of
Time and the Daughter o f Eternity : a Title o f the hi ghest
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 o o d a n d the B a d ( 1 61 6) is a co llection of fifty
characters written in the same style and conveying just as
little mea ni ng F a n tas tics ( 1 626) deals with the four elements
fis h beasts man woman the seasons etc
Th e style is o f
the would b e poetical sort Z e phi r us with hi s sweet breath
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 un — and s o on till the reader s patience
is wearied o ut
Much superior to Breton is Ge ffr ay Myn s hul ( 1 5 94 i I 66S )
whose Es s ays a n d Cha r a cte rs of a P r is o a n d Pr is o n er s ( 1 61 8)
is o n e o f the best of these collections Personal experience
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 r ordinaries and an o ld man more policy tha n if
”
he ha d been pupil to Machiavel
S imilar praise is due t o
Wy e S altonstall whose P i ctur s Lo q ue n te s ( 1 63 1 ) is freer in
style is less forced and has more genuine wi t than any but
three or four of these collec t ions
Th e
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B aco n s e r v e
w r it e rs
t he
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pi
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s
in t h e c as e o f m a n
y f th
o
d h i A th i
g with J h S t p h
l
k i it t i
f t h ugh t i
r ld
t
R ea
n ch b e c
as a t o uchs t o n e
s
m
e sm
a
on o
a on
o
o
s a
n
o n ce
e
ev ea e
’
e ns s
.
r
e c h a ac t e
A the i s t
,
r
an d
I
T H E ENGLI S H E S SAY AND E S SAYI STS
54
D onald
Lupton s
C o un try
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
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
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
Y e t another device due to t hi s crying
S cotland etc
need of variety is seen in A s tr a nge M e ta m o r p ho s is of
for there
M an tr a n sfor m e d i n to a Wilde r n es s
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
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
’
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1 67 6
(d
Q
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Lo n do n
an
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the
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t d
ra
r
N o t f o r t h e fi s t tim e
a
es
co ll e cti o n
an d
pl
.
r
Th e
d es c i b e d
ac es , o fi e re d t o
s am e
as
t h e c it
d
e v ice
is
r
c h ar ac t e s ,
y
an d c o un tr
or
fo u d in M i
n
es s a
y
of
s,
y by R M
.
”
.
c r o lo gi a
pr
e so n s ,
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
Th e author o f H udihr a s could hardly
o f honour o r o f reward
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
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
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T H E E NGLI S H E SSAY AND E S SAYI STS
56
page o f The Ho ly n d P r ofa ne S ta te Thi s has b een his charm
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
Th e golden works o f the dear
hi s amiable garrulity
”
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
alike in quantity quality and perpetuity surpassed
wit
”
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
a
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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 ?
Epigram upon epi
At once the tension is relieved
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
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THE CH ARA CTE R WRITE RS
59
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
Fo r
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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
h
r a s t us
seem
to
carry
that
stamp
f
personality
w
hi
ch
has
o
p
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
who is o f course the profane analogue to The Tr ue
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Ge n tle m an
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is his vocation and he scorns to follow a n y
pro f ession and will n o t be confined to any laudable employ
V acation
,
,
T H E CH ARA CTE R WRITERS
-
ent But they who count a alli ng a prison shall at last
”
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
m
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TH E ENGLIS H E S SAY AND E S SAYI STS
62
CHA PTER IV
M I S C E LL A N E O U S E SS AY I S T S O F T H E S E VE N TE E N T H
C E N TU RY
WH I L E in the early part o f the seventeenth century the
,
,
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 ne such was O wen F e llt h a m ( 1 60 2
o f charactery
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
Here
Charles the First and Chr ist the S econd li es is the last line of
He intended no irreverence ;
hi s epitaph o n the royal martyr
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
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
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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
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
l
e t el
forgotten
but
a
partial
revival
o f interest in him took
p
y
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
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THE ENGLI S H E S S AY AND E S SAYI STS
64
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
To o
ness of the distance at whi ch he follows his exemplar
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
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
indeb ted to Bacon s essay the same subj ect ; but Of M a s
U willi gnes s to Die shows how much more rhetorical and how
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
”
d y to which there is no parallel in Bacon
O ccasionally he
paraphrases Bacon : I t was t h fool that said There is no
Go d ; f certainly no wise man ever thought it and yet the
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
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
O bviously thi s is no more
w s n o S p irit to actuate hi s body
t han an expanded and weakened version f a sentence o
t wo
in Bacon s Of A the is m
n es
There are well marked di
both of endowment and
and the character writers Th
o f purpo se between F llt h
author of the Res lves had plenty of wit though apparently
But in the Res lves as a rule his aim was
o t much humour
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
Lo w—
C o u tr ies u der th S t te s where far more than in the
Res o lves we are reminded that he was a contemporary o f
E arle
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o ne
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on
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n
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or
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a
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a
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o
fl
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ere
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am
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ar a c
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TH E ENGLI S H E SSAY AND E S SAYI STS
66
somethi ng in the cadence o f the sentences which suggests
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
1
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y Of Ti
d r f rr g
th
i th fi st d i ti
i
n
Th e es s a
e or
e
e
r
a
o
e
m e s co n ti n
e m en t
an
on
’
.
d e tuy (i
w hi h a p p e r d
ua l S pee d is in th e s e co n
) ; b ut i t is n o t o n e o f th o s e
c n
c
r
n
a e
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
n ev e r an
y age b y past hath been exempted and unto whi ch
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
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
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TH E ENGLI S H E SSAY AN D E S SAYI STS
68
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
To
ally writes in order that he may display his wit
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
O ne year is suffi cient to behold all the magnificence o f
g
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
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MI S C ELLANE O US E SSAYI STS
69
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
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
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TH E ENGLI S H E SSAY AN D E S SAYI STS
0
7
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
that book is the Ps e udo do xi a Ep i de m i c R eal u n ity
a li is
it has none ; each chapter is independent o f the rest and any
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MI S C ELLANE O US E S SAYI STS
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
y
a
s
“
I am I confess naturally inclined to that whi ch mis
o n e, o r
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7
T H E ENGLI S H E SSAY AND E S SAYI STS
terms superstition : my common conversation
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
I cannot laugh at but rather pity the fruitl e ss
S aviour
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
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
that he never sought to conceal his
o f Browne s works
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
e al
u
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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
f the night to the conceit
o f the next ; as the phantasms
There is an equal delusion in both ; and the
o f the day
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
was born in the planetary hour of S a tu n and I thi nk I have
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
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MI S C ELLANE O US E SSAYI STS
75
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
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
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TH E ENGLI S H E SSAY AND E SSAYI STS
76
Co r o n ary o r Gar la n d P la ts and Of Haw/es a n d F alco n ry
A n cie n t a n d M o de r n we have illustrations o f Browne s pr o
found and curious learning and o f his occasionally acute
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 Gar de n of Cyr us goes far to j usti fy Hallam s remark
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 e famous passage begin ni n g
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
Gar de n of Cy r us is fantastic and whimsical to the point o f
weariness Chri s tia n M or als is wise and lo f ty but S piritu ally
no richer than Religi o M edici while it is destitute o f the
delight ful egoism o f the latter work An d highly entertai ning
as Vulgar Er r or s is there are parts of it which are dull and
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 r to a F r ie n d
But Ur n B ur ial contain s some forty or
fifty pages of the most beautiful English ever written probably
the greatest piece o f sustained eloquence in the prose of the
language I t is the concentrated essence o f Browne s genius
Th e spirit is fundamentally the S pirit o f Religio M e di ci
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
and
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MI S C ELLAN E O US E S SAYI STS
77
compounded of many simples extracted
”
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
opening chapters with their curious lore gradually work up
to the reflectio n s at the close for which the whole has been
ch o
ly o f his o w n ,
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8
TH E ENGLI S H E SSAY AND E S SAYI STS
7
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
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
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S ic e go co m po n i ve r s us i n 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
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
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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
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
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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
e de a t h
he
was
partly
instrumental
in
bringing
about
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
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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
To have taken o n e o f the longest steps
R L S tevenson
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
He was torn from th e university by that violent
vu
ls io n
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
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
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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
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
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
tota
merum
s
al
i
p
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
f th
hr
i l
R
b i g th
f hi
i tr
th
d r y h th h p
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em e m
re a
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m a
e
er n
ec
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on c e
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o
e
n a m es
o
s
m
s
es s es ,
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
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
1 666) w a s a man o f more diversified
James Howell
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
They are described as familiar letters
a n be said S till to live
domestic and foreign partly hi storical political philosophical
.
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MI S C ELLANE O US E S SAYI STS
They were published in four
u pon emergent occasio n s
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
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
His
that I heard yo u w e r e ill that I heard you are well
sentences are simple in structure : in this respect as i n
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THE ENGLI S H
86
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
Th e letters range from phi l o
t o o in the varie t y of theme
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
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
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MI S C ELLANE O US E S SAYI STS
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
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
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
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
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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
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
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
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
merely an interesting landmark of hi story and a glorious piece
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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
He [ the Prince! mus t not o nly be
S o has this :
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
it r am b le t h a b out the world and is less
n o t pecu liar to us ;
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
Th e former whi ch was written o n the occasion
E q uiva le t
earn estly insists upon the
o f the D eclaration of I ndul gence
danger of accepting a violation O f law as a favour I n the
latter the equivalent was the proposal by Papists o f
whi ch should make
S ome mighty n o bo dy k n o ws wha t
Protestantism as secure as the penal laws made it The essay
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MIS C ELLANE O US E S SAYI STS
9
1
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 Da u hte r
I
t
is
also
that
in
which
he
approaches
nearest
in
g
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
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
Halifax wa s essentially a philosopher
o f the two men
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
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
is
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TH E ENGLI S H E SSAY AND E SSAYI STS
2
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
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
”
more than they do
Th principle o f selection is just that
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
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TH E ENGLI S H E SSAY AND E S SAYI STS
94
contains the most elaborate e xpo s m o n o f hi s critical pri n
though
it
is
surpassed
in
i
n
terest
by
the
admirable
ci le s
p
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
N aturally therefore it is of
t r o v e r s ia l than the dialogue
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
Ye t eve n
b y path where there are no rul es to obstruct him
within the limits of the most authoritative rules there is
enough independence to justify Professor K er s descriptio n
sceptical tentative disengaged where most o f his
o f hi m as
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
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'
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
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
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
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6
9
TH E ENGLI S H E S SAY AND E S SAYI STS
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
be
eves
to
e proba b ly one of S hakespeare s
first
li
b
(
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
”
F rom t hi s it would seem that the whole
Of the design
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
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
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
I think mysel f as vigorous as ever in the
o f his faculties
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
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8
T
H
E
A
N
D
ENGLI
S
H
E
SSAY
E
SSAYI
STS
9
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
He s aw two deviations from what he would have
g
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
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CHAPT ER V
THE
U E E N A N N E E SS AY I S T S
Q
I N 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
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
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
sometimes been do n e to S teele by exaggerating Defoe s in
I t is perf ectly true that the
ue n ce o n the perio dical es say
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
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V
TH E ENGLI S H E SSAY AND E SSAYI STS
1 00
William
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
But if not romantic hi s
a realist touched the hardest reality
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
h
h
e D is s e n te r s
a n d the reward for The S hor tes t Wa
w
i
t
t
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 :
Le e ;
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N o m a n has ta s te d di fie r i n g f o r tune s m o
A n d thi r tee n ti m e s I ha ve b ee n r i ch a n d
a
fl
re
,
po o r
.
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
I
o pen doors and the free egress and regr e ss of locomo t ion
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
omplicated S tory o f Defoe s life F w o f the tasks of th
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
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T H E ENGLI S H E SSAY AN D E SSAYI STS
1 02
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
or
7 essay proper is in the section called the M er cur e S ca n dale
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
”
D ebauchery
S uch it w a s at the begin ning ; but before
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
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UE EN ANNE E S SAYI STS
Q
TH E
1 03
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
wa s
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T H E E NGLI S H E SSAY AND E SSAYI STS
1 04
the 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
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
s
1 7 20 whi ch may be described as a first sketch o f t h e Re ligi o u
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
e be e) about three years later
A
pp
l
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
of
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TH E ENGLI S H E S SAY AN D E SSAYI STS
1 06
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
teele
arquhar
with
the
pain
of
fi
n di n — Adam
S
o
r
F
g
g
p
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
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UE EN ANNE E SSAYI STS
Q
TH E
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
a u
nt
other
subj
ect
T
h
e original motto
quicquid
g
y
”
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
”
“
cluding number
Th e ge n eral purpose o f the whole
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
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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
Not o nly the design but the
S teele from the leading position
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
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THE E NGLI S H
1 10
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
By
whoms
ever
ori
inated
it
is
certai
n
that
o
g
9
9
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
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UE EN ANNE E S SAYI STS
Q
TH E
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
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
Th e
po r a r y S wift ; but though not gross he is contemptuous
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
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TH E ENGLI S H E SSAY AN D E SSAYI STS
1 12
e n t s were a s ready , a s vario us and a s free from res traint
di
p
e
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
bound
together
that
R
ichard
teele
s
writin
s
would
c a bl
S
g
y
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
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
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
”
Power to inspire the deepest a ff ection is t e s t ifie d by
m an
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11
E S SAY AND E S S AYI STS
TH E ENGLI S H
4
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
I t is a fa r
Addison s is destitute o f the highest beauties
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 greatest style is t h e expression o f
Th e cause is Obvious
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
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THE
UE EN AN NE E S SAYISTS
Q
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
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
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T H E E NGLI S H E SSAY AND E S SAYI STS
1 16
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
t
reatest
and
they
lent
themselves
more
readily
o the minor
;
g
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
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
A
ddison
s
principal
literary
gifts
were
a
delicate
though
not
J f
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
he is in the main Addison s
o ccasionally touched b y S teele
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
i
e x uis i
in
noth
ng
else
such
I
f
o ri inali t
i
r R oger
S
g
y
q
were eliminated it might be possible to accept that judgment
but
o f Ha z lit t s whi ch sets The Ta tle r a b ove The S p e cta to r ;
the n t o demand his elimination is n o t much more reasonable
m
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1 18
TH E ENGLI S H E SSAY AND E S SAYI STS
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
sincere a moralist could be no admirer His
o f which s o
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
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UE EN ANNE E S SAYI STS
Q
TH E
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
‘
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
s
conclusions
a desire in itself most praise
g
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
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
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1 20
TH E ENGLI S H E S SAY AND E S SAYI STS
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
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
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
1 7 1 2, S
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TH E ENGLI S H E SSAY AND E SSAYI STS
1 22
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
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
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
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
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UE EN ANNE E SSAYI STS
Q
TH E
M j r i igu
A l rg r p rt i
n ex
a o
e
a
o
o
r e gn ab a t co r
po re v irt u
s
r
o n o f h e o ic fi r e
t r t i p ire
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
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
I t is true his connexion
t o be s o summarily dismissed
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
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
says Coleridge
was the
S wift
”
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
D id hi s s m all lim b s a n d li t le b
e as
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THE ENGLI S H
12
4
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
M a r i age which is practically an essay though it appeared in
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
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
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
though palisadoes has like t h e
o f the literary language
hurricanoes lost its foreign termination
S hakespearean
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
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
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TH E ENGLI S H E SSAY AND E SSAYI STS
1 26
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
Had he concentrated hi mself
Ar b ut h n o t s permanent fame
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
the high e st q u lit y But they are merely a handful the b y
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
is a very amusing piece o f satirical humour
of the C o lli e r s etc
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
A lte r ca tio n o
S co ldi g of the A n cie n ts
But
cer n i g the
J Ar b ut h n o t s masterpiece is The A r t o
f P o litica l Ly in g an
essay like the piece on altercation in the form o f a summary
whi ch is supposed to
o f a treatise dealing with the subj ect
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
Witty everywhere it is perhaps most
Ly i n g is supreme
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
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
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UE E N ANNE E S SAYI STS
Q
TH E
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
”
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
As to O
o r the
o f whi ch is the prodigious
G
S
p
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
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
thi rd Earl o f Sha ft s
An thony As hl ey Cooper ( 1 67 1
bury His Cha cte r is ti s ( 1 7 1 1 ) consists principally o f short
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
les s forcibly than The T tle r and The S p e cta to themselves
the popularity o f the essay F r it is clear that S haftesbury
was an essayist in his O Wn despite Th M is cell n e o us
Re e cti n s may b described as the treatis es boiled down and
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
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1 28
TH E ENGLI S H E SSAY AND E S SAYI STS
common amble o r Canterbury is not I
am persuaded more tiresome to a good rider than the s e e s aw
Th e just composer o f a
o f essay writers is to an able reader
l egi timate piece is like an a b le traveller who exactly measures
his ground premeditates his stages and intervals of relaxation
to the very conclusion o f his undertaking
a n d intention
that he happily arrives where he first professed when he s e t
But the post way is b e ome highly fashiona b le
o ut
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
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
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
writing ; whether he should call it Le tte Es s ay M is cell y
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
These protests are embo died in essays— the
t o the current
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
His style
w hich the popular mode o f writing demanded
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
“
A n d again :
Th e
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.
.
.
,
.
,
.
,
TH E ENGLI S H E S SAY AND E S SAYI STS
1 30
Visionary scenes He is pleased that The Ch p io n o t being
wholly devoted to politics allows room f r miscellaneous
pieces Then follows an entertaining vision of Helicon and
the Muses Th only contemporary papers whi h The
Ch m p i finds worthy o f praise are The C f ts m
and
C
S e s e both political and both f course
the same
side of politics as The C h p i
f r there is no blindness s
dark as that of party
I t is evident that passages of this sort must t be pressed
Th political papers themselves admitted a certain amount f
purely literary matter as we have seen in the ase f Defoe
period continu
S ome of the familiar names f the S p t t
to appear n the lists f the periodicals B udgell practised
in The B ( 1 7 3 3 —1 7 3 5 ) the style f composition whi ch Addison
had taught hi and Ambrose Philips who had barely taken
part in the greater perio di cals b ecame the hi ef writer in
The F e thi k r ( 1 7 1 8
in whi ch he had the assistance
of several f the most distinguished clergym en of the time
I n Th P l i D e l ( 1 7 24—1 7 2 5 ) Aaron Hill collaborated
with William Bond The F e l S p e t t ( 1 744—1 746) and
Th P
t ( 1 746) are interesting b ecause they were princi
pally ii not wholly the work f a woman at a time when
female writers were few But the fame f Eli za Haywood
once considerable is not likely to revive S ome f the
periodicals of those years are nearly inaccessible all of them
have sunk into o b livion and good purpose would be served
Between the group already dealt
b y resuscitating them
with and Johnson the only man who needs to b discussed
is F ielding
Henry Fielding ( 1 707—1 7 5 4) the novelist has s completely
overshadowed Henry Fielding the essayist that there are
comparatively f w who realise his greatness in the latte
capacity ; and yet t any o who thi nks o f the introdu tory
s
and bears in mind that
chapters to the books o f T m j o
am
.
n,
o
,
.
c
e
.
on
a
ra
o m m on
n
,
,
,
on
am
o
,
an
on
o
o
.
no
.
e
o
o
e
.
ee
o
m
,
,
c
,
r
.
ec a or
o
o
o
c
,
e
n
e
o
.
a n
e
a er
m a e
.
e
c a or
arr o
o
,
,
o
.
,
o
.
,
,
no
,
.
e
,
.
o
e
r
o
ne
o
c
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
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
Th e average level is n o t indeed equal to that o f t h
Many o f the papers are careless and it
To m j o n es essays
is evident that Fielding did not always exert his whol e
strength as he seems to have done in those essays in To m
but
when
he
took
trouble
he
wrote
admirably
o n es
j
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
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
hi
s genial freedom o f life
a t hi s e d at least
with
Captain
p
as is his ustom [ and as was t o o much
Vinegar cools hi mself
”
He condemns
F ielding s ! with a huge dram of brandy
”
roasting in the metaphorical sense and pleads to a coarse
“
and cruel age for humanity to animals
A b y should
in my opinion be more severely punished fo r exercising
o r a cat o r any other animal than for stealing
c ruelty o n a do
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
paper we have a very witty piece o f raillery o n the argum e n tum
ulum
ad b
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
,
,
,
e
.
-
,
r
-
e
.
,
,
’
,
c
.
’
,
’
.
,
,
c
’
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,
,
,
o
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,
,
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,
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,
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,
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e
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ac
,
,
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.
T H E ENGLI S H E S SAY AND E SSAYI STS
132
as
well
as
for
the
time
o
f
F
ie
l
ding
in
the
account
o
f
a
fall
g
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
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
whose pa ks he had before received tumbling down into the
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
hi 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
a
e
,
,
,
e
.
,
,
,
,
,
,
.
,
o
,
,
,
c
,
,
.
,
,
,
,
e
,
,
,
,
,
,
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,
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,
,
-
,
,
,
,
,
13
4
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
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
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
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
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
volumes b ut f w o f the original numbers reached a circulation
I n the losing number Johnson confesses
o f more than 5 00
”
that he has never been much a favourite of the public
It
.
,
o
.
,
.
’
e
,
,
.
,
,
,
,
e
.
,
.
.
-
,
.
c
,
,
.
’
,
.
a
.
,
e
.
c
.
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
Tw o reasons may be
f the very f e w that he did n o t write
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
f the changes were trifling the total eff ect was considerable
Th e second reason however is more important
The Ra m ble
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 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
proba b ly shunned o n Tuesday and S aturday in the eighteenth
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
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
lighter touches too Th e pungent essay on Prospero ( G arrick)
showed that the writer could when he chose wield the weapon
.
,
o
,
.
.
,
,
,
,
.
,
o
.
,
,
r
.
,
,
,
a
.
r
-
,
.
c
c
-
.
,
,
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,
r
a
.
,
.
,
,
.
.
,
-
,
e
.
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,
,
TH E ENGLI S H E S SAY AN D E S SAYI STS
1 36
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
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
Even apart from the To m j o nes essays there are
F iel di ng
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
.
,
.
,
c
.
,
.
’
.
,
,
.
-
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
o f whi ch he wrote by far the
A dve tu e r and to The I dle
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
I n The A dve tu e we have such papers as that
Ra m ble r
on the ompanions f Mi s a r gyr us in the Fleet and the stage
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
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
a
man
of
multifarious
literary
a
tivity
who
is
1
1
( 7 5
remembered now only as an essayist and a s part author part
.
a
n
r
r
r,
,
n
.
c
r
r
o
’
.
,
,
.
,
.
n
r
r,
c
,
,
c
,
,
,
138
T H E ENGLI S H E SSAY AND E S SAYI STS
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
Th continual glare of a single colour that unchangeably pre
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
venture to a ffi rm that the s p e cio s m ir a cula o f the Odys s ey
are better calcul ated t o excite our uriosity and wonder and
to allure us forward with unextinguished impatience to the
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
But more
c e e d d upon principles widely di fferent from ours
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
I t is more profitable to remember that there
o f sympathy
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 :
.
,
,
,
a
.
e
,
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,
,
,
,
,
a
,
,
a
,
c
c
,
,
.
.
,
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,
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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
R
oman
and
oltaire
censures
his
kings
as
not
co m
V
c ie n t l
;
y
M
royal
D
ennis
s o ff ended
that
a senator
l
e t el
i
n n ius
p
y
should play the bu ff oon ; and Voltaire perhaps
o f R ome
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
Th obscurity into which he has fallen is n o t due to lack o f
,
.
.
e
,
e
,
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,
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,
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,
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-
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,
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e
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1
T H E ENGLI S H E SSAY AND E S SAYI STS
4
0
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
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
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
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
advocates like F iel di ng kindness to the animal
o f cruelty
creation Th S pecial feature o f The Adve n tur e r however is
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
T
excelled
here
were
course
stories
astern
a r t iC
i
l
a
rl
f
E
i
y
p
and Western in the earlier perio dicals ; Johnson hi mself
introduces several Eastern ones into The R bler ; b ut in
none o f the earlier papers were they so numerous as in The
and none o f the periodical essayists has excelled
A dve tu e
Ha w k s wo r t h in S kill in the construction o f them
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
nothi ng that can be s e t beside the x q is it e D Coverley
papers Ca z n is quite worthy t f placed beside the
T
h
o de m n a t i
o
i
rz
ronoun
ed
M
b
t
h
V is i o
f
p
y
Deity is impressive
Ca r z n thy wors hi p has n o t b een accepted b e c ause it
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
,
,
e
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,
e
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a
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e
,
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,
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’
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,
,
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,
,
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e
.
a
-
,
,
,
,
,
’
.
,
o
,
,
,
am
n
r
r,
e
.
ara
.
e
.
ra
,
a
r
a
n
a
a
e
.
,
c
n
e
.
“
c
,
,
e
1
TH E ENGLI S H E S SAY AND E SSAYI STS
2
4
despair every moment increased as every moment augmented
my distance from t h last ha b ita b le world I reflected with
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
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
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
ccord
e c t o r and hi s assistants were justified by the res ults
A
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
”
may be termed the Classi c al Essayists
Th e contri b utors to The Wo ld num b ered over thirty b ut
b etween o n e thi rd and o n fourth o f the total number of
papers were written b y its proj ector Edward Moore
Moore however is not especially notable except for his
,
e
.
,
,
,
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,
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c
,
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,
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o
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.
,
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,
,
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”
,
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r
,
e-
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,
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,
.
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
many years before in Co m m o S e s e Th latter is in som
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
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TH E ENGLI S H E S SAY AND E S SAYI STS
1 44
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
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
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6
4
TH E ENGLI S H E SSAY AND E SSAYI STS
Th e political M o n ito r ( 1 75 5
) may be named in pas sing
1 75 9
-
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
in
These bring us into c ontact with a name greater
the hi story of the essay than any from Addison s day to
r,
o
.
,
’
,
hi s o wn
.
—1 7 ) used to suggest,
Th e name o f O liver G oldsmith ( 1 7 2 8
74
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
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
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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
I f further
o f a mind remarkably sane and well balanced
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
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THE ENGLI S H E S SAY AND E S SAYI STS
1 48
not been identified Th earliest periodical with which his
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
Th latter s h o ws t ha t Goldsmith was
Tbe F m e M a cb i n 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
—
began
to
appear
in
a
journal
called
1
Yk
e Pu
1
6
0
1
6
bl
i
c
)
( 7
7
Whether G oldsmith from the first proj ected a
Le dge r
lengthy series o f letters is not clear ; it seems probable rather
that he proposed to act a cording to circumstances and the
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
G oldsmith hi mself had translated
design was not original
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
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Cb in es e Pbilo s opb er
at
Lo n do n ,
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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
There were besides
vi siting England and S t eele had used it
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TH E ENGLI S H E S SAY AND E S SAYI STS
150
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 we
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
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
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
whi c h b elonged to neither
Wherever the F rench landed they called the country their
o wn ;
and t h En glis h took possession Wherever they came
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
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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
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
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
it faithfully represents the intellectual detachment O f the
man Of science I f G oldsmith had b een writing a s ientific
treatise he would dou b tless have been more guarded ; but
though he has laid hi m self Open to a superficial criticism what
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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
d y
d
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
formers before the world w as ripe for reformation s o there may
lu
A r i w r i B l k w d M g zi
67 d
t
uh
p e t th
y b ut i ply t d i gr w it h it th ugh h i
th
wh l
ppr i ti e f G ld it h
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s
ev e
ac
o
o e a
e
n
e es s a
ec a
v
ac
oo
s m
,
o
o
’
s
a
o
sm
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a
ne ,
sa
ee
vo
m e
,
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o
evo
e
es
m
s on
c
e
15
TH E ENGLI S H E SSAY AND E SSAYI STS
4
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
this
is
the
origin
e c t e d by Mahomet
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
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
”
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
li ke Goldsmith s to the future There is nothing in
o ut
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
As
keeper s answer
fo r pay to s e e the show with the gate —
for your questions replied the gate—keeper to be sure t hey
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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
—and we must all live
i
uardians
f
the
temple
I
t
is
m
o
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
s oldier s zeal for religion whi ch is s o impressive to the China
Ma y the devil sink me into flames (such was the
man
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
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
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
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
though they were issued in volumes possess all the character
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TH E ENGLI S H E S SAY AND E SSAYI STS
156
is t ic s o f the periodical essay
Their popularity showed that
.
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
1
3 )
( 745
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
u
n er
N
o
L
amb
himself
could
hardly
have
dra
n
L
o
w
(
g
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
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T H E ENGLI S H E SSAY AND E S SAYI STS
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
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
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
S till the man to whom Byron owed the stanz a o f
M i cr o co s m
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
At the same time it cannot be pretended that
b oyish years
their own merit would gi ve these papers a permanent place in
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IMITAT O RS OF STE ELE AND ADDIS O N
literature
15
9
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
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
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T H E E N GLI S H E S SAY AND E SSAYI STS
1 60
the thr ee o r four hi ghest masters o f English prose
But the
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
But
go the praise emphatic as it is is probably deserved
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
m an
t
hi
n s that refuse to b e for otten
have
hi
s successors
S
o
g
g
y
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
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
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TH E ENGLI S H E S SAY AND E S SAYI STS
1 62
1
the
profoundest
f
British
philosophers
in
the
eighteenth
6
o
)
77
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
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
stage they have excelled even the Greeks who far excelled the
”
He admired that extraordinary epi c Tbe Ep igo i d
English
and though friendship may in thi s instan c e have
o f Wilkie ;
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
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1 63
IMITAT O RS OF STE ELE AND ADDI S O N
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
O thers are described
They are an integral part o f philosophy
”
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
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
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
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
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
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TH E ENGLI S H E S SAY AND E S SAYI STS
16
'
4
metaphysics in economi s and in political speculation
”
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
”
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
c ould understand the argument about cause
ar a t iv e l
f
w
y
p
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
will not only shake but overthrow
s atisfactory in quality
based
o n experience
I
t
is
less
generally
re
og
l
aw
an
y
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
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
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
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1 66
TH E ENGLI S H E S SAY AND E SSAYI STS
CHAPTER VI I
T HE
T
RA N S I T I O N FR O M T H E E I G H 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
to the Queen An ne essayists than any contemporary o r s uc
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
1 00 which he never repaid
borrowed from S helley £
O
n
the
4
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
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TRANS ITI O N F R O M THE 1 81 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
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
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
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1 68
TH E ENGLI S H E SSAY AND E SSAYI STS
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
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
But circumstances caused the plan to be modified and made
the resem b lance to the Queen Anne w riters less close than it
Hazlitt has related how the landing of
wa s meant t o be
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
was actually executed was mai nl y the work of Hazlitt and
that it consists prin ipally o f literary riticism
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
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
nothing temporary
t e r is t i c touch o f vanity that there was
”
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
ame Tbe Li te r ry Exa m i n e r
and after a few years
which was practically a revival o f
Tbc Co m p a n i o n
I t is the t w o last named periodicals which
Tb e I n di c to
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
Even D efoe had at no time issued
Ta tle r ( 1 83 0
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
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TH E ENGLI S H E S SAY AND E S SAYI STS
1 70
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
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
Each in identical words and doubt
B la ck wo o d reviewer
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
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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
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
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
least with friendly eye
Th other side o f Leigh Hunt s work is more important for
the present purpose F o r the last century w e have had many
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
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THE ENGLI S H
1 72
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
Th A uto bi gr p by so readable so likea b le some
times s o uncons iously amusing may be regarded as an
e nlarged essay o f the sort I t is thi s intimacy whi h gives
charm to those favourites o f Lam b the papers o n Co a cbes
n d tb e i
H o s e s and the pathetic o n e on the De tbs f Li ttle
There are reminde r s o f Lam b himself i n su h
Cb ildr e n
papers Th e likeness is very striking in that admirable o n
Om n ibus in M e Wo m e n a n d B o o k s W
the I s i de f
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
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
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
country is in Tbe M auth of M y and it wo ul d b hard to con
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
town and the fripperies o f fashi on are less frequent
,
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1 74
TH E ENGLI S H E S SAY AND E SSAYI STS
'
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 r rather why not thi nk o f them oftener ?
o f them n o w ?
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
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TRANS ITI O N F R O M TH E I S T H C ENTURY
1 75
great o n
He forgets S hakespeare though he criticised
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
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
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
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
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
”
Then the meta
elegant trifling light summer reading
“
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
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A n d y e t it a
e ar s th at H a litt w o e t h e h i hl
o b jec t io n a b le
ar t icle ab o ut
1 81 6
V e r il
o le r id e in The E di n b ur h R e vi e w
t he
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
as t fi n in
o ut
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1 76
TH E ENGLI S H E SSAY AND E SSAYI STS
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
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
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
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
foundation in 1 820 to the memorable Lo n do n M ga zi n e
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
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
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
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
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1 78
TH E ENGLI S H E SSAY AND E S SAYI STS
H
a z li t t s special
in
the
former
because
it
was
f
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
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
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
opposite side are always extolled ple n o o r e —in Tbe uar ter ly
o
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TRANSITI O N F R O M T H E I S T 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
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
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
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
”
ratic side in politics and in being critically severe o n others
I t would
Th e c ritic of the critics doth protest too much
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
whi h would be described as warm hearted unless it be t h
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
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18
0
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
”
were after all but a kind of
Macki n tosh s Lectures he says
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
Even though most of the defects are real a more
d efects
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
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2
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
he woul d be among those educational reformers who
no w
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
”
ome
he
o f drag i ng formal p hi losophy into everything
S
g
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
Di a l as well as in that F ar e well to E s s ay wr iti g already
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
ends
if thou hast not seen the Louvre thou art
o wn
”
damned
Th e most serious phases o f hi s mind are brought
to light in the more philosophical essays His stubbornness
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TRANS ITI O N F R O M T H E 1 8T H C ENTURY
18
3
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
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18
4
T H E ENGLI S H E S SAY AND E S SAYI STS
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
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
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6
T H E ENGLI S H E SSAY AND E SSAYI STS
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
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
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
Horatio thought that
b ug whi ch is chopped up by a t o m tit
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
hi s
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7
TRANSITI O N F R O M T H E I S T H C ENTURY
had an extraordinary eff ect I t is forcible lucid and acute ;
and
though marred b y an absurd straining o f theory in
as in the assertion that in
o bvious contradiction to facts
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
excesses of the R evolution Paine s chief work the Rigbts f
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
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18
8
T H E ENGLI S H E S SAY AND E SSAYI STS
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
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
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
He
o f Godwin were n o t such as to make the place a high one
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 ;
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T H E ENGLI S H E S SAY AND E SSAYI STS
9
0
that he was swayed by any such consideration ; violen e was
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
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
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TRANS ITI O N F R O M T H E 1 8T H 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
R
hi
perhaps
he
did
delight
the
heart
of
uskin
wi
t
h
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
Le t
been from home proves to be two and a half miles
”
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
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1
9
TH E ENGLI S H E SSAY AND E S SAYI STS
2
”
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 !
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TH E ENGLI S H E SSAY AN D E S SAYI STS
1 94
S o great was the popularity of t hi s periodical that , according
Johnson it 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
so
beheld it with reverence
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
S till it cannot be pretended
wrote was invariably forcible
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
I n a way its very mediocrity was co n
M ag z i e lived o n
Th e saying that there is n o man who
duciv e to its longevity
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
to
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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
Th e design o f these papers was such that
Tbe Ra m bler
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
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
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TH E ENGLI S H E SSAY AND E SSAYI STS
6
9
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
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
with certain anomalous competitors who under the novel
allurement of appearing o nly once a quarter assert their
”
Th e M aga z i ne we are
claims t o curiosity and attention
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
pieces of poetry and— what concerns us here
essays con
humorous and satirical ; religious moral and
t r o v e rs i a l
”
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
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1 98
TH E ENGLI S H E SSAY AND E S SAYI STS
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
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EARLY REVI EWE RS OF 1 9T H 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
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
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
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TH E ENGLI S H E SSAY AND E SSAYI STS
200
otherwise we should ha ve o n set of vermin banishing small
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
subj ect o f the essay is D r Parr and Parr s wi g is made whi m
s ic all
to
illustrate
his
method
I
t
o f construction
i
s big in
y
front but scorns even Episcopal limits behi nd and swells
o ut
into boundless convexity of frizz the p y G p o f
”
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 ;
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
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
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TH E ENGLI S H E S SAY AND E S SAYI STS
202
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
SO
and t h r e fo r h praises Camp b ell with a warmth whi ch
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
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
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
except with regard to the position assigned to Camp b ell him
“
self : Th e r —if the future editor have anything like the
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 !
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D i d b ut o f R o m e s b es t fr i e n d r e m in d h e r m o r e
’
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
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
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EARLY REVI EWE RS OF 1 9T H 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
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
they display and the S pirit o f poetry whi h b reathes through
”
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
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
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
feeling in all matters o f morality and common sense his
l eading vice
An d from the same source came the admirable
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T H E ENGLI S H E SSAY AND E S SAYI STS
4
20
remarks o n courage in the essay o n By r o s Tr age dies
”
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
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
”
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
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
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
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
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
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
J ff r y
Th i t li
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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
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
Th e dust of time
w a s not always used in a S pirit of justice
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
I t was
Edi n burgh Re vie w h a s not yet been mentioned
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
but by setting up another partisan
o f a di sinterested organ
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
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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
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
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208
TH E ENGLI S H E SSAY AND E S SAYI STS
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
an Opposite o n e Tbe ua r te ly Revie w was S tarted as the
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
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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
the evils o f over elaboration and strained
o f self laudation
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
Th e review— excellent after the clumsy
c is m
o f the time
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
Th e same may be said Of the essay on Cr o m e k s
o f merits
No one was ever better fitted than S cott
Reli q ue s of B ur n s
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
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
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EARL Y REVI EWE RS OF 1 9T H 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
Th e reason
Y t they are sin gularly easy fresh and bright
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
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
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T H E ENGLI S H E S SAY AND E SSAYI STS
212
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
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
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T H E ENGLI S H E S SAY AND E SSAYI STS
4
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
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
but the whole body o f essays and
t h e celebrated preface
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
contains
some
vigorous
and
just
comments
upon
as a S tud
y
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
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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
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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
excellent NO o n has written more powerft than Words
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
and recog nised as the handmaid o f
o f war though savage
desolation F requently and admirably has Burns given way
to these impu lses o f nature ; b oth with reference to hi m self
”
F requently and
and in describing the condition o f others
“
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
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21 8
TH E ENGLI S H E S SAY AND E S SAYI STS
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
”
These are enriched
amusement retrospect and preparation
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
precautions against hasty or arbitrary action
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
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EARLY REVI EWE RS OF 1 9T H 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
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
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TH E ENGLI S H E SSAY AN D E S SAYI STS
2 20
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
and B r ief tbo ugbt s up o n B r evity are pleasant enough fooling
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
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
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
man
succeeds
very
wel
l
so
long
as
he
is
quite
en tle m a n l
g
y
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
— whose Gues s es a t Tr utb first published in 1 82
1
1
8
5 5)
7
( 79 5
and afterwards e nlarged at o n time powerfully influenced
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
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T H E ENGLI S H E S SAY AND E SSAYI STS
22 2
CHAPTER IX
T HE
E
AR L Y M A GAZ I N E S O F T H E N I N E T E E N T H C E N T U RY
F O R 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
no means fully contented with Tb e ua te r ly Review as Gi fford
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
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
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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
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
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
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T H E ENGLI S H E S SAY AND ESSAYI STS
4
22
any man o f th time was wholly free from blame u nless it w as
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
“
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
”
d
of
all
o ur literary men either then o r sti ll
He added
i
e
t
gf
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
Hence he is far better when condensed in Tbc
bo y of ge nius
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
I t sweeps the reader on wi th it s fervour and yet
Bu s
wearies him Contras t it with Carlyle s magnificent essay
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TH E ENGLI S H E SSAY AND E SSAYI STS
2 26
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
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
o f dulness
iven
by
essays
as
a
whole
is
one
ang
states
hi
s
L
g
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
There is evidence th at Loc k hart had formed
hi s o wn essay
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
I n that arti cle the imaginary Baron v o n
Cr i ti cis m of E ngla n d
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
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
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
l He clears him o f the guilt o f
as it is is n o t wholly s uccess fu
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
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EARLY MAGAZINE S OF 1 9T H C ENTURY
2 27
question been pressed against him that in a minor degre
Thus in condemnin g
Lockhart too is strangely inconsistent
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
a greater Quack still
S cbo o l he had S poken o f Coleridge as
“
th an Hunt the vilest apparently o f all that pestiferous
”
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
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
0
hi
8
2
w
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
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TH E ENGLI S H E S SAY AN D E SSAYI STS
8
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
He had already gathered hi s group o f writers
M aga zi ne
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
I t woul d seem tha t
n o t enough to pres erve it permanently
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
as Whi g and Tory were alike outside the pale to be just to
Loc k hart
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TH E ENGLI S H E SSAY AND E S SAYI STS
230
b low had fallen too f ull 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
made o n e pr Opo s al o f marriage in the course o f hi s life appa
e
r en tl
Th
with
the
consent
and
approval
M
a
f
r y Lamb
o
y
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
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EARLY MAGAZINE S OF 1 9T H C ENTURY
23 1
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
”
Th e phrase
that he would rather be called drunken dog
I t was the outcome of a habit o f
w as no mere accident
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
c i le s o f education are laid down in Re co lle cti o n s o
b
r is t s
C
f
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
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TH E ENGLI S H E SSAY AND E SSAYI STS
23 2
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
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
t
o
f
There is no better g t
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
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
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23
TH E
4
E N GL I S H
I
E S S A Y AND
E S S A Y S TS
lwhi ch he exaggerates in the Co nf es s i o ns of a D r un k a r d
He
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
Th e secret o f that
wi n love as Lamb won and still retains it
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
”
There are whole essays irra di ated with i t
admi ration
the t wo just quoted Gr a ce befor e M e a t Tbe P r is e of Cb im ney
There is an una ff ected gusto in
S weep er s Cap ta in j a ck s o n
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
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
Thackeray was no unkindly man ; but he could
ci s m
never have looked upon a Captain Jackson with the la rge
hearted charity of Lamb Genteel pover t y is treated in
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EARLY MAGAZINE S OF 1 91 11 CEN TURY
23 5
but
what
we
see
there
is
the
pre
f
tentio s host lifting the pretentious cover from the dish
where he t wo o r three lean chops
I n Lamb imagina
tion conquers reality the remnant rind o f cheese becomes a
”
enerous
meal
the
sensation
o f wi ne was there
though
no
g
wine and you reeled under the potency o f his unper forming
”
Yo u s a w wi t h your bodily
Bacchanalian encouragements
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
“
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
in
beyond
ussia
if
we
would
not
forget
kind
feelings
R
)
(
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
W
h
o woul d
in
S
pelling
cu
o ut their enchanting contents !
p
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
Tbe B o o k
S no bs
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to o ;
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T H E ENGLI S H E SSAY AND E SSAYI STS
23 6
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
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
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TH E ENGLI S H E S SAY AND E SSAYI STS
23 8
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
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
di 0 P di
0 P
Ti w
y w iti g h
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ear
a
ar a
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e re .
Ye t whi ch is the more soundly religious — thi s silly insincerity ,
tha t ma nly truth ?
In the style o f the passa ge just quot e d there is a touch o f
“
fantastic Old great man whom
S ir Thomas Browne that
There are many othe r
Lamb loved so well and s o wisely
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
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
To them he w as dr awn by a natural
A n a to m y and F uller
kin shi p Their thoughts were largely hi s their quai n tnesses
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
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
or
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EARLY MAGAZINE S OF 1 9 1 11 C ENTURY
Lamb , if the purpose was to learn how to write English
23
.
9
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
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 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
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2
TH E ENGLI S H E S SAY AND E SSAYI STS
0
4
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
”
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
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
What is there
Lamb s humour that it h a s in the American
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
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T H E ENGLI S H E S SAY AND E SSAYI STS
2
4
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
di ff ering omen The o n e serene smili ng fresh powdered
Th e other an Old discoloured un
b etokening a mild day
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
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
”
Th e whole o f Dr e a m Cb ildr e n is poetic and
two pr es e n t s
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
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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
M agaz i e to 1 83 3 when the L s t Es s ys of Eli appeared
were thus the pro
All the essays by whi ch we now know hi
duct o f hi s intellectual prime and f the fulness of his xp r i
ence He w about forty fiv when he first wrote under the
name o f Elia and fift y eight when he last used that name
Th death o f Coleridge in
An d his days were then numbered
the summer f 1 83 4 shocked hi m terribly He was heard to
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
been peculiarly fatal to great essayists Tw o later Christmases
were desti ned to be darkened by th deaths o f two others
Macaulay and Thackeray
I n 1 824 while Lamb w as still writing f r Tbe Lo d
M g z i e there began in the same periodical a series f
sketches whi ch displayed no small portion of the grace and
humour of the master hi mself Th writer Mary Russell
Mitford ( 1 7 87—1 85
had already produced j uli and while
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
in opening them and her contemporaries agreed with her
W know n o w that s h was right but that the gates opened
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
f Engli sh literature
Their charm is woven f many threads
Miss Mitford had a keen eye for character and an equally keen
eye f r nature S h had humour sympathy and animation
Th e whole group o f qualities will be found ill ustrated in hn o t
any of the essays Take that excellent description f an old
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2
TH E E NGLIS H E SSAY AND ES SAYI STS
44
custom then still surviving— B m ley M y ing I t is S pirited
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
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
ra
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TH E ENGLI S H E S SAY AND E S SAYI STS
2 46
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
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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
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
.
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EARLY MAGAZINE S OF I 9T H C ENTURY
2
47
it
may
be
said
that
he
has
left
little
that
is
not
close
to
9)
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
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
o f a volume
I t appears that D Quincey means by essay
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
18
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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
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
u
d
a s I s ca r i o t
here
is
room
for
papers
illustrative
of
his
T
j
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
for papers o n the philosophy o f literature li ke
Go e tbe ;
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
Elsewhere hi s deplorable
a s such can never be superseded
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
but
Coleridge
had
given
more
thought
to
the
principles
o r ar
y
p
and none but Coleridge had o n occasion more
o f criticism
power o f illuminative suggestion— witness Tbe K n o ck ing a t
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250
TH E ENGLI S H E S SAY AND E SSAYI STS
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
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
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EARLY MAGAZINE S OF 1 9T H C EN TURY
25 1
I t was a coroll ary from the same large s ub t tu in hi s
ature that Lam b had no sense o f the rhythmical in prose
c omposition
Rhythmus or pomp of cadence o sonorous
scent f claus es in the structure f sentences were e ff ects
f art as much thrown away upon b i m as the voice o f the
harmer upon the deaf adder W ourselves occupying the
very station f polar opposition to that o f Lamb being as
morbidly perhaps in the one excess as he in the other
aturally detected thi s omission in Lamb s nature at an early
s tage in
u acquaintan e
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
the construction of the sentence is to secure volume of sound
pomp of cadence Th individual word is important it is
true Every scholarly instinct in D e Quincey cried out
against the misuse f words in respect o f meaning Again
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
every musical instinct w s outraged by the us f a
So t
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
pensable it was only a means to an end— the harmonious
s onorous s w inging sentence
But the most interesting poi t
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
An d thi s is exactly the truth
Where D Q uincey falls short f
greatness is in the substance f his work Pomp of language
merely as such has a charm of its wn R L S tevenson
found great comfort in the name Jehovah Ts idk u when he
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
s ra
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TH E ENGLI S H E S SAY AND E S SAYI STS
25 2
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
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
Th e ashes o f an urn call up the whole pageant of
o f reality
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
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
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25
T
H
E
E
NGLI
S
H
E
SSAY
AND
E
S
SAYI
STS
4
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
to whose excellen ce in criticism Professor S aints
( 1 820
bury has borne emphatic testimony Among the contributors
was Lamb s friend and literary executor Thomas Noon Talfo ur d
whose articles in it and in Tbc Ne w M o n tbly
( 1 79 5
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
when they appeared in 1 82 8 still further shortened the in
They addressed a class
t e r v al b etween issues to one week
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
I ts establish
o f the b rothers William and Robert Chambers
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
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
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EARLY MAGAZINE S OF 1 91 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)
.
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TH E ENGLI S H E SSAY AND E S SAYI STS
25 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
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
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
o n miscellaneous subj ects
He was a fertil e as well a s an in
e xib l
honest
journalist
He
was
the
leader
riter
w
o f his
y
o w n paper ; and the volume o f Le a di n
g A ti cles printed under
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
T
Lite
a d S cie n tific
hese we are told are
n d S o ci al
y
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
lear intelli genc e The biographical ones display a just
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25 8
TH E ENGLI S H E S SAY AND E S SAYI STS
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
”
—
r es
T
ci a l figu
the
inimitable
oby 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
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
he had no
o r o n men and women in some relatio n to dogs
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
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
’
,
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EARLY MAGAZINE S OF 1 9 T H 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
and a sound
o f illustrating from literature and from art
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
Th e fineness o f hi s psychology is
most delicate lodging
sho wn in the character sketches ; or the paper o n John Leech
Like all true humourists
may be quoted in illustratio n
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 ;
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T H E ENGLI S H E SSAY AND E SSA Y ISTS
2 60
equall e d Tbe Lo n do M aga z ine in r es pect o f
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
upon them as a collection of essays But Tbe B o o k f S o bs is
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
F urther it is one whi h S hould be read
i n Lo do n is another
as a corrective to Tbe B o o k of S o bs for the latter by itself
leaves a somewhat painful impression N ot that Tbe B o o k of
I t is true the
S n o bs is wholly without a corrective in itself
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
figure o f Go r gius in his real identical robes at the wax work
Children and un k e ys S ixpence
Admittance o n e shilling
But there are degrees o f o ff ensiveness
Go a n d pay s ixp e ce
in snobbery Ab out snobbery in hi gh pla es Thackeray s
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
”
as if b is altar w a s the o nl y one that w as acceptable
s t i t io us
and is moved by nothi ng except when a very great m an comes
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
b ut l i t ha rdly
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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 ;
s a fe t
and to thi s
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
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
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
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EARLY MAGAZINE S OF 1 9T H 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
”
r a t th n
over
their
five
O
clock
tea
g
p
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
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TH E ENGLI S H E SSAY AND ES S AYI S TS
264
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
”
This
thi gh bones round the cavern o f hulking Polyphemus
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
An d as fo r the O gre Humbug out
B e tend er to chi ldren
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TH E E NGLI S H E SSAY AN D E SSAYI STS
266
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 t h 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
The
s ide r e d in connexion with the history o f literature
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TH E H I ST O RIAN E S SAYI STS
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nineteenth century was as much subject to this necessity as
the eighteenth ; but it had resources which were u n developed
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
F r e n cb Revo luti n and F r e de r i ck were gone but all the char
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
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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
Th e name o f Goethe appears again and
with are German
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
and the things akin to mysticism that Carlyle finds to
cis m
Th e G ermans (in those
di scriminate Germany from England
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
An d so
belie ve d in them England thought the worse o f hi m
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
I t was
Engines and blessed was he who had many o f them
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
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TH E ENGLI S H E S SAY AND E S SAYI STS
270
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 d ba cu
l
u
But
on
the
other
hand
in
b
e
a r um e n tum
m
T
g
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
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TH E H I ST O RIAN E S SAYI STS
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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
Carlyle s answer in D ide r o t is an excellent example
m an e n ce
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
u
under
a
rock
which
is
even
then
cr
mbling
away
s t an c
y
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
O
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TH E ENGLI S H E SSAY AND E SSAYI STS
'
2 72
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
uest
I
s
it
w
i
se
in
him
to
tumble
f
or
h
in
i on th en arises
t
q
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
with all solem nity bdica te its right to
o f hi s life hi s Will
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
that much o f it was the mere expression o f unreasoned per
while another great part was built up by
s onal preference
t h e application to an author o f cano n s whose v a lidity he would
have acknowledged These faults cannot be charged
n ot
L
a mb n ever approached
a a in s t a ll o f Carlyle s predecessors
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
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T H E ENGLI S H E SSAY AND E S SAYI STS
27
4
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
He conceives that he has done nothing
o n e of the essays
until he has revealed the ma n John son and hi s Boswell
Burns Goethe Richter Mi rabeau — one and all are men
I n hands like Carlyle s
This is the great charm of the essays
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
F urther even the men
hi story of whi ch he was writing
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
He wrote F r e der ick
hi s o wn cou n try and his o w n time
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TH E H I ST O RIAN E S SAYI STS
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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
and less wisely
w a y more commonplace in S b o o ti g N i ga r a
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
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
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
”
Th
vale o f tears was t o make game o f certain G ermans
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
Thomas Babington Maca ul ay ( 1 800—1 85 9) fo r all
German
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
E
n burgb Re vie w
appeared
in
a n d His tor i ca l Es s a s
T
b
e
d
i
y
Th e suddenness o f the author s rise to fame is a common
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TH E ENGLI S H E SSAY AND E S SAYI STS
2 76
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
They are all unmistakably the
J was capable of writing about
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
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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
Th e young reader he explains likes but is
Ro bin s o n Cr us o e
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
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
nd in the essay o n Bacon
o f general principles is to be fo u
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
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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
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
J
—
as metallic An d the cr i t i a s m l S j ust that is its defect
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
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28
0
TH E ENGLI S H E SSAY AND E SSAYI STS
thi ng that is hardly possible is that he should b left in
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
Warren Hastings o r the passage o n t h Catholic Church
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
— that the a b sence of
we
do
not
find
in
aca
ay
M
u
l
What
whi ch de nies him a place among the essayists in the mor
esoteric meaning o f the word i s intimac y o f personal con
fide n c
I n a sense every line he wrote is instinct with his
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
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
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
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
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T H E ENGLI S H E S SAY AND E S SAYI STS
criticised hi s former chief N ewman hi mself in an article on
A Gr a m m a r of A s s e t
Close association with the N ew
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
ecclesiastical and theological questions F roude writes about
the book o f Job and gives a lecture on Calvinism and a series
He has a paper o n Tbe
o f lectures o n Erasmus and Luther
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
o
m a n is m on the other ; and it was almost inevitable that
R
o
f
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
s s io n o
vie ws he enters A P le a
o r tbe D is cu
T
b
e o lo i ca l D
f
f
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
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
T
b
r im s
of
e
P
il
g
py
P ogr es s to enter his house
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
proves ho w little he understood his master and
o f books
how imperfectly he comprehended Carlyle s S pirit F roude
was at his best where no demand fo r origin al thought
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TH E H I ST O RIAN E S SAYI STS
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was made upon hi m in discussing forgotten worthies o r
bishops of far—
ce n turies He coul d deal gracefully
o ff
if not profoundl y with figures o f classical literature and
history and he loved to do so More than o n of the
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
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28
T
H
E
E
NGLI
S
H
E
SSAY
AND
E
S
SAYI
STS
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
F reeman is
Th e sci ence of last year is o ut of date thi s year
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
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6
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
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
”
h
e r e is always cold round an iceberg
e whole of t h e
Th
p
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
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LATTE R H AL F o r THE I 9T H CENTUR Y
28
7
with the stamp o f genius S o it is again in the essay On tbc
Yo u cannot define the i n
I m p o r ta n ce of a M a n to Hi m s e lf
”
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
Th former gives a charm
Dr e a m tb o rp and A Lar k s F ligbt
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
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
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28
8
TH E ENGLI S H E S SAY AND E S SAYI STS
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
When the mound was reached o n whi ch the
b itterness
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 ;
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
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
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
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TH E E NGLI S H E S SAY AND E S SAYI STS
9
2 0
Re cr e a tio ns of a Co un try P a r s o n and the Gr aver Tb o ugbts of 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
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
were
away
H
o w is Jenny w ho had the fever ;
and
u
?
o
y
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
But there is a wo rld o f
as Bacon hi mself could put them
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
I
s
it
simplicity
or
slynes
s when he writes of N orma n
o r sl
y
“
he was a great jolly Chr istian Bohemian
Macleod tha t
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LATTER HALF OF TH E
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9
TH
C ENTURY
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
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
developing and strengt he ning the
c o operated with nature
h
e training he
ifts
with
which
he
was
e
n
dowed
at
birth
T
g
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
Only now a n d the n ca n he deal with a
w e to the essayist
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2
9
TH E ENGLI S H E S SAY AND E SSAYI STS
2
tately theme directly ; and yet on the other hand he h s to
remem b er that every road leads to Rome Th e small things
that remain small count for nothi ng in literature The skill
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
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
pretty domestic scene f the Bazins and the eff ect o f it and
o f their politeness o n the spirits
f the hurt and sore travellers
are matters simple and even tri v ial in themselves yet s ugge s
tive of far rea hi ng reflections
Little did the Bazins know how much they served us
W were charged fo r candles fo r food and drink and for the
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
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
ble u Th writer hi mself is very frequently in the fore
s
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TH E ENGLI S H E SSAY AND E S SAYI STS
29 4
metaphysical divinity ; a n d the whole o f two divergent
systems is summed up not merely S peciously in the two first
estions
o f the rival catechisms the English tritely inquiring
u
q
What is your n ame ? the S cottish striking at the very roots
What is the chief end o f man ? and answering
o f life with
nobly if obscurely To glorify Go d and to enjoy Him for
ever
hum o f metaphysics is abo ut S tevenson always
This
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
h
T
e Cb a a cte r of D o s — a race of creatures
e c t d places
g
p
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
”
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
magnificent Cbr is tm as S e m o n o n e o f the finest o f modern
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
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
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LATT E R HALF OF T H E 1 9T H C ENTURY
'
o r
2
95
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
I n order to correct any tendency to think that they are
is m
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
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THE E NGLI S H E SSAY AN D E SSAYI STS
2 96
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
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
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
haracters like Alan
hi s romances proclaim that admiration
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
”
still fly
He had written the story o f the Re ve ge i n prose
b efore Tennyson published his great b allad o n the sam e
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8
9
TH E E NGLI S H E SSAY AND E SSAYI STS
“
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
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
So metimes a scene is painted in
w hether he has any equal
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
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
Th e skilled artist is seen in the
o r phrase or even in a word
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
”
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
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LATT E R H AL F OF T H E 1 9T H C ENTURY
2
99
lopes o f a volcano : I t S eems not re di ble that res pectabl e
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
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
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
“
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
S
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TH E ENGLI S H E S SAY AND E S SAYI STS
3 00
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
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
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
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
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
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
ce where the method is
b est in papers like A G o s s ip o Ro m
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
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
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TH E E NGLI S H E SSAY AND E S SAYI STS
3 02
”
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
R
1
1
1
1
and
John
uskin
8
1
o
f
whom
the
8
8
( 9
( 9 75)
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
As
S tevenson while he will be only tolerant of Kin gsley
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
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
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
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
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LATTER HAL F OF THE 1 9T H C ENTURY
0
3 3
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
Ruskin merges
as Hazlitt does
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
The
is as absolute as the law o f the Me des and Persians
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
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3
TH E ENGLI S H E S SAY AND E S SAYI STS
4
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
What it does
writte n but no longer believed to be true
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
they are adm i rably
a c t e r i s ti c and o f course being Ruskin s
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
Th e best are those o n art ; and of these again
b ut po n t ific a l
the best are the delight ful paper on S amuel Prout and that
Ruskin s strong expression of belief in
o n Pre Raphaelitism
the permanent value o f Prout s work may b e quoted for t h
and di ff erence from o n e o f the
s ake o f its resemblance to
“
most famous sentences o f Macaul ay
His works will be
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
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
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TH E ENGLI S H E S SAY AN D E S SAYI STS
3 06
We are all co n da m n é s as Victor Hugo says : we are all
,
under sentence o f death but with a sort o f indefinite reprieve
— les b o m m e s
co n da m n é s
to us
sont
d m o r t a ve c de s
s ur s is
in
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
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
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
defin is
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LATTE R H AL F OF THE 1 9T H C ENTURY
3 07
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
essays of the first series f Es s ys i Cr i ti cis m had all except
the preface and the paper o n Tbe Li ter ry I n ue ce of A c
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
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
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
criticism there ran a vein o f social criticism and Cultur e a n d
“
A n a r cby is des ribed as
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
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
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
his
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3
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
“
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
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
There i s playful
sarcasm in the shyness he avows o f assuming the honourable
Arn old s sarcasm is all pervadi ng : it is
! style o f Professor
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
or
e should miss
o u for a da
W
as d bo m m e n e ces s a ir e
a
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3 10
TH E E NGLIS H E S SAY AN D E SSAYI STS
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
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
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
When he went to America o n e
t h e people he was addressing
or
Tb e M aj o r i ty a n d
o f the subjects he chose was N um be r s
a n d in treating it he pointed out to a people in
tbc Re m n a n t
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
Dissidence of Dissent and the Protestantism o f the Protestant
s
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LATTE R H AL F OF T H E 1 9 T H C ENTURY
1
1
3
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 u
s b o uld lo o k fo r wa r d to be i n
s o m e da
n a e r o tb a t co n ce r n
m
f
g
y
g
—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
“
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
I n essence it is the D ivine I njunction Be ye
o f cure
Perfect
done not into British but into Ar n o lde s e I t is
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TH E ENGLIS H E S SAY AND E SSAYI STS
1
2
3
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
Th e great thi ng
abandoned
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
Th
Th e sentence
His wit smacks o f hi s o wn person a lity
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
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3
TH E ENGLI S H E SSAY AND E S SAYI STS
4
Th e literary characteristics o f Thomas Henry Huxley ( 1 82 5
were
not
dissimilar
to
those
o f Bagehot
)
9
Huxley too
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
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
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
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
18 5
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LATTE R H AL F OF THE 1 9T H C ENTURY
1
3 5
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
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
o f the Bible :
T
hi
leas
for
the
study
hroughout
the
story
of
p
the western world the S criptures Jewish and Christian have
been the great instigators of revolt against the worst forms
Th e Bible has been the
o f clerical and political despotism
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
the great saying of Micah
m ir a t io n of it
S peaking o f
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
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TH E ENGLI S H E SSAY AND E S SAYI STS
3 16
scientific insight can touch thi s if any o n possessed o f know
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 !
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
s essayist
A
g
y
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
E
u
1 ) sho w s hi m bent o n holiday
hese
pleasant
o
r op e
1
8
T
7
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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
Ga rn e k eepe
He paints a dreamy slumberous
t Ho m e
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
A d th r ugh t h l
h utt l guid s
th g ld
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o
n
o
e
an
oo m
so n
e
e
m e
e
e
en S
o
es
v
.
F o 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
and
w
ch
seems
more
appro
c e t i ble only n o w and then
hi
p
r i a t e in romance o r in autobiography as in Tb e S to
of m
y
p
y
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
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LATTE R H AL F OF T H E 1 9 T H C ENTURY
1
3
.
9
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
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
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
of the judgment appears in a hundred passages such as that
above quoted
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TH E ENGLI S H E SSAY AND E SSAYI STS
20
3
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
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
I t was how
F rancis Thompson b e long to the same decade
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
Tw o o r three had read more widely two o r three
b y a few
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
o wn
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TH E ENGLI S H E S SAY AND E SSAYI STS
3 22
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
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
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
where
he
S
imply
allowed
novel
scenes
and
strange
ap n
j
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
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
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
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S O ME E SSAYI STS OF YE STE RDAY
2
3 3
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
Probably Gissin g began with
is Gissing himself imparts
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
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TH E E NGLI S H E SSAY AND E S SAYI STS
4
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
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
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
He who knew s o well the value o f time and who
S tevenso n
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
o ne
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6
3
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
to the fact that it is a revelation of the temperament o f a n
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S O ME E S SAYI STS OF YE STE RDAY
2
3 7
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
Th e essay in which Gissing
s e t beside the essay o n Old Cb i n a
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
but it b elongs to the same order o f writings
s bi e
H
With Tbc S up e r a n n ua te d M a there is n o t resemblance but
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
a
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3 28
TH E ENGLI S H E S SAY AND E SSAYI STS
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
”
of unendurable excellence
S poken by O scar Wilde this
would probably have b een merely a scintillation o f wit dyi n g
To the graver and deeper mind o f Thompson
as soon as born
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
s t be S plintered into c olour b y the refracting me di a o f the
m u
in di vidual mind and humani ty will always prefer the colour
Theoretically we ought to have no mannerisms ; practically
we cannot help having them and without them sty le would be
”
—
faultily faultless icily regular S plendidly null
a v o ur les s
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
Th hi storian free from prejudice is like the
it s expression
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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
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,
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Ho li n es s , A S tudy of
Re la ti o ns be twee n B r o tber As s
tbc
tbe
Here again we find the ascetic
and mystic Thompson coming singul arly near to Bro wning
B o dy a n d b is Ride r tbe S o ul
.
.
ys
s ay ,
es
o-
L e t us n o t al w a
p
fl ht d y
—
I st
d h d g i d gr u d up th w h l !
A t h b i d wi gs
d si g
All g d thi g
L t u
y
A
r
w th
fl h h lp s ul !
u
ul h lp fl h
S it e o f t hi s
r o ve , m a
r
s
e
e
s cr
re o
e
n
,
rs , n o r s o
ea
a
a ne
.
an
n
s,
oo
n
s
e
s
es
o
m o
Asceticism , Thompson
n
on
e, no
,
o e
e
an
es
s
e
o
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
,
,
.
,
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,
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,
,
.
S O ME E S SAYI STS O F YE STE RDAY
1
33
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
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
xtraordi nary power to transmit the literary faculty whi ch the
Coleridge f amily exhibits in a degree unrivalled by any other
That S h e
S h e deserves notice for her o wn merits also
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
.
,
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,
n
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e
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,
THE ENGLI S H
332
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
where they have scarcely a rival except the books of
o wn
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
Even o n the
f e r in g with that whi ch he does n o t understand
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
.
,
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,
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,
,
,
,
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
Our
t un a t e in being able to express itself in terms o f dust
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
,
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3 3 4 T H E ENGLI S H E S SAY AN D E S SAYI STS
‘
Wi ck low and I n Wes t K er ry as well as hi s dramas have fin e
,
,
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
”
Ho w few and simple are the touches
beauty o f th e world
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
.
,
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,
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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
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
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
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
all ages b egotten great literature
Th e pencil o f the Holy
”
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
,
,
,
’
e
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:
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e
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fl
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’
-
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a
,
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fl
,
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.
ENGLI S H E S S AY AND E S SAYI STS
3 3 8 TH E
C AM B R ID G R O 1 4 3
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2 56
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1 14
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qu t d 1 7 7 ; 5 ; qu t d 24 ; Co l
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6 7 2 7 5 : a r i ty f C
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143
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h am b e r s R o b e r t 2 5 4 2 5 5
1 36
ha m pi o n Th e 1 2 9 ii
h a m a n , G eo
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ha r acte r i s tic s
ha r ac te r i s ti cs
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ha r a cte r of a Tr i m m e r ( o v e n
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246 -2 5 4
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E s s a o n Tr uth 1 6 5
Es sa s an d
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ha r a cte r s of a
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a nd
53
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THE ENGLI S H E S S AY AND E S SAYI STS
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T H E ENGLI S H E SSAY AND E SSAYISTS
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IN D E X
W art o n J o s e ph 1 3 7 1 3 8
Wa tchm a n Th e 2 1 7
W a t ts D un t o n W T 3 1 6
W e h b e W illi am 1 1
Wh i g E xa m i n e r The 1 2 9
W h it e Gilb e r t 3 1 8
W ilde O s c ar 3 06 3 2 8
W ilk e s J o h n 1 5 5
W ils o n J o h n 7 f
W ils o n J o h n (Ch r is t o ph e r N o r t h )
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Ti c k e ll T h o m as uo t e 1 1 3
Ti m b e r o r D i s co ve r i e s 3 0
93
Ti m e s A 'n ato zn i z ed The 5 4
T o m j o ne s 1 3 0 f 1 3 6
T aill H D
3 17
Tr ue Us e of S tud a n d Reti r e m e n t
Of the 1 6 1
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Wi n te r s lo w 1 81
Wi tn e s s The 2 5 6 f
W o ls e le y R o b e r t 9 3
Wo n de rf ul Ye a r The 4 1
W o o d An t h o n y 4 5 4 8
Wo rds wo r t h W illi am 1 80
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W AI N E W R I GH T T G 2 2 8
W al p o le H o ra c e q uo t e d
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1 12
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Wo r ld The 1 4 2 fi
W o rs fo ld B as il 1 1 9
Y o un
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T E M P LE P R E S S
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W alto n I s aac quo t e d
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Vulga r E r r o r s , 7 0 f , 7 3 , 7 9
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R I N T E R S L E T C H W O RT H
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Wal k e r , Hugh
Th e En g l i s h
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e s s ay
DO NO T
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