The Arkansas banner., 1847-06-02
THOMAS MAcAuLAY.

Ae those who are so fortunate as to have become familiar with the productions of this great critic, the Following rich and eloquent notice of his liter ary ability will De read with pleasure It is taken from Gil6llans Gallery of Literary Portraits. I
 Has Thomas MacauIay genius He has, but he has got it az the alchymists expected to get gold, by transmuiation. He has trans- muted vast learning, and varied accomplish ments into one sweet and subtle thimg, which really deserves the name of genius. He was wont. even when young, to De suruamed, by bis associates, "Macaulay the Omniseien,' 2 History, law, literature, political economy, nay, theology and science seem, so far as purposes of illustration require, to be per- scctly al his command. There are probably, many who know as much, or more than he; but few have so wrought their knowledge into the substance of their minds, few have so sub limaied the dead fuel into flame-Aame brisk and unburdened by the masses 1t has consumed Many call for iheir stores Of kncwletlee, and it comes forth from the lumber-room of their n,ind-lumber. as it had entered, cold and stiff, and dead; but, from Maeanlay's inner chamber, ii issues 'sas in dance;;n warm, spir- itualized, moving to the music of his elo- quent mind. In conversation he pours out torrents of facts. In his review articles you
 find floods of facts. In his speeches, he hangs strings of facts around one or two master principles. In his poetry, he sets fire to facts, m themselves as dry as Homer's catalogue of ships, and you are reminded of stubble a-blaze. Like his own fayorite, Bun yan, he unites prosaic and literal 10 ideal and imaginative qualities. Scarcely one Of hIs sentences is poetical, and yet the whole of bls article is a perfect poem. Just as hard y sentence of Bunyan has an image or flower, and yet the whole is steeped in the essence of imagination. The stream of poe sy flowing under ground, is in both betrayed now and then solitary word. And the req son IS, that, to both, facts are real exis.ences, they do not lie leaning upon the cold page, they stand upright. and, through the got- den haze which covers the eye Of the seer, look ideal. The facts, too, though simple, are select, and suitable for imaginative treat ment. There is a youthful freshness of im- agination about Macaulay, which is most de- lighdui to see. Shallow criiicasters say ofa him, in rebuke and derisiou, that he writes like schoolboy, paying him, unintention- ally, one of the highest compliments they could bestow upon full grown and thorough ly furnished man. The secret as it seems to us, of perfect composition, is manly wis dom, uttered in youthful language. Coler- idge calls genius ''the power of producing ths feelings and freshness of youth into the powers and passions of manhood.o So Mac ausay, to this hour, talks of the deepest spec ulations of policy and poesy with all the en. .husiasm of an E.on boy. One childish thing however, it were we'll for him to put away; we mean certain mannerism of style, which adheres to all his articles.-He is the most easily detected of writers, except, per haps. Christopher North. You cannot read two sentences without being aware of his identity. All his prominent quali,ies,-his muscular nerve,--his balanced autithesis.- his sharp short form of seDtence,-his thoroughly English spirit, his enthusiasm breaking out at intervals, his elaborate pie lures set al distances, hts decisive tone, his unbounded command of Illustration, his keen and crushing contempt, his intimate knowl- edge of personal history. all these lie upon the surface, and are perpelually reproduced, in every one of his compositions. He is not the most profound, or poeiical, or ingenious, but he IS the most rhetorical of critics. By- ron was often blamed for sna,ching the senli- ments of the Lakers out of their mouths. and ulierng them in prouder and more impas- stoned accents. So Macaulay seizes the par adoxes of Coleiidge and Hazliti, and pres ents them in more imposing and comman- ding forms, and bedecks them from the ex- uberaut riches of his own learning; and an- nounces them in tone of more perfect as- surance. And, as Byron was the interpreter between the Lskers, as poets. and the public, so is Macaulay between them and the public, as critics. Who looks not back to ihe first perusal of his Milton with delight: The picture of the Puritans ''locking down upon the rich and the eloquent, upon nobles and uponpTiests, with contempt, esteeming them- selves rich in more enduring treasure, and eloquent in more sublime language,-no- bles by the right oG an earlier creation, and priests by the imposition ofa mightier hand,n was magnificent And with like power has he since depicted Dryden and Machiav- elli, Byron and Johnson, Bunyan and Bacon. Frederick the great and Warren Hastings. Some poet says, that atier reading Dante he could never write--from sheer despair of emulaiing his excellence. So 10 critic, reading Macaulay is the worst possible pre- Parstive for composition He can only won der and shrink into insigni6cance.
 But far better than even these celebrated articles are his Lays of AncIent Rome" He goes down the battle like scythed char lot. What homely grandeur stamps their every line. How completely does he re- produce those eaIly Roman days Standing on the old Tarpeian rock, he blows his mag l ic horn, and History gives up the dead which are in 1t, and the foster babes of the old she wolf, the men of iron,' rise an exceeding great army, and range around him, md. hark, he shouts, and they echo the thrilling cry =
 "HMl to the great Asylum;
 Hail to the hisi tops seven;
 Hail tO the fire which burns for aye