The examiner. [volume] (Louisville, Ky.) 1847-1849, 1848-01-01
n. n. NIncauly.

The English give regular portraits of their
distinguished men. We seldom read one of
them that we do not fancy the subject dcs-
sribed, as sitting to the rtist who sketches him.
for full length, Of the fidelity Of which we
have no misgivings. Antithess, contrast, strik-
ing aneedote, stirring and breezy sort of style
often mark these delineations of the character.
of living men. Here is a sample from TAFT
II is said to be "true,'' il is certainly, in its
way, quite "forcible."
Before proceeding to consider his sepa-
rate claims upon public admiration, we will
sum up, in few sentences, our impress.
ions Of his general character. He is gift
ed, but not, in high sense, a great man.
He is a rhetorician without being an ora
tor. He is endowed with great powers Of
perception and acquisition, but with no pow
er Of ongination. He has deep sympathies
with genius, without possessing genius of
the highest order itself. He is strong and
broad, but not subtle or profound. He is
not more destitute Of original genius than he
is Of high principle and purpose He has
all common fasulties developed in large
measure, and cultivated to an intense de-
gree. What he wants is the gift that can
not be givsn-the power that cannot be
counterfeited-the wind that bloweth where
it listeth--the vision, the Joy, and the sor-
row with which no stranger intermeddIeth,
the light which never was on sea or shore,
the CONSIDERATION and the poets dream
"To such gifts, indeed, he does not pre-
tend, and never has pretended To roll
the raptures Of poetry, without emulating
its speeiosa miraculd--to write worthily Of
heroes, without aspiring TO the heroic-to
write history without enacting ito furnish
to the utmost degree his own mind without
leading the minds Of others one point far.
Their than to the admiration of himself and
of his idols, seems, after all, to have been
the main object of his ambition, and has
already been nearly satisfied. He has
played the finite game Of talent, and not
the infinite game Of genius. His goal has
been the top Of the mountain, and not the
blue profound beyond; and on the point
he has sought he may speedily be seen, re-
lived against the heights which he cannot
reach-a marble fixture, exalted and mo-
tionless. Talent stretching itself out to
attain the attitudes and exaltation Of genius
is pitiable and painful position, but it is
not that OF Macaulay. With piercing sa-
gacity he has, from the first, discerned his
proper intellectual powers, and sought with
his whole heart, and soul, and mind, and
strength, TO cultivate them. 'Macaulay
the Lucky he has been called; he ought
rather to have been called Macaulay the
Wise.
"With a rare combination OF the arts OF
age and the fire Of youth, the sagacity of the
wording and the enthusiasm OF the scholar,
he has sought selfdevelopemeni as his prin-
cipal, if not only end.
"He is gifted, but not in high sense, a
great man. He possesses all those orna-
ments, accomplishments, and even natural
endowments, which the great man requires
for the full emphasis and effect OF his pow
er (and which the greatest alone can entire
ly dispense with) but the power does not
fill, possess, and shake the drapery. The
lamps are lit in gorgeous effulgence; the
shrine is modestly, yet magni6cently, adorn-
ed; there is everything to tempt a gcd to de-
scend; but the god descends motor il he
does, it is only Maia's son, the Eloquent,
and not Jupiter, the Thunderer The dis
tinction between the merely gifted and the
great is, we think, this--the gifted adore
greatness and the great; the worship the inf
mite, the eternal, and the god.like. The
gifted gaze at the moon like reflections Of the
Divine--the great, with open face, look at
its naked sun, and each look is the princi-
pie and prophecy Of an action =
"He has profound synpathies with gen.
Jus, without possessing genius Of the highest
order itself. Genius, indeed, is his intel
lectual god. 1t is CONTRARY to a common
oPinion) not genius that Thomas Carlyle
worships. The word genius he seldom
uses, in writing OF in conversation, except in
rierison. We can conceive a savage Gu
elimination at the question, il be thought
Cromwell or Danton great genius. 1t is
energy in certain state Of powerful pre-
cipitation that he 30 much adniires. With
genius, as existing almos. undiluted in the
person Of such men as Keats, he cannot
away. Ii seems to him only a long swoon
or st, vitus' dance, 1t is otherwise with