The examiner. [volume] (Louisville, Ky.) 1847-1849, 1848-07-01

Lamb performed. We do not mean the
mere announcement Of his hopes-it is not
any one sct-it is his whole life which we
call heroic. To his sister he devoted him
self. in the most absolute sense Of the term;
and that in spite of recurring fits OF insan-
~. Curiously enough, Mary Lamb was,
as friend Of hers once said to us. ''the last
woman in the world whom you could have
suspected, under any circumstances, Of be-
coming insane, so calm, so judicious, so Ia
tional was She" and Hazlitt used to say,
"Mary Lamb is the only truly sensible wo-
man | ever met with" Nevertheless, she
was at no time free from the danger of q
relapse, and they never left home without
her brothers taking strait waistcoat with
him!
No one will read this story without an
increased tenderness towards Lamb, upon
whose life and writings it sheds a flood Of
light. Perhaps the very extremity OF his
suffering. the very intensity Of passion
which had been revealed TO him in this un-
happy incident, may have led him to enter
with such relish into the reckless horrors OF
our old English drama. PROFESSIONALLY,
il must have led him to those deep refec-
tons upon our moral nature, Of which from
time to time his writings give US glimpses.
That he was somewhat morbid in self scru-
Tiny cannot be denied-perhsps this also
was a result Of that great moral shock
he had received and curious instance Of
his selfcondemnation is given in a letter to
Bernard Barton:
There is Souihey, whom ought to have
thanked fortnight ago for present Of the
Church Book | have never had cour-
age to buckle myself in earnest to acknowL
edge it; yeti am accounted by some people
good man! How cheap that character is
acquired! Pay your debts. don't borrow
money, nor twist your kittens neck of, nor
disturb a congregation, &c, and the bust
ness is done. ! know things flor thong hts
are things) of myself which would make
every friend | have fly me as plague pa
tent. | once set dog upon a crabs leg
that was showed out under a mass of sea.
weeds-a pretty little feeler! Oh, pahl
how sick am of that And lie, mean
one, ] once told. | stink in the midst Of
respect"
How well he felt the uses Of adversely,
the eloquent preachings Of sorrow, may be
seen in various passages. in none better
than in John Uooduil:
"My spirits turn to IRE, they mount 50 fast.
Ny JOYS are turbulent, my hopes show hike iruition
These high and gusty rellshes OF HE, sure
| Have no allayingS Of mortality IN them.
am too hot nov and o'ercapAbe,
| For the tedious processes and creeping wisdom
| OF human acts and enterprises of man.
| want some seasofings Of adversely
Some strokes OF the old moriher, Calamity,
To take those swellings down dyines call Vanity"
From what has gone before, il will be ap
parent that the serious side of human ma
ture was not shut against Lambs penetra
ting gaze, and that his pathos springs from
the depths of resl feeling. Hence his work:
will be enduring.
Another most important element in a
writer's vitality. is style, and Lamb posses
sed it. Unlike that OF all his predecessors
contemporaries and successors, it is pecu
liarly his own: quaint, delicately picked
with sweet simplicity, joined to an arch
aic and artificial air, which, however, only
seemed artificial; singularly easy and idiom
attic in its flow, and unencumbered by su
perauous words-never rising TO the heighI
Of eloqnence, but never tnrbid with ambi
tious rhetoric; felicilous in illustration anc
in potent words; sounding the very depth:
of pathos with The simplest phrase, and sci
dom breaking up sentence for the sake o.
an antithesis or an epigram. 1t has moi
force-it has not rapidity-it has not heat;
but it is always luminous, always suited to
the subject, and in tenderness and delicate
gusto has never perhaps been surpassed
As sample of the gusto which he could
infuse into the language, We may recon.
mend our readers to his famous Disse ia.
ton on Roast Pig.
II, from considering the general charac.
teristics Of the man, we descend to his par.
ticular works, We shall find no less matter
for comment and applause. The single
volume which contains these is, altogether,
perhaps one Of the most charming we could
stand upon our shelves; it is a casket oil
gems Of small size, but OF the first water.
Ii is not book profoundly to influence the
mind; it will make no epoch in a mans in.
tellectual history; il will teach him nothing
respecting his destiny, give him no clue
wherewith to thread the labyrinth Of doubt,
furnish him with no great principles of ac-
ton, open for him no new tracks Of thought
on which discoveries can be made. But il
is, nevertheless, book to be studied with
profit, TO be read, re-read, and loved. In
the whole range Of our literature, we can
point to no book so purely charming.
Lamb is the first Of all our humorists, and
and the one most deserving Of a place in
our regard. Others may excel him in par
ticulsr points, but, taken as whole, he is
Incompatible.
or his poems We will say but little.
They have personal interest which pre-
vents their being wholly disregarded, but
they have not much intrinsic value. The
best is perhaps the tragedy Of "John Wood
vii, T" which, though feeble as tragedy, is a
sweet poem; an echo of the gentler music
Of the old dramstis;s. whom be loved 40
well. There is one splendid passage de-
scriPtive Of forest enjoyments, which we
cannot resist the pleasure Of Hanscribing:
"TOsee the sun to bed, and TO arise
Like some hot am0rist with glowing ewes.
Bursting the lsZy bands OF sleep that bound him,
With al his fires and travelling CLONES him.
Sometines the moon on soft night clouds 10 rest
Like BE- auty Eestling in young mans breast
And all the winhlng stars her landmarks, keep
Admitting silence while those lovers sleep.
Sometimes ouistretched in very idleness
Noughf doing, saying little, thinking less,
10 view the leaves, thin dancers upon air,