The Lancaster ledger. [volume] (Lancaster, S.C.) 1852-1905, 1854-10-18
MISCELLANEOUS.
Macaulay.

"Grace Greenwood" thus sketches Ma
caulay the celebrated English Histori-
an:
II have met Macaulay befo:e, but as
you have not, you will of cou rse ask la
dy's FIRST question, "How does lac look 7"
"Wel, my dear, so far rs relates to the
mere outward husk of he soul, our en-
gravers and daguerrotypists have done
their work as we'll as they usually do -
The engrav:ngs that you get in the best
editions OF his works may be considered,
suppose, fair representation of how he
looks when hs sits TO have his picture ta-
ken, which is generally very difierentfrom
the way anybody looks at any other time.
People seem to forget, in taking likeness
es, that The features of the face are moth
ing but an alphabet, and that a dry, dead
map Of a person gives no more idea how
one looks than the simple Presentation of
an alphabet shows what there is in a
poem.
"Maeaulay's whole ph ysique gives you
the impression Of great st trength and stam-
ifra of constitution. He has the kind of
name which we usually imagine as pecu-
liar. English; short, stout, and firmly
knit. There is something hearty in all his
demonstrations. He speaks in that full,
round, rolling voice. deep from the chest,
which we also conceive of as being more
common N England than America. As
to his conversation, it is just like his writ.
ing: that is TO SAY, Ii shows very strongly
the same qualities of mind.
81 am informed that he was famous for
a most uncommon memory one of those
men 10 whom IL seems impossible 10 forget
n thing once read; and he has read all
sorts Of things that can he thought OF, in
all languages. Agentleman told me that
he could repeat all the Newgare literature
banging ballads, last speeches, and dying
C, nfessIo Is; while his knowledge of Nil
ton is so accute, that if his poems were
blotted out OF existence, they might bere
stored simply from his menery. This
same accurate knowledge extends to the
Latin and Greek classics and so much OF
the literature of modern Europe. Had
nature been required to make man to or
der, for perfect historian; nothing else
could have been put together, especially
since there is enough of the poetic fire in
cluded in the composition, to fuse all these
multiplied materials together, and color
the historical capitalization with them.
"Macaulay is about fifty. He has new.
er married; yet there are unmistakeabIe
evidences, in the breathings and aspects
Of the family circle by whom he was sur
rounded, that the social part is not want
ing in his conformasion. Some very
charming young lady relations seems to
think quite as much Of their gifted uncle
as you might have done had he been
yours.
"Macaulay is celebrated as controver-
sialist; and, like Coleridge, Carlyle, and
almost o.s.y enc who anjoys this reputa
ton, he has sometimes been accused Of
not allowing people their fair share in con-
versation. This might prove an objection
possibly, to those who wish TO talk; but
as greatly preferred TO hear, il would
prove none to me. must say, however,
that on this occation the matter was equii
ably managed T ere were, should
think, some twenty five or thirty ut the
breakfast table, and the conversation form
go itself into little eddies Of two or three
around the table, now aud then swelling
out into great bay Of general discus
sion.