The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1876-04-29
Recent Publications.

Two Volumes VOL one. New York: Harper 81
Brothers. For sale by Loring, Short g. Harmon.
Margaret Fuller once said that all men love
gossip, they only differ in the kind. OF all
gossip certainly the most entertaining to many
is that concerning famous people. Books of
autobiography and memoirs have always been
in much demand, and nothing has been held
trifiing which concerns the demi-gods. So it
may be assumed that the life and letters of
Lord Macaulay, work OF which the first vol
ume Is now before the American public, will
| meet with welcome irrespective of its merits.
A perusal Of the volume will deepen the well
come into hearty liking and approval
Of Thomas Babington Macaulay little Is
known by the majority of people except that
| he wrote history of England, some brilliant
essays in the reviews, and was the author of
| Lays of Ancient Rome" An ndistinct idea
prevails that he essayed political life and
failed, and the impression obtains that he tried
to make speeches in parliament and did not
| succeed, people reasoning from unapparent
premises that man who can write brilliantly
cannot be an effective speaker. His writings
are known and admired wherever the English
language is spoken or studied, but the man
himself is stranger. Little is to be learned
of him from his books, for from the crcum-
stances there is no self.revelation in them;
they teach us something of the variety and ex-
tent OF his knowledge, of the vastness of his
industry, of the favorite direction of his study,
and that is all. Now for the first time we be-
come acquainted with the man. His nephew
gives us work for which library shelves have
been yearning His materials are ample, for
Macanlay left much correspondence behind
him, and his family. who evidently early en-
tertained the idea that he was to be man of
mark, have carefully preserved everything of
interest in connection with him, or that could
throw any light upon his character from his
childhood to the day OF his DEATH Mr. Trevel-
yam has made excellent use Of his rich mate
rial and has given US one of the most delight
full of modern memoirs. He has the good
taste and judgment to entirely subordinate
himself to his subject and attention is never
distracted from from that subject to the author
The simplicity and unobtrusiveness of his style
aid him greatly in this respect, so the reader
does not overlook the material in admiration
of the workmanship, a workmanship which
only strives to give the material fit setting
and its worthier portions proper relief and
display. The world win learn from this vol
ume to entertain kindly regard for the man
whose genius it has long admired but whose
personality has been scarcely more than a
shadow. Macaulay is shown in these pages
warm hearted, generous, genial, self-sacrific-
ing, possessed of grand impulses which he
bravely followed out, benefactor to his fell
lows, stannch supporter of the rights of man,
and faithful son and affectionate kinsmau.
Macaulay was born in 1900. He was of
Highland Scotch blood, and his immediate an
cestors for three generations were clergymep.
His ia ther Zachary, was minister and an
editor, prominent anti-slavery agitator, and
friend of Wilberforce. His mother, Selma
Mills, was pupil and pet of Hannah More.
We find the young Macaulay at the age of four
years. quaint little fellow caring little for 9th.
er children and their smusements, enormous
ly fond of reading even then, and much given
to conversation. His surroundings were "the
Clapham set," familiar to all readers of "The
Newcomes," and to which he long after in
sisted that Thackeray had done but scant JUS
tice. From the time that he was 3years DID,,
says his biographer, 'he read necessarily, for
the most part lying on the rug before the fire,
with his book on the ground, and a piece of
bread-and-butter in his hand. A very clever
woman, who then lived in the house as parlor-
maid, told how he used to sit in his nankeen
frock, perched on the table by her as she was
cleaning the plate and expounding to her out
of volume as big as himself. He did not care
for toys, but was very fond of taking his walk,
when he would hold forth to his companion,
whether nurse or mother, telling interminable
stories out of his own head, or repeating what
he had been reading, in language far above his
years. His memory retained without effort the
phraseology of the book which he had been
last engaged on, aud he talked, as the maid
said, quite printed Words which produced an
effect that appeared formal, and often, No
doubt, exceedingly droll." At an early age he
was sent to school. But he always hated to 60,
and begged hard to be permitted to stay at
home in the company of his favorite books.
He appears to have been wonderfully preco-
cious child, and was already an author at the
age of seven, having written compendium of
universal history, an argument for the CONVEX
sion of the Malabar heather to Christianity,
and heroic poem after the model of the
Eneid His first published production was
an anonymous letter addressed to his father as
editor of the Christian Observer, defending
works of fiction. The communication was in
cautiously published, much to the wrath of
many godly subscribers.
BE was a devourer of books from the first,
and what be once read he never forgot. His
memory was wonderful. 1t is related of him
that once upon time, when a child, che ac-
companied his father on an afternoon and
found on table the Lay of the Last Minstrel
which he had never before met with. He kept
quiet with his prize while the elders were talk
ing, and on his return home sat down
upon his mothers bed, and repeated to her as
many cantos as she had the patience or strength
to listen to-" In later life, ''He was known to
say that if bv some miracle of vandalism, all
copies of Paradise Lost and The Pilgrims
Progress were destroyed off the face of the
earth, he would undertake to reproduce them
from reco lection" In 1873 while waiting in
Cambridge coffse-room for post-cbaise which
was to take him to his echool, he picked up a
county newspaper containing two such speci-
mems of provincial poetical talent as in those
days might be read IN the corner of any week
ly Journal. One piece was headed Reflections
on an Exile while the other was a trumpery
parody on the Welsh ballad AR hyd y nos re-
ferring to some local anecdote of hostler whose
nose had been bitten off by filly. He looked
them once through and never gave them a
thought for 40 years, at the end of which time
he repeated them both, without missing or, as
far as he knew, changing a single word" He
literally devoured books with bis eyes and
mind, taking in the sense as fast as he could
turn the leaves, absorbing the print through
his skin," as some one said of him.
In 1918 he entered Cambridge where some of
the happiest years of his life were passed,
though he failed to attain the highest honors
because of his invincible dislike to mathemat-
les. His academic career was crowned by
fellowship at Trinity, and in 1926. he was called
to the bar. His literary career began in 1925
with the contribution to the Edinburgh Review
ofathe splendid essay on Milton. From that
time he was famous. Succeeding articles on
on Bently and his school attracted the favor
able notice of the Wings, and in 1880 he gained
a seat in parliament. After three years of ac-