The New York herald., 1879-08-25
LITER ATUR RE.
Burke, the Orator and Man
of Letters.
ENGLISH PUBLIC OFFICES
The Poets Discussed During Va
cation Afternoons.
FARMING GIRLS AND CHiT-CHAT.
"ESoLIsH MEN OF LETTERs-BURKE. "


'ESGLIsH MEN OF LETTERs-BURKE.
The latest addition to Harper Brothers valuable
series. English Men of Letters" is a volume on
Edmund Burke. written by the editor of the series,
John Morley. Burke is a fruitful subject for the
essayist or the oiographer and Mr. Morley evidently
feels that he has agreeable task to fulfil. He has
made his book biographical rather than critical
though there are few pages OF criticism scattered
about II is nearly hundred and twenty years
since Burke first took his seat in the House of Com
mons. and it is eghry-ive years since his voice
ceased TO be heard there Opinions have until re-
Gently been widely divergent to his place
among eminent Englishmen they were when he
opened his oratorcal batteries into the ranks of the
eighteenth century parliamentarians. Tories extol
him the saviour of Europe, wings detest him as
the destroyer of his party. Now, Mr. Morley
thinks. opposing parties have had time to cool
their passions anG are able to look at Burke in his
true light Opinion" he says. "ls slowly. but
without reaction settling down the verdict that
Burke is OF the abiding names in our history.
not because he either saved Europe destroyed the
whig party, but because he added to the permanent
considerations OF wise political thought and to the
maxms OF wise practice in great affairs. and be-
cause he imprints himself upon with magnlf-
cence and elevation of expression that place him
among the highest masters of literature in one Of
its highest ana most commanding Senses" The
complaint made by some that his highest passion
was hoplessly fatal to success il the pursuit of
truth is not scorned by Mr.. Morley, but he is of
the opinion that the natural ardor which i'm
PEELED Burke to clothe his judgments in glowing
aud exaggerated phrases is secret of his
power over u.s. because it kindles in those who are
capable of that generous infection respondent in
terest and sympathy. TO Burke he accords the
sacred gift of inspiring to ga grave dill
gence in caring for high things and in making their
lives at rich and austere." Mr. Morley glances
over Burke's college career and although he finds
him contemporary at Trinity College, Dublin. with
Goldsmith. yet there is no record that these two
gifted men met. From the very beginning Of his
career Burke was drawn to the deepest of all the
current in the thoughts of the eighteenth century
what Is remarkable in Burke's first performance
say Mr. Morley, sis his discernment of the important
fact that behind the intellectual disturbances in the
sphere of philosophy. and the noisier agtatons in
the sphere of theology. there silently stllkei u
force that might shake the whole fabric of civil So
ciety ITSELF"
In writing of tho part taken by Burke in the
affairs OF Ireland Mr. Morley pauses to glance over
the condition Of Ireland at that time and he seems
to, appreciate the unhappy state of that country
Burke's attitude toward America Is also discussed
1.-THE English at this time he writes .in order to
prove that the Americans had no right to their lib
critics. were every day endeavoring to subvert the
maxims which preserve the whole spirit Of their
own. To prove that the Americans ought not to be
free they were obliged to depreciate the value of
freedom itself" The material strength of the gov.
ernment. and it's moral strength alike, would have
been reinforced by the defeat of the colonists
to such an extent to have seriously de-
layed or even jeopardized English progress.
and therefore that of Europe too As events
actually fell out the ferocious administra-
fion of the law in the last i've six years of the
eighteenth century the retribution for the leth-
argy or approval with which the mass of the Eng
lish community mad watched the measures OF tho
government against their fellow Englishmen in
America"
An interesting chapter is devoted to Burke and his
friends. Garrck was. perhaps, the most intimate
of Burke's friends. and he on familiar terms
with Gibbon. Sir Joshua DIR. johnson, Crabbe Sher-
idan. Fox Frances Burney, Hannah More and many
others. In writing of Burke an orator Mr.. Nor
ley said that his speech Cancellation with America
was probably the greatest he made. With all
his hatred for "the book in politics Burke
owed much of his distinction to that generous
richness and breadth of Judgment which had been
rpcned in him by literature and his practice
IN it. Like some other in our his
tory he showed that books are u better
preparation for statesmanship than early training
in the subordinate posts and among the permanent
officials of public department" Burke will al
ways be read with delight and edifcaton," says Mr.
Morley "because in the midst of discussions on the
local aud the accidental he scatters apothegms
that take into the regions of lasting wisdom In
the midst of the torrent OF his most and
passionate delverances he suddenly rises aloof
from his immediate subject and in all tranquility
reminds us of some permanent relation of things.
some enduring truth of human life society. We
do not hear the organ tones of Milton, for faith
and freedom had other notes in the seven
teenth century. There is of the COM
placent and wise-browed sagacity of Bacon
for Burkes were days OF eager personal strife and
party fire and civil division We are not exhilarated
by the cheerfulness, the polish the ne manners of
Bolingbroke, for Burke had an anxious conscience,
and earnest and intent that the good should
triumph. Aud yet Burke is among the greatest of
those who have wrought marves in the prose Of our
English tongue"
In concluding this admirable book with para
graph on Burke's influence Mr.. Morley says.-'The
historic method, hitting in with certain dominant
conceptions in the region of natural science. is
bringing men round TO way of looking ut society
for which Burke's maxims are exactly suited aud il
probable that he Will DO more frequently and
more seriously referred to within the next twenty
years than he within the whole of the las.
eighty"
OUR PUBLIC OFFICES"
\ very curious book Is "Our Public onices'
tTinsley n Co.. London) The author Mr. Charles
Marvin IL has served in various offices under
the British government whose inner workings he
has chosen to disclose. Ho shows up the Barnacles