Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1886-07-29
Macaulay and Carlyle.
London News.

In its notice of the death of Ranke, the
News takes occasion to belabor Carlyle
and Macaulay with cheerful impartiality,
saying: Macaulay had reviewed him,
Carlyle had sneered at him, but his fame
is safe, and his many works are his mon
ument. 'Ingenious Herr Prof. Ranke,
whose history consists mainly of such
matter, excellentIy done, and offers man
kind a wonderously distilled astral spirit,
or ghost-like fac-simile elegant gray
ghost with stars dim twinkling through
of Friedrich's and other peoples diplo-
matizings in this world, will satisfy the
strongest diplomatic appetite, and to him
we refer such as are given that way" So
says Thomas the Truculent, and he &C
cuses Ranke of "caprices" in his treat
ment Of the archives to which he had &C
cess. Carlyle, complaining of caprice is
too apt to recall the Craccbi and famil-
lar tag about their complaints of sedi-
ton. AS for Macaulay, his verdict on
Ranke's 'HistoIy Of the Popes" is well
known. 1T is the work of mind fitted
both for minute researches and for large
speculatiOns. It is written in an admir-
able spirit, equally remote from levity
and blgotry, serious and earnest, yet toll
Grant and impartial" From this start
ing point Macaulay voyaged in single
page to the justly reprobated New Yea
lander on the broken arch of London
bridge. Now that was precisely the kind
Of fight of fancy that Ranke would not
have taken. One might as well expect
him to have filled out his volume
with that unconscionable padding of
Carlyle's about astral spirits
and elegant gray ghosts, with the stars
shining through them. In Macaulay the
New Zealander was pardonable. He was
writing copy for a magazine, after all.
But why Carlyle should have filed six fat
volumes with private CALCULATIONS very
unlike those of holy Mr.. George Herbert)
and with his own peculiar chat about all
things and all men it is difficult to dis
cover. This great and picturesque writ
er, so wonderful a personality, so admir-
able fer many virtues, literary and moral.
can not be said to have made history
an art or profession, In Carlyle, as IN
Macaulay,- nay, as in Mr.. Freeman
the eternal note OF self comes in, or ratE
er is dominant. Macaulay is bent Qet it
be admitted, despite our gratitude on
displaying his splendid panorama to the
best advantage, on showing his favorite
effects in the most powerful, albeit the
most artificial, lights. He is for hitting
every nail on the head, for making points
for balancing antitheses above all (un-
like DR.. Johnson) he is bent on seeing
that ''the wig dogs have the best of it,
Carlyle, TOBIAS his private grudges and
enthusiasm to growl out. or to chant;
he is also bent, despite what he said
about Walter Scott, on interesting, on
amasing his audience. And ne has his
own odd morality to preach, his own
view of things, now puritan, now per
verse, to justify. In short, Macauly and
Carlyle are authors of what Plato would
have considered the sophistic school.
They are rhetorical historians, pictures
que historians; they delight to dazzle Us
and aspire to convert US, Every posi-
bic figure OF writing has its drawbacks;
their styles, in all else so different have
this much IN common, that they do not
aim simply and solely at enabling US to
see things as they were.
81 hos