Morning journal and courier., 1889-07-16

eism, the criticism of epithet or epigram, is
interpreted by knowledge of the critic. |
Lamb is essentially poet, but this critic I |
knew to be wholly destitute of Imagination.
Lamb is full of wit; he is one of the wittiest
of English authors. But the critic had no |
sense Of humor. Lamb is an exquisite lite |
rary artist. But the critic again had no ar
tistio instinct. The opinion of such an au-
thor as Lamb. which such judge delivers |
in banco, as the lawyers say, Is as valuable, |
but only as valuable, as the opinion which /
spectator without an eye for color may ex- l
press Of Titan or Glorgione.
It Is one of the best known remarks of the /
sonorous DR.. johnson that whoever wishes to /
attain an English style familiar, but not |
coarse, and eloquent, but not ostentatious,
must give his days and nights to the volumes /
of Addison. The hmpid and sparkling pur- l
ity of the -Addisonisn prose is delightful.
But there are many delightful styles in i
English literature, and it would have been a /
distinct loss if Johnson's great contsmpora-
~, Edmund Burke, had been content to re-
produce Addison's charming periods, while
one of the finest favors in literary style
would have been wanting had Ella trimmed
his essays into the form of the Spectator.
There are few words in our literature, as
the older boys at st. Austin's have doubtless
heard in the classroom, which are SO re-
markable for feliciteus art as the essays of
Ella. Even the archaisms and quaintnesses
have no air of artifciality in their perfect
sincerity. Jeremy Taylor, Milton and Burke
are masters Of what the French call in paint
ing the great style. They have passages of
magnificent music. But there Is no truer or
more substantial music than that which is
also heard in Ella. 1t is of another strain
than that of the other masters, but the mod
ulatad rhvthno fha stQtafu ond ho
delicate and subtle choice of words and
phrases are all there. This felicity appears
in the first of the essays, "The Old South
Sea House," and it is very characteristic of
"Blakesmoor." The ease and poise of con
scious power are as. evident in Lamb as in
any other author among the English classics.
Like all masters of STYLE he reveals unex-
pected resources in language which we
carelessly suppose has displayed all its rich
es, until the next magician appears and
| shows our mistake. Browning's "The Ring
| and the Book" is one of the more recent ex-
| amples of this service. But in Browning
| there is not always the lambent transparency
which is constant in Lamb. Ella, indeed, is
not pedantic in insisting always upon the
| Saxon word. If he finds the Latin to be
more suitable for his purpose it is not dis
| carded, but becomes in his hands more ft-
4 ting and effective. No style is freer than his
from carelessness or commonplace. What
seems to him worth saying would hardly
seem 80 if he did not see how it could be
we'll said. In chasing cup, in carving a
crucifx, or embossing dagger, Benvenuto
Cellini ehowed the instinct and gift of artis-
| tic expression and power in different de-
gree, indeed, but no less than Michel Angelo
in building basilica. There is a
| certain great and deep humanity In Lambs
| spirit, a suffusion of tenderness upon his
page and latent melancholy sometimes, like
| minor chord softly touched, which are not
/ wholly understood until his life is known.
Then, the exquisite artist in words, this de-
lightful companion whose talk on every pass
ing theme or pleasant hint is SO racy and hu-
morous and shrewd, SO fine in appreciation,
felicitously adequate es it rises to some
larger topic or higher emotion, becomes he-
roic and exalting, and the blithe flower of
what seem gay literary bubbles gives us a
deeper reverence for human nature.
| That here was new writer in the perma-
| nent sense, another accession to the band of
English worthless in letters, was soon evident.
The traditions of johnson and Burke still
fingered
But newer day was breaking, and Words.
worth. Coleridge, Byron, Shelley and Keats
| were all coming to their own. With Words
| worth, Coleridge and Southey Lamb was on
| most friendly terms. But nothing was more
, amusing than the effort to classify him with
| the Lake school. There was never q free
lauce in literature. The only authors whom
} he recalls in any degree are as individual a
f himself There is sometimes touch as o
Sir Thomas Browne or Funer, or Cowley, O
, | more remotely of DR.. Dome or Quarles, or
turn like George Herbert. But there is n,
3 imitation, no reproduction. 1t is the SAM
| wayward, curious spirit of 'self-pleasinI
quaintness," in another form than theirs
: but as charming, as exquisite and as true.
RI Lamb was thoroughly imbued with tn,
! Elizabethan literary feeling, and Anger call
him last of the Elizabethans.
This is true of the measured movement OF
/ his prose in many passages. But the pur'
transparency and sparkling flow of his style
even when most daintily delicate, is his owl
| music and charm, and recalls no other. II
the assured performance of his fame, bu
fame founded on very limited production
| Lamb is like another consummate literary
l artist, the poet Grey. In both there is thu
9 same patient and careful elaboration, ant
both point to the moral that it Is the perfec
' tion of form which is essential to the classic
9 But in the prose writer there is also kindl
sympathy, yearning charity, which in thei
fine expression defy oblivion.
"Saint Charles Thackeray happily calle,
him, and among the lost treasures of litera
ture we may we'll reckon a lecture upon thi
humorist by Thaekeray. But not ever
| Thaekeray could have characterized Eli
y more tenderly and truly than Ella has char
!: acterized himself No other author exoep
perhaps Hawthorne has described himself il
his own manner so dexterously and happil,
!. | as Lamb. It is not an unusual device ant
Irving adopts it in the introduction to Knick
= erbocker's History. After reading Carlyle'
: | amusing illusions to Lamb, amusing as "a
account of the impression of quaint melo
i dy upon man without an ear for music, i
t is well to turn to the preface of the last es
. says, "By Friend of the Late Ella"
" "Few understood him." he says, but wit
humorous exaggeration which must be re
! membered, "snd am not certain that at al
u times he quite understood himself. He to
: much affected that dangerous figure, irony
- He sowed doubtful speeches and reaped un
Il equivocal hatred. He would interrupt tn
:. gravest discussion with some light jest, an
e yet perhaps not quite irrelevant in ears ths
ls could understand it. Your long and muc
l takers hated him." This, too, a kindl
% irony. Hatred was absolutely incongruol
with any feeling possible for Charles Lam
20 the author or the man. No man probab
II was ever more perfectly revealed by the a
it thor, and no author was ever more tender
" and truly loved aa a man.