New-York tribune., 1900-12-15
MACAULAY.
--ur HISTORY AND THE ESSAYS IN A
NEW EDITION.

Volumes. q. Z. Putnams Sons.
THE MISCELLANEOUS WORKS OF LORD
Selvan Knickerbooker Edition Illustrated In
Ten Octave Volumes. C. p. Putnam's Sons.
II is an old gibe that Herodotus was not
above saying the thing which was not But
rsen viii read him so long men care for lit
ersture Macaulay has been denounced for
writing his history Of England I'm the interest
~ the Wigs. He has been charged with in
accuracy. with misrepresentation. and his style
has. Of course. not escaped censure. Lord Ma
csulay had as We know" wrote Matthew Arnold
IN 1879. his own heightened and telling way of
nutting things. and must always make al
lowanoe for st." Some Of US make allowance Cor
Il with a very patrOnizing air Macaulay's
4snip-snap" has passed into proverb. But So
for that matter. have Macaulay's pictorial brill
fancy and his erabgndant vitality Those
who would undervalue his historical writings
because they are not what she modern scientific
historian would like them to be are as far from
realizing the truth are those people who
fancy that because he was called "a book in
hreeches" he must have been. in social life, a
bore Here we have new edition OF his his-
torical and miscellaneous works. handsomely
printed richly illustrated and artistically bound.
The professor who writes Introduction to the
first ten volumes thinks II necessary to give his
reader certain warning. There are few things
IN history quite so certain as Macaulay seems
10 make them. he reminds us. We all know the
old anecdote pointing TO the blissfulness Of be-
Ing as oocksure about one thing as Macaulay
was cocksure about everything Moreover"
says Professor Cheyney, "the crowning grace OF
a great historian, spirit OF candOr and a habit
q judicial fairness. was not by any means a
Characteristic Of Nacaulay's mind
All this sort Of thing is legitimate. no doubt.
But we must confess to a disposition TO disre-
gard Professor Cheyney's warning, as we have
disregarded previous deliverances Of a similar
character The fact is that with a little in
telligence. a little general reading no one need
80 very far astray, either in the History or
in the essays Macaulay. like all historians
has 10 be read with caution. Does any one
swallow whole the writings Of any great man
in the long list? For all that the scientists
may say 10 the contrary history is not merely
a correct statement of facts; II is literature
and in the very moment when it may mislead
you as TO a date il may be fruitful Of precious
thought. Professor Cheyney owns that the
characters which Macaulay has drawn Of Will
lam Penn, James ii and others: his account
Of some Of the affairs Of India connected
with the administration Of Warren Hastings
and other passages of history. have been def
ntely proved TO be erroneous. This is known
10 most Of US. But Macaulay. as much as any
historian published, is calculated TO raise
the question TO which have lately had oc-
oasion TO refer in dealing with Mr.. Morley's
Cromwell" It has been said Of the latter book
that. It added nothing 10 recorded fact, it
might just as Well have been left unwritten
But we do not read Mr.. Morley for facts, merely
We want 20 know his ideas about a man and
epoch, ana when we get them we derive
from them intellectual nutriment. 1t is the
same with Macaulay. His philosophy may not
be profound he may lack the fire OF creative
genius. but he had a powerful mind, and TO
watch 1t playing around interesting theme is
in itself something worth while We know that
he was a careful craftsman, that his writings
were corrected and revised before they saw the
light IN print, but when are reading them
what we are chiefly conscious OF is of a brilliant
taIke- unfolding a strenuous narrative with
amazing vigOr and skill
We lay particular stress upon this point be-
cause We have neither the time nor the space for
an extended examination of the History as a
work meet for instruction-even If such a dis
cussion We're in the slightest degree necessary at
this time. We testify rather TO the dominant
factor in the impression derived from that mo-
mentary return 10 Macaulay which the appear
ance OF this new edition invites. We remember,
IN turning the historians pages, how much has
been done 10 modify his judgments, but we
able criticisms Of him as a writer. What does It
matter that he cultivated a kind OF ''snip-snap"
when 10 open the History" at any page is to be
touched by its interest, by its eloquence? II We
have this sensation of pleasure on reopening
the History we feel it IN even a greater de-
gree when we dip into the miscellaneous works
II is true that there, by ill luck, one may hap
pen 10 light first of ali upon the Lays" and
unless one is in a very sympathetic mood these
may easily send one away at the start. They
are the last things in the world on which the
panegyrst Of Macaulay can safely pause. But
il bis poetry is dubious his prose is unfailing in
its appeal He was unfair to walpole. it is true.
as we may judge from passage like this:
The faults Of Horace walpoIes head and heart
are indeed sufficiently glariug. His writings, IL
is true, rank g. high among the delicacies OF
Intellectual epicures es the Strasburg pies among
the dishes described in the "Almanach des Gour-
mands" But. as the pate de fois gras owes its
excellence 10 the diseases OF the wretched ami
nal which furnishes il, and would be good for
nothing IL II were not made of lvers prefer
naturally swollen, so none but an unhealthy and
elsorganized mind could have produced such
literary luEuries as the works Of Walpole.
He was, unless we have formed a very erro-
neous judgment OF his character, the most eccen-
trc, the most artificial. the most fastidiOus, the
most capricious Of men. His mind a bundle
OF inconsistent Whims and affectations- His
features We're covered by mask within mask
When the outer disguise Of obvious aIectauOn
was removed you were still as far as ever from
seeing the real man. He played innumerable
parts. and OVeracted them all. When he talked
Hssnthropy he Out-TimOned TinOn. When he
talked philanthropy he left Howard at an i'm
measurable distance He scoffed at courts, and
Kept chronicle Of their most triaing scandal;
~ society. and was blown about by its slightest
peerings OF opinion; al literary fame, and left
fair copies Of his private letters. with copious
notes. be published after his decease; at rank,