The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1902-12-23

To the Editor: With lovers OF the best
literature every thing that concerns the
great ~Thackeray is interesting. When
he had made a grand success in literature,
and had reached the summit, he began TO
edit the London "Cornhill Magazine,
and it created much interest. Before he
began It was London talk, and around
the Kingdom besides. Readers were on
tiptoe. for thy knew the master. He
drew to his support such an array of
real talent as probably never before or
since rallied TO the upbuilding of any
purely literary enterprise. | give only a
part Of the list, but the names selected
snow how strong, even brilliant the array
CT authors. Lord T~ennyson. Lord Tough
ton, Mrs. Stowe, Mrs. Z. r. Browning,
George Augustus Sala, Mrs. Gaskell
Mary Hewitt, Charles Lever, Frederick
Locker, Lawrence Oliphant, John Rus
Kin, t. \. Trollope, Herman Melville,
Adelaide Proctor, Matthew Arnold. Lord
Lytton, the elder, Miss Anna Thackcray
tnoW Mrs. Richie, and highly gifted)
and others not SO we'll known To my
readers, but men of mark in letters. 1t
is no wonder that it was q great and i'm
mediate success. Thackeray built him
H1iI a liIiC i1N I'D III dto III
two years. Lik Dickens and steven
son, he left an unfinished novel he called
| Denis Duval.' He was but 81, and the
cause of death was spasms, to which he
had been subject for some years. There
] is a bust of him in Westminster Abbey.
He left an income for his two daughters,
who survived him, of SO, $50 a year. He
was born in Calcutta, India, July Is,
1911. He was educated in part at Cam
bridge University, spending less than
two years there. He had a hard time of
it before he won fame and secured
money enough to live on. He married
Isabella, daughter of Col. Matthew Shaw.
in 1887. She became hoDelessly afflicted
ina few years and livCd in perfect Sc
clusion. He was practically a WidOwer
until his death or oath of December.
1868. He was considerably above six
feet high-some four inches. lie had an
ample chest. a broad f3ehead, flowing
gray hair and a broken nose. In addition
to being a novelist of the first rank, he
was much of a poet, and particularly
so as a comic poet. His Ballads are
famous, and of the best. Thackeray was
great at imitation. He initiated Bulwer,
Disraeli, Lever and G.. P. r. James and
most amusingly in burlesque. His imi-
tation of Bulwer is specially fine. The
imitation of Scott by the brothers Smith,
who wrote the famous book known ard
read still, called "Rejected Addresses,
is regarded as superb, and is praised ~
critics. Anthony Trollope, in his bioG-
raphy of Thackeray, says that Scott said
Of it that he must have written 1t HIM
self. But Scott said more, which Troll
lope fails to give. The great Scotsman
said, as it is given in Lockhart.s work,
that he never knew that he had writ
ten ANYTHING so bad" Let me mention
here that at no time was Thackeray bet
ter understood and appreciated more
heartily than at the present time. Within
two or three years several new editions
of his works have been published. tu,
zone so costly and elegant as one in his
lifetime, that sold for some $3.50 a st.
To talk about rchabilitating him is pure
nonsense. Among educated men and Wo-
men of middle age or older, he has been
a favorite. His exalted qualities OF
genius and style have been seen and
admired all alone. If any one novel IL
English is greater than all other great
novels it is Henry Esmond,' the SUI
premist work of literary art of its an-
Their, and without a parallel in any Ian
guage. Written near the middle OF the
nineteenth century, It is in the precise
style of the greatest writer's as to style o.
the early part of the eighteenth century
in the time of Queen Annette time
when Swift and Addison and Dick Steele
f1ourished.
!, am reminded here Of the variableness
of the popularity Of other great writer's
There is an un~accountahle react;cn II
the fame or admiration of some authors
Byron has been under eclipse. George
Eliot is suffering in the same way, anc
vet she is the greatest female novclls1
of the English race, as Byron is surely
one of it's greatest poets since Spenser
Shakespeare and Milton. At one time st
i delightful and great a writer az
MacauIay passed under a shadow, an
many critics sought to so detract iron
: his great qualities as to render him les:
a ~fayorite than he had been. But Their
is a complete rehabilitating Of tie lnos
fascinating ~essayist and historian OF al
who employ English as the vehicle 0
thought and expression. MATTHEW
, Arnold, a great authority a quarter of
century ago, gave Macaulay a Yer.
"black eve" by an absurdly sweepin;
and dctracting criticism. His condei2
nation offended hosts of readers. for /
was seen that either a want OF taste Q
an intense prejudice had misled this abb
essayist and assailant. Now Maca IL
is enthroned completely again, and Wit
hardly a rival. What historian has $
charmed by his style, and SO enthralle
by the presentation of historic events an
actors. Arnold predicted that Nacaula
would cease to reign. But here in an
other century English Wrlters-Pro
Jeff and Mr.. Macgregor-haVe zoo
: published lectures upon him, 1t IS reail
r AFRAID who has lost his grip upon tn
reading world, ard not the splendid his
torian and essayist, as we'll as cleFt
d poet. Read any other famous history b
an English author of repute. otuDD
Freeman. Froude, Gardiner, or an
y others. unless we except John Rlchar
Green. and who has written what =
d positively fascinating to read? who hs
shown the art-the preclslo
the clearness, the most memorable eftef
Q. tiveness of statement that Macaula
shows all through and every where?
N-.- 1yI;+a- ~ fIr1p n or IN nf