The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1906-07-24

WI 4'iAtlItEIu 8I Darts anu
.-Iooab!encss Of style. The successful
.-t"rian Is necessarily a man Of patti
.ut toll. OF calm. well poised mind n
..0crra lover of truth, q careful sitter
.E tNidcuce. able to trace effects back
.. their causes, Il master Of II clean.
trumg, animated, flowing style, if he
would not be considered as 81 dull. dry
."r. itciOrc Joseph Hume wrote his
..,at works on ItugIand-thc first his
tn1'ral productions to which were APP
f.#.I the principles Of plilosophy-it
".e thought by those who cSSaEcd the
..funult and rarely successful task Of
.1l'E.- genuine history. tina all which
H.s necessary in order to WOO success
IuI.E the somewhat capricious Muse
HIp is thought to preside . the de-
raIi!ucnt Of letters, was to be indus
frLaus enough to collect a vast array or
.arlS and opinions. orange them in
s~aolNOGiC&I order. and present them
.n fairly correct if commonplace Eng
.i~h. by History these requircments
"eTc supposed to be implied and these
only. But since Hume wrote his SUI
lo.Iior. elevated, lucid work. this i'm
I%Duriant branch Of human knowledge
and Investigation has received a very
INHERENT much more extended
urld of inquiry and Investigation. IN
hccd, even as regards the mere mat
ter Of style, there has been a great
change and imprOvemcnt-an clevat-
ing of The manner. the style, the in
trrcSt. The language, the style Of
Hume, Gibbon, Robertson, Hallam,
MacHUiaY, Green. Froudc. Mccarthy,
and other later writer's, is far more
brilliant and engaging. more comprc-
h"nSiN" and imposing, and | may add,
even minute. than tha of our earlier
period. But unless It due considera-
ZION if given to a searching after facts.
and Il rigid presentation Of the truth
i@ always considered, then there is
much that is lost. \ dull. inanimatc
historian has often missed his facts
forgotten to be precise and full,
and with a due regard to the moral
qualities of the facts. Just as the more
brilliant and richly endowed histori-
ans have sometimes done, but in each
cas-" there is serious loss. Whilst
history as written by the grand
modern masters has ceased to be
= mere compendium Of facts, or u
dry, I~Il"lcSS StOrC-houSc Of the past.
it has become far more conversations
nj and instructive. He who would
DOW achieve emuincnCe as an historical
writer, must to Candor, patience, care,
truthfulnc#s, unite the ardor of a
lover of the past, an insight into the
tIU" philosophy of life. and q minG
that is comprehensive enough to grasp
all the facts, and recognize, duly the
qualities of the various actors and
characters, and present them in their
true relations in language. of idiomatic
purity, elegance and force. \ writer
W no is blind to the laws Of Providence
as exhibited III the vents of history
will not be able. of course, to trace
thcIn. 10 talk of q person of small
intellectual CO1nD1SS and of weak and
narrow ~preiudiccs writing history in
my popular view. is really to talk
nonsense. He may write even 4 sharp.
amusing, goSsipinG book, but such an
one never writes history III fact. The
most entertaining, brilliant historian
hjjtcTlN EirarGICty- attacked for.
his errors, prejudiceS. and defects in
ms moral qualities. OF course most
Of the bitter %Ssaul are from Tories
and their allies. But he was not the
liar, the i~GIlOr3muS, the perVcIIcr of
facts, the blinded fanati that the
rory crowd have C~Ontcnded for. They
write of him rs if he were a very
bad man, q very immoral man, q hateI
of truth, morally insensibie, and 50
on. And yet scores of his own con
tCnpoTaries and political friends knew
him to be a man OF another and much
higher type. You can not read what
contemporaries said in his praise ana
appreciation OF that very remarkably
interesting, faithful and we'll guarded
biography of him written by his high
~ accomplished nephew, Sir Otto
FreVclyan. without an increased adj
mIratlOn of the man, and higher con
fidencc in his integrity ana charac-
ter. one of the most daShing, bitter
by w l'iil-, 'Sr'|ItlbS 1N1i Ildtt upoll =
great EnglishGnan was written on July
"th, 1898, by the able editor of the
London "Li~teraturc," Mr.. fl. D, TrailI.
am unconpromising Tory. There is
no writer in literature Of q n1eaner
eharartcr than that given to the great
historian. BrOughan. John Morley,
'ottcr Morrison. Matthew Arnold,
and others have done what
1hcy could to lesson 1.-THE standing
and influence of Macalay. But only
81 fA,- go, q, I.- ~ p-~-
Of Gladstonc'S great Cabinet, and an
English author of distinction, said
that now in England no speeches of
TN" iliustriOus orators and statesmen
of the past were read, except by
scholars and men of letters perhaps,
except those of Burke and Macaulay.
"Lfteraturc," complained OF Macau-
lays surviving influence and deplorcd
tine blindness and Ignorance of the
present generation Of Englishmen. 1t
said:
The truth is of course, that what
ever history the average Englishman
has not gathered from Scott and
shakespeare he owes to Nacaulay,
and that il is almost as difficult to
eradicate the beliefs implanted i'll his
mind by the last of these
as it is to rid him of the Impressions
left by the other tWO.'
What a wonderful man M%acaulav
must be. dcrided, scOffed at, robbed of
aI virtue. Of all moral character, he is
~tII welding a great influence on the
living Britons. Professor George
lutSbulY, Of the University Of Ed
lnburgh, is a sound, judicious critic,
H"t iufaiIibIc, but sincere and able ana
earnest. He finds fault with Mac
"uIaE, but says of him as a writer
that 1t is perhaps the dearest style
i1 English that does not, like those
of SNrfft nhhntt HoHharatalN ar ScOrli-
fully CSCheW rhcStOricle ornament
What M~acaulay means YOU never, be
ing any degree short of an idiot, can
tail to understand; and yet he gives
you the Scnse equipped with q very
considerable amount of preparation
and trimming"
What Il pity it is then that so thor
"Ugh a master of style is 50 corrupt,
&" blind, so ignorant, such a failure
go immoral. And this is what the Tory
h"Wlors say of him in chorus. But
even 'Literature," that so bitterly