Part 45 (1/2)
In society, Macaulay was a great talker--he harangued his friends; and there was more than wit in the saying of Sidney Smith, that his conversation would have been improved by a few ”brilliant flashes of silence.”
But in spite of his faults, if we consider the profoundness of his learning, the industry of his studies, and the splendor of his style, we must acknowledge him as the most distinguished of English historians. No one has yet appeared who is worthy to complete the magnificent work which he left unfinished.
THOMAS CARLYLE.--A literary brother of a very different type, but of a more distinct individuality, is Carlyle, who was born in Dumfries-s.h.i.+re, Scotland, in 1795. He was the eldest son of a farmer. After a partial education at home, he entered the University of Edinburgh, where he was noted for his attainments in mathematics, and for his omnivorous reading.
After leaving the university he became a teacher in a private family, and began to study for the ministry, a plan which he soon gave up.
His first literary effort was a _Life of Schiller_, issued in numbers of the _London Magazine_, in 1823-4. He turned his attention to German literature, in the knowledge of which he has surpa.s.sed all other Englishmen. He became as German as the Germans.
In 1826 he married, and removed to Craigen-Puttoch, on a farm, where, in isolation and amid the wildness of nature, he studied, and wrote articles for the _Edinburgh Review_, the _Foreign Quarterly_, and some of the monthly magazines. His study of the German, acting upon an innate peculiarity, began to affect his style very sensibly, as is clearly seen in the singular, introverted, parenthetical mode of expression which pervades all his later works. His earlier writings are in ordinary English, but specimens of _Carlylese_ may be found in his _Sartor Resartus_, which at first appalled the publishers and repelled the general reader. Taking man's clothing as a nominal subject, he plunges into philosophical speculations with which clothes have nothing to do, but which informed the world that an original thinker and a novel and curious writer had appeared.
In 1834 he removed to Chelsea, near London, where he has since resided. In 1837, he published his _French Revolution_, in three volumes,--_The Bastile_, _The Const.i.tution_, _The Guillotine_. It is a fiery, historical drama rather than a history; full of rhapsodies, startling rhetoric, disconnected pictures. It has been fitly called ”a history in flashes of lightning.” No one could learn from it the history of that momentous period; but one who has read the history elsewhere, will find great interest in Carlyle's wild and vivid pictures of its stormy scenes.
In 1839 he wrote, in his das.h.i.+ng style, upon _Chartism_, and about the same time read a course of lectures upon _Heroes, Hero-Wors.h.i.+p, and the Heroic in History_, in which he is an admirer of will and impulse, and palliates evil when found in combination with these.
In 1845 he edited _The Letters and Speeches of Oliver Cromwell_, and in his extravagant eulogies wors.h.i.+ps the hero rather than the truth.
FREDERICK II.--In 1858 appeared the first two volumes of _The Life of Frederick the Great_, and since that time he has completed the work. This is doubtless his greatest effort. It is full of erudition, and contains details not to be found in any other biography of the Prussian monarch; but so singularly has he reasoned and commented upon his facts, that the enlightened reader often draws conclusions different from those which the author has been laboring to establish. While the history shows that, for genius and success, Frederick deserved to be called the Great, Carlyle cannot make us believe that he was not grasping, selfish, a dissembler, and an immoral man.
The author's style has its admirers, and is a not unpleasing novelty and variety to lovers of plain English; but it wearies in continuance, and one turns to French or German with relief. The Essays upon _German Literature_, _Richter_, and _The Niebelungen Lied_ are of great value to the young student. Such tracts as _Past and Present_, and _The Latter-Day Pamphlets_, have caused him to be called the ”Censor of the Age.” He is too eccentric and prejudiced to deserve the name in its best meaning. If he fights shams, he sometimes mistakes windmills and wine-skins for monsters, and, what is worse, if he accost a shepherd or a milkmaid, they at once become _Amadis de Gaul_ and _Dulcinea del Toboso_. In spite of these prejudices and peculiarities, Carlyle will always be esteemed for his arduous labors, his honest intentions, and his boldness in expressing his opinions. His likes and dislikes find ready vent in his written judgments, and he cares for neither friend nor foe, in setting forth his views of men and events. On many subjects it must be said his views are just. There are fields in which his word must be received with authority.
OTHER HISTORIANS OF THE LATEST PERIOD.
_John Lingard_, 1771-1851: a Roman Catholic priest. He was a man of great probity and worth. His chief work is _A History of England_, from the first invasion of the Romans to the accession of William and Mary. With a natural leaning to his own religious side in the great political questions, he displays great industry in collecting material, beauty of diction, and honesty of purpose. His history is of particular value, in that it stands among the many Protestant histories as the champion of the Roman Catholics, and gives an opportunity to ”hear the other side,” which could not have had a more respectable advocate. In all the great controversies, the student of English history must consult Lingard, and collate his facts and opinions with those of the other historians. He wrote, besides, numerous theological and controversial works.
_Patrick Fraser Tytler_, 1791-1849: the author of _A History of Scotland from Alexander III. to James VI. (James I. of England)_, and _A History of England during the reigns of Edward VI. and Mary_. His _Universal History_ has been used as a text-book, and in style and construction has great merit, although he does not rise to the dignity of a philosophic historian.
_Sir William Francis Patrick Napier_, 1785-1866: a distinguished soldier, and, like Caesar, a historian of the war in which he took part. His _History of the War in the Peninsula_ stands quite alone. It is clear in its strategy and tactics, just to the enemy, and peculiar but effective in style. It was a.s.sailed by several military men, but he defended all his positions in bold replies to their strictures, and the work remains as authority upon the great struggle which he relates.
_Lord Mahon_, Earl of Stanhope, born 1805: his princ.i.p.al work is a _History of England from the Peace of Utrecht to the Peace of Versailles_.
He had access to much new material, and from the Stuart papers has drawn much of interest with reference to that unfortunate family. His view of the conduct of Was.h.i.+ngton towards Major Andre has been shown to be quite untenable. He also wrote a _History of the War of Succession in Spain_.
_Henry Thomas Buchle_, 1822-1862: he was the author of a _History of Civilization_, of which he published two volumes, the work remaining unfinished at the time of his death. For bold a.s.sumptions, vigorous style, and great reading, this work must be greatly admired; but all his theories are based on second principles, and Christianity, as a divine inst.i.tution, is ignored. It startled the world into admiration, but has not retained the place in popular esteem which it appeared at first to make for itself.
He is the English _Comte_, without the eccentricity of his model.
_Sir Archibald Alison_, 1792-1867: he is the author of _The History of Europe from the Commencement of the French Revolution to the Restoration of the Bourbons_, and a continuation from 1815 to 1852. It may be doubted whether even the most dispa.s.sionate scholar can write the history of contemporary events. We may be thankful for the great ma.s.s of facts he has collated, but his work is tinctured with his high Tory principles; his material is not well digested, and his style is clumsy.
_Agnes Strickland_, born 1806: after several early attempts Miss Strickland began her great task, which she executed n.o.bly--_The Queens of England_. Accurate, philosophic, anecdotal, and entertaining, this work ranks among the most valuable histories in English. If the style is not so nervous as that of masculine writers, there is a ready intuition as to the rights and the motives of the queens, and a great delicacy combined with entire lack of prudery in her treatment of their crimes. The library of English history would be singularly incomplete without Miss Strickland's work. She also wrote _The Queens of Scotland_, and _The Bachelor Kings of England_.
_Henry Hallam_, 1778-1859: the princ.i.p.al works of this judicious and learned writer are _A View of Europe during the Middle Ages_, _The Const.i.tutional History of England_, and _An Introduction to the Literature of Europe_ in the fifteenth, sixteenth, and seventeenth centuries. With the skill of an advocate he combines the calmness of a judge; and he has been justly called ”the accurate Hallam,” because his facts are in all cases to be depended on. By his clear and ill.u.s.trative treatment of dry subjects, he has made them interesting; and his works have done as much to instruct his age as those of any writer. Later researches in literature and const.i.tutional history may discover more than he has presented, but he taught the new explorers the way, and will always be consulted with profit, as the representative of this varied learning during the first half of the nineteenth century.
_James Anthony Froude_, born 1818: an Oxford graduate, Mr. Froude represents the Low Church party in a respectable minority. His chief work is _A History of England from the Fall of Wolsey to the Death of Elizabeth_. With great industry, and the style of a successful novelist in making his groups and painting his characters, he has written one of the most readable books published in this period. He claimed to take his authorities from unpublished papers, and from the statute-books, and has endeavored to show that Henry VIII. was by no means a bad king, and that Elizabeth had very few faults. His treatment of Anne Boleyn and Mary Queen of Scots is unjust and ign.o.ble. Not content with publis.h.i.+ng what has been written in their disfavor, with the omniscience of a romancer, he a.s.serts their motives, and produces thoughts which they never uttered. A race of powerful critics has sprung forth in defence of Mary, and Mr. Froude's inaccuracies and injustice have been clearly shown. To novel readers who are fond of the sensational, we commend his work: to those who desire historic facts and philosophies, we proclaim it to be inaccurate, illogical, and unjust in the highest degree.