OCR Text |
Show OUT IN THE COLD. At one time it was thought that Mr. George Otto Trevelyan would be left out in the cold in the formation of the new Liberal Cabinet in England, but he has not been. He is made Secretary for Ireland, Ire-land, a position held by him before. If his success in politics shall be equal to his success in literature it will be great indeed. in-deed. His "Life and Letters of Macaulay" is one of the most charming biographies ever written, and it is rightfully given a place alongside of BoswelPs Johnson, a biography that will forever stand preeminent. pre-eminent. Macaulay must have been a most loveable man, one to know whom was to love, but the beauty of his character char-acter and the lightness and goodness of ' his heart would never have been so well known had it not been for the biography of him by his nephew. Who "can forget the curse which Macaulay at the ' age of four or five years pronounced upon Sally? "Cursed be Sally, for it is written, cursed be they that disturbed their neighbors' 'land marks." Then how delightfully Macaulay spoke of his death ; how well he would "cut up" and the like. As he spoke of how well he would ''cut up" he certainly could not have been fresh from a reading of Job or the Preacher. Then what an appreciation of humor Mr. Trevelyan must have to have inserted that story of the American publisher who wanted a sketch of the life of Lord Macaulay to prefix to his edition of the Essays, those masterpieces of English prose compositions. For some ! years it was the fashion to epeak of the Essays as being most readable but as be ing without depth of thought. The fashion was false because those who uttered ut-tered such a hollow criticism failed tq see the beauty and depth of thought that were conveyed through an incomparably brilliant style. It is to the Essays and not to the History that we owe the famous New Zealander illustration. illustra-tion. On a first reading of the Essays 'that which holds the mind captive and spell-bound is the brilliancy of the style, but as the Essays are read again and again they are appreciated for their true worth. Entertaining as the Essays are, they are not more entertain-than entertain-than Mr. Trevelyan's biography of Macaulay. Mac-aulay. If Mr. Trevelyan had been left out in the cold, how grateful the world would have been, provided he had given the world another instalment of hia nn. I cle's letters, or had added another volume to his "Early Life of Charles James Fox." -As a biographer he is without a peer in England to-day .neither Mr. Froude nor any of the writers of the English Men of Letters series approaching him. He is the son of that sister whom Macaulay loved so well, and whom he has taught all the world to love. |