opinions as to what sort of government is best suited for civilized communities in general. He wrote about Bacon; yet he never attempted to expound the principles or describe the influence of the Baconian philosophy. He wrote about Addison and Johnson, Hastings and Clive, Machiavelli and Horace Walpole and Madame D'Arblay; yet in no case did he analyze the works, or fully examine the characteristics, or set forth exhaustively the ideas, of one of them. They are to him mere pegs on which to hang a splendid historical picture of the times in which these people lived. Thus the essay on Milton is a review of the Cromwellian period; Machiavelli, of Italian morals in the sixteenth century; that on Dryden, of the state of poetry and the drama in the days of Charles the Second; that on Johnson, of the state of English literature in the days of Walpole. In the essays on Clive and Hastings, we find little of the founders of British India beyond the enumeration of their acts. But the Mogul empire, and the rivalries and struggles which overthrew it, are all depicted in gorgeous detail. No other writer has ever given so fine an account of the foreign policy of Charles the Second as Macaulay has done in the essay on Sir William Temple; nor of the Parliamentary history of England for the forty years preceding our Revolution, as is to be found in the essays on Lord Chatham. In each case the image of the man whose name stands at the head of the essay is blurred and indistinct. We are told of the trial of John Hampden; but we do not see the fearless champion of popular liberty as he stood before the judges of King Charles. We are introduced to Frederic the Great, and are given a summary of his characteristics and a glowing narrative of the wars in which he won fame; but the real Frederic, the man contending "against the greatest superiority of power and the utmost spite of fortune," is lost in the mass of accessories. He describes the outward man admirably: the inner man is never touched.

But however faulty the Essays may be in respect to the treatment accorded to individual men, they display a prodigious knowledge of the facts and events of the periods they cover. His wonderful memory, stored with information gathered from a thousand sources, his astonishing power of arranging facts and bringing them to bear on any subject, whether it called for description or illustration, joined with a clear and vigorous style, enabled him to produce historical scenes with

a grouping, a finish, and a splendor to which no other writer can approach. His picture of the Puritan in the essay on Milton, and of Loyola and the Jesuits in the essay on the Popes; his description of the trial of Warren Hastings; of the power and magnificence of Spain under Philip the Second; of the destiny of the Church of Rome; of the character of Charles the Second in the essay on Sir James Mackintosh, are but a few of many of his bits of word-painting which cannot be surpassed. What is thus true of particular scenes and incidents in the Essays is equally true of many of them in the whole. Long periods of time, great political movements, complicated policies, fluctuations of ministries, are sketched with an accuracy, animation, and clearness not to be met with in any elaborate treatise covering the same period.

While Macaulay was writing two and three essays a year, he won renown in a new field by the publication of "The Lays of Ancient Rome." They consist of four ballads,-"Horatius;" "The Battle of the Lake Regillus;" "Virginius;" and "The Prophecy of Capys," which are supposed to have been sung by Roman minstrels, and to belong to a very early period in the history of the city. In them are repeated all the merits and all the defects of the Essays. The men and women are mere enumerations of qualities; the battle pieces are masses of uncombined incidents: but the characteristics of the periods treated have been caught and reproduced with perfect accuracy. The setting of Horatius, which belongs to the earliest days of Rome, is totally different from the setting of the Prophecy of Capys, which belongs to the time when Rome was fast acquiring the mastery over Italy; and in each case the setting is studiously and remarkably exact. In these poems, again, there is the same prodigious learning, the same richness of illustration, which distinguish the essays; and they are adorned with a profusion of metaphor and aptness of epithets which is most admirable.

The "Lays" appeared in 1842, and at once found their way into popular favor. Macaulay's biographer assures us that in ten years 18,000 copies were sold in Great Britain; 40,000 copies in twenty years; and before 1875 nearly 100,000 had passed into the hands of readers.

Meantime the same popularity attended the "Essays." Again and again Macaulay had been urged to collect and publish them in book form, and had stoutly refused. But when an

enterprising publisher in Philadelphia not only reprinted them, but shipped copies to England, Macaulay gave way; and in the early months of 1843 a volume was issued. Like the "Lays," the "Essays" rose at once into popular favor, and in the course of thirty years 120,000 copies were sold in the United Kingdom by one publisher.

But the work on which he was now intent was the "History of England from the accession of King James the Second down to a time which is within the memory of men still living.' The idea of such a narrative had long been in his mind; but it was not till 1841 that he began seriously to write, and not till 1848 that he published the first and second volumes. Again his success was instant. Nothing like it had been known since the days of Waverley. Of "Marmion" 2000 were sold in the first month; of Macaulay's History 3000 copies were sold in ten days. Of the "Lay of the Last Minstrel" 2250 copies were disposed of in course of the first year; but the publishers sold 13,000 copies of Macaulay in four months. In the United States the success was greater yet.

"We beg you to accept herewith a copy of our cheap edition of your work," wrote Harper & Brothers in 1849. "There have been three other editions published by different houses, and another is now in preparation; so there will be six different editions in the market. We have already sold 40,000 copies, and we presume that over 60,000 copies have been disposed of. Probably within three months of this time the sale will amount to 200,000 copies. No work of any kind has ever so completely taken our whole country by storm."

Astonishing as was the success, it never flagged; and year after year the London publisher disposed of the work at the rate of seventy sets a week. In November, 1855, the third and fourth volumes were issued. Confident of an immense sale, 25,000 copies were printed as a first edition, and were taken by the trade before a copy was bound. In the United States the sale, he was assured by Everett, was greater than that of any book ever printed, save the Bible and a few school books in universal use. Prior to 1875, his biographer states, 140,000 copies of the History were sold in the United Kingdom. In ten weeks from the day of the issue 26,500 copies were taken, and in March, 1856, $100,000 was paid him as a part of the royalty due in December.

Honors of every sort were now showered on him. He was

raised to the peerage; he was rich, famous, and great. But the enjoyment of his honors was short-lived; for in December, 1859, he was found in his library, seated in his easy-chair, dead. Before him on the table lay a copy of the "Cornhill Magazine," open at the first page of Thackeray's story of "Lovel the Widower."

All that has been said regarding the Essays and the Lays applies with equal force to the "History of England." No historian who has yet written has shown such familiarity with the facts of English history, no matter what the subject in hand may be the extinction of villeinage, the Bloody Assizes, the appearance of the newspaper, the origin of the national debt, or the state of England in 1685. Macaulay is absolutely unrivalled in the art of arranging and combining his facts, and of presenting in a clear and vigorous narrative the spirit of the epoch he treats. Nor should we fail to mention that both Essays and History abound in remarks, general observations, and comment always clear, vigorous, and shrewd, and in the main very just.

JAMES MACPHERSON.

JAMES MACPHERSON, a Scottish poet, born at Ruthven, Inverness-shire, Oct. 27, 1738; died Feb. 17, 1796. His claim to a place in literature rests solely upon his connection with the so-called "Ossianic Poems." In 1760 he published a small volume entitled "Fragments of Ancient Poetry Collected in the Highlands." In 1762 he put forth "Fingal, an ancient Epic Poem, in six Books; together with several other Poems composed by Ossian, the son of Fingal, translated from the Gaelic." This was followed the next year by "Temora, in eight Books, with other Poems by Ossian." The genuineness of these works was eagerly impugned and no less eagerly maintained. Macpherson promised to put forth the Gaelic originals from which he professed to have made his translations, but the manuscripts were not forthcoming. Ten years after his death they were published, all being in the handwriting of Macpher son or of his own amanuenses; from which it has been inferred that these alleged Gaelic originals had no existence, but were translated into Gaelic from Macpherson's own English. He made a fortune, entered Parliament, and wrote several other works, among are a "History of Great Britain from the Restoration to the Accession of the House of Hanover" (1775), and a prose translation

of the "Iliad."

THE DEATH OF OSCAR.

(From "Poems of Ossian.")

which

My son, I shall not call my sovereign, though Ossian should be offended at it this night. Oscar, and the strong Cairbre, fell in the battle of Gabra: the sharp pointed spear in the hand of Cairbre, he would shake in the ire of battle: he who tells the truth, says that by it Oscar was slain. Maid, who washes thy garment? To us prophesy without falsehood; shall any man of them fall by us: or shall we be victorious over Uladh? There shall fall, said she, by Oscar, many hundreds, and the king, himself, by him shall be wounded; and many of the warriors. he brought with him over the sea.

Have you heard of Fingal's expedition, when he departed