timacy for the sake of grandeur. Hence the spirit of enlightened inquiry is baffled, and the ardour of sympathetic emotion chilled. Our communion with the past becomes quite unsatisfactory, until it is sought through the dramatist, or the letter-writer, who give us veritable glimpses of our race, admit us to their daily experience, and enable us to share their pastimes and their wrongs. Among other great merits of Michelet, is the occasional introduction, in his history of France, of fresh local descriptions, such as might be taken from the note-book of a genial traveller. This is, at least, a living grace, which gives vivacity to the formal account of battles fought centuries ago. We consider Prescott the most unobjectionable representative of that school of history, the ideal of which is correct and tasteful narrative. other respects, he seems to us vastly overrated. We look in vain for that earnestness of purpose, that high and uncompromising tone of sentiment, that genuine love of humanity, which should distinguish the historian of the nineteenth century. Prescott is a kind of elegant trimmer in literature, such as Macaulay describes in the volume before us, in politics. His popularity is chiefly owing to the fact that he offends no one's taste or prejudices. One of his critics ingeniously defends this secondary renown on the principle of a balance of qualities which, it is declared, is both rare and most desirable in a historian. But readers are no longer satisfied with merely negative merits. The heart and mind of the age de

In

mand, and will have, the positive. Form is no longer allowed to atone for spirit, nor taste for truth, nor courtesy for love. At all events, if the light of new principles cannot be given to a narrative, tameness will not be endured. Life has been too often imparted to the musty chronicle by poetry, to allow of its being rewritten without a vital glow. Hence the familiar spirit, the minute details, the graphic portraiture, and the comparison of the past with the present, that gives the air of an animated discussion, the descriptive hue of romance, and the living grace of a tale told by an eye-witness, which characterize the best historical works of the day. In that of Macaulay we have an admirable specimen of this kind. Whatever may be its comparative value, it is conceived with a keen and constant view to the principles we have indicated. It is graphic, methodical, clear, and unites scenic touches, sketches of manners and society, and individual portraits, into one consistent and elaborate picture of the era it chronicles.

How sedulously the author has sought incidental and collateral information, in order to render this picture complete, is evident from the various and recondite sources of knowledge he has so wisely explored. No means to the great end in view seems to have been too humble, no pains-taking too wearisome. He has consulted, besides historical and biographical works, and official documents, the newspapers and the parish-registers of the day. An old sermon yields him one suggestion, an obsolete novel

another. Here a time-stained ballad, and there the confession of a martyr; now a passage from a longforgotten play, and, again, a couplet from one of Dryden's satires, affords the needful hint. On the same principle no really national feature, although quite apart from political history, is suffered to pass without its explanation. Thus the proverbial excellence of English inns is accounted for by the circumstance that, in early times, they afforded the only resting-place for the traveller, between populous and active districts, and were, therefore, a certain source of profit, and a great social necessity. The distinctness of classes-especially that between rural squires and the city burghers, is explained, on the ground that the locomotive facilities were so limited as effectually to bar frequent intercourse. The origin of the celebrated breed of English horses, and the influences of coffee-houses upon London society, are regarded as worthy of mention, as being part of the history of the country, equally with the execution of Charles I., the fall of Danby, or the court influence of the Duchess of Portsmouth. Female education, the amount of iron manufactured, the state of the roads, the wages of day labourers, the housewifery, amusements, costume, equipages, and municipal regulations-all, in short, characteristic of the period described, is brought clearly before the mind, either in careful statistics or animated sketches, so that we not only have a panoramic, but a picturesque, economical, and dramatic view of the age and people.

The Idealist.

JOHN STERLING."

THERE is an affecting charm in the incomplete, whether in destiny or character, especially when their elements have been active and intense. As a lyrical effusion will sometimes give us a deeper glimpse into the poet's heart than a finished epic, so the desultory and casual overflowings of a mind striving for harmony, the suggestive eloquence which gives the idea of a latent world of unexpressed emotion, awakens both imagination and sympathy far more than utterances comparatively full and satisfactory.

To possess at once keen insight and imperative sympathies, is to be liable to extreme mental suffering, for which we can imagine no consolation but a high and serene faith. The ability to discern things in their actual relations, to pierce the rind of the conventional and draw near the heart of nature, may be enjoyed merely as a scientific pastime; but when

* 1. Essays and Tales by John Sterling, collected and edited, with a memoir of his life. By Charles Julius Hare, M. A. London. J. W. Parker. 1848.

2. The Poetical Works of John Sterling. First American edition. Philadelphia: Herman Hooker. 1842.

"the strong necessity of loving" is united to such clear perceptions, the mind and the heart are exposed to severe and incessant conflict; and to reconcile them is the grand problem of life. This appears to have been the case with Sterling. He had the intense desire for truth which belongs to the philosopher, and the enthusiasm and sense of beauty which characterize the poet. To gratify these dominant impulses, and at the same time, be loyal to the duties of his position and true to himself, was what he constantly sought to do, in the face of physical weakness and pain, and ever-recurring monitions of death. The free thought, the patient will and the loving heart, wrought not always together, but sometimes adversely; and, only at intervals, came the balm of content and the blessedness of tranquillity. Hence in broken tones and by lapses he obtained utterance. No shapely and complete temple rose beneath the hand whose nerves disease had unstrung; and hints instead of revelations are bequeathed by a mind seldom allowed to work continuously. It is precisely in such a result, however, that we see the effect of the severance between thought and action, which is so impressive a sign of the times. The warrior's thought, in earlier days, only heralded his attack; the scholar's meditation armed him for controversy which influenced the fate of nations; and the minstrel, equally adroit with sword and pen, struck his harp in the intervals between embassies. There are now countless eminent thinkers, who must be content to cast a waif