. Home school of American literature: . been translated into a crowd of lan-guages, nor because it has been sold in hundredsof thousands, that we believe it will live ; but be-cause, however open it may be to criticism, it hasin it the character of a true and very high work ofart. Whether he will subsist as a standard and su-preme authority is another question. Whereverand whenever read, he will be read with fascina-tion, with delight, with wonder. And with copi-ous instruction too ; but also with copious reserve. problems. Yet they will obtain, from his markedand telling points of view, great
. Home school of American literature: . been translated into a crowd of lan-guages, nor because it has been sold in hundredsof thousands, that we believe it will live ; but be-cause, however open it may be to criticism, it hasin it the character of a true and very high work ofart. Whether he will subsist as a standard and su-preme authority is another question. Whereverand whenever read, he will be read with fascina-tion, with delight, with wonder. And with copi-ous instruction too ; but also with copious reserve. problems. Yet they will obtain, from his markedand telling points of view, great aid in solvingthem. We sometimes fancy that ere long therewill be editions of his works in which his readersmay be saved from pitfalls by brief, respectful, andjudicious commentary; and that his great achieve-ments may be at once commemorated and cor-rected by men of slower pace, of drier light, andof more tranquil, broad set, and comprehensivejudgment. For his works are in many respectsamong the prodigies of literature; in some, they. Mr. and Mrs. Gladstone, their Children akd Grandchildren. with questioning scrutiny, with liberty to reject,and with much exercise of that liberty. The con-temporary mind may in rare cases be taken bystorm; but posterity, never. The tribunal of thepresent is accessible to influence; that of thefuture is incorrupt. The coming generations willnot give Macaulay up, but they will probablyattach much less value than we have done to hisipse dixit. They will hardly accept from him hisnet solutions of literary, and still less 0/ historic, have never been surpassed. As lights that haveshone through the whole universe of letters, theyhave made their title to a place in the solid firma-ment of fame. But the tree is greater and betterthan its fruit; and greater and better yet than theworks themselves are the lofty aims and concep-tions, the large heart, the independent, manfulmind, the pure and noble career, which in thisbiography have disclosed to us the t
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Keywords: ., bo, bookcentury1800, bookdecade1890, booksubjectenglishliterature
