did not agree with him in thinking that it equalled The Vicar of Wakefield, he accepted it as a contribution to his magazine, in which the first part appeared January 1857. The collected series of Scenes from Clerical Life by George Eliot were published early in 1858 and were received with an outburst of praise. In the spring of the following year Adam Bede appeared. For four years' copyright of this book— which Charles Reade declared to be "the finest thing after Shakespeare"-Blackwood agreed to give eight hundred pounds, but on its proving a phenomenal success, (sixteen thousand copies being sold in the first year), he added another eight hundred pounds, and gave the copyright back to its author. The extraordinary force and the faithful portraiture shown in this book at once established its author's fame, though that was enhanced if not exceeded by later novels. CHAPTER XII Literary men in the Victorian reign-Thomas Babington Macaulay Charles Greville's description of him— Becomes a Member of Parliament-His Code of Criminal Procedure-Immediate success of his History of England Unfitted for the severity of historical inquiry-His simple method-William of Orange presented as a hero-James II. as the villain of melodrama-Inaccuracies and misrepresentations-Death while reading-James Frederick Leigh Hunt--Entertains in prison Byron and Moore Is pensioned by Lord John Russell Thomas Carlyle and Sartor Resartus-The French Revolution-The oddities of his diction-" Bursting the accursed enchantment"-Lectures at the suggestion of Harriet Martineau-Her description of his appearance-"The too noisy distinguished female' John Ruskin-His Puritan mother dedicates him to God-He forms a habit of serenity-Attaining methods of life and motion-Subdued as a boyDoes not love his parents-His mother goes with him to college-First writings-Defence of TurnerPublication of Modern Painters-Causes a sensation among literary men-His marriage-Going to Court-Meets John Everett Millais-Pleasant life in Scotland-Mrs. Ruskin leaves her husbandDivorce and marriage-Disraeli and LyttonDickens described by Carlyle-Thackeray's obedience to the calls of the great-Anthony Trollope as a Post-office Surveyor-Turns out his novels like a machine-Charles Lever writes Harry Lorrequer-Exaggeration of Irish life-William Carleton and Samuel Lover-Captain Marryat and William Harrison Ainsworth-The Rev. Charles Kingsley-Charles Reade and Wilkie Collins. A CHAPTER XII MONG the distinguished literary men in the early years of the reign none were more popular than Thomas Babington Macaulay. Born October 25, 1800, he was in his thirty-seventh year at Her Majesty's accession. A short thick-set man with a round, fat face, upright in bearing, clumsy in gait, his head habitually thrown back, his wide prominent forehead surmounted by a wig, his dress slovenly, his neckcloth tied in a wisp, he seemed not only unattractive but commonplace. Charles Greville, who saw him for the first time at Lady Holland's dinnertable, says: "It was not till Macaulay stood up that I was aware of all the vulgarity of his appearance; not a ray of intellect beams from his countenance; a lump of more ordinary clay never enclosed a powerful mind and lively imagination." Whatever impression the outward man might make, his conversation was certain to astonish from the rapidity of his words. dealing with every imaginable subject. At first amazed by the variety and extent of his knowledge, his hearers eventually became bored when surfeited by his useful information; but like all great talkers |