These, however, are written down
simply, and just as they occur, without any special design. Some persons
exhibit only their ingenuity, or learning. It is not every one who is
able, like the licentiate Pedro Garcias, to deposit his wealth of soul by
the road-side.
Like all persons of great intellectual sensibility, Lamb responded to all
impressions. To sympathize with Tragedy or Comedy only, argues a limited
capacity. The mind thus constructed is partially lame or torpid. One
hemisphere has never been reached.
It should not be forgotten that Lamb possessed one great advantage. He
lived and died amongst _his equals_. This was what enabled him to exercise
his natural strength, as neither a parasite nor a patron can. It is
marvellous how freedom of thought operates; what strength it gives to the
system; with what lightness and freshness it endues the spirit. Then, he
was made stronger by trouble; made wiser by grief.
I have not attempted to fix the precise spot in which Charles Lamb is to
shine hereafter in the firmament of letters. I am not of sufficient
magnitude to determine his astral elevation--where he is to dwell--between
the sun Shakespeare and the twinkling Zoilus.
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