The
two volumes will be multiplied, we have no doubt, in the course of a few
years, into as many hundreds; for they contain a stock of matter which
must be ever suggestive to more active minds, and will surely revisit the
world in new shapes--an everlasting succession and variety of ideas. The
past to him was not mere dry antiquity; it involved a most extensive and
touching association of feelings and thoughts, reminding him of what we
have been and may be, and seeming to afford a surer ground for resting on
than the things which are here to-day and may be gone to-morrow. We know
of no inquisition more curious, no speculation more lofty, than may be
found in the Essays of Charles Lamb. We know no place where conventional
absurdities receive so little quarter; where stale evasions are so plainly
exposed; where the barriers between names and things are at times so
completely flung down. And how, indeed, could it be otherwise? For it is
truth that plays upon his writings like a genial and divine atmosphere. No
need for them to prove what they would be at by any formal or logical
analysis; no need for him to tell the world that this institution is wrong
and that doctrine right; the world may gather from those writings their
surest guide to judgment in these and all other cases--a general and
honest appreciation of the humane and true.
Pages:
206
207
208
209
210
211
212
213
214
215
216
217
218
219
220
221
222
223
224
225
226
227
228
229
230