istory. Everything about him, his chat, his wig, his
figure, his face, his scrofula, his St. Vitus's dance, his rolling
walk, his blinking eye, the outward signs which too clearly marked
his approbation of his dinner, his insatiable appetite for fish
sauce and veal pie with plums, his inextinguishable thirst for tea,
his trick of touching the posts as he walked ... all are as familiar
to us as the objects by which we have been surrounded from
childhood."

Macaulay wrote some stirring ballad poetry, known as _Lays of Ancient
Rome_, which gives a good picture of the proud Roman Republic in its
valorous days. These ballads have something of Scott's healthy, manly
ring. They contain rhetorical and martial stanzas, which are the
delight of many boys; but they lack the spirituality and beauty that
are necessary for great poetry.

History of England.--Macaulay had for some time wondered why some
one should not do for real history what Scott had done for imaginary
history. Macaulay accordingly proposed to himself the task of writing
a history that should be more accurate than Hume's and possess
something of the interest of Scott's historical romances. In 1848
appeared the first two volumes of _The History of England from the
Accession of James II_. Macaulay had the satisfaction of seeing his
work, in sales and popular appreciation, surpass the novels. He
intended to trace the development of English liberty from James II. to
the death of George III.; but his minute method of treatment allowed
him to unfold only sixteen years (from 1685 to 1701) of that period,
so important in the constitutional and religious history of England.

Macaulay's pages are not a graveyard for the dry bones of history. The
human beings that figure in his chapters have been restored to life by
his touch. We see Charles II. "before the dew was off in St. James's
Park striding among the trees, playing with his spaniels, and flinging
corn to his ducks." We gaze for a moment with the English courtiers at
William III.:--

"They observed that the king spoke in a somewhat imperious tone,
even to the wife to whom he owed so much, and whom he sincerely
loved and esteemed. They were amused and shocked to see him,
when the Princess Anne dined with him, and when the first green peas
of the year were put on the table, devour the whole dish without
offering a spoonful to her Royal Highness, and they pronounced that
this great soldier a