me, homelier, but more durable. He is borne along with no
pompous paradoxes, shines in no glittering tinsel of a fashionable
phraseology; is neither fop nor sophist. He has none of the turbulence or
froth of new-fangled opinions. His style runs pure and clear, though it
may often take an underground course, or be conveyed through old-fashioned
conduit-pipes. Mr. Lamb does not court popularity, nor strut in gaudy
plumes, but shrinks from every kind of ostentatious and obvious pretension
into the retirement of his own mind.

"The self-applauding bird, the peacock see:--
Mark what a sumptuous pharisee is he!
Meridian sun-beams tempt him to unfold
His radiant glories, azure, green, and gold:
He treads as if, some solemn music near,
His measured step were governed by his ear:
And seems to say--'Ye meaner fowl, give place,
I am all splendour, dignity, and grace!'
Not so the pheasant on his charms presumes,
Though he too has a glory in his plumes.
He, Christian-like, retreats with modest mien
To the close copse or far sequestered green,
And shines without desiring to be seen."

These lines well describe the modest and delicate beauties of Mr. Lamb's
writings, contrasted with the lofty and vainglorious pretensions of some
of his contemporaries. This gentleman is not one of those who pay all
their homage to the prevailing idol: he thinks that

"Newborn gauds are made and moulded of things past,"

nor does he

"Give to dust that is a little gilt
More laud than gilt o'er-dusted."

His convictions "do not in broad rumor lie," nor are they "set off to the
world in the glistering foil" of fashion; but "live and breathe aloft in
those pure eyes, and perfect judgment of all-seeing _time_." Mr. Lamb
rather affects and is tenacious of the obscure and remote: of that which
rests on its own intrinsic and silent merit; which scorns all alliance, or
even the suspicion of owing any thing to noisy clamour, to the glare of
circumstances. There is a fine tone of _chiaro-scuro_, a moral perspective
in his writings. He delights to dwell on that which is fresh to the eye of
memory; he yearns after and covets what soothes the frailty of human
nature. That touches him most nearly which is withdrawn to a certain
distance, which verges on the borders of oblivion:--that piques and
provokes his fancy most, which is hid from a superficial glance. That
which, though gone by, is still remembered, is in his view mo