had a quality
of its own which could only be displayed by extensive and elaborate
citation. But if it be possible to put the finger on a single note, it
is one distinguishing Sydney Smith widely from Fuller himself, bringing
him a little nearer to Voltaire, and, save for the want of certain
earnestness, nearer still to Swift--the perfect facility of his jokes,
and the casual, easy man-of-the-worldliness with which he sets them
before the reader and passes on. Amid the vigorous but slightly
ponderous manners of the other early contributors to the _Review_, this
must have been of inestimable value; but it is a higher credit to Sydney
Smith that it does not lose its charm when collected together and set by
itself, as the more extravagant and rollicking kinds of periodical
humour are wont to do. It was probably his want of serious
preoccupations of any kind (for his politics were merely an accident; he
was, though a sincere Christian, no enthusiast in religion; and he had
few special interests, though he had an honest general enjoyment of
life) which enabled Sydney Smith so to perfect a quality, or set of
qualities, which, as a rule, is more valuable as an occasional set-off
than as the staple and solid of a man's literary fare and ware. If so,
he points much the same general moral as Cobbett, though in a way as
different as possible. But in any case he was a very delightful person,
an ornament of English literature, such as few other literatures
possess, in his invariable abstinence from unworthy means of raising a
laugh, and, among the group of founders of the new periodical, the
representative of one of its most important constituents--polished
_persiflage_.

The other contributors of the first generation to the _Edinburgh Review_
do not require much notice here; for Brougham was not really a man of
letters, and belongs to political and social, not to literary history,
while Mackintosh, though no one would contest his claims, will be better
noticed under the head of philosophy. Nor do many of the first staff of
the _Edinburgh's_ great rival, the _Quarterly_, require notice; for
Gifford, Canning, Ellis, Scott, Southey have all been noticed under
other heads.

Two, however, not of the absolutely first rank, may be mentioned here
more conveniently than anywhere else--Sir John Barrow and Isaac
Disraeli. The former had a rather remarkable career; for he was born, in
1764, quite of the lower rank, and was successively a cle