266 ARRIVAL IN LONDON. Though the sheep clothe him without colours' aid, Nor seeks he foreign luxury from trade; Burke's earliest published effort, however, was of a political character. In 1749, just before quitting Trinity College, he attacked the patriotic pretensions of Henry Brooke, the author of the tragedy of 'Gustavus Vasa,'* then very popular on account of its denunciation of Sir Robert Walpole. Being designed for the legal profession, he soon afterwards repaired to London, to keep his terms in the Middle Temple. The next two or three years he spent in travelling about England for the sake of health; he read much, and made many friends. In 1753, having apparently abandoned all thought of the law as a career, he applied, it is said, for the professorship of logic at Glasgow University, but was unsuccessful. Among London men of letters and London actors, however, the young and brilliant Irishman had already made a name, and Garrick, Macklin, and Murphy the dramatist, were his constant associates. He is believed to have contributed to various periodicals at this time; and it is known that he laboured most assiduously to cultivate his faculties, and was insatiable in the acquisition of all kinds of information.† 6 * Burke afterwards wrote the novel of The Fool of Quality,' which both Charlotte Brontë and Charles Kingsley valued so highly. + Mr. Buckle speaks of him as, Bacon alone excepted, "the greatest thinker who has ever devoted himself to the practice of English politics. The studies of this extraordinary man," he adds, "not only covered the whole field of political inquiry, but extended to an immense variety of subjects TRIBUTES TO BURKE'S POWERS. 267 His first avowed work, the 'Vindication of Natural Society,' was published in the spring of 1756. It was which, though apparently unconnected with politics, do in reality bear upon them as important adjuncts; since, to a philosophic mind, every branch of knowledge lights up even those that seem most remote from it... Thus it is, that while his insight into the philosophy of jurisprudence had gained the applause of lawyers, his acquaintance with the whole range and theory of the fine arts has won the admiration of artists; a striking combination of two pursuits, often, though erroneously, held to be incompatible with each other. . All was so digested and worked into his mind, that it was ready on every occasion; not, like the knowledge of ordinary politicians, broken and wasted in fragments, but blended into a complete whole, fused by a genius that gave life even to the dullest pursuits. This, indeed, was the characteristic of Burke, that in his hands nothing was barren. Such was the strength and exuberance of his intellect, that it bore fruit in all directions, and could confer dignity upon the meanest subjects, by showing their connection with general principles and the part they have to play in the great scheme of human affairs."'History of Civilization,' i. 413-416. Robert Hall (Works, p., 190) says:— "The excursions of his genius are immense. His imperial fancy has laid all nature under tribute, and has collected riches from every source of the creation, and every walk of art." Sir T. Erskine May (Const. Hist. i. 492):-"In genius, learning, and accomplishments, Mr. Burke had no equal either among the statesmen or writers of his time. His speeches like his writings, bear witness to his deep philosophy, his inexhaustible stores of knowledge, and redundant imagination. They are more studied, and more often quoted than the speeches of any other statesman. His metaphors and aphorisms are as familiar to our ears as those of Lord Bacon." Fox (Parl. Hist. xxviii. 363), on one occasion, asserted “that if he were to put all the political information which he had learnt from books, all which he had gained from science, and all which any knowledge of the world and its affairs had taught him, into one scale, and the improvement which he had derived from Burke's instruction and conversation were placed in the other, he should be at a loss to decide to which to give the preference." Wilberforce says (Life, p. 57):-" He was a great man... He had come late into Parliament, and had had time to lay in vast stores of knowledge. The field from which he drew his illustrations was magnificent. Like the fabled object of the fairy's favours, whenever he opened his mouth, pearls and diamonds dropped from him." Lord 268 PARODY UPON BOLINGBROKE. original in conception and execution; but the idea has since found many imitators. The style is a close and felicitous imitation of Bolingbroke's; and the object of the book is to expose the futility of Bolingbroke's infidel theories by pushing them to their extreme but natural consequences. The imitation was so well done that at first it deceived both Chesterfield and Bishop Warburton; and, indeed, the imitation is carried, not only into the structure of the language, but into the train of thought, and the method of argument. It is interesting to reflect that not a few of the speculations in which Burke indulges as a satirical comment on the dazzling but unsound hypotheses of Bolingbroke, were afterwards seriously adopted by that school of pseudo-philosophers which the intellectual unrest and ferment of the French Revolution called into brief existence. A few months later appeared the celebrated 'Philosophical Inquiry into the Origin of our Ideas of the Sublime and Beautiful.' Its popularity was immediate. It was read in every "polite circle," and discussed by every literary club. Men of mark sought the acquaint 66 Campbell (Lives of the Chief Justices,' ii. 443) remarks:-" Burke, a philosophical statesman [was] deeply imbued with the scientific principles of jurisprudence." Professor Smyth (Lectures on Modern History,' ii. 400) refers to him as the patriot of the British senate," and speaks of his "splendour of wisdom and of eloquence." Sir Joshua Reynolds (* Annual Register,' for 1798, p. 329) deemed Burke the best judge of pictures he ever knew; and Winstanly, the Camden Professor of Ancient History (Prior, 'Life of Burke, p. 427) records, that "it would have been exceedingly difficult to have met with a person who knew more of the philosophy, the history, the filiation of language, or of the principles of etymological deduction, than Mr. Burke." “THE SUBLIME AND BEAUTIFUL.” 269 ance of its author, who, on his list of friends, was soon able to read such names as Hume, Lord Lyttelton, Soame Jenyns, the author of the 'Origin of Evil,' Bishop Warburton, Sir Joshua Reynolds, and Dr. Johnson. The author of 'Rasselas' seems to have loved Burke next to Topham Beauclerk. He spoke of him at one time as the only man whose common conversation corresponded with the general fame he had in the world. At another time he would assert that no man of sense could meet Mr. Burke by accident, under a gateway, without being convinced that he was the first man in England. And he was one of the earliest to acknowledge the merits of the 'Philosophical Inquiry,' pronouncing it a model of true and refined criticism. Posterity, however, has not endorsed this high eulogium. On the contrary, it holds that many of the rules laid down are erroneous, and that many of the illustrations brought forward are inappropriate. Exception may be taken at the very outset to Burke's definitions of beauty and sublimity; which are neither very accurate nor very precise. Nor are we satisfied with his analysis of their effects upon the mind. Then, again, the style is curiously cold and bare, and the most attractive lines of thought are treated with the dryness which previously had been supposed peculiar to a theologian's statement of dogmatic difficulties. Macaulay remarks that it is the most unadorned of all Burke's works; and this, though written at a period of life when authors are generally prone to luxuriance of language. He writes on the emotions produced by mountains, forests, and cascades; by the glorious masterpieces of art, and the face and bosom of Beauty, 270 BURKE'S MARRIAGE. with an aridity which chills and dissatisfies the reader. But from all points of view, a page of Ruskin's 'Modern Painters' is worth the whole of Burke's once celebrated Essay. Continued ill-health compelled Burke to place himself under the care of Dr. Nugent, of Bath, a man not less eminent as a scholar than as a physician. Under his roof he made the acquaintance of his daughter; the intimacy soon ripened into an affectionate attachment. Burke offered his hand, and was accepted. The union secured his domestic happiness; for Mrs. Burke was in all respects that 'perfect wife' whom Tennyson has described in 'Isabel,' and those who knew her agreed that her husband's fond portrait of her charms did not err from exaggeration.* * It is allowable to suppose that Tennyson, when he wrote 'Isabel,' had in his mind Edmund Burke's celebrated 'Character.' Here are a few similarities. Burke writes:-" She discovers the right and wrong of things not by reasoning, but by sagacity." Tennyson: "The intuitive decision of a bright And thorough-edged intellect to part Error from crime." Burke:-" She never disgraces her good nature by severe reflections on anybody, so she never degrades her judgment by immoderate or ill-placed praises." Tennyson: "A hate of gossip parlance." Burke:-"Her voice is a low, soft music, not formed to rule in public assemblies, but to charm those who can distinguish a company from a crowd." Tennyson : "An accent very low In blandishment." Burke:-"Her eyes have a mild light, but they awe you when she |