In the first
place, his learning was so much a part of his mind that he drew on its
stores without effort. Scarcely a paragraph can be found in all his
essays which is not packed with allusions, yet all seem to illustrate
his subject so naturally that one never looks upon them as used to
display his remarkable knowledge.
Macaulay is a master of all the literary arts. Especially does he love
to use antithesis and to make his effects by violent contrasts. Add to
this the art of skilful climax, clever alliteration, happy
illustration and great narrative power and you have the chief features
of Macaulay's style. The reader is carried along on this flood of
oratorical style, and so great is the author's descriptive power that
one actually beholds the scenes and the personages which he depicts.
Of all his essays Macaulay shows his great powers most conspicuously
in those on Milton, Clive, Warren Hastings and Croker's edition of
Boswell's Johnson. In these he is always the advocate laboring to
convince his hearers; always the orator filled with that passion of
enthusiasm which makes one accept his words for the time, just as
one's mind is unconsciously swayed by the voice of an eloquent
speaker. It is this intense earnestness, this fierce desire to
convince, joined to this prodigal display of learning, which stamps
Macaulay's words on the brain of the receptive reader.
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