Mr. Kingsley recognizes human beings, and recognizes them
heartily,--loves, hates, admires, despises; in fine, he deals with
history not merely as a scientist or theorist, but first of all as a
man. There are those who will think this weak. They are superior to this
partiality of man for himself, they! They would be ashamed not to sink
the man in the _savant_. But Mr. Kingsley refuses to dehumanize himself
in order to become historian and philosopher. He does well.
Again, it is partly Mr. Kingsley's merit, and partly it expresses his
limitation, that he is treating history more distinctively as a
moralizer than any other noted writer of the time. He assumes in this
respect the Hebraistic point of view, and looks out from it with an
undoubting heartiness which in these days is really refreshing. He
believes in the Old Testament, and doubts not that riches and honors are
the rewards of right-doing. And in this, too, there is a vast deal of
truth; and it is truly delightful to find one who affirms it, not with
perfunctory drawl, but with hearty human zest, a little red in the face.
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