ry. For those interested in the art of criticism, and in the
appreciation of literature, both Hunt and Hazlitt will well repay study;
but we must pass over their work to consider the larger literary interest
of Lamb and De Quincey, who were not simply critics of other men's labor,
but who also produced some delightful work of their own, which the world
has carefully put away among the "things worthy to be remembered."

CHARLES LAMB (1775-1834)

In Lamb and Wordsworth we have two widely different views of the romantic
movement; one shows the influence of nature and solitude, the other of
society. Lamb was a lifelong friend of Coleridge, and an admirer and
defender of the poetic creed of Wordsworth; but while the latter lived
apart from men, content with nature and with reading an occasional moral
lesson to society, Lamb was born and lived in the midst of the London
streets. The city crowd, with its pleasures and occupations, its endless
little comedies and tragedies, alone interested him. According to his own
account, when he paused in the crowded street tears would spring to his
eyes,--tears of pure pleasure at the abundance of so much good life; and
when he wrote, he simply interpreted that crowded human life of joy and
sorrow, as Wordsworth interpreted the woods and waters, without any desire
to change or to reform them. He has given us the best pictures we possess
of Coleridge, Hazlitt, Landor, Hood, Cowden Clarke, and many more of the
interesting men and women of his age; and it is due to his insight and
sympathy that the life of those far-off days seems almost as real to us as
if we ourselves remembered it. Of all our English essayists he is the most
lovable; partly because of his delicate, old-fashioned style and humor, but
more because of that cheery and heroic struggle against misfortune which
shines like a subdued light in all his writings.

LIFE. In the very heart of London there is a curious, old-fashioned place
known as the Temple,--an enormous, rambling, apparently forgotten
structure, dusty and still, in the midst of the endless roar of the city
streets. Originally it was a chapter house of the Knights Templars, and so
suggests to us the spirit of the Crusades and of the Middle Ages; but now
the building is given over almost entirely to the offices and lodgings of
London lawyers. It is this queer old place which, more than all others, is
associated with the name of Charles Lamb. "I was born," he says, "a