he held several positions under the Government. He was
never unemployed. Many of his _Essays_ were written before breakfast;
while the other members of the household were asleep.

He was a voracious reader. If he walked in the country or in London,
he always carried a book to read. He spent some years in the
government's service in India. On the long voyage over, he read
incessantly, and on the return trip he studied the German language.

He was beyond the age of forty when he found the leisure to begin his
_History of England_. He worked uninterruptedly, but broke down early,
dying at the age of fifty-nine.

With his large, fine physique, his sturdy common sense, his interest
in practical matters, and his satisfaction in the physical
improvements of the people, Macaulay was a fine specimen of the
English gentleman.

Essays and Poetry.--Like De Quincey, Macaulay was a frequent
contributor to periodicals. He wrote graphic essays on men of action
and historical periods. The essays most worthy of mention in this
class are _Sir William Temple, Lord Clive, Warren Hastings_, and
_William Pitt, Earl of Chatham_. Some of his essays on English writers
and literary subjects are still classic. Among these are _Milton,
Dryden, Addison, Southey's Edition of Pilgrim's Progress, Croker's
Edition of Boswell's Life of Johnson_, and the biographical essays on
_Bunyan, Goldsmith_, and _Johnson_, contributed to the _Encyclopaedia
Britannica_. Although they may lack deep spiritual insight into the
fundamental principles of life and literary criticism, these essays
are still deservedly read by most students of English history and
literature.

Gosse says: "The most restive of juvenile minds, if induced to enter
one of Macaulay's essays, is almost certain to reappear at the other
end of it gratified, and, to an appreciable extent, cultivated." These
_Essays_ have developed a taste for general reading in many who could
not have been induced to begin with anything dry or hard. Many who
have read Boswell's _Life of Johnson_ during the past fifty years say
that Macaulay first turned their attention to that fascinating work.
In the following quotation from an essay on that great biography, we
may note his love for interesting concrete statements, presented in a
vigorous and clear style:--

"Johnson grown old, Johnson in the fullness of his fame and in the
enjoyment of a competent fortune, is better known to us than any
other man in h