nd politician was no better than a low Dutch
bear."[6]

Parts of the _History_ are masterpieces of the narrator's art. A
trained novelist, unhampered by historical facts, could scarcely have
surpassed the last part of Macaulay's eighth chapter in relating the
trial of the seven Bishops. Our blood tingles to the tips of our
fingers as we read in the fifth chapter the story of Monmouth's
rebellion and of the Bloody Assizes of Judge Jeffreys.

Macaulay shirked no labor in preparing himself to write the _History_.
He read thousands of pages of authorities and he personally visited
the great battlefields in order to give accurate descriptions.
Notwithstanding such preparation, the value of his _History_ is
impaired, not only because he sometimes displays partisanship, but
also because he fails to appreciate the significance of underlying
social movements. He does not adopt the modern idea that history is a
record of social growth, moral as well as physical. While a graphic
picture of the exterior aspects of society is presented, we are given
no profound insight into the interior movements of a great
constitutional epoch. We may say of both Gibbon and Macaulay that they
are too often mere surveyors, rather than geologists, of the historic
field.[7] The popularity of the _History_ is not injured by this
method.

Macaulay's grasp of fact never weakens, his love of manly courage
never relaxes, his joy in bygone time never fails, his zeal for the
free institutions of England never falters, and his style is never
dull.

General Characteristics.--The chief quality of Macaulay's style is
its clearness. Contemporaries said that the printers' readers never
had to read his sentences a second time to understand them. This
clearness is attained, first, by the structure of his sentences. He
avoids entangling clauses, obscure references in his pronouns, and
long sentences whenever they are in danger of becoming involved and
causing the reader to lose his way. In the second place, if the idea
is a difficult one or not likely to be apprehended at its full worth,
Macaulay repeats his meaning from a different point of view and throws
additional light on the subject by varied illustrations.

In the third place, his works abound in concrete ideas, which are more
readily grasped than abstract ones. He is not content to write: "The
smallest actual good is better than the most magnificent promise of
impossibilities:" but he gives the concr