in the proportion, symmetry, and
completeness of a work.

+17. Thought and Feeling.+ The intellectual and the emotional nature o
a writer is clearly reflected in his works. Intellectual force, for
example, is recognized in the firm grasp of a subject, in the marshaling
of details toward a predetermined end, and in the vigor of utterance.
The Essays of Macaulay, however much they may lack in delicate
refinement of thought and feeling, display a virile force of intellect;
and many a page of Carlyle fairly throbs with energy of spirit. A
large, sensitive soul manifests itself in sympathy with nature and human
life. The "wee, modest, crimson-tipped" daisy, and the limping wounded
hare touched the tender sympathies of Burns; and it was Wordsworth who
said,--

"To me the meanest flower that blows can give
Thoughts that do often lie too deep for tears."

There is no class of society, from kings to beggars, from queens to
hags, with which Shakespeare has not entered into sympathy, thinking
their thoughts and speaking their words.

+18. Moral Character.+ The moral character of an author appears in his
general attitude toward truth and life. A strong moral sense appears in
a firm adherence to right and an unblinded condemnation of wrong. A
genial, charitable spirit is shown in a kindly disposition to overlook
the weaknesses of men and to magnify their virtues. Life may be looked
upon as something earnest, exalted, divine; or it may be regarded as
insignificant, wretched, and ending at death.

It is character that gives fundamental tone to literature; and, as
Matthew Arnold has said, the best results are not attainable without
"high seriousness." The difference between the flippant and the earnest
writer is easily and instinctively recognized. No one can read Ruskin,
for instance, without feeling his sincerity and integrity, even in his
most impracticable vagaries. In Addison, Goldsmith, and Irving we find a
genial, uplifting amiability; and Whittier, in his deep love of human
freedom and justice, appears as a resolute iconoclast and reformer.

+19. Authorship and Character.+ It is sometimes supposed that the art of
authorship can be divorced from the personality of the writer. In
serious authorship this supposition is a mistake. The best writing is
more than grace of rhetoric and refinement of intellectual culture. Back
of all outward graces there is need of a right-thinking and truth-loving
soul. One of the ess