atural
expression of a perfectly sincere conviction. Can there be higher
praise? His relation to children is equally charming. 'He was beyond
comparison the best of playfellows,' writes Mr. Trevelyan; 'unrivalled
in the invention of games, and never weary of repeating them.' He wrote
long letters to his favourites; he addressed pretty little poems to them
on their birthdays, and composed long nursery rhymes for their
edification; whilst overwhelmed with historical labours, and grudging
the demands of society, he would dawdle away whole mornings with them,
and spend the afternoon in taking them to sights; he would build up a
den with newspapers behind the sofa, and act the part of tiger or
brigand; he would take them to the Tower, or Madame Tussaud's, or the
Zoological Gardens, make puns to enliven the Polytechnic, and tell
innumerable anecdotes to animate the statues in the British Museum; nor,
as they grew older, did he neglect the more dignified duty of
inoculating them with the literary tastes which had been the consolation
of his life. Obviously he was the ideal uncle--the uncle of optimistic
fiction, but with qualifications for his task such as few fictitious
uncles can possess. It need hardly be added that Macaulay was a man of
noble liberality in money matters, that he helped his family when they
were in difficulties, and was beloved by the servants who depended upon
him. In his domestic relations he had, according to his nephew, only one
serious fault--he did not appreciate canine excellence; but no man is
perfect.

The thorough kindliness of the man reconciles us even to his good
fortune. He was an infant phenomenon; the best boy at school; in his
college days, 'ladies, artists, politicians, and diners-out' at Bowood,
formed a circle to hear him talk, from breakfast to dinner-time; he was
famous as an author at twenty-five; accepted as a great parliamentary
orator at thirty; and, as a natural consequence, caressed with effusion
by editors, politicians, Whig magnates, and the clique of Holland House;
by thirty-three he had become a man of mark in society, literature, and
politics, and had secured his fortune by gaining a seat in the Indian
Council. His later career was a series of triumphs. He had been the main
support of the greatest literary organ of his party, and the 'Essays'
republished from its pages became at once a standard work. The 'Lays of
Ancient Rome' sold like Scott's most popular poetry; the 'Hist