with Carlyle intensely; perhaps it is not possible to agree
with him in any detailed manner, unless the agreer be somewhat destitute
of individual taste and judgment. But on his whole aspect and tendency,
reserving individual expressions, he is, as few are, great. The
_diathesis_ is there--the general disposition towards noble and high
things. The expression is there--the capacity of putting what is felt
and meant in a manner always contemptuous of mediocrity, yet seldom
disdainful of common sense. To speak on the best things in an original
way, in a distinguished style, is the privilege of the elect in
literature; and none of those who were born within, or closely upon, the
beginning of the century has had these gifts in English as have the
authors of _The Lotos Eaters_ and _Sartor Resartus_.

Only one other writer of history during the century, himself the latest
to die of his generation except Mr. Ruskin, deserves, for the union of
historical and literary merit, to be placed, if not on a level with
Macaulay and Carlyle, yet not far below them; but a not inconsiderable
number of historians and biographers of value who distinguished
themselves about or since the middle of the century must be chronicled
more or less briefly. Two Scottish scholars of eminence, both in turn
Historiographers Royal of Scotland, John Hill Burton and William Forbes
Skene, were born in the same year, 1809. Burton, who died in 1881,
busied himself with the history of his country at large, beginning with
the period since the Revolution, and tackling the earlier and more
distinctively national time afterwards. He was not a very good writer,
but displayed very great industry and learning with a sound and
impartial judgment. Skene, on the other hand, was the greatest authority
of his time (he lived till 1892) on "Celtic Scotland," which is the
title of his principal book. In the same year (or in 1808) was born
Charles Merivale, afterwards Fellow of St. John's College, Cambridge,
and Dean of Ely, who, besides other work, established himself in the
same class of historians with Hallam and Milman, Thirlwall and Grote, by
his extensive _History of the Romans under the Empire_. On the whole,
Merivale (who died in 1894) ranks, both for historical and literary
gifts, somewhat below the other members of this remarkable group--a
position which is still a very honourable one.

Shortly after these three was born Alexander Kinglake (1811-1891)--a man
of very