s it were, whole paragraphs at once, and thus he
infinitely abbreviated the mere mechanical part of study; that as
an educated man would read any number of pages much more quickly
than an uneducated man, so much more quickly would Macaulay read
than any ordinary man. Therefore it is first and foremost the
power of abstraction, that faculty of attention and of rendering
up his mind to the matter before him, which makes all his reading
profitable, and leaves nothing to be wasted and frittered away.
Then the acquired habit of devouring at a glance a vast surface
of print, so that, like the dragon of Wantley, to whom

Houses and churches
Were like geese and turkeys,

he can discuss a Greek folio while an ordinary man is dawdling or
boggling over a pamphlet or a newspaper.

Nature has certainly cast the mind of Macaulay in a different
mould from that of common men. There is no more comparison
between his brain and such a one as mine than between a hurdy-
gurdy in the street and the great organ at Haarlem; but it is
probably not true that _nature_ has made all the difference or
the greatest part of it. If the hurdy-gurdy was kept in constant
tune and the great instrument was never played upon, and its
barrels and tubes allowed to grow rusty, the former would at
length discourse the more eloquent music of the two. No care or
cultivation indeed could have made me what Macaulay is, but if he
had wasted his time and frittered away his intellects as I have
done mine, he would only have been an ordinary man; while if I
had been carefully trained and subjected to moral discipline, I
might have acted a creditable and useful part.

August 10th, 1838 {p.123}

[Page Head: LORD DURHAM'S ORDINANCE.]

Lord Durham[24] has got into a fine scrape with his Ordinance,
which is clearly illegal. Brougham brought it forward on Tuesday
night in an exulting speech, or rather in many exulting speeches,
one of which contained some eloquent passages. He was transported
with joy at having, as he said, 'got them at last.' The Duke
supported Brougham, but with more temper and dignity; the
Ministers made but a poor defence, if defence it could be called.
Durham's appointments cancelled and his proclamations declared
illegal will neither sweeten his temper nor exalt his character
in Canada.

[24] [Lord Durham had passed an Ordinance enacting that
Papineau and the leaders of the Canadian rebel