omicidal maniac;
what he does tell you is that she was faithful. Another reason of his
success is his continual regard for beautiful things and fine actions,
as illustrated in the major characteristics of his grandmother and his
brother, and in the detailed description of Blakesware House and the
gardens thereof.

Then, subordinate to the main purpose, part of the machinery of the
main purpose, is the picture of the children--real children until the
moment when they fade away. The traits of childhood are accurately and
humorously put in again and again: "Here John smiled, as much as to
say, 'That would be foolish indeed.'" "Here little Alice spread
her hands." "Here Alice's little right foot played an involuntary
movement, till, upon my looking grave, it desisted." "Here John
expanded all his eyebrows, and tried to look courageous." "Here John
slily deposited back upon the plate a bunch of grapes." "Here the
children fell a-crying ... and prayed me to tell them some stories
about their pretty dead mother." And the exquisite: "Here Alice put
out one of her dear mother's looks, too tender to be upbraiding."
Incidentally, while preparing his ultimate solemn effect, Lamb has
inspired you with a new, intensified vision of the wistful beauty of
children--their imitativeness, their facile and generous emotions,
their anxiety to be correct, their ingenuous haste to escape from
grief into joy. You can see these children almost as clearly and as
tenderly as Lamb saw them. For days afterwards you will not be able to
look upon a child without recalling Lamb's portrayal of the grace of
childhood. He will have shared with you his perception of beauty. If
you possess children, he will have renewed for you the charm which
custom does very decidedly stale. It is further to be noticed that the
measure of his success in picturing the children is the measure of his
success in his main effect. The more real they seem, the more touching
is the revelation of the fact that they do not exist, and never have
existed. And if you were moved by the reference to their "pretty dead
mother," you will be still more moved when you learn that the girl who
would have been their mother is not dead and is not Lamb's.

As, having read the essay, you reflect upon it, you will see how its
emotional power over you has sprung from the sincere and unexaggerated
expression of actual emotions exactly remembered by someone who had an
eye always open for beauty, wh