.32 LORD MACAULAT. 



be taken as an illustration. After speaking of the utter barrenness 

 of the ancient systems of philosophy, and the fruitful results which 

 had accompanied the acceptance of the Baconian philosophy he says — 

 " There we see the great Lawgiver looldng round from his lonely elevation 

 on an infinite expanse — behind him a wilderness of dreary sands and bitter 

 waters in which successive generations have sojourned, always moving, 

 yet never advancing, reaping no harvest, and building no abiding city ; 

 before him a goodly land, a land of promise, a land flowing with milk and 

 honey. While the multitude below saw only the flat sterile desert in 

 which they had so long wandered, boimded on every side by a near 

 horizon or diversified only by some deceitful mirage ; he was gazing from 

 a far higher stand, on a far lovelier country, following with his eye the 

 long course of fertilising rivers, through ample pastures, and under the 

 bridges of great capitals, measuring tlie distance of marts and havens and 

 portioning out all those wealthy regions from Dan to Beersheba — 

 Vol. 1. 415. 



It is told of Macaulay that at a dinner party he named all the senior 

 wranglers of his University for a long niimber of years; and related the 

 history of each after they left the University. He electrified the House 

 of Commons in a speech he made on the Copyright question, by naming 

 all the great English authors and their respective ages at the time their 

 chief works were written. He is said to have been able to repeat all the 

 earlier books of Paradise Lost without a single omission. And Thackeray 

 who knew him well said that he read twenty books to write a sentence 

 and travelled 100 miles to make a line of description. His memory was 

 so great that some have not scrupled to call it omniscient. Whence arose 

 this enormous development of the memory ? Partly no doubt from 

 natural endowment — but it derived its greatest jjower from the patient 

 industry with which it was cultivated. 



He entered the House of Commons on the eve of the Eeform bill 

 agitation as member for Calne. His speeches in favour of Reform secured 

 his election for Leeds in 1832. In the same year he became secretary to 

 the Board of Control. In his official capacity he made a speech (1834) 

 on the renewal of the Indian Charter — a speech which so favourably 

 impressed Lord Melbourne's government that they offered and he accepted 

 a seat in the new council which was to legislate for India. Many have 

 regretted that he was tempted away from literary pursuits to legislate for 

 a distant country. Prudential motives had much to do in influencing his 



