* * * * *
The impression of his brilliant and eloquent talk, though it will
perhaps remain, for at least half a century to come, more or less
vivid to some of those of the new generation who were privileged to
hear it, will, of course, gradually fade away. But it seems
hardly probable that the rich legacy of his long roll of
writings--historical, biographical, critical--can be regarded as other
than a permanent one, in which each succeeding generation will find
fresh delight and instruction. The series of vivid pictures he has
left behind in his "French Revolution," in his "Cromwell," in his
"Frederick," can hardly become obsolete or cease to be attractive; nor
is such power of word-painting likely soon to be equalled or ever
to be surpassed. The salt of humour that savours nearly all he wrote
(that lambent humour that lightens and plays over the grimmest and
sternest of his pages) will also serve to keep his writings fresh and
readable. Many of his _dicta_ and opinions will doubtless be more and
more called in question, especially in those of his works which are
more directly of a didactic than a narrative character, and in regard
to subjects which he was by habit, by mental constitution, and by that
prejudice from which the greatest can never wholly free themselves,
incapable of judging broadly or soundly,--such, for instance, as the
scope and functions of painting and the fine arts generally, the value
of modern poetry, or the working of Constitutional and Parliamentary
institutions.
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