LAMB’S TRUE ESSAYS

Southland Times, Issue 22074, 22 July 1933, Page 11

LAMB’S TRUE ESSAYS

Of true essays, those called the Essays of Elia are the best examples in our literature. Elia was the name taken by Charles Lamb in a series of papers he wrote for the London Magazine in the years 1820 and following. Lamb was a quiet, retiring man who loved a few books and a few friends, and had no special ambition to do great things or make a great name. He worked during easy business hours at the India house, and then was free to spend the rest of the day in reading and talking, in pleasant places, perhaps, or with pleasant people. When he wrote, he set down what he would otherwise have spoken; his letters sound very much as though he might be talking to some friend. And his essays are not very different in character from his letters, although they are just a httle more confined to some subject. But, on the whole, it does not seem to have been

very important to Lamb what he wrote about, nor was he indeed very careful how he wrote. His writings have so much of his own personality and character that generations of readers have been delighted with them. They are free, of a genial temper and a pure humor, and whether we are interested, in the subject of not before we begin to read, we always end with a kinder and pleasanter feeling about it, and indeed about everything else.—Edward Everett Hale, in the Introduction to “English Essays.”