time he stood for election in Edinburgh. His conscientious opposition to
a measure in which the Scottish people were especially interested caused
the tide to turn against him.

No doubt, though, the failure of re-election was a good thing for
Macaulay--and for the world. He at once began serious work on his "History
of England"--that project which had been in his head and heart for a score
of years. All of his literary labors so far had been merely ephemeral--at
least he so regarded them. The Essays he regarded only as so many
newspaper articles, not worth the collecting. It was America that first
guessed their true value as literature, and it was not until the American
editions were pouring into England that Macaulay allowed his scattered
work to be collected, corrected and put into authorized book form.

This history was to be the thesis that would admit his name to the Roster
of Fame. But, alas, the history was destined to be only a fragment. It
covers scarce fifteen years, and is like that other splendid fragment, the
work of Henry Thomas Buckle, a preface; Buckle's preface is the greatest
ever penned, with its author dead at forty. The projected work of both of
these men was too great for any one man to accomplish in a single
lifetime. A hundred years of unremitting toil could not have completed
Macaulay's task.

In Eighteen Hundred Forty-nine he was elected Lord Rector of the
University of Glasgow; and at his speech of installation he took occasion
to take formal leave of political life. He would devote the remainder of
his days to literature and abstract thought.

Men are continually "retiring" from business and active life, all unaware
of the grim humor of the proceedings. It was not so very long before