LATE IN THE MORNING

New Zealand Listener, Volume 41, Issue 1054, 6 November 1959, Page 14

LATE IN THE MORNING

THE ART OF. LIVING: FOUR eet EENTH CENTURY MINDS, by Lucas; Cassell, English price 25/-. R LUCAS has a great stock of apt quotations and the unexceptionable idea that the 20th century is out of its mind. Thus atmed, he applies himself to the lives of four 18th century characters --Hume, Horace Walpole, Burke, and Benjamin Franklin-and tries to show in each case how successfully passion was restrained and guided by reason. The aim is to learn from the 18th century a lesson in self-control. For those who like their historical figures lined up in pedagogical parade, the book may be attractive. It will also impress some with its smooth style. But if you judge a book by its originality and penetration into character, the present volume will not rate highly. Burke, we are told, was at his best on the American at his worst ap, | Marie Antoinette. In his less ned moments he was antic, romantic, and a mad Irishman. ume struck a fine balance between life and logic. He was neither passionate nor religious and managed to die unrepentant, with a smile on his lips. In the author’s inscrutable phrase, he was "extremely eighteenth-century." Franklin is an example of the man of affairs who .does not let his heart run away with his head. All this does not leave much room for controversy. And if the

casual reader thinks the chapter on Walpole a trifle favourable compared with Macaulay, he might be reminded that Walpole’s two latest biographers-Lucas and Ketton-Cremer-have been just as sympathetic. This book, in conjunction with an earlier volume on Johnson, Boswell, Chesterfield and Goldsmith, provides a useful introduction to the age of reason. But you have to get up very early in the morning these days to write something new and telling on the 18th century. By modern academic standards, Mr Lucas is a rather late riser.

Alexander

MacLeod