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BLACKWOOD'S
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MACAULAY'S HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
The historical and critical essay isa species of literary composition whichhas arisen, and been brought to perfection,in the lifetime of a single generation.Preceding writers, indeed, hadexcelled in detached pieces of a lighterand briefer kind; and in the wholeannals of thought there is nothingmore charming than some of thosewhich graced the age of Queen Anne,and the reigns of the first Georges. Butthough these delightful essays remain,and will ever remain, models of thepurest and most elegant composition,and are always distinguished by justand moral reflections, yet their influencehas sensibl