R,CHARD MONCKTON MILNES was born in the year - OUDL Home

Andrew Lang in the 'Seventies 83service in the political, the religious and some technicaldepartments, Lang was quite the king of all the contributorsto ' the papers' that I have known. His vessel did notcarry—thanks to the limitations just mentioned it didnot require—such heavy metal as H. D. Traill's; I fancythat it may itself have been of slightly too heavy adraught in respect of knowledge on the part of the readerto be able to skim the waves of universal popularity asdid, especially latterly, the craft of our common friendSir Edmund Gosse. But for a compound of scholarshipand lighthandedness, of multilegence and complete freedomfrom pedantry, of what may be called literary goodmanners, infinite wit and a peculiar humour he had, Ithink, in his own generation no equal—certainly nosuperior.And wherever it was first shown there I am sureappeared, though it could hardly be separately recognisedtill it was followed by something else, a peculiarity whichhas not yet been mentioned but which depended withoutdoubt on things that have been. And this was Lang'sextraordinary individuality. You could not, after youhad seen a little of his writing, mistake it for any oneelse's or any one else's for his. Nor did this individualitydepend upon any tricks of style in the lower sense likethe snipsnap of Macaulay; the chaotic riches of Carlyle;the repetitions and word-groupings of Arnold; the infusedblank verse (in their so different kinds) of Ruskinand Dickens; the elaborate rhythm and colouring ofPater. It was most commonly said to be like Thackeray's,and no doubt there was a strong resemblance of spirit;but I really doubt whether the greatest similarity betweentheir manners was not the fact that neither hadany manner easy to analyse or capable of being pinnedout and down. Only great incompetence or great prejudice—forchoice perhaps a skilful combination of the6-2