dangerous for the absent lover who provoked it to have come within the wind of it; and at other times so very languishing, that I have been glad for the lady's sake the lover was at a sufficient distance from it. I need not add, that a fan is either a prude or coquette, according to the nature of the person who bears it. To conclude my letter, I must acquaint you, that I have from my own observations compiled a little treatise for the use of my scholars, entitled, The Passions of the Fan; which I will communicate to you, if you think it may be of use to the public. I shall have a general review on Thursday next; to which you shall be very welcome if you will honour it with your presence.

"I am," etc.

"P. S. I teach young gentlemen the whole art of gallanting a fan.

"N. B. I have several little plain fans made for this use, to avoid expense."

IV

LAMB

I

LAMB:

GREATEST OF THE HUMORISTS

N spite of De Quincey's declaration that

Lamb never could become popular, that his

literary excellencies were too fine and exquisite for that, Lamb has proved to be the most popular essayist who ever wrote the English language. Though the sum total of his good work is very small, his position is as secure as that of any writer since Shakespeare.

Though Lamb may be compared to Addison at his best; to Goldsmith, who had much of the same overflowing love in his character and is all but as fondly loved as Lamb himself; to Thackeray, who always was a man of love and the humor of love, still Charles Lamb stands unique, unimitated and inimitable.

The only way in which we can understand Lamb is in the light of his personal history. His father was all his life a servant in the family of a Mr. Salt, a barrister. As a reward for faithful services on the part of the father, Charles Lamb the son was sent to the famous London school of Christ's Hospital, where he came into contact with Coleridge. From Christ's Hospital Coler

idge went to Oxford, and Lamb to be a clerk in the South Sea House. Later he was transferred to the India House, from the directors of which corporation he drew a salary until he died, a period of nearly forty years.

Soon after he entered the India House, when Lamb was twenty-one, his sister Mary, ten years his senior, in a passing fit of insanity, killed her mother with a table knife. Soon after, their father died. Charles was attached to a young lady whom he hoped to marry; but he gave up his prospect in this direction, and devoted his entire life to his sister. She was confined in an asylum for a time, but soon recovered her sanity and was released upon her brother's making himself personally responsible for her. Her attacks of insanity returned many times; but she herself could feel them coming, and we read of their going hand in hand across the fields to Hoxton (the asylum). Charles himself was confined in an asylum for six weeks.

As an antidote to the blues, and an offset to the deathlike cloud always hanging over him, Lamb gathered many friends about him, and engaged in regular correspondence with some of the best known literary characters of his day. As his clerical duties did not begin until ten o'clock, and ended at four, he had considerable leisure to study and cultivate his friends. He wrote some verses that were published in a volume with Coleridge's, and composed two dramatic pieces,