Thomas Babington Macaulay, 1st Baron Macaulay

Who was Thomas Babington Macaulay, 1st Baron Macaulay?

Thomas Babington Macaulay, 1st Baron Macaulay, PC was a British historian and Whig politician. He wrote extensively as an essayist and reviewer; his books on British history were hailed as literary masterpieces.

Macaulay held political office as the Secretary at War between 1839 and 1841 and the Paymaster-General between 1846 and 1848. He played a major role in introducing English and western concepts to education in India. He supported the replacement of Persian by English as the official language, the use of English as the medium of instruction in all schools, and the training of English-speaking Indians as teachers.

In his view, Macaulay divided the world into civilised nations and barbarism, with Britain representing the high point of civilisation. He was wedded to the Idea of Progress, especially in terms of the liberal freedoms. He opposed radicalism while idealising historic British culture and traditions.

Famous Quotes:

• A church is disaffected when it is persecuted, quiet when it is tolerated, and actively loyal when it is favored and cherished.
• Your Constitution is all sail and no anchor.
• Language, the machine of the poet, is best fitted for his purpose in its rudest state. Nations, like individuals, first perceive, and then abstract. They advance from particular images to general terms. Hence the vocabulary of an enlightened society is philosophical, that of a half-civilized people is poetical.
• Time advances: facts accumulate; doubts arise. Faint glimpses of truth begin to appear, and shine more and more unto the perfect day. The highest intellects, like the tops of mountains, are the first to catch and to reflect the dawn. They are bright, while the level below is still in darkness. But soon the light, which at first illuminated only the loftiest eminences, descends on the plain, and penetrates to the deepest valley. First come hints, then fragments of systems, then defective systems, then complete and harmonious systems. The sound opinion, held for a time by one bold speculator, becomes the opinion of a small minority, of a strong minority, of a majority of mankind. Thus, the great progress goes on.
• The measure of a man's real character is what he would do if he knew he would never be found out.
• Turn where we may, within, around, the voice of great events is proclaiming to us, Reform, that you may preserve!
• Logicians may reason about abstractions. But the great mass of men must have images. The strong tendency of the multitude in all ages and nations to idolatry can be explained on no other principle.
• We must judge a government by its general tendencies and not by its happy accidents.
• She thoroughly understands what no other Church has ever understood, how to deal with enthusiasts.
• A few more days, and this essay will follow the Defensio Populi to the dust and silence of the upper shelf... For a month or two it will occupy a few minutes of chat in every drawing-room, and a few columns in every magazine; and it will then be withdrawn, to make room for the forthcoming novelties.