nat, Bil 9-6-39 39211 PREFACE THE first article in this volume is reprinted from The Contemporary Review; the rest of the volume. has been hitherto unpublished. The Puritan writers with whom I deal are such as to render the title Puritan and Anglican" not inexact, although many of the Puritan party were loyal members of the Anglican Communion. In choosing my subjects I have been influenced by two things: first, I have spoken only of writers with whom I have dwelt long and intimately; and secondly, among such writers I have spoken only of those who to speak through some personal interest which I feel in the men or their work. Hence without scruple or regret I omit many great names, being here content to indulge my own likings. move I have desired to remain close to my subjects. In many passages, for example, of what I have written on Herbert and Vaughan, it is Herbert and Vaughan who are in fact the speakers; but I did not think it necessary to encumber my pages with a crowd of references to scattered poems from which their thoughts and phrases have been collected. I write not as a controversialist but as a student of literature. Literature, however, and especially what is most valuable in seventeenth-century literature, cannot be studied without reference to the history of religion. All these writers, except Hooker, belong to the seventeenth century; and the influence of Hooker, who died in 1600, was in great measure posthumous. CONTENTS I. PURITANISM AND ENGLISH LITERATURE Sources of the greatness of Elizabethan literature-Decline of II. PAGE 1 SIR THOMAS BROWNE His unique character in his own age-Connection with the RICHARD HOOKER III. Belongs to both Renaissance and Reformation-Walton's art 335 69 of the English Church-Puritanism dogmatic and not historical Herbert and Keble-Crisis in Herbert's life-"The Pilgrim " -Desire for inward coherence-How to obtain this-Dignity and poverty of man-The age of wonder renewed - God the strategist-Humility and obedience leading to peace- Fluctuations of feeling-Yet a link in God's great chain -Herbert's pious fantasies-His love of beauty-Satisfied by beauty in the Anglican Communion-Simplicity and severity -The Christian Year- Prayer-The poem "Love" - The Country Parson "-Ideal of the parson's life-Herbert and Vaughan contrasted-Vaughan an illuminé-His love of light - His nostalgia - Vaughan and Wordsworth - His "Rules Liberty and obedience the sum of Milton's writings-The transitory and the abiding elements in his prose-Pamphlets on divorce--The central proposition-Ideal of marriage-Con- troversial violence-Ends of marriage-For labour and for rest -Letter on education-Liberty and a higher rule in e lucation -Its religious end- Uses of an ideal-Intellectual, moral, æsthetic, physical training-Ideal of the Renaissance on a Christian foundation-Freedom in publishing opinions-Per- petual search for truth the law of liberty-Confidence in the nation of England-Sir John Seeley on Milton's politics-- "Ready and Easy Way to establish a Free Commonwealth' Centralisation and decentralisation-The good old cause. |