then, after a pause, 'It has not vitality enough to preserve it from putrefaction.' In a word, a man of powerful mind, of surly independence, of stern integrity, of deep piety, of offensive manners, and eccentric habits; generous, reverent, and sincere,—an illustrious blending of narrowness and strength, of noble and of boorish traits. Influence. In morals and criticism, it will ever be to his praise that he has assailed all sentimentalism and licentiousness. His wit, eloquence, and logic were always enlisted on the side of revealed religion, to deepen and extend, in heart and practice, the human faith in God. In the fields of literature, which were now beginning to be cultivated on all sides, he did more than any of his contemporaries to create a pure and invigorating atmosphere. His balanced pomp of antithetic clauses soon had for others, as it had for him, an irresistible charm, and caused a complete revolution, for a time, in English style. Unhappily, it was too often imitated by inferior writers, who had not the glow to kindle the massive structure-little fishes talking like whales. There has been no English prose writer, onward to the present day, whose style has not been influenced by that of Johnson. The reputation of his writings is every day fading, but his peculiarities are immortal. Let us remember that Johnson came to London in what was for authors a period of famine; that, all unknown, ill-dressed, and ungainly, he began his long, toilsome ascent in squalor and misery; that he pressed forward amid calamities, and hopes deferred, eating behind a screen because he was ashamed to show his ragged clothes; that he emerged at length from garrets and cellars into the society of the polished and the opulent — the last survivor of a race of hacks; that in his old age, such men as Burke, Gibbon, Fox, Goldsmith, and others, yielded to him, in literature, a quiet supremacy. Surely here was a man who, in one sense the product of his 'environment,' was yet a final law to much that was around him. SECOND TRANSITION PERIOD. CHAPTER IV. FEATURES. The resemblance between fashions in literature, and heresies in religion, holds good in several points; most of them, as they passed away, left something behind them. But there is this difference, that in literature nothing was ever retained except the little that was good.-Southey. Politics.-The death of George II terminated the ministerial ascendancy of Pitt, as well as the undisputed supremacy of the Whig party. After about ten years of feeble government and party anarchy, there was formed a Tory ministry of commanding strength, whose dominion, with an unimportant interval, became as absolute as that of the Whigs had ever been, and lasted without break to the end of the century. In 1783 the younger Pitt, second son of Lord Chatham, began his long and eventful career as Prime Minister. The reaction was aided by the personal character of the king, who, without taste or education, was narrow and ignorant. Despotic, as well as superstitious, he steadily resisted the spirit of reform. But no man can stop the march of destiny. The result, in a few years, was a nation convulsed by faction, a throne assailed by the fiercest invective, a House of Commons hated and despised. So complete had been the change in political affairs, that, when a bill was introduced to tax the Americans without even the form of asking their consent, not the least difficulty was found in passing a measure which no minister of the preceding reign had been bold enough to propose. The policy of the government bore its legitimate fruit- the American Revolution, which emphasized the questions of right, and embodied the spirit of the age, in the memorable sentence: Governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.' The fire started in the Colonies kindled those latent tendencies 179 which wildly flamed out first in France, then in Ireland, spreading commotion everywhere. Questions of government and social organization became the topics of most urgent and varied consideration. The leading minds were roused to fresh activity, and literature, reflecting the ardent desire for freedom, was influenced profoundly. Society. Literature began to be addressed to the common miscellaneous public, and became in consequence more simple and independent. Authors, relying upon the patronage of the people, advocated the claims of their new allies with unusual boldness. Having previously assailed public men by their initials only, they now attacked them by name. The demand for amusement and instruction was increasing, and democratic principles were spreading. The year 1769 witnessed the first public meeting ever assembled in England to enlighten Englishmen respecting their political rights. Nothing more clearly indicates the prevalence of the spirit of inquiry than the bitter war which the gov ernment carried on against every kind of free discussion. Men were fined, imprisoned, transported, for the use of language such as in our time is employed with perfect impunity. In 1795, a law was passed conferring upon any common magistrate the power to dissolve a public gathering. If the meeting should consist of twelve persons, or upwards, a refusal to disperse one hour after being ordered to do so was punishable with death. But liberal opinions had taken root in the popular mind, and it was impossible either to stifle them or to prevent their increase. While the political movement went back, the intellectual movement went on, and eventually produced those legislative reforms which signalize the present century. More effective police measures were adopted for the preservation of order. While the country highways were still infested with robbers, Browne, writing in 1757, was able to say that 'the reigning evil of street robberies has been almost wholly suppressed.' The law which condemned a prisoner, who refused to plead on a capital charge, to be slowly pressed to death, was repealed in 1771; and in 1790, that which condemned women to be publicly burned for the murder of their husbands. RELIGION POETRY - DRAMA. 181 The improvement in the moral tone of society at the end of the century, is happily illustrated by a well-known anecdote of Sir Walter Scott. His grand-aunt assured him that, when led by curiosity to turn over the forgotten pages of a novel in which she had delighted in her youth, she was astonished to find that, sitting alone at the age of eighty, she was unable to read without shame a book which sixty years before she had heard read out for amusement in large circles consisting of the best society in London. Religion. Methodism created a higher regard for spiritual matters. The movement begun by Wesley and Whitefield was essentially a popular one, exercising its deepest influence over the lower and middle classes. But the seed cast here germinated largely among the upper. It produced many forms of charity, many holy lives, many triumphant deaths. It implanted a fervid and enduring religious sentiment amid brutality and neglect; it imparted a warmer and more energetic tone to the devotion and philanthropy of every denomination. Poetry. In Burns and Cowper, poetry returned to the paths she had long deserted, to Thoughts that voluntary move and to some it had never traversed. After many years, a man speaks as men speak, without premeditation, whose voice is the echo of nature, whose verse is full of personal emotions genuinely felt. Stars and clouds, streams and forests, blossoming vine and mantling green, joy and sorrow, hope and despair, love and kindness, higher beauty and ideal happiness,-these become the inspiration of the poet. We no longer listen, but sympathize. Poetry, from being artificial, has become natural. Drama.-Only here and there do we meet with a name, eminent in literary art, that is at all associated with the stage. The dramatic literature consists chiefly of comedies and farces of modern life, all in prose. Much was written, but the only addition to the classic comedy of Congreve was Sheridan's School for Scandal (1777). It is a continual discharge of malice and witticism, a brilliant fire-work, skilfully constructed of society materials. Hear Mrs. Candour: 'Yesterday Miss Prim assured me that Mr. and Mrs. Honeymoon are now become mere man and wife, like the rest of their acquaintance. She likewise hinted that a certain widow in the next street had got rid of her dropsy, and recovered her shape in a most surprising manner.' Again: 'Mrs. Candour. Well, I will never join in the ridicule of a friend; so I tell my cousin Ogle, and ye all know what pretensions she has to beauty. Crab. She has the oddest countenance - a collection of features from all the corners of the globe. Sir Benjamin. She has, indeed, an Irish front. Sir B. In short, her face resembles a table d'hôte at Spa, where no two guests are of a nation. Crab. Or a congress at the close of a general war, where every member seems to have a different interest, and the nose and chin are the only parties likely to join issue.' Sheridan himself was a lucky adventurer, clever, amiable, irregular, seductive, brilliant. He rose and descended like a rocket. At one time in the House of Commons opposing Pitt, at another he was picked up in the street by the watch. Bailiffs were at his death-bed, and lords at his funeral. Periodical.-The manufacture of newspapers was beyond all former example. This, with the increase of magazines and reviews, proves the large increase of readers, and the miscellaneous activity of writers. The British Critic, thus far the chief periodical devoted to criticism, appeared in 1793. Novel. It is doubtful whether the best novels of the preceding reign could be read aloud in any family circle, they contain so many passages of needless and offensive coarseness. The heroes are often profane and gross. The heroines take part in conversations which no modest woman would consent to hear. Yet these novels were the delight of their generation, not so much because that generation was less chaste, as because it was less delicate and refined. Words now considered indecent were then in common and daily use. But the moment approaches when the novel becomes natural without being indelicate. Purified manners give to it its final impress and character. In the noble hands of Goldsmith, it becomes in every respect moral. History. The ablest representative in this department is the |