266 Right Rev. W. Boyd Carpenter [March 15, 



This passage sufficiently vindicates the freedom of the poet. It 

 may, however, be questioned whether the standard taste of the i)ge 

 of Pope would have tolerated the liberty which, in theory, the poet 

 claimed for his order. " King Alexandei'," as Henry Fielding called 

 him, put " a total restraint on the liberty of the press : for no person 

 durst read anything which was writ without his licence and approl)a- 

 tion ; and this licence he granted only to four during his reign, viz. 

 to the celebrated Dr. Swift, to the ingenious Dr. Young, to Dr. 

 Arbuthnot, and to one Mr. Gay, four of his principal courtiers and 

 favourites.'" 



The tendency of the prevailing taste was to look askance at the 

 innovator. The result was the growth of an unwritten code of taste. 

 Such is bound to become a burden which ardent souls will find too 

 heavy to bear. Meanwhile, new ideas have taken possession of men's 

 minds. Men's thoughts cannot find natural expression in the old 

 forms. The new ideas demand new vehicles of utterance. The new 

 wine must be put into new bottles. Sooner or later the revolt must 

 come ; and when it comes, the virtues of the old are forgotten in 

 resentment against its real or apparent tyranny. The old regime 

 must pass aw^ay. The dear quaint figure, trained to many courtesies, 

 making love by rule, powdered, precise, well-disciplined in discreet 

 graces, is to give way before freer manners and less conventional 

 costume. Taine recalls that when M. Roland appeared before the 

 King without the Court costume, someone said, " All is lost." But 

 as Taine truly remarks, it was bat the symbol that all was changed. 

 The age of refined, even superfine, culti\'ation, of careful observance 

 of ancient forms, is at an end. The powder-l>ox and the pig-tail 

 disappear. The 19th Century and sans-cuUotism are at the door. 



We make our bow to the new-comer, and we try to become 

 acquainted with his features. He embodies the spirit of Revolt. 

 What is the revolt which he expresses ? New influences are at work. 

 Three great factors have Ijeen at work in Society ; and all of them 

 are handmaids of change — the revolution, machinery, and missionaiy 

 enterprise. They are all movements of and for the people. The 

 Revolution will proclaim the Rights of ]\Ian ; machinery will popu- 

 larise the products of the world ; missionary enterprise will make its 

 protest on behalf of forgotten and despised races. To those who 

 have eyes to see it, these movements mean that the treasures of life 

 will no longer be the monopoly of the few. 



The singer will no longer sing to please his patron. He has 

 heard the murmur of those voices which are as the waves of the sea. 

 He thinks no longer of some Lord Chesterfield, or of Dr. Johnson. 

 He may wince under the lash of Jefi'reys ; Imt he will appeal from 

 the judgment of the Edinburyh to that of the public, and the public 

 is no longer the few who are cultivated ; the public is to him the 

 masses, whose lives are sad and whose hearts he longs to reach. He 

 is moved by a higher conception of his calling ; he feels that the 



