Iviii 



RISE AND PROGRESS 



" Whatever hypocrites austerely talk 

 Of purity, and place, and innocence, 

 Defaming as impure what God declares 

 1'un*, ami commands to some, leaves free to all." 



^ hen we think on some of these tilings ; on 

 the Lycidas and the Comus, or the Allegro and 

 the 1'tnseroso, or Adnm and Eve in Paradise, it 

 is difficult to remember that intense loftiness is 

 also characteristic of Milton ; that to hold long 

 communion with him, in fitting mood, is a labour, 

 though an elevating labour ; and that we ever and 

 anon 



" Strain'd to the height 

 In that celestial colloquy sublime, 

 As with an object that excels the sense 

 Dazzled and spent, sink down and seek repair." 



Let us turn then, for relief, to Hudibras and 

 BUTLER.* Here is an incarnation of the highest 

 wit and the grotesques! drollery. Here, in a 

 peculiar sense, is the poet of the puritans ; one 

 who was never weary of persecuting their vices 

 with satire so searching and so true, that it will 

 apply to grim and solemn knavery at all times. 

 But if the reader be tired at last (the author 

 never seems to be so) of incessant epigrams, he 

 may, about the same time, exchange the rest- 

 less activity, the short quick thrusts of Butler 

 for " the long-resounding march and energy 

 divine" of DRYDEN :f of Dryden, who if like 

 Butler he is an adept in the poetry of wit, yet 

 clothes his wit in robes more flowing and magni- 

 ficent. But Dryden is much more than a witty 

 poet; and laughs at the system-hatching rage 

 of those who would shut him up in a new class, 

 apart from the great imaginative writers. Let it 

 be remembered that his ode on St Cecilia is the 

 finest lyric composition since Pindar : that his 

 Satires are vividly descriptive as well as declam- 

 atory : and that his Tales must have done some- 

 thing besides perfecting the language of English 

 verse, to acquire, as they have acquired, a 

 general popularity. 



In his plays Dryden sacrificed to the corrupt 

 taste of too many among his contemporaries. 

 But for this fault he almost atones by his nervous, 

 nimble prose, which ushered in the perfection of 

 that species of writing in the subsequent century. 

 He was a fit associate for TILLOTSON $ and TEM- 

 PLE in the work of reforming our prose-style ; 

 which so greatly needed reformation. Perhaps 

 Dryden, in this respect, was the most useful of 

 the three : since he avoids both the frigidity that 

 is coupled with the clearness of Tillotson ; and 

 the diffuseness that mars the elegance of Temple. 



A. D. 16121680. 

 t Died A. D. 1694. 



t A. D. 16311701. 

 I A. D 16281698. 



Of his predecessors, COWLEY did most to lighten 

 and to polish prose : but though, before him, by 

 the version of the Bible, a noble corner-stone 

 had been laid, this part of literature was long 

 inferior to poetry in its structure. How justly 

 has the sagacious Coleridge said of the English 

 prose-writers from the beginning of the reign of 

 Elizabeth to the end of the reign of Charles II., 

 that they are usually " rich in various knowledge, 

 exuberant in conceptions and conceits ; contem- 

 plative, imaginative, often truly great and mag- 

 nificent in style and diction, but, doubtless, too 

 often big, stiff, and hyperlatinistic." From this 

 criticism neither BACON,* the proudest name that 

 science ever shared with literature, nor the self- 

 kindling, exhaustless TAYLOH,f nor the gorgeous 

 MILTON, can be withdrawn. And of Sydney, 

 Hooker, Brown, Burton, Barrow, notwithstand- 

 ing their high and varied excellencies, the same 

 judgment will hold good. 



In SCOTLAND the quick progress of the Refor- 

 mation, Avhen it had once fairly begun, bears 

 testimony to the then advanced state of her 

 intellectual culture. Yet religious controversy, 

 or the political divisions with which it was mixed 

 up, produced more lamentable consequences 

 there than in the neighbouring country. By 

 these the prosperity of the Universities was 

 checked, and the progress of letters delayed. 

 Again, the junction of the English and Scottish 

 crowns,^ although the forerunner of immense ad- 

 vantages to both kingdoms, at first only withdrew 

 from Scottish literature the stimulus previously 

 afforded by the presence of a court, the concourse 

 of nobility, and the sense of perfect independence. 

 Then came the conflict between rival forms of 

 protestantism, in which both sides lost sight of 

 Christianity, and the muses were scared away 

 from a distracted people. The establishment of 

 the Presbyterian discipline at last opened a path 

 for the return of national peace and polite learn- 

 ing ; but from the time of James IV. to that of 

 Queen Anne the great literary names of Scotland 

 are few. We must not, however, forget SIB DAVID 

 LYNDSAY,$ a terse rhymer, sometimes a good 

 poet, but one whose stinging satire and familiar 

 boldness made it lucky for him that he enjoyed 

 the protection of the throne : nor DRUMMOND OF 

 HAWTHORNDEN, || " whose labours in verse and 

 prose " according to his editor in 1659, " shall 

 live and flourish in all ages, whiles there are 

 men to read them, or art and judgment to approve 

 them." Yet, in neither style would this writer 



A D. 15601626. t A. D. 16I&-166Z. 



J A. P. IG03. 5 A. D. 1490 1S57. 



)> A. D. 15851649. 



