OF LITERATURE. 



from causes that partly preceded it, and partly 

 gained additional force during its progress, a 

 visible change came over the spirit of literature. 



The political state of Europe about the year 

 1700 could not fail to affect, in an eminent de- 

 gree, the character of her mental productions. 

 Britain, Germany, and Holland stood forth as 

 the foremost assertors of liberty, and antagonists 

 of arbitrary power. France, making violent 

 efforts to aggrandize herself, and to blazon 

 despotic principles, was nevertheless sowing in 

 her own bosom the seeds of future revolution. 

 The men were coming into existence who were 

 fated to teach her a' new theory : the circum- 

 stances were already operating that prepared 

 her people for their lessons. She, too, at last, 

 was to be ranged on the side of freedom. Happy 

 for her, and for the world, had she never over- 

 stepped it in her march ! 



The physical sciences were cultivated with 

 astonishing success ; without prejudice to that 

 classical learning, of which NEWTON * would 

 have blushed to be deemed neglectful. In clas- 

 sical learning itself a higher criticism was prac- 

 tised ; applied first by BENTLET,t whose very 

 errors were more fruitful of good than truths in 

 the hands of other men, and carried on by his 

 successors in various parts of Europe. By the vast 

 strides of improvement in these two departments, 

 education was necessarily benefited ; and accu- 

 racy and polish began to be required in literary 

 works to an extent unknown at former periods. 

 The use of modern tongues in the treatment of 

 scientific subjects especially contributed to in- 

 crease the clearness and precision of prose com- 

 position. 



The empirical philosophy of LOCKED though it 

 led too directly to scepticism, and other diseases 

 of the intellect, and was too feebly opposed by 

 the palliative theories of LEIBNITZ,^ served at 

 least to display and to methodize the vigour of 

 the human understanding. Eagerly embraced 

 by the French, in their writings its most perni- 

 cious tendencies were manifested. They clothed 

 this philosophy in every conceivable garb of prose 

 and poetry, epistolary correspondence and ro- 

 mance, narrative and declamation. And thus their 

 literature, being filled with a system that flattered 

 the pride and passions of mankind, and recom- 

 mended by the most winning liveliness and per- 

 spicuity of style, usurped an empire wider than 

 their arms had been able to subdue. The revo- 

 cation of the edict of Nantes I! drove Bayle and 



A. D. 16421727. 

 I V D 16321704. 



A. D. 16611742. 

 A. D. 16461716. 



II A. D. 1685. 



other able men out of France in different direc- 

 tions : and everywhere they acquired a sway that 

 was not successfully combated by those healthful 

 influences, which have always emanated from the 

 highest order of British genius, until her naval 

 triumphs in the seven years' war * had raised 

 Great Britain to a station of paramount weight 

 with the continental powers. 



The fruits of these causes, good and evil, will 

 be seen as we summon before us, for a last 

 review, the principal European nations. 



No longer did the sun of ITALY flame in the 

 meridian. Even, however, in the eighteenth 

 century, that country boasts of some writers fit 

 to sustain the singular glory she has gained by 

 being alone equally eminent in ancient and 

 modern literature. The lyrics and blank verse 

 of FRUGONI f are admired on the south of the 

 Alps : the operas of METASTASIO J enjoy uni- 

 versal celebrity. Nothing less would have been 

 adequate to the merits of one, who has uttered 

 the soul of music, in feeling and imagery, by 

 the very breath of music, in versification and 

 expression. Here, moreover, Italian genius is 

 thoroughly original. The operatic poetry, as 

 its laws were fixed by Metastasio, is exclusively 

 Italian. It resembles neither foreign nature, 

 nor nature in the abstract. Under all diversities 

 of costume, it is still one musical voluptuous 

 dream; occupied with neither place, character, 

 nor circumstance, but solely with itself. In 

 other things, the later taste of the Italians has 

 been as dependent as their political condition. 

 First, they endeavoured to supply the defects in 

 their literature complained of by French critics, 

 by building up a regular drama on French inter- 

 pretations of Aristotle. Corneille, Racine, and 

 Moliere were assumed as infallible guides, in 

 tragedy and comedy, by MARTELLI and his 

 friends. Thus the dramatic art of Italy, which 

 in Politien's hands, and afterwards in Tasso's, 

 had leaned to the style of Virgil's eclogues ; 

 which, in those of Ariosto, had copied Plautus 

 and Terence ; which had shone, in the best age, 

 with few gleams of native talent ; again copied a 

 pattern, and was not happy in selecting one. 

 The fetters of the French taste were at last 

 loosened by GOLDONI.|| For, while he drove out 

 of fashion the comedies of art, or extemporaneous 

 pieces, which had long been a popular amuse- 

 ment, he yet, instead of aiming at Parisian 

 correctness in composition, rather sought to take 

 up the national humour and careless fluency of 



* A. D. 17561763. t A. D. 16921768. 

 t A. D. 16981782. J Died A. D. 1727. 

 U A. D. 17071792. 



