OF LITERATURE. 



Jxv 



Should any one urge, in opposition to some 

 things said above, that even in the eighteenth 

 century the authors of England, Scotland, and 

 Ireland have strong national features, and ought 

 therefore to be kept asunder ; we reply, that all 

 their differences, proceeding from the superiority 

 in classical scholarship of England, the metaphy- 

 sical subtlety of Scotland, and the overflowing 

 fancy of Ireland, are nothing to their points of 

 likeness, proceeding from many powerful causes. 

 Language has been one great assimilator. The 

 authors of this period, with few exceptions, have 

 written English ; varying, indeed, between the 

 Saxon and other elements of the tongue ; and 

 more or less idiomatic ; but for the most part 

 pure, unprovincial English. The increase of 

 knowledge has been another assimilator. Liter- 

 ary men have been forced to accumulate know- 

 ledge of all kinds, and to write up to the 

 demands of a knowing public. The details of 

 fiction are more scrupulously accurate, in our 

 days, than those of history once were. Thirdly, 

 political causes have aided in the work of assi- 

 milation. On the whole, the inhabitants of 

 England, Scotland, and Ireland have shared the 

 constitutional advantages secured by the fathers 

 of the Revolution. Happy and wise people, if 

 they abide by the principles of those great men, 

 and by the objects from which such principles 

 derive their incalculable value ! Freedom of the 

 press, the free profession of religious opinions, 

 the free course of public justice, these are the 

 mainsprings of our social existence ; and the 

 efficacy of these has been nearly equal in the 

 three countries. It has been altogether equal, 

 as far as the state of letters is concerned. 



The best way, then, of classing the authors of 

 this last period is by generations. One genera- 

 tion ends with Goldsmith. The second ends 

 with Cowper. The third consists of our own 

 contemporaries. 



Queen Anne died early in the first generation. 

 But it may take its name, as it took its tone, 

 from the assemblage of wits that were in maturity 

 during her reign. These were true Britons, in 

 diction as in everything else. They taughl 

 France a great deal : they learned from her 

 little except a clear and concise structure oi 

 sentences in prose. In other matters they fol- 

 lowed up what Dryden had begun. 



What a thorough master of idiomatic prose 

 was SWIFT ! * Defoe f narrates as well as he : 

 Cobbett, in the present day, has passages o: 

 finer eloquence than Swift could reach. Bui 

 though both of these writers equal him in raciness 



of language, Swift surpasses them both in variety 

 and learning. Even, however, from the strength 

 of Swift, and the sprightliness of BOLINOBROKE,* 

 we turn with pleasure to the sober elegance of 

 AoDisoN.f His style is like green among the 

 colours. We could rest on it for ever. It nevei 

 dazzles : it never wearies. 



Swift's poetry is his prose versified ; unequal, 

 herefore, in poetical merit, to the effusions ot 

 Gay, Young, Pope, Thomson, and Gray. Theirs 

 s the poetry of art ; but not on that account the 

 ess beautiful. We may laugh at the silly ques- 

 ion whether POPE,$ the greatest of the series, 

 were a poet. If you ask what he was as to in- 

 ention, read the Rape of the Lock : what he was 

 as to passion, read Eloisa's letter, and the Elegy 

 on an unfortunate lady. Besides, he is as 

 original as many other great poets. If his mind 

 ook in foundling-thoughts from all quarters, it 

 dressed them up in a livery of its own. 



Nevertheless, in creative genius, Pope and his 

 jrethren gave place to the novelists, Richardson, 

 Fielding, Sterne, and Smollett. RICHARDSON 

 ;oo often paints the impossible in character ; but 

 ie is unrivalled in the elaborateness of his repre- 

 sentation. FIELDING'S II Tom Jones is the epic 

 of romances. STERNE,^ though he could not 

 equal Fielding in fluent wit, is a paragon of 

 lucky quaintness ; and, in pathos, is approached 

 by Mackenzie alone. Life is no longer pictur- 

 esque enough to produce a match for SMOLLETT ** 

 in descriptive humour. GoLDSMiTH,tt too, who 

 belongs by style to this first generation, would 

 be immortal as a novelist, had he not so many 

 more claims to immortality a poet more simple 

 and touching than Pope ever was ; a prose writer 

 more vigorous than Addison ever could have 

 been. 



If the second generation were to be estimated 

 by JOHNSON JJ and GIBBON, it might justly be 

 condemned for Latinized expression, and a 

 pompous fashion of adorning common-places. 

 But with their monotonous, though sounding 

 rhetoric, we must contrast the spotless style of 

 HUME :|||| and, somewhat later, the lively rhythm 

 of PALEY.^[[[ ROBERTSON *** is a fine writer ; 

 who does not feel at home with his pen. 



The literature of modern oratory has no name 

 so lofty as that of BuRKE,ftt though from the 

 want of wealth or high alliances he never led a fac- 



A. D. 16671745. 



A. D. 1663-1731. 



* A. D. 16721751. 

 J A. D. 16881744. 

 II A. 1). 17071754. 

 ** A D. 17201771. 

 Ji A. D. 17091784. 

 H|| A. D. 17111776. 

 '" A. D. 1721 17!>3. 



t A. D. 16721719. 



A. D. 16891761 



T A. D. 17131768. 



ft A. D. 1731-1774. 



A. D. 1737 17M. 

 tf A. D. 17431805. 

 W A. D. 17301797. 



