Ixvi 



RISE AND PROGRESS OF LITERATURE. 



tion, and from the mixed nature of a parliamen- 

 tary audience he was not always an effective 

 speaker. The largeness of his political views is 

 of itself enough to preserve that name from 

 degenerating into a party -toast : and the opu- 

 lence of Burke's style is so vast, that it would 

 hardly seem enhanced were we to make out his 

 title to the letters of JUNIUS. 



High finish in the execution of literary designs 

 is a characteristic common to both the genera- 

 tions through which we have hurried. The low 

 ebb of poetical genius, in the second, might be 

 inferred from the temporary popularity of DAR- 

 WIN.* CowpERf and BURNS t supply the two 

 exceptions to this inference. The fervid piety 

 of the one, the fervid passions of the other, gave 

 wings to their poetry. And, even after Dunbar 

 and Allan Ramsay, Burns disclosed new powers 

 in the Scottish dialect. 



For any dearth of poetry in the preceding 

 generation, full amends have been made by the 

 present. If we marshall SCOTT, BYRON, MOORK, 

 CRABBE, CAMPBELL, WORDSWORTH, SOUTHKT, 

 COLERIDGE, MONTGOMERY, in the foremost rank, 

 a multitude of not ignoble crests may be seen 



* A. D. 17321802. f A. D. 1731 1800. 

 t A. D. 1759-1796. 



waving behind them. Some of those here men- 

 tioned are great poets without having written 

 great poems. But this is not true of WALTER 

 SCOTT. Granting that his novels may be included 

 in the conception of his poetical character, he 

 rises to the level of Homer, 



" And rivals all but Shakspcare's name below !" 



In prose composition British writers seem to 

 be now gathering their breath, and proving their 

 arms, for future efforts. Meanwhile they suc- 

 ceed best in biography and criticism. The first 

 place is due, perhaps, to those periodical works, 

 which owe their form, and much of their spirit, 

 to the great abilities of JEFFREY, GIFFORD, and 

 WILSON. 



Our prescribed limits are transgressed ere we 

 have cast a glance at the literary produc- 

 tions of Holland, Denmark, Sweden, or the 

 Sclavonic countries. We cannot afford a single 

 line even to the growing literature of NORTH 

 AMERICA. Within the bosom of that vast conti- 

 nent there is no lack of talent sufficient to use, 

 to noble purpose, the resources of a new and 

 unexhausted scene. But before America can 

 hope to produce literary works of the highest 

 order, she must learn two lessons : to substitute 

 real freedom of thought for democratic violence ; 

 and to honour genius and wisdom above riches. 



THE END. 



