OF THK SPIRIT. 359 



for persons and institutions but also for the spiritual 

 agencies of which they were — or should have been — 

 the representatives and guardians. This spirit of flippancy 

 and impurity in morals and literature was in process of 

 spreading into the neighbouring countries, and had, in 

 fact, already made considerable progress both in Eng- 

 land and Germany when the violent scenes and excesses 

 of the Eevolution gave additional strength to a timely 

 reaction which had already set in. It remains the 

 immortal glory of Walter Scott and Wordsworth to 

 have stemmed and broken this tide of impurity 

 and flippancy in the literature of their country, and 

 to have prevented the spread of that irreverent tone 

 to which we have become accustomed in some of 

 the best and most elegant of French writers, which, 

 after the age of Classicism in art and poetry, has 

 gradually taken hold likewise of a large portion of 

 German literature. For a long time it had there been 

 kept in check by the powerful influence of Goethe's 

 sovereign mind. 



This characteristic of the English mind, which in its 

 best form is the Spirit of Eeverence, has, of course, 

 likewise its less favourable side. For in many cases 

 it is no more than an inherent dislike to break with 

 that which is traditional and conventional : this has 

 been called the conservatism of the English people. 

 To foreigners who have tried to understand the 

 peculiarities of English thinking it has not infre- 

 quently presented itself as a servile submission to the 

 powers that be whether for good or for evil — 

 nay, even so far as religious questions are concerned, 



