Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 07.djvu/132

* ENGLISH LITERATURE. 110 ENGLISH LITERATURE. ference. In the hands, first of Edmund Waller, then of Drvden and his eighteenth-century follow- ers, each pair of lines as a rule contained one complete thought, limited and condensed b; narrow bounds. The influence of Dryden on prose was not dissimilar to that which he exer- cised on poetry. It was not, perhaps, so con- sciously exerted : prose had not even yet attained the dignity of a form worthy the careful atten- tion of the artist. What he strove to do was to make il a tit vehicle for the conveyance of well- defined thought; and to this end he abandoned the long, rolling periods of the Elizabethan and i iters — as in poetry, he "reduced the unit of u1 to manageable size."' and determined the structure of the modern sentence las ever since been preserved. Thus, in his own production in both kinds, as in his singular- ly influential and epoch-making criticism, Dryden bodied forth the spirit of his age and molded that which was to follow. The eighteenth century was characteristically a period of unrest. Its intellectual ferment was fostered by skepticism, which invaded every do- main. The concrete was engulfed by a Hood of abstract speculations, and in industrial spheres the result was wholesome. Rationalism and deism were accompanied by an analytic study of man, almost exclusively, however, on his intel- lectual side. The spirit of man had suffered eclipse. All this we find in the poetry of the period. Pope, as the spokesman of the school, had .1 the proper study of mankind to be man, and man was accordingly dissected. As a social unit, whenever so regarded, man is treated most flippantly, and the affections are mostly ignored. Indeed, it was : tenet of the philosophy then current thai man was a most despicable thing, and yet it 1 to itself peculiar wisdom. tion of this attitude was the sheerest affectation. From poetry in general the note of sincerity was missing, and the great god Pan w;i- dead. In the evolution of literary ideals. ideal which find completest acceptance to-day, the century is of the Erst itn- nce, and can boast Mime of the most de- lightful masters in both prose and verse. What these ncv, ideals are may be indicated by a brief Burvey of these n riti In philosophy, theology, history, and oratory enturj takes high tank. Berkeley attacked ion theory of Locke, and insisted on has been termed a theological idealism. Hume brought admirable common sense and a strenuous skeptical spirit to hear on the theory, and in his turn assailed Berkeley's thesis. Of i philo iphica] H titer- one may mention I, Paley, Reid, Sha El ft he ' 'har ind Dugald Stewart, and. though less important, Bolingbroke was i v faithfully 1 1. ism was the common tai hen tk"ii ( lollins puhlishi & hi I ing, Benl lej . art red in rebuttal. Bui the is Held i- i gy, in which Bui >n mind thai his n ah-. dull' argument. 'I I of I he cent in  ciiuiiit els n more dan in rh< I the Methodists. nailed. The pi, , | ,  esley, and the fen id pn id, furnished to the atheistic and deistic conception so widely prevailing. This counter-movement was supported by a tine poetry of devotion, the work of the no less beautiful spirit, Charles Wesley, and by a multitude of hymns, many of them devotional rather than poetic, from the pious Watts. To history Hume brought style and philosophy, but inadequate research, and his work has con- sequently suffered front the charge of inaccuracy. But though it is marred by a partisan spirit, and is almost a Tory evangel, the historical sense is true, -the method luminous, and the recognition of the life of the people as more important than statistics of dynasties introduces a new concep- tion of historical composition which Macaulay and Green were not slow to appreciate. Smollett .supplemented his fellow countryman's work, and Robertson wrote of Charles V. and -of America. It is Gibbon, however, who is the commanding figure in history. His stupendous plan was sup- ported by equal resolution and fidelity. Learned, philosophic, stately, the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire is a work which in its somewhat grandiose but still authoritative periods has not a little of the dignity of the epic. But perhaps the book of the greatest practical value, a legiti- mate response to the wide industrial awakening, is Adam Smith's Wealth of Nations, the begin- ning of the science of political economy. In ora- tory the century was even more commanding, and Chatham, Fox. Pitt, Sheridan, and Burke are names which in this sphere are paramount, though Horace Walpole preferred Chesterfield, and Bolingbroke gained considerable prominence. Of Burke, indeed, it is difficult to determine whether he was greater as a writer or as an orator. He began as a man of letters, and such, despite his political activity, he essentially re- mained. Though it is commonly believed that his speeches must have been better read than heard, Macaulay in his most energetic manner pictures the effect of his oratory in the Hastings trial as overpowering. Unhappily for his reputation as an amiable man. his vehemence of invective (as against the Duke of Bedford) was second only. if indeed second, to that of "Junius.' The com- panion of the most eul lured men and women of his time, he was perhaps the greatest of them all, and never more himself than when he be- friended the starving poet Crabbe. In the eighteenth century we find the be- ginning of the periodical essay, which en- joyed high favor as a literary form, and became the vehicle of some of the best writ- ing of the whole range of English prose. (See Essay.) In l'oo Steele established the Tat- I i. in which he began the publication of short articles on literary and social topics. Soon ho had the hearty cooperation of his old school- fellow, Addison, who was peculiarly Btted for such work. Together they founded (lie Spectator (1711). in which appeared the chivalrous Sir Roger de Coverleyj who may dispute Robinson Crusoe's title to the position of the fixsl notable inter in English prose Action. Steele's essays were marked by ease and naturalness, and some- ii1 atoned for the 7ici0US taste of the sonti- mental drama to which he unworthily lent his name Vddison brought to prose a -nice and an which it had icarcely known except in Shake- speare, and when his Campaign and his Calit tten, the eleganl simplicity of his essays will ^till charm mw generations. wonderful