Handbook of Universal Literature, From the Best and Latest Authorities Part 41

most truly, that no book could be more aptly used as a test to determine whether a reader has a genuine love for poetry. His works have no interest of story, no insight into human nature, no clear sequence of thought; they are the rapturous voice of youthful fancy, luxuriating in a world of beautiful unrealities.

It may be questioned whether Crabbe and Moore are ent.i.tled to rank with the poets already reviewed.

Crabbe's (1754-1832) "Metrical Tales," describing everyday life, are striking, natural, and sometimes very touching, but they are warmed by no kindly thoughts and elevated by nothing of ideality.

Moore (1780-1851), one of the most popular of English poets, will long be remembered for his songs, so melodious and so elegant in phrase. His fund of imagery is inexhaustible, but oftener ingenious than poetical. His Eastern romances in "Lalla Rookh," with all their occasional felicities, are not powerful poetic narratives. He was nowhere so successful as in his satirical effusions of comic rhyme, in which his fanciful ideas are prompted by a wit so gayly sharp, and expressed with a neatness and pointedness so unusual, that it is to be regretted that these pieces should be condemned to speedy forgetfulness, as they must be, from the temporary interest of their topics.

Among the works of the numerous minor poets, the tragedies of Joanna Baillie, with all their faults as plays, are n.o.ble additions to the literature, and the closest approach made in recent times to the merit of the old English drama. After these may be named the stately and imposing dramatic poems of Milman, Maturin's impa.s.sioned "Bertram," and the finely- conceived "Julian" of Miss Mitford.

Rogers and Bowles have given us much of pleasing and reflective sentiment, accompanied with great refinement of taste.

To another and more modern school belong Procter (Barry Cornwall) and Leigh Hunt; the former the purer in taste, the latter the more original and inventive.

Some of the lyrical and meditative poems of Walter Savage Landor are very beautiful; his longer poems sometimes delight but oftener puzzle us by their obscurity of thought and want of constructive skill.

The poems of Mrs. Hemans breathe a singularly attractive tone of romantic and melancholy sweetness, and many of the ballads and songs of Hogg and Cunningham will not soon be forgotten.

The poems of Kirke White are more pleasing than original. Montgomery has written, besides many other poems, not a few meditative and devotional pieces among the best in the language. Pollok's "Course of Time" is the immature work of a man of genius who possessed very imperfect cultivation.

It is clumsy in plan and tediously dissertative, but it has pa.s.sages of genuine poetry. The pleasing verses of Bishop Heber and the more recent effusions of Keble may also be named.

Of the Scotch poets, James Hogg (d. 1835) is distinguished for the beauty and creative power of his fairy tales, and Allan Cunningham (d. 1842) for the fervor, simplicity, and natural grace of his songs.

Edward Lytton Bulwer (Lord Lytton) deserves honorable mention for his high sense of the functions of poetic art; for the skill with which his dramas are constructed, and for the overflowing picturesqueness which fills his "King Arthur." Elliott, the Corn-Law Rhymer, is vigorous in conception, and Hood has a remarkable union of grotesque humor with depth of serious feeling.

Henry Taylor (b. 1800) deserves notice for the fine meditativeness and well-balanced judgment shown in his dramas and prose essays. "Philip Van Artevelde" is his masterpiece.

The poems of Arthur Hugh Clough (d. 1861) are worthy of attention, although it may be doubted if his genius reached its full development; in those of Milnes (Lord Houghton, b. 1809), emotion and intellect are harmoniously blended. R.H. Horne (d. 1884) is the author of some n.o.ble poems; Aytoun (d. 1865), of many ballads of note; and in Kingsley (d.

1875) the poetic faculty finds its best expression in his popular lyrics.

Alfred Tennyson (b. 1810) is by eminence the representative poet of his era. The central idea of his poetry is that of the dignity and efficiency of law in its widest sense and of the progress of the race. The elements which form his ideal of human character are self-reverence, self- knowledge, self-control, the recognition of a divine order, of one's own place in that order, and a faithful adhesion to the law of one's highest life. "In Memoriam" is his most characteristic work, distinctly a poem of this century, the great threnody of our language. The "Idylls of the King"

present in epic form the Christian ideal of chivalry.

In Browning (b. 1812) the greatness and glory of man lie not in submission to law, but in infinite aspiration towards something higher than himself.

He must perpetually grasp at things attainable by his highest striving, and, finding them unsatisfactory, he is urged on by an endless series of aspirations and endeavors. In his poetry strength of thought struggles through obscurity of expression, and he is at once the most original and unequal of living poets.

Elizabeth Barrett Browning (d. 1861) may be regarded as the representative of her s.e.x in the present age. The instinct of wors.h.i.+p, the religion of humanity, and a spiritual unity of zeal, love, and wors.h.i.+p preside over her work.

To this period belong the writings of Mrs. Norton, Mrs. Blackwood, Mrs.

Crosland, Mary Howitt, and Eliza Cook.

FICTION.--Previous to the appearance of Scott's novels the department of prose writing had undergone an elevating process in the hands of G.o.dwin, Miss Austen, Miss Porter, and Miss Edgeworth. "Waverley" appeared in 1814, and the series which followed with surprising rapidity obtained universal and unexampled popularity. The Waverley Novels are not merely love stories, but pictures of human life animated by sentiments which are cheerful and correct, and they exhibit history in a most effective light without degrading facts or falsifying them beyond the lawful stretch of poetical embellishment. These novels stand in literary value as far above all other prose works of fiction as those of Fielding stand above all others in the language except these.

The novels of Lockhart are strong in the representation of tragic pa.s.sion.

Wilson, in his "Lights and Shadows of Scottish Life," shows the visionary loveliness and pathos which appear in his poems, though they give no scope to those powers of sarcasm and humor which found expression elsewhere.

Extremes in the tone of thought and feeling are shown in the despondent imagination of Mrs. Sh.e.l.ley and the coa.r.s.e and shrewd humor of Galt. To this time belong Hope's "Anastasius," which unites reflectiveness with pathos, and the delightful scenes which Miss Mitford has constructed by embellis.h.i.+ng the facts of English rural life.

Among the earlier novels of the time, those of Bulwer had more decidedly than the others the stamp of native genius. Though not always morally instructive, they have great force of serious pa.s.sion, and show unusual skill of design. In some of his later works he rises into a much higher sphere of ethical contemplation. The novels of Theodore Hook, sparkling as they are, have no substance to endure long continuance, nor is there much promise of life in the showy and fluent tales of James, the sea-stories of Marryat, or the gay scenes of Lever. The novels and sketches of Mrs. Marsh and Mrs. Hall are pleasing and tasteful; Mrs. Trollope's portraits of character are rough and clever caricatures. In describing the lower departments of Irish life, Banim is the most original, Griffin weaker, and Carleton better than either. The novels of Disraeli are remarkable for their brilliant sketches of English life and their embodiment of political and social theories. Miss Martineau's stories are full of the writer's clearness and sagacity. Kingsley, the head of the Christian socialistic school, is the author of many romances, and the eloquent preacher of a more earnest and practical Christianity. The narrative sketches of Douglas Jerrold deserve a place among the speculative fictions of the day.

Charlotte Bronte (1816-1855) had consummate mastery of expression, and a perception of the depth of human nature that is only revealed through suffering experience. The works of her sister Emily show a powerful imagination, regulated by no consideration of beauty of proportion, or of artistic feeling.

Among those writers who aim at making the novel ill.u.s.trate questions that agitate society most powerfully are the founders of a new school of novelists, Thackeray and d.i.c.kens (1812-1870). The former has given his pictures of society all that character they could receive from extraordinary skill of mental a.n.a.lysis, acute observation, and strength of sarcastic irony, but he has never been able to excite continuous and lively sympathy either by interesting incidents or by deep pa.s.sion.

d.i.c.kens has done more than all which Thackeray has left unattempted; while his painting of character is as vigorous and natural, his power of exciting emotion ranges with equal success from horror sometimes too intense, to melting pathos, and thence to a breadth of humor which degenerates into caricature. He cannot soar into the higher worlds of imagination, but he becomes strong, inventive, and affecting the moment his foot touches the firm ground of reality, and nowhere is he more at ease, more sharply observant, or more warmly sympathetic, than in scenes whose meanness might have disgusted, or whose moral foulness might have appalled. Of the later novelists, the names of Mrs. Craik (Miss Muloch) and Charles Reade (d. 1884) may be mentioned as having acquired a wide popularity.

HISTORY.--In history Niebuhr's masterly researches have communicated their spirit to the "Roman History" of Arnold; the history of Greece has a.s.sumed a new aspect in the hands of Thirlwall and Grote; and that of Grecian literature has been In part excellently related by Muir (d. 1860). Modern history has likewise been cultivated with great a.s.siduity, and several works of great literary merit have appeared which are valuable as storehouses of research. Macaulay, in his great work, "The History of England," showed that history might be written as it had not been before, telling the national story with accuracy and force, making it as lively as a novel, through touches of individual interest and teaching precious truths with fascinating eloquence. Alison's "History of Europe" takes its place among the highest works of its kind. Carlyle's "History of the French Revolution" and "Life of Frederic the Great" are most picturesque, attractive, and original works. The History of the Norman Conquest of England is the most important work of Freeman. Buckle (d. 1882) in his Introduction to the projected History of Civilization in Europe reiterated the theory that all events depend upon the action of inevitable law.

CRITICISM AND REVIEWS.--In the art of criticism, Hallam's (d. 1859) "Introduction to the Literature of Europe in the Fifteenth, Sixteenth, and Seventeenth Centuries" has taken its place as a cla.s.sical standard. Among the fragments of criticism, the most valuable are those of De Quincey (d.

1860). The essays of Macaulay (d. 1860) are among the most impressive of all the periodical papers of our century.

In Carlyle, a generous sentiment alternates with despondent gloom and pa.s.sionate restlessness and inconsistency. But it is impossible to hear, without a deep sense of original power, the oracular voices that issue from the cell; enigmatical, like the ancient responses, and like them illuminating doubtful vaticination with flashes of wild and half poetic fantasy. His language and thoughts alike set aside hereditary rules, and are compounded of elements, English and German, and elements predominant over all, which no name would fit except that of the author.

Among numerous other writers may he mentioned the names of William and Mary Howitt, Isaac Taylor, Arthur Helps, and the brothers Hare, and in art-criticism the brilliant and paradoxical Ruskin (b. 1819) and the accomplished Mrs. Jameson (d. 1860).

The writings of Christopher North (Professor Wilson) are characterized by the quaintest humor and the most practical shrewdness combined with tender and pa.s.sionate emotion (d. 1854). Those of Charles Lamb (d. 1835) it is impossible to describe intelligibly to those who have not read them. Some of his scenes are in sentiment, imagery, and style the most anomalous medleys by which readers were ever alternately perplexed and amused, moved and delighted.

No man of his time influenced social science so much as Jeremy Bentham (1748-1832). Of his immediate pupils James Mill is the ablest, Cobbett, a vigorous and idiomatic writer of English, in the course of his long life advocated all varieties of political principle. In political science we have the accurate McCulloch; Malthus, known through his Theory of Population; and Ricardo, the most original thinker in science since Adam Smith.

Foster (1770-1843) had originality and a wider grasp of mind than the other two. Hall (1761-1831) is more eloquent, but in oratorical power Chalmers (1780-1847) was one of the great men of our century, which has produced few comparable to him in original keenness of intuition, and who combined so much power of thought with so much power of impressive communication.

In philosophy, Dugald Stewart (1753-1828) is one of the most attractive writers. Thomas Brown (1778-1820), his successor in the chair of Edinburgh, exhibited a subtlety of thought hardly ever exceeded in the history of philosophy; probably no writings on mental philosophy were ever so popular.

Equally worthy of a place in the annals of their era are those dissertations on the History of Philosophy contributed to the Encyclopaedia Britannica by Playfair, Leslie, and Mackintosh, and a system of Ethics by Bentham. Among the speculations in mental philosophy must also be placed a group of interesting treatises on the "Theory of the Sublime and Beautiful," a matter deeply important to poetry and the other fine arts, represented by Alison's essays on Taste, Jeffrey's on Beauty, and by contributions from Stewart, Thomas Brown, and Payne Knight.

In political economy John Mill is one of the most powerful and original minds of the nineteenth century. The pure sciences of mind have been enriched by important accessions; logic has been vigorously cultivated in two departments; on the one hand by Mill and Whewell, the former following the tendencies of Locke and Hobbes, the latter that of the German school; on the other hand, Archbishop Whately has expounded the Aristotelian system with clearness and sagacity, and De Morgan has attempted to supply certain deficiencies in the old a.n.a.lysis. But by far the greatest metaphysician who has appeared in the British empire during the present century is Sir William Hamilton. In his union of powerful thinking with profound and varied erudition, he stands higher, perhaps, than any other man whose name is preserved in the annals of modern speculation.

REVIEWS AND MAGAZINES.--A most curious and important fact in the literary history of the age is the prominence acquired by the leading Reviews and Magazines. Their high position was secured and their power founded beyond the possibility of overturn by the earliest of the series, the "Edinburgh Review." Commenced in 1802, it was placed immediately under the editors.h.i.+p of Francis Jeffrey, who conducted it till 1829. In the earlier part of its history there were not many distinguished men of letters in the empire who did not furnish something to its contents; among others were Sir Walter Scott, Lord Brougham, Malthus, Playfair, Mackintosh, and Sydney Smith.

Differences of political opinion led to the establishment of the "London Quarterly," which advocated Tory principles, the Edinburgh being the organ of the Whigs. Its editors were first Gifford and then Lockhart, and it numbered among its contributors many of the most famous men of the time.

The "Westminster Review" was established in 1825 as the organ of Jeremy Bentham and his disciples.

"Blackwood's Magazine," begun 1817, has contained articles of the highest literary merit. It was the unflinching and idolatrous advocate of Wordsworth, and some of its writers were the first translators of German poetry and the most active introducers of German taste and laws in poetical criticism.

The best efforts in literary criticism--the most brilliant department of recent literature, have been with few exceptions essays in the periodicals. Among the essayists the name of Francis Jeffrey (1773-1850) stands highest. In his essays selected for republication we find hardly any branch of general knowledge untouched, and while he treated none without throwing on them some brilliant ray of light, he contributed to many of them truths alike valuable and original. His criticisms on Poetry are flowing and spirited, glittering with a gay wit and an ever-ready fancy, and often blossoming into exquisite felicities of diction. While Macaulay uses poets and their works as hints for constructing picturesque dissertations on man and society, and while poetical reading prompts Wilson to enthusiastic bursts of original poetry, Jeffrey, fervid in his admiration of genius, but conscientiously stern in his respect for art, tries poetry by its own laws, and his writings are invaluable to those who desire to learn the principles of poetical criticism. A high place among the critical essayists must also be a.s.signed to William Hazlitt, who in his lectures and elsewhere did manful service towards reviving the study of ancient poetry, and who prompts to study and speculation all readers, and not the least those who hesitate to accept his critical opinions.

PHYSICAL SCIENCE.--The spirit of philosophical inquiry and discovery is increasing in England, and is everywhere accompanied by a growing tendency to popularize all branches of science, and to bring them before the general mind in an attractive form.

The physical sciences have made marvelous advances; many brilliant discoveries have been made during the present and last generation, and many scientific men have brought much power of mind to bear on questions lying apart from their princ.i.p.al studies; among them are Sir David Brewster, Sir John Herschel, Sir John Playfair, Sir Charles Lyell, Hugh Miller, Buckland, and Professor Whewell.

SINCE 1860.

1. POETRY.--Matthew Arnold (b. 1822) has written some of the most refined verse of our day, and among critics holds the first rank. Algernon Swinburne (b. 1837) excels all living poets in his marvelous gift of rhythm and command over the resources of the language. Dante Rossetti (d.

1883) had great lyrical power; Robert Buchanan has large freedom and originality of style; Edwin Arnold has extraordinary popularity in the United States for his remarkable poem, "The Light of Asia," and for other poems on Oriental subjects; Lord Lytton ("Owen Meredith") has a place of honor among poets as the author of "Lucile" and other poems; William Morris writes in the choicest fas.h.i.+on of romantic narrative verse. Among other poets of the present generation whose writings are marked by excellences of various kinds are Edmund Gosse, Austin Dobson, Cosmo Monkhonse, Andrew Lang, Philip Marston, and Arthur O'Shaughnessy.

The poems of Jean Ingelow have a merited popularity; those of Adelaide Procter (d. 1864) are pervaded by a beautiful spirit of faith and hope; Christina Rossetti shows great originality and deep and serious feeling.

The lyrics and dramas of Augusta Webster are marked by strength and breadth of thought; the ballads, sonnets, and other poems of Mary Robinson show that she possesses the true gift of song.

2. FICTION.--The writings of Mrs. Lewes, "George Eliot" (1815-1880), are the work of a woman of rare genius, and place her among the greatest novelists England has produced. They are in sympathy with all the varieties of human character, and written in a spirit of humanity that is allied with every honest aspiration.

Anthony Trollope (d. 1884) has produced many works remarkable for their accurate pictures of English life and character. George Macdonald and Wilkie Collins are novelists of great merit, as are William Black, Richard Blackmore, Mrs. Oliphant, Edmund Yates, Justin McCarthy.