energy of the poetical faculty of which we have been speaking. His ballad restorations were more palpably novel and striking than either the revolutionary passion of Byron, or the sensuous beauty of Wordsworth and Keats. That subtle charm which invests the archaic, and that vague grandeur in it which renders it so suitable for poetic treatment, had never before been bodied forth by a genius so profoundly in sympathy with the age of romance. The Percy Reliques had already turned attention to the antique; but that work appealed more to literary dilettanti than to the general public. It was reserved for Scott to powerfully and profoundly interest his generation in narrative poetry.

During the generation after Scott, the capacity of producing a work of high art, combining grandeur of conception with power and sweetness of execution, had either waned or been directed elsewhere. Its poetry was chiefly lyric; and, to a large extent, showed the influence of Wordsworth and Keats. Wordsworth, indeed, a literary recluse in whom the love of reflection was as strong as the poetic faculty, directed his muse to didactic purposes, but this was due to the bent of his mind, and even in his hands poetry of purpose proved deficient in warmth and general interest. The success of poets like Moore and Campbell, Hogg and Cunningham, shows that at this time the spirit of song was in the ascendant-a view which is further borne out by the fact that the early pieces of Tennyson, and the most of Mrs Browning's poetry, belong to the second generation.

The presence of narrative verse is as conspicuous in the last twenty years as its absence was in the preceding twenty. The present laureateship has been characterized by a revival of the antique, which recalls that of the first half of the century. But genuine art repeats itself no more than nature does. The Arthurian legends, in their subtle symbolism and weird glamour, are as unlike as possible to the frank and well-defined narration of Scott's minstrel lays. There is a significant coincidence in the fact that the second half of the century opens, as the first did, with high-class narrative poetry. But a still more conspicuous feature of recent poetry is that intense spirit of metaphysical contemplation which pervades it. The greatest living poets recur continually, with Hamlet-like melancholy and mystery, to the simple fundamental themes of death and immortality, of sin and Providence, of the limits of the present and the hopes of the future.

We have seen how great the first age of the century was in poetry. It was equally great in the kindred department of fiction. When Scott, at the height of his reputation, cultivated imaginative

prose, he was still exercising substantially the old and familiar art of the bard. He had set to music the tourney, the chase, and the battle; he now resuscitated the past through the more sober me dium of prose, and on a wider scale. To him, on penning his first romance, the chivalrous past ended sixty years before:-to us, threescore years ago, a new pleasure was discovered in the art of imaginatively representing real modern life under the guise of fiction. Since his time, the novel has received developments unknown to him. Dickens and Thackeray, and, more recently, George Eliot and Charles Kingsley, have infused into it a more genial humanity, a profounder philosophy, a higher and finer glow of imagination; yet it is fitting to connect with Scott the influence and the worth of modern fiction. While resuscitating the past, he was conferring a boon on the future in which the whole range of literature participated; for the Waverley romance established this important principle, that for immediate success, as well as lasting profit, books must be interesting in the best sense-not relying on mere sensation, but on a genuine fascination. That books are now more readable, more frank and candid, is in a large measure due to that enchanting interest which the author of Waverley scattered broadcast over the literature of his time. Moreover, he taught authors the art of reaching a wide audience, and producing an immediate effect; out of which has been developed our popular style of writing. The first magazine-the Gentleman's-had been started in the preceding century by Cave, and the first review-the Edinburgh-early in the present century, independently of Scott; but the popularity of his and kindred fiction, growing up alongside of these serials, gave a decided impetus to their development. A large proportion of serial literature is fiction; the remainder closely resembles it in general sprightliness of manner. To such extraordinary dimensions has this species of writing now attained, that, during the year 1869, there were published, in London alone, of monthly magazines and serials, 372; of quarterlies, 72; of newspapers and other periodicals, 298; making a total of 742.

3. The Historical Literature of the current century will hereafter command no small share of attention. Its growth was slower than that of the department of imagination; yet it exhibited the same revived energy, enlightened art, and wide sympathy. It has been characterized by unusual grace and precision of style, as well as by that scrupulous fidelity to fact which has given an impetus to the collection of the materials of history, and to thoroughness in the handling of them. Hallam cultivated history with calm and patient judgment; Macaulay infused into it the brilliance and

effectiveness of the orator and the critic; while Carlyle early diverted a remarkably speculative mind from systematic philosophy to historical narration of a peculiar kind, revealing in its every page a profound ethical meaning and painstaking thoroughness of treat

ment.

Not less remarkable is the labour which has been directed to the collection of historical facts. Numerous archæological societies have devoted time, money, and talent to literary work of this kind: Government has contributed by the calendaring of the State papers -a work contemplated about the middle of last century; while a wider search has recently been undertaken by the Historical Commission, which purposes to produce from monasteries, ancient burghs, and the seats of noble families, the fullest possible evidence before the bar of historical inquiry.

4. The Philosophy, like the History of the century, was long in experiencing that general intellectual revival which followed the French Revolution. Its new energies came from Germany; and, hardly noticeable during the first age, were in full force during the second. At the hands of Hamilton and J. S. Mill, Philosophy received original and potent developments. Like general literature, Philosophy has, especially since 1848, tended towards practical ends. It has set more strongly than ever in the direction of Ethics and Theology, and has assumed novel forms, devoted specially to the elucidation of the principles of government, as well as of those rights and duties which a refined society and intricate commercial system evolve.

5. We find that during this century, as heretofore, our literature has been peculiarly sensitive to foreign influences. In the department of imagination, these have been comparatively slight, though the early Italian poetry and Norse legends have powerfully affected some of our greatest minds. We can trace the influence of Goethe's "Wilhelm Meister" in a peculiar variety of fiction both in prose and verse. In Philosophy, Theology, Criticism, and Philology, the teaching and speculation of Germany, and latterly of France, have been very conspicuous. We have profited much by that German criticism which Coleridge first taught us to understand, though the influence of France is at the present time most potent. But it is with the thinkers of Germany that we have been made most familiar. Humboldt, Bunsen, and Max Müller, are as well known as English authors. Of all our own writers, no one has been so much in sympathy with the German mind as Carlyle, or with that of France as J. S. Mill. They are the best native representatives of these respective foreign influences.

Contemporary American literature is semi-foreign to us. Its growth, entirely confined to the present century, has not so much affected the native mind as imparted elements natural in a literature cultivated under social and physical conditions dissimilar to our own. In the following pages only such Transatlantic authors can be noticed as are well known here. On the whole, the literary activity of the United States is unequal to the extent and resources of the country. During the year 1869 there were (approximately) 2406 new works produced in America-being scarcely more than half of the number published in Great Britain. In America, fiction heads the list with above one-third of the whole, theology contributing about one-tenth; while here fiction is represented by about onetenth, and theology by one-fourth. In America, works of fiction are seven times as numerous as those of poetry and the drama: here, they are less than twice. These facts bear out the general impression of American literature-that its best energies are engrossed by journalism and similar literary pursuits.

CHAPTER XIV.

THE NINETEENTH CENTURY.

SECTION SECOND: THE POETRY OF THE FIRST AGE.

1. First Group of Leading Poets - Campbell.-2. Southey.-3. Second Group-Scott and Byron.-4. Scott's Characteristics and Works.-5. Byron's Characteristics, Ethical and Poetical.-6. Third Group-Coleridge and Wordsworth-Coleridge's Genius and Works.-7. Wordsworth-Features of his Poetical Character.-8. Wordsworth-His Poetical TheoryIts Effect on his Works.-9. Fourth Group-Wilson-Shelley-Keats.10. Crabbe and Moore-Dramatic Poems-Miscellaneous Names-Sacred Poetry-Contemporary American Poetry.

1. In the illustrious band of poets, who enriched the literature of our language during the first generation of the present century, there are four who have gained greater fame than any others, and exercised greater influence on their contemporaries. These are, Wordsworth and Coleridge, Scott and Byron; and they, although each is individually unlike all the rest, might yet, in respect of their ruling spirit and tendencies, be classed in pairs as they have now been named. Others, however, are hardly less distinguished: and all whose works call for exact scrutiny may conveniently be distributed in Four Groups.

In the first of these stand Thomas Campbell and Robert Southey, writers very dissimilar to each other, but differing as widely from all their contemporaries.

b. 1777.

We should hardly expect that the character of Campbell's d. 1844. works would have been other than it is, though he had begun his career thirty years earlier. His larger poems would have delighted all who loved the few pieces truly poetical which that time produced. But to no one living then, would it have occurred to hail him as the precursor of a new school; and no one living now would have wondered to see such compositions as his, succeeding