Miss Baillie known more of the business of the stage. From the very first act of her plays, it is possible to foretell what the end will be, and hence the other acts lose their interest. Her best tragedies are Count Basil and De Montfort.

Other Dramatists.-Dramatic poems were attempted by most of the great poets of the age. They were nearly all tragedies, and were more suitable for private reading than for public performance. Of such a character was the Borderers of Wordsworth; the Remorse of Coleridge; the Manfred of Byron, and the Cenci of Shelley.

Of the comedies which were written at this period, and which have since kept possession of the stage, that of the Honeymoon, by JOHN TOBIN, is the best.

CHAPTER XV.

PROSE LITERATURE-FROM 1800 TILL 1830.

NOVELISTS.-Scott-Maria Edgeworth-Other Novelists. HISTORIANS. Hallam-Other Historians. WRITERS ON RELIGIOUS SUBJECTS.-Hall-Foster-Chalmers-Other Writers on Re

ligious Subjects. PHILOSOPHERS.-Stewart-MackintoshOther Philosophers. MISCELLANEOUS WRITERS, CRITICS, &c.-Smith-Jeffrey-Hazlitt-Other Critics-Lamb-Wilson-Other Miscellaneous Writers.

THE leading feature of the prose literature of the time was the production of the Waverley Novels, in which series the historical romance was founded by Sir Walter Scott. These novels exercised a powerful influence by diverting public taste from the unhealthy novel literature of the preceding period, and by providing a pleasant and innocent source of mental recreation and amusement. The historians now dealt not with general history, as did

Hume, Robertson, and Gibbon, but with particular departments and periods. Biographers were numerous, and critics and essayists contributed in abundance to the periodical literature of the day.

NOVELISTS.

SCOTT-The Waverley Novels. In 1814 Scott issued Waverley, the first novel of the series which bears its name. It was published anonymously. The reason was that Scott, having gained a great name as a poet, was not sure that he would be equally successful as a novelist, and so withheld his name, till he saw how Waverley should be received by the public. The book was an extraordinary success; and, as novel after novel made its appearance, the people were delighted and the critics were enthusiastic in their praise. These novels are twenty-nine in number, and, for the sake of convenience, have been divided into four groups-1st, those connected with Scottish history, like Waverley, which describes scenes in connection with the Rebellion of 1745; and Old Mortality, connected with the times of the Covenanters; 2nd, those referring to English History, like Ivanhoe (time of Richard Coeur de Lion); and Kenilworth (time of Queen Elizabeth); 3rd, those dealing with Continental History, like Quentin Durward (time of Louis XI. of France); and 4th, those bearing on Private Life, like Guy Mannering and the Antiquary, the latter of which contains the best description of Scottish life and character ever written.

It is unnecessary to enter into any description of works so widely known. Of the illustrious novelist it has been well remarked, that he "revived the glories of past ages; illustrated the landscape and the history of his native country; painted the triumphs of patriotism and virtue, and the meanness and misery of vice; awakened our best and kindliest feelings in favour of suffering and erring humanity—of the low born and the persecuted, the peasant, the beggar, and the Jew; he has furnished an intellectual banquet, as rich as it is various and picturesque, from his curious learning, extensive observation, forgotten manners,

and decaying superstitions-the whole embellished with the lights of a vivid imagination, and a correct and gracefully regulated taste. In the number and variety of his conceptions and characters, Scott is entitled to take his seat beside the greatest masters of fiction, British or foreign. Some have excelled him in particular qualities of the novelist, but none in their harmonious and rich combination."

APPROACH OF A STORM.

“With a mind employed in admiration of the romantic scene, or perhaps on some more agitating topic, Miss Wardour advanced in silence by her father's side. Following the windings of the beach, they passed one projecting point of headland of rock after another, and now found themselves under a huge and continued extent of the precipices by which that iron bound coast is in most places defended. Long projecting reefs of rock, extending under water, and only evincing their existence by here and there a peak entirely bare, or by the breakers which foamed over those that were partially covered, rendered Knockwinnock bay dreaded by pilots and ship-masters. The crags which rose between the beach and the mainland, to the height of two or three hundred feet, afforded in their crevices shelter for unnumbered sea fowl, in situations seemingly secured by their dizzy height from the rapacity of man. Many of these wild tribes, with the instinct which sends them to seek the land before a storm arises, were now winging towards their nests with the shrill and dissonant clang which announces disquietude and fear. The disk of the sun became almost totally obscured ere he had altogether sunk below the horizon, and an early and lurid shade of darkness blotted the serene twilight of a summer evening. The wind began next to arise; but its wild and moaning sound was heard for some time, and its effects became visible on the bosom of the sea, before the gale was felt on shore. The mass of waters, now dark and threatening, began to lift itself in larger ridges, and sink in deeper furrows, forming waves that rose high in foam upon the breakers, or burst upon the beach with a sound resembling distant thunder.”

MARIA EDGEWORTH (b. 1767, d. 1849) was born in Berkshire, but brought up in Ireland. In 1801, she issued her first novel, Castle Rackrent, giving an account of the follies and vices of Irish landlords, and describing the good points and the bad in the character of the poorer

classes in the land. The other novels of Miss Edgeworth were of great benefit to the society of the time, for in them its follies were exhibited and its prejudices corrected. The Absentee was considered by Macaulay to be one of the best novels ever written by a woman. The tales she has written for the young, such as Harry and Lucy, Rosamond, Simple Susan, &c., are intensely interesting and extremely useful, containing as they do many truthful pictures of life, and many lessons of priceless value. Sir Walter Scott was a great admirer of her writings, and on one occasion she was one of his guests at Abbotsford. She died at the age of eighty-three.

Other Novelists.-The four most important names among the male novelists were those of GODWIN, Galt, Hook, and CARLETON. William Godwin's best novel was entitled Caleb Williams, showing how oppression and injustice may result from imperfect laws. Theodore Hook was a writer of droll novels, a capital talker, and excellent teller of stories. His novels were intended to ridicule those whom Thackeray calls "the snobs" of society—persons who vulgarly ape the manners of those above them in rank or station. Jack Brag is a good example of the kind of novels which Hook wrote. William Carleton's Traits and Stories, and many other similar works by the same author, convey a vivid idea of life and character in Ireland.

The female novelists were more numerous, and, in some respects, more talented than those of the other sex. The most remarkable among them were MRS. SHELLEY, MISS AUSTEN, MISS MITFORD, LADY MORGAN, and MRS. HAMILTON. Mrs. Shelley, the second wife of the poet of that name, wrote Frankenstein, a wild and thrilling story of a student who is represented as discovering how to create a living being. He makes a monstrous figure, causes it to live, and the hideous thing becomes the terror and torment of his life. Miss Austen described life among English country gentlemen. Her novels, of which one of the best is Pride and Prejudice, are quiet and sensible,

L

and noticeable for the ease and naturalness of the conversations she introduces. Miss Mitford again, in such works as Our Village, gave pictures of English home scenes. Lady Morgan wrote lively sketches of Irish life, in such novels as O'Donnel, The O'Briens and the O'Flahertys, &c. Mrs. Hamilton was the author of that very amusing and yet highly instructive book, the Cottagers of Glenburnie.

HISTORIANS.

HENRY HALLAM (b. 1777, d. 1859) was born at Windsor, his father being Canon of Windsor and Dean of Wells. He received his education at Eton and Oxford, and for some time practised at the English bar. He had a good income, and when he was appointed a Commissioner of Audit, he was rendered independent of his profession, from which accordingly he retired, and devoted himself to literature.

His great works are three in number-View of the State of Europe during the Middle Ages, showing the progress of Europe from the middle of the fifth till the end of the sixteenth century; the Constitutional History of England from the Accession of Henry VIII. to the Death of George II.; and the Introduction to the Literature of Europe. In all these works he shows how vast were his stores of knowledge; and in the last exhibits an intimate acquaintance with the language and literature of every important European nation. Macaulay gave him the highest praise when he declared the Constitutional History the most impartial book he had ever read.

Hallam's language is calm and dignified; and he seems to be actuated by a greater desire for the accuracy of his facts than for the brilliancy of his style.

EFFECTS OF THE FEUDAL SYSTEM.

"As a school of moral discipline, the feudal institutions were perhaps most to be valued. Society had sunk for several centuries after the dissolution of the Roman empire into a condition of utter depravity; where, if any vices could be selected as more eminently characteristic than others, they were falsehood,