CHAPTER SEVEN.

THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY.

The literature of this period was abundant, and forms an interesting study. Its general scope and tendency is about all that can be considered here; but that, it is hoped, will be sufficient to inspire the student to further investigation.

68. Its Authors. The authors who wrote most and best during the first half of the eighteenth century were born well back in the seventeenth, and some of them had begun to write in that century.

At the opening of this eighteenth century— A. D. 1700 - Defoe was thirty-nine; Swift, thirty-three; Pope, thirty-two; Steele and Addison, twenty-eight; Watts, twenty-six; Bolingbroke, twenty-two; and Young, sixteen.

the

Following these, and for a longer or shorter period contemporary with them, were the poets-Thomson, Gray, Collins, Goldsmith, Cowper, and Burns; theologians - Butler and Edwards; the evangelists— Whitefield and Wesley; the historians— Hume, Robertson, and Gibbon; Johnson, the lexicographer; Franklin, the philosopher; Walpole, the wit; Burke, the orator; and Richardson, Fielding, Sterne, Smollet, the first great authors of fiction.

Other writers as gifted as these might be mentioned; but the ones here named have been chosen with a view to setting forth, as clearly as possible, the thought and literature of the period.

69. General Character of the Literature.The literature of any period is greatly affected by the moral tone of the nation, and especially by the influences that prevail at court or seat of government. The austerity of the Puritans under the Commonwealth, together with their unnecessary restrictions on the innocent amusements of the people, gave place to the complete abandon of the court under Charles II. The latter state was a reaction from the former. Rigid self-denial was followed by unrestrained indulgence. Concerning either of these extremes, facts might be stated that would sadden the heart of every lover of truth and virtue. This is especially true of the perfect abandon that succeeded the rigorous rule of the Puritans. Even the genius of Dryden was prostituted to this corrupted

taste.

But the same period was blessed with some of the ablest and most devoted religious teachers that have ever defended truth and held up the banner of righteousness against the hosts of error. The great body of the people, too, especially those remote from London, were not seriously affected by the vanities and licentiousness of the court and the gay butterflies that hovered about it. Sturdy yeomen and industrious mechanics worked and thought, while the aristocracy were squandering time, health, and character in a continuous round of vain amusements. This substratum of honest integ

rity was what saved England from destruction during this period of upheavals and commotions. There was the great Rebellion in the middle of the century, and the Revolution, in 1688, which dethroned the ignominious James II, brought in William of Orange, and gave England a constitutional government. But during all this turmoil, the Reformation had been making silent progress in the hearts of honest people; and the tree of civil and religious liberty, although often mutilated, had been extending its roots broader and deeper, thus preparing the way for a most vigorous growth.

The poetry of Dryden, with all its faults, contains grand and inspiring thoughts. His style, though at times careless, is vigorous, natural, and sometimes grand. His poetry, therefore, was not without its beneficial effects on the language.

Its diction and

During the first third of the eighteenth century, poetry acquired a high degree of polish. versification bordered on perfection.

But in naturalness

It treated largely

and motive power, it was deficient. of the frivolous gossip and affected manners of what was falsely called "high life."

The most elaborately-finished and highly-praised poem of this early part of the century was the "Rape of the Lock," which means the stealing of a lock of hair. It consisted of about seven hundred and fifty neatlywrought lines, all about how a gentleman, having playfully clipped a lock of hair from a lady's head, refused to return it, the result being a family feud, which no persuasion on the part of friends could allay.

The deeper emotions of the soul, its genial communings with God and nature, its higher aspirations toward

the holy and heavenly, these found no expression. Gradually, however, under the influence of such writers as Thomson, Gray, Goldsmith, Cowper, and Burns, poetry was brought back to its normal state. Poesy was lured from the heat and taint of artificial life in the city to dwell once more in nature's sweet solitudes.

The prose-writings of the period had a no less beneficent mission. They had a powerful influence in correcting faults and vain customs, in promoting a more rational view of life and its enjoyments, and in cultivating more correct and refined tastes.

70. The Satirists. The gift of satire did not die out with Dryden at the close of the seventeenth century. He was followed in the beginning of the next century by three remarkable men, all of them noted for their proficiency in this somewhat doubtful accomplishment. One of them was genial, one spiteful, the other morose; but all were writers of unusual powers. Pope, the poet, was called The Wicked Wasp of Twickenham ; " Addison was a polished gentleman—a man of the world; Swift was regarded as a misanthropist.

By

71. Alexander Pope (1668–1744).— Of the writings of Alexander Pope, various opinions are held. some they are greatly admired, and by others they are no doubt greatly undervalued. It is generally conceded that he was a man of an acute, though not a profound, intellect. On account of frail health and a poor constitution he never had the advantages of schools, and his private instruction was limited. He educated himself mostly by reading, in the solitude of his own room.