III. Three poets* in three distant ages born, OTHER AUTHORS OF THIS AGE. POETS. SAMUEL BUTLER (1612-1680), author of Hudibras, one of the most famous satires in the language, ridiculing the Puritans and Independents. HENRY VAUGHAN (1621-1695), a religious poet, author of Silex Scintillans, etc. His poems, though marred by the conceits of the time, show him to be a true poet, and some of his lines, such as "The youthful world's gray fathers," etc., have been an inspiration to other poets. Some of his most beautiful single poems are The Rainbow, They are All Gone, The World, The Bee. PROSE WRITERS. JOHN LOCKE (1632-1704), a great philosopher, author of Essay Concerning the Human Understanding, etc. SIR ISAAC NEwton (1642-1727), the great mathematician, author of The Principia. SIR WM. TEMPLE (1628-1699), a diplomatist, and a graceful esssyist. JOHN EVELYN, F. R. S. (1620-1706), author of Sylva, a Discourse on Forest Trees; and Terra, a work on Agriculture. Samuel Pepys (1632-1703) left a marvellously entertaining and important Diary, which has taken a permanent place in literature. AMERICAN CONTEMPORARIES. JOHN ELIOT (the "great apostle to the Indians"), and COTTON Mather. PERIOD VI.—AGE OF QUEEN ANNE. THE (Queen Anne, George I., George II.) 'HE moral and religious tone of this age was not much higher than that of the last. It was characterized by a sort of superficial refinement- -a refinement, not of morals and character, but of manners and language. This was especially apparent in its *Homer, Virgil, Milton. poetry; hence the poets of the age are sometimes spoken of as "the correct poets." Its great events were the campaigns of the Duke of Marlborough and the Peace of Utrecht. We select as its literary representatives Pope and Addison. POPE. 1688-1744. Alexander Pope, the worthy successor of Dryden to the inron. of poesy, was born in 1688, and died in 1744. He was sickly puny, and deformed in body, and therefore did not attend college; but he had a mind of wonderful clearness and vigor, was a great reader and a diligent student, and thus made himself master of several languages and acquired a vast store of information. He was a great admirer and to some extent an imitator of Dryden; but while he surpassed the latter in smoothness of versification and brilliancy of wit, he fell below him in grasp and vigor of thought. His principal works are the Essay on Criticism, Essay on Man, Rape of the Lock (the finest mock-heroic poem in the language), The Dunciad (a satire), and a Translation of Homer. EXTRACTS. Charms strike the sight, but merit wins the soul. II. To err is human; to forgive, divine. III. Essay on Man. Essay on Criticism. Know, then, thyself; presume not God to scan; The proper study of mankind is man. IV. Essay on Man. All are but parts of one stupendous whole, V. Essay on Man. Slave to no sect, who takes no private road, Essay on Man. VI. What nothing earthly gives or can destroy, The soul's calm sunshine and the heartfelt joy, Is virtue's prize. VII. Vice is a monster of so frightful mien, VIII. Dryden taught to join Essay on Man. Essay on Man. The varying verse, the full resounding line, ADDISON. 1672-1719. Epistles of Horace. The history of literature presents few nobler and more symmetrical characters than that of Joseph Addison. He was born in 1672, received a thorough education at Oxford, and then travelled on the Continent. A poem on the battle of Blenheim procured for him an appointment under the Government, and he rose from one position to another until he became Secretary of State, from which position he retired with a pension of fifteen hundred pounds a year, and died soon after, in 1719, at the age of forty-seven-full of honois, though in the meridian of life. Addison is distinguished both in poetry and prose. His principal poetical works are his Tragedy of Cato, and several beautiful hymns. Among the latter is the well-known hymn beginning,"When all thy mercies, O my God," and his exquisite version of the xixth Psalm, beginning,"The spacious firmament on high." His principal prose works are his delightful papers contributed to the Tatler, the Spectator, and the Guardian. These papers have been commended as models of correct taste, and have exercised a powerful and salutary influence on the manners, morals, and literature of the English people. Addison's contributions are signed by one of the letters of the word CLIO. EXTRACTS. A cheerful temper, joined with innocence, will make beauty attractive, knowledge delightful, and wit good-natured. It will lighten sickness, poverty, and affliction, convert ignorance into an amiable simplicity, and render deformity itself agreeable. II. 'Tis not in mortals to command success, But we'll do more, Sempronius; we'll deserve it. III. When vice prevails and impious men bear sway, IV. The soul, secured in her existence, smiles Cato. Cato. The wrecks of matter, and the crush of worlds. Cato. OTHER AUTHORS OF THIS AGE. POETS. DR. EDWARD Young (1684-1765), author of Night Thoughts. JAMES THOMSON (1700-1748), author of The Seasons, and The Castle of Indolence. WM. COLLINS (1720-1756), a fine lyric poet, author of Ode to the Passions, How Sleep the Brave, etc. He died insane. MATTHEW PRIOR (1664-1721), author of Solomon, Alma, and many fine lyrics. JOHN GAY (1688-1732), author of The Beggar's Opera, and Fables. PROSE WRITERS. SIR RICHARD Steele (1671-1729), one of the writers for The Tatler and The Spectator. Nearly equal to Addison as an essayist. JONATHAN SWIFT, Dean of St. Patrick's (1667-1745), a man of masculine and versatile genius, author of Gulliver's Travels, The Tale of a Tub, etc. Daniel DefoE (1661-1731), author of Robinson Crusoe. DR. PHILIP Doddridge (1702-1751), a devout preacher, author of Rise and Progress of Religion in the Soul, Family Expositor, Hymns, etc. AMERICAN: Jonathan Edwards, the great Metaphysician. THE PERIGO VII.-AGE OF JOHNSON. 1750-1800. (Part of the Reigns of Geo. II. and Geo. III.) 'HE Age of Johnson occupies the last half of the eighteenth century. Like the preceding, it was critical rather than creative, and cared less about what was said than about the manner of saying it. There was, however, a higher moral tone, with greater sincerity of manner-a result greatly owing to the influence of Johnson. In poetry, the improvement was very marked. The artificialities of Pope and his imitators were abandoned, and there was a gradual return to nature and the human heart as the true sources of poetic inspiration. This improvement was begun by Thomson in the preceding age, and carried to a glorious consummation near the close of this, by Burns, Goldsmith, and Cowper. There was also a great improvement in historical narration, which now for the first time acquired that philosophical and dignified tone which distinguishes true history from chronicles and annals. The principal events of this age were the French Revolution, the American Revolution, and the trial of Warren Hastings. The authors will be divided into two classes : I. THE POETS, represented by Goldsmith, Gray, Burns, and Cowper. II. THE PROSE WRITERS, represented by Johnson, Burke, Hume, and Gibbon. I. POETS OF THE AGE OF JOHNSON. GOLDSMITH. 1728-1774. Oliver Goldsmith was one of the brilliant galaxy of which Johnson was the centre. He was an Irishman, full of oddities and eccentricities, and remarkable alike for his strength and his weakness. He is equally an object of laughter and of love, of pity and admiration. His style much resembles Addison's, being |
