Among the best of them are--Waverley, Guy Mannering, Old Mortality, Heart of Mid-Lothian, Legend of Montrose, Ivarshne, and Kenilworth. The most celebrated of his miscellaneous works are Tales of a Grandfather, Life of Napoleon, and History of Scotland. EXTRACTS. I. Tears are the softening showers which cause the seed of heaven to spring up in the human heart. II. When a man has not a good reason for doing a thing, he has one good reason for letting it alone. III. Oh, many a shaft at random sent, May soothe or wound a heart that 's broken. IV. Lord of the Isles. In peace, Love tunes the shepherd's reed; In hamlets, dances on the green. For love is heaven, and heaven is love. Lay of the Last Minstrel. SOUTHEY. 1774-1843. Robert Southey is sometimes classed among the poets, but his best writings are in prose. He was one of the most industrious and prolific authors of the age. His best prose works are his Life of Nelson, Life of Cowper, and Life of Wesley. His best poems are Thalaba and Curse of Kehama. EXTRACTS. I. Call not that man wretched who, whatever ills he suffers, has a child to love. STAT II. How beautiful is night! A dewy freshness fills the silent air, *No mist obscures, nor cloud nor speck nor stain **In full-orbed glory yonder moon divine The desert circle spreads Like the round ocean girdled with the sky. How beautiful is night! Thalaba. COLERIDGE. 1772-1834. Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Southey, and Wordsworth were intimately associated, and belong to the group called the "Lake Poets." Coleridge, like Southey, is greater in prose than poetry, though great in both. He was one of the greatest thinkers and talkers that ever lived; but he lacked continuity of thought, hence he has left no works commensurate with his great genius. Among his best prose works are-Aids to Reflection, The Friend, Lectures on Shakspeare, Lay Sermons, Table Talk, and Biographia Literaria. His chief poems are Rime of the Ancient Mariner and Christabel. EXTRACTS. Religion is the most gentlemanly thing in the world. II. Cleverness is a sort of genius for instrumentality. It is the brain of the hand. III. Greatness and goodness are not means, but ends! Hath he not always treasures, always friends, The good great man?-three treasures,-love, and light, And three firm friends, more sure than day and night,— Reproof. DE QUINCEY. 1785-1859: Thomas De Quincey, known as "The English Opium Eater," was one of the most brilliant writers of the age. He was a man of wonderful genius and learning, but, like Coleridge, lacked continuity of purpose. Macaulay says of him that "he finished nothing but his sentences." His style is unsurpassed by any English writer. His chief works are his Confessions of an English Opium Eater and Essays. LAMB. 1775-1834. Charles Lamb, who wrote under the name of "Elia," excelled as an essayist and a letter writer. The essays of Elia have a subtle and peculiar charm of style that can nowhere else be found, and that will always render Lamb a favorite among cultivated people. HALLAM. 1777-1859. The greatest historian of this age was Henry Hallam. He was born at Windsor, and educated at Eton and at Oxford. He practiced law for a time, but having a large income he left the profession and devoted himself to literature. Byron, in his English Bards and Scotch Reviewers, refers to him as "Classic Hallam, much renowned for Greek." The first fruit of his long and careful study was a View of the State of Europe During the Middle Ages, in 2 volumes. About nine years later he published his Constitutional History of England, 2 vols., and after an interval of ten years brought out his Introduction to the Literature of Europe in the 15th, 16th, and 17th Centuries, 4 vols. These works had a great influence on the thought of the time, and gave a great impetus to historical research. Hallam lacks the graces of style of Gibbon and Macaulay, but in impartiality and strict regard for truth he surpasses both. He writes like a judge, not an advocate. He was a man of excellent character, and assisted in all schemes of social improvement, He lived far into the Victorian age, dying in 1859, in the same year as Macaulay. Arthur Hallam, the son of the historian, was Tennyson's gifted friend, whose untimely death gave rise to the remarkable series of poems entitled In Memoriam. OTHER PROSE WRITERS OF THIS AGE. JOHN LINGARD (1771-1851), author of History of England, from a Roman FICTITIOUS. WM. GODWIN (1756-1836), author of Caleb Williams, St. Leon, and other novels; also of Life of Chaucer, Political Justice, etc. MARIA EDGEWORTH (1767-1849), author of Early Lessons, Parent's Assist ant, Castle Rackrent, etc. JANE AUSTEN (1775-1817), author of Pride and Prejudice, Sense and Sensibility, etc. JOHN GALT (1779-1839), a prolific Scotch writer, author of Ayrshire Legatees, Annals of a Parish, etc. MISS MARY Russell MITFORD (1786-1855), author of Our Village, American Tales, etc. CAPT. MARRYATT (1792-1848), author of Midshipman Easy, Peter Simple, Jacob Faithful, etc. SCIENTIFIC. Dugald Stewart (1753-1828), Prof. of Moral Philosophy in the University of Edinburgh, author of Elements of the Philosophy of the Human Mind, Outlines of Moral Philosophy, etc. JEREMY BENTHAM (1748-1832), a bold and original writer on legal and political science. CRITICAL AND MISCELLANEOUS. WM. GIFFORD (1756-1826), a satirist and slashing reviewer, long editor of The London Quarterly. JOHN WILSON (1758-1854)-" Christopher (or Kit) North," editor of Blackwood's Magazine, and Prof. in the University of Edinburgh. He wrote poems and novels, but his fame rests chiefly upon his critical Essays and a brilliant series of papers entitled Noctes Ambrosianæ (Ambrosial Nights). SIR JAS. MACKINTOSH (1765-1832), a statesman, a college professor, and brilliant writer on ethical, political, and historical subjects. WM. Hazlitt (1778-1830), author of several volumes of critical Essays. SYDNEY SMITH (1771-1845), Canon of St. Paul's, one of the wittiest and ablest of the contributors to the Edinburgh Review. LORD JEFFREY (1773-1850), a very able essayist, long editor of the Edinburgh Review. LORD BROUGHAM (1779-1868), a great scholar, orator, statesman, and reviewer. J. G. LOCKHART (1794-1854), son-in-law of Sir Walter Scott, author of Life of Scott, Gifford's successor as editor of the London Quarterly Review. Walter Savage Landor (1775-1864), author of Imaginary Conversations, and some very graceful Poems. LEIGH HUNT (1784-1859), a genial poet and critic, author of Rimini, The Palfrey, A Legend of Florence, etc. MRS. ANNA Letitia BarbauLD (1743-1825), a distinguished teacher, author of Early Lessons for Children, Hymns in Prose, etc. THEOLOGICAL. DR. THOMAS CHALMERS (1780-1847), a powerful and learned preacher, leader of the Free Church of Scotland, Prof. of Theology in the University of Edinburgh, etc., and author of Astronomical Discourses, Natural Theology Christian Evidences and many other works. One of the greatest men that Scotland has ever produced. AMERICAN CONTEMPORARIES. William Wirt, John James Audubon, Chancellor Kent, and Chief Justice Marshall. PERIOD IX.-VICTORIAN AGE. 1837-1901. (Reign of Queen Victoria.) HE Victorian Age has been one of great productiveness in lit THE erature, science, and invention. Its poetry, which is both abundant and excellent, has a marked peculiarity, being of a more reflective and thoughtful character than formerly, and being penetrated through and through with the scientific ideas of the period. In prose literature this deserves to rank as our golden age. More great works have been produced in history, in philosophy, in science, and above all in fiction, than in any other era of the world's his tory. Indeed, so great have been the amount, variety, and excel. lence of its productions in the latter department, that it has by some writers been denominated "the age of prose fiction.' |