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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/8163-8.txt b/8163-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..d33efe2 --- /dev/null +++ b/8163-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,23936 @@ +Project Gutenberg's Handbook of Universal Literature, by Anne C. Lynch Botta + +Copyright laws are changing all over the world. Be sure to check the +copyright laws for your country before downloading or redistributing +this or any other Project Gutenberg eBook. + +This header should be the first thing seen when viewing this Project +Gutenberg file. Please do not remove it. Do not change or edit the +header without written permission. + +Please read the "legal small print," and other information about the +eBook and Project Gutenberg at the bottom of this file. Included is +important information about your specific rights and restrictions in +how the file may be used. You can also find out about how to make a +donation to Project Gutenberg, and how to get involved. + + +**Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts** + +**eBooks Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since 1971** + +*****These eBooks Were Prepared By Thousands of Volunteers!***** + + +Title: Handbook of Universal Literature + From The Best and Latest Authorities + +Author: Anne C. Lynch Botta + +Release Date: May, 2005 [EBook #8163] +[Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule] +[This file was first posted on June 23, 2003] + +Edition: 10 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-Latin-1 + +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HANDBOOK OF UNIVERSAL LITERATURE *** + + + + +Produced by Anne Soulard, Tiffany Vergon +and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team. + + + + +HANDBOOK OF UNIVERSAL LITERATURE +_FROM THE BEST AND LATEST AUTHORITIES_ + +BY +ANNE C. LYNCH BOTTA + + + + +PREFATORY NOTE TO THE REVISED EDITION. + + +Since the first publication of this work in 1860, many new names have +appeared in modern literature. Japan, hitherto almost unknown to +Europeans, has taken her place among the nations with a literature of her +own, and the researches and discoveries of scholars in various parts of +the world have thrown much light on the literatures of antiquity. To keep +pace with this advance, a new edition of the work has been called for. +Prefixed is a very brief summary of an important and exhaustive History of +the Alphabet recently published. + + + + +PREFACE. + + +This work was begun many years ago, as a literary exercise, to meet the +personal requirements of the writer, which were such as most persons +experience on leaving school and "completing their education," as the +phrase is. The world of literature lies before them, but where to begin, +what course of study to pursue, in order best to comprehend it, are the +problems which present themselves to the bewildered questioner, who finds +himself in a position not unlike that of a traveler suddenly set down in +an unknown country, without guide-book or map. The most natural course +under such circumstances would be to begin at the beginning, and take a +rapid survey of the entire field of literature, arriving at its details +through this general view. But as this could be accomplished only by +subjecting each individual to a severe and protracted course of systematic +study, the idea was conceived of obviating this necessity to some extent +by embodying the results of such a course in the form of the following +work, which, after being long laid aside, is now at length completed. + +In conformity with this design, standard books have been condensed, with +no alterations except such as were required to give unity to the whole +work; and in some instances a few additions have been made. Where standard +works have not been found, the sketches have been made from the best +sources of information, and submitted to the criticism of able scholars. + +The literatures of different nations are so related, and have so +influenced each other, that it is only by a survey of all that any single +literature, or even any great literary work, can be fully comprehended, as +the various groups and figures of a historical picture must be viewed as a +whole, before they can assume their true place and proportions. + +A.C.L.B. + + + + +CONTENTS. + + +LIST OF AUTHORITIES + +INTRODUCTION. + +THE ALPHABET. +1. The Origin of Letters.--2. The Phoenician Alphabet and Inscriptions.-- +3. The Greek Alphabet. Its Three Epochs.--4. The Mediaeval Scripts. The +Irish. The Anglo-Saxon. The Roman. The Gothic. The Runic. +CLASSIFICATION OF LANGUAGES + +CHINESE LITERATURE. + +1. Chinese Literature.--2. The Language.--3. The Writing.--4. The Five +Classics and Four Books.--5. Chinese Religion and Philosophy. Lao-tsé. +Confucius. Meng-tsé or Mencius.--6. Buddhism.--7. Social Constitution of +China.--8. Invention of Printing.--9. Science, History, and Geography. +Encyclopaedias.--10. Poetry.--11. Dramatic Literature and Fiction.--12. +Education in China. + +JAPANESE LITERATURE. + +1. The Language.--2. The Religion.--3. The Literature. Influence of +Women.--4. History.--5. The Drama and Poetry.--6. Geography. Newspapers. +Novels. Medical Science.--7. Position of Woman. + +SANSKRIT LITERATURE. + +1. The Language.--2. The Social Constitution of India. Brahmanism.--3. +Characteristics of the Literature and its Divisions.--4. The Vedas and +other Sacred Books.--5. Sanskrit Poetry; Epic; the Ramayana and +Mahabharata. Lyric Poetry. Didactic Poetry; the Hitopadesa. Dramatic +Poetry.--6. History and Science.--7. Philosophy.--8. Buddhism.--9. Moral +Philosophy. The Code of Manu.--10. Modern Literatures of India.--11. +Education. The Brahmo Somaj. + +BABYLONIAN AND ASSYRIAN LITERATURE. + +1. The Accadians and Babylonians.--2. The Cuneiform Letters.--3. +Babylonian and Assyrian Remains. + +PHOENICIAN LITERATURE. + +The Language.--The Remains. + +SYRIAC LITERATURE. + +The Language.--Influence of the Literature in the Eighth and Ninth +Century. + +PERSIAN LITERATURE. + +1. The Persian Language and its Divisions.--2. Zendic Literature; the +Zendavesta.--3. Pehlvi and Parsee Literatures.--4. The Ancient Religion of +Persia; Zoroaster.--5. Modern Literature.--6. The Sufis.--7. Persian +Poetry.--8. Persian Poets; Ferdusi; Eesedi of Tus; Togray, etc.--9. +History and Philosophy.--10. Education in Persia. + +HEBREW LITERATURE. + +1. Hebrew Literature; its Divisions.--2. The Language; its Alphabet; its +Structure; Peculiarities, Formation, and Phases.--3. The Old Testament.-- +4. Hebrew Education.--5. Fundamental Idea of Hebrew Literature.--6. Hebrew +Poetry.--7. Lyric Poetry; Songs; the Psalms; the Prophets.--8. Pastoral +Poetry and Didactic Poetry; the Proverbs and Ecclesiastes.--9. Epic and +Dramatic Poetry; the Book of Job.--10. Hebrew History; the Pentateuch and +other Historical Books.--11. Hebrew Philosophy.--12. Restoration of the +Sacred Books.--13. Manuscripts and Translations.--14. Rabbinical +Literature.--15. The New Revision of the Bible, and the New Biblical +Manuscript. + +EGYPTIAN LITERATURE. + +1. The Language.--2. The Writing.--3. The Literature.--4. The Monuments.-- +5. The Discovery of Champollion.--6. Literary Remains; Historical; +Religious; Epistolary; Fictitious; Scientific; Epic; Satirical and +Judicial.--7. The Alexandrian Period.--8. The Literary Condition of Modern +Egypt. + +GREEK LITERATURE. + +INTRODUCTION.--1. Greek Literature and its Divisions.--2. The Language.-- +3. The Religion. + +PERIOD FIRST.--1. Ante-Homeric Songs and Bards.--2. Poems of Homer; the +Iliad; the Odyssey.--3. The Cyclic Poets and the Homeric Hymns.--4. Poems +of Hesiod; the Works and Days; the Theogony.--5. Elegy and Epigram; +Tyrtaeus; Achilochus; Simanides.--6. Iambic Poetry, the Fable, and Parody; +Aesop.--7. Greek Music and Lyric Poetry; Terpander.--8. Aeolic Lyric +Poets; Alcaeus; Sappho; Anacreon.--9. Doric, or Choral Lyric Poets; +Alcman; Stesichorus; Pindar.--10. The Orphic Doctrines and Poems.--11. +Pre-Socratic Philosophy; Ionian, Eleatic, Pythagorean Schools.--12. +History; Herodotus. + +PERIOD SECOND.--1. Literary Predominance of Athens.--2. Greek Drama.--3. +Tragedy.--4. The Tragic Poets; Aeschylus; Sophocles; Euripides.--5. +Comedy; Aristophanes; Menander.--6. Oratory, Rhetoric, and History; +Pericles; the Sophists; Lysias; Isocrates; Demosthenes; Thucydides; +Xenophon.--7. Socrates and the Socratic Schools; Plato; Aristotle. + +PERIOD THIRD.--1. Origin of the Alexandrian Literature.--2. The +Alexandrian Poets; Philetas; Callimachus; Theocritus; Bion; Moschus.--3. +The Prose Writers of Alexandria; Zenodotus; Aristophanes; Aristarchus; +Eratosthenes; Euclid; Archimedes.--4, Philosophy of Alexandria; Neo- +Platonism.--5. Anti-Neo-Platonic Tendencies; Epictetus; Lucian; Longinus. +--6. Greek Literature in Rome; Dionysius of Halicarnassus; Flavius +Josephus; Polybius; Diodorus; Strabo; Plutarch.--7. Continued Decline of +Greek Literature.--8. Last Echoes of the Old Literature; Hypatia; Nonnus; +Musaeus; Byzantine Literature.--9. The New Testament and the Greek +Fathers. Modern Literature; the Brothers Santsos and Alexander Rangabé. + +ROMAN LITERATURE. + +INTRODUCTION.--1. Roman Literature and its Divisions.--2. The Language; +Ethnographical Elements of the Latin Language; the Umbrian; Oscan; +Etruscan; the Old Roman Tongue; Saturnian Verse; Peculiarities of the +Latin Language.--3. The Roman Religion. + +PERIOD FIRST.--1. Early Literature of the Romans; the Fescennine Songs; +the Fabulae Atellanae.--2. Early Latin Poets; Livius Andronicus, Naevius, +and Ennius.--3. Roman Comedy.--4. Comic Poets; Plautus, Terence, and +Statius.--5. Roman Tragedy.--6. Tragic Poets; Pacuvius and Attius.--7. +Satire; Lucilius.--8. History and Oratory; Fabius Pictor; Cencius +Alimentus; Cato; Varro; M. Antonius; Crassus; Hortensius.--9. Roman +Jurisprudence.--10. Grammarians. + +PERIOD SECOND.--1. Development of the Roman Literature.--2. Mimes, +Mimographers, Pantomime; Laberius and P. Lyrus.--3. Epic Poetry; Virgil; +the Aeneid.--4. Didactic Poetry; the Bucolics; the Georgics; Lucretius. +--5. Lyric Poetry; Catullus; Horace.--6. Elegy; Tibullus; Propertius; +Ovid.--7. Oratory and Philosophy; Cicero.--8. History; J. Caesar; Sallust; +Livy.--9. Other Prose Writers. + +PERIOD THIRD.--1. Decline of Roman Literature.--2. Fable; Phaedrus.--3. +Satire and Epigram; Persius, Juvenal, Martial.--4. Dramatic Literature; +the Tragedies of Seneca.--5. Epic Poetry; Lucan; Silius Italicus; Valerius +Flaccus; P. Statius.--6. History; Paterculus; Tacitus; Suetonius; Q. +Curtius; Valerius Maximus.--7. Rhetoric and Eloquence; Quintilian; Pliny +the Younger.--8. Philosophy and Science; Seneca; Pliny the Elder; Celsus; +P. Mela; Columella; Frontinus.--9. Roman Literature from Hadrian to +Theodoric; Claudian; Eutropius; A. Marcellinus; S. Sulpicius; Gellius; +Macrobius; L. Apuleius; Boethius: the Latin Fathers.--10. Roman +Jurisprudence. + +ARABIAN LITERATURE. + +1. European Literature in the Dark Ages.--2. The Arabian Language.--3. +Arabian Mythology and the Koran.--4. Historical Development of Arabian +Literature.--5. Grammar and Rhetoric.--6. Poetry.--7. The Arabian Tales. +--8. History and Science.--9. Education. + +ITALIAN LITERATURE. + +INTRODUCTION.--1. Italian Literature and its Divisions.--2. The Dialects. +--3. The Italian Language. + +PERIOD FIRST.--1. Latin Influence.--2. Early Italian Poetry and Prose. +--3. Dante--4. Petrarch.--5. Boccaccio and other Prose Writers.--6. First +Decline of Italian Literature. + +PERIOD SECOND.--1. The Close of the Fifteenth Century; Lorenzo de' +Medici.--2. The Origin of the Drama and Romantic Epic; Poliziano, Pulci, +Boiardo.--3. Romantic Epic Poetry; Ariosto.--4. Heroic Epic Poetry; +Tasso.--5. Lyric Poetry; Bembo, Molza, Tarsia, V. Colonna.--6. Dramatic +Poetry; Trissino, Rucellai; the Writers of Comedy.--7. Pastoral Drama and +Didactic Poetry; Beccari, Sannazzaro, Tasso, Guarini, Rucellai, Alamanni. +--8. Satirical Poetry, Novels, and Tales; Berni, Grazzini, Firenzuola, +Bandello, and others.--9. History; Machiavelli, Guicciardini, Nardi, and +others.--10. Grammar and Rhetoric; the Academy della Crusca, Della Casa, +Speroni, and others.--11. Science, Philosophy, and Politics; the Academy +del Cimento, Galileo, Torricelli, Borelli, Patrizi, Telesio, Campanella, +Bruno, Castiglione, Machiavelli, and others.--12. Decline of the +Literature in the Seventeenth Century.--13. Epic and Lyric Poetry; Marini, +Filicaja.--14. Mock Heroic Poetry, the Drama, and Satire; Tassoni, +Bracciolini, Anderini, and others.--15. History and Epistolary Writings; +Davila, Bentivoglio, Sarpi, Redi. + +PERIOD THIRD.--1. Historical Development of the Third Period.--2. The +Melodrama; Rinuccini, Zeno, Metastasio.--3. Comedy; Goldoni, C. Gozzi, and +others.--4. Tragedy; Maffei, Alfieri, Monti, Manzoni, Nicolini, and +others.--5. Lyric, Epic, and Didactic Poetry; Parini, Monti, Ugo Foscolo, +Leopardi, Grossi, Lorenzi, and others.--6. Heroic-Comic Poetry, Satire, +and Fable; Fortiguerri, Passeroni, G. Gozzi, Parini, Ginsti, and others. +--7. Romances; Verri, Manzoni, D'Azeglio, Cantù, Guerrazzi, and others. +--8. History; Muratori, Vico, Giannone, Botta, Colletta, Tiraboschi, and +others.--9. Aesthetics, Criticism, Philology, and Philosophy; Baretti, +Parini, Giordani, Gioja, Romagnosi, Gallupi, Roemini, Gioberti.--From 1860 +to 1885. + +FRENCH LITERATURE. + +INTRODUCTION.--1. French Literature and its Divisions.--2. The Language + +PERIOD FIRST.--1. The Troubadours.--2. The Trouvères.--3. French +Literature in the Fifteenth Century.--4. The Mysteries and Moralities: +Charles of Orleans, Villon, Ville-Hardouin, Joinville, Froissart, Philippe +de Commines. + +PERIOD SECOND.--1. The Renaissance and the Reformation: Marguerite de +Valois, Marot, Rabelais, Calvin, Montaigne, Charron, and others.--2. Light +Literature: Ronsard, Jodelle, Hardy, Malherbe, Scarron, Madame de +Rambouillet, and others.--3. The French Academy.--4. The Drama: +Corneille.--5. Philosophy: Descartes, Pascal; Port Royal.--6. The Rise of +the Golden Age of French Literature: Louis XIV.--7. Tragedy: Racine.--8. +Comedy: Molière.--9. Fables, Satires, Mock-Heroic, and other Poetry: La +Fontaine, Boileau.--10. Eloquence of the Pulpit and of the Bar: +Bourdaloue, Bossuet, Massillon, Fléchier, Le Maitre, D'Aguesseau, and +others.--11. Moral Philosophy: Rochefoucault, La Bruyère, Nicole.--12. +History and Memoirs: Mézeray, Fleury, Rollia, Brantôme, the Duke of Sully, +Cardinal de Retz.--13. Romance and Letter Writing: Fénelon, Madame de +Sévigné.--257 + +PERIOD THIRD.--1. The Dawn of Skepticism: Bayle, J. B. Rousseau, +Fontenelle, Lamotte.--2. Progress of Skepticism: Montesquieu, Voltaire. +--3. French Literature during the Revolution: D'Holbach, D'Alembert, +Diderot, J. J. Rousseau, Buffon, Beaumarchais, St. Pierre, and others. +--4. French Literature under the Empire: Madame de Staël, Chateaubriand, +Royer-Collard, Ronald, De Maistre.--5. French Literature from the Age of +the Restoration to the Present Time. History: Thierry, Sismondi, Thiers, +Mignet, Martin, Michelet, and others. Poetry and the Drama; Rise of the +Romantic School: Béranger, Lamartine, Victor Hugo, and others; Les +Parnassiens. Fiction: Hugo, Gautier, Dumas, Mérimée, Balzac, Sand, +Sandeau, and others. Criticism: Sainte-Beuve, Taine, and others. +Miscellaneous. + + +SPANISH LITERATURE. + +INTRODUCTION.--1. Spanish Literature and its Divisions.--2. The Language. + +PERIOD FIRST.--1. Early National Literature; the Poem of the Cid; Berceo, +Alfonso the Wise, Segura; Don Juan Manuel, the Archpriest of Hita, Santob, +Ayala.--2. Old Ballads.--3. The Chronicles.-4. Romances of Chivalry.--5. +The Drama.--6. Provençal Literature in Spain.--7. The Influence of Italian +Literature in Spain.--8. The Cancioneros and Prose Writing.--9. The +Inquisition. + +PERIOD SECOND.--1. The Effect of Intolerance on Letters.--2. Influence of +Italy on Spanish Literature; Boscan, Garcilasso de la Vega, Diego de +Mendoza.--3. History; Cortez, Gomara, Oviedo, Las Casas.--4. The Drama, +Rueda, Lope de Vega, Calderon de la Barca.--5. Romances and Tales; +Cervantes, and other Writers of Fiction.--6. Historical Narrative Poems; +Ercilla.--7. Lyric Poetry; the Argensolas; Luis de Leon, Quevedo, Herrera, +Gongora, and others.--8. Satirical and other Poetry.--9. History and other +Prose Writing; Zurita, Mariana, Sandoval, and others. + +PERIOD THIRD.--1. French Influence on the Literature of Spain.--2. The +Dawn of Spanish Literature in the Eighteenth Century; Feyjoo, Isla, +Moratin the elder, Yriarte, Melendez, Gonzalez, Quintana, Moratin the +younger.--3. Spanish Literature in the Nineteenth Century. + +PORTUGUESE LITERATURE. + +1. The Portuguese Language.--2. Early Literature of Portugal.--3. Poets of +the Fifteenth Century; Macias, Ribeyro.--4. Introduction of the Italian +Style; Saa de Miranda, Montemayor, Ferreira.--5. Epic Poetry; Camoëns; the +Lusiad.--6. Dramatic Poetry; Gil Vicente.--7. Prose Writing; Rodriguez +Lobo, Barros, Brito, Veira.--8. Portuguese Literature in the Seventeenth, +Eighteenth, and Nineteenth Centuries; Antonio José, Manuel do Nascimento, +Manuel de Bocage. + +FINNISH LITERATURE. + +1. The Finnish Language and Literature: Poetry; the Kalevala; Lönnrot; +Korhonen.--2. The Hungarian Language and Literature: the Age of Stephen +I.; Influence of the House of Anjou; of the Reformation; of the House of +Austria; Kossuth; Josika; Eötvös; Kuthy; Szigligeti; Petöfi. + +SLAVIC LITERATURES. + +The Slavic Race and Languages; the Eastern and Western Stems; the +Alphabets; the Old or Church Slavic Language; St. Cyril's Bible; the +Pravda Russkaya; the Annals of Nestor. + +RUSSIAN LITERATURE. + +1. The Language.--2. Literature in the Reign of Peter the Great; of +Alexander; of Nicholas; Danilof, Lomonosof, Kheraskof, Derzhavin, +Karamzin.--3. History, Poetry, the Drama: Kostrof, Dmitrief, Zhukoffski, +Krylof, Pushkin, Lermontoff, Gogol.--4. Literature in Russia since the +Crimean War: School of Nature; Turguenieff; Ultra-realistic School: +Science; Mendeleéff. + +THE SERVIAN LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE + +THE BOHEMIAN LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE. + +John Huss, Jerome of Prague, Tycho Brahe, Kepler, Comenius, and others. + +THE POLISH LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE. + +Rey, Bielski, Copernicus, Czartoryski, Niemcewicz, Mickiewicz, and others. + +ROMANIAN LITERATURE. + +Carmen Sylva. + +DUTCH LITERATURE. + +1. The Language.--2. Dutch Literature to the Sixteenth Century: Maerlant; +Melis Stoke; De Weert; the Chambers of Rhetoric; the Flemish Chroniclers; +the Rise of the Dutch Republic.--3. The Latin Writers: Erasmus; Grotius; +Arminius; Lipsius; the Scaligers, and others; Salmasius; Spinoza; +Boerhaave; Johannes Secundus.--4. Dutch Writers of the Sixteenth Century: +Anna Byns; Coornhert; Marnix de St. Aldegonde; Bor, Visscher, and +Spieghel.--5. Writers of the Seventeenth Century: Hooft; Vondel; Cats; +Antonides; Brandt, and others; Decline in Dutch Literature.--6. The +Eighteenth Century: Poot; Langendijk; Hoogvliet; De Marre; Feitama; +Huydecoper; the Van Harens; Smits; Ten Kate; Van Winter; Van Merken; De +Lannoy; Van Alphen; Bellamy; Nieuwland, Styl, and others.--7. The +Nineteenth Century: Feith; Helmers; Bilderdyk; Van der Palm; Loosjes; +Loots, Tollens, Van Kampen, De s'Gravenweert, Hoevill, and others. + +SCANDINAVIAN LITERATURE. + +1. Introduction. The Ancient Scandinavians; their Influence on the English +Race.--2. The Mythology.--3. The Scandinavian Languages.--4. Icelandic, or +Old Norse Literature: the Poetic Edda, the Prose Edda, the Scalds, the +Sagas, the "Heimskringla." The Folks-Sagas and Ballads of the Middle +Ages.--5. Danish Literature: Saxo Grammaticus and Theodoric; Arreboe, +Kingo, Tycho Brahe, Holberg, Evald, Baggesen, Oehlenschläger, Grundtvig, +Blicher, Ingemann, Heiberg, Gyllenbourg, Winther, Hertz, Müller, Hans +Andersen, Plong, Goldschmidt, Hastrup, and others; Malte Brun, Rask, Rafn, +Magnusen, the brothers Oersted.--6. Swedish Literature: Messenius, +Stjernhjelm, Lucidor, and others. The Gallic period: Dalin, Nordenflycht, +Crutz and Gyllenborg, Gustavus III., Kellgren, Leopold, Oxenstjerna. The +New Era: Bellman, Hallman, Kexel, Wallenberg, Lidner, Thorild, Lengren, +Franzen, Wallin. The Phosphorists: Atterbom, Hammarsköld, and Palmblad. +The Gothic School: Geijer, Tegnér, Stagnelius, Almquist, Vitalis, +Runeberg, and others. The Romance Writers: Cederborg, Bremer, Carlén, +Knorring. Science: Swedenborg, Linnaeus, and others. + +GERMAN LITERATURE. + +INTRODUCTION.--1. German Literature and its Divisions.--2. The Mythology. +--3. The Language. + +PERIOD FIRST--1. Early Literature; Translation of the Bible by Ulphilas; +the Hildebrand Lied.--2. The Age of Charlemagne; his Successors; the +Ludwig's Lied; Roswitha; the Lombard Cycle.--3. The Suabian Age; the +Crusades; the Minnesingers; the Romances of Chivalry; the Heldenbuch; the +Nibelungen Lied.--4. The Fourteenth and Fifteenth Centuries; the +Mastersingers; Satires and Fables; Mysteries and Dramatic Representations; +the Mystics; the Universities; the Invention of Printing. + +PERIOD SECOND.--From 1517 to 1700.--1. The Lutheran Period: Luther, +Melanchthon.--2. Manuel, Zwingle, Fischart, Franck, Arnd, Boehm.--3. +Poetry, Satire, and Demonology; Paracelsus and Agrippa; the Thirty Years' +War.--4. The Seventeenth Century: Opitz, Leibnitz, Puffendorf, Kepler, +Wolf, Thomasius, Gerhard; Silesian Schools; Hoffmannswaldau, Lohenstein. + +PERIOD THIRD.--1. The Swiss and Saxon Schools; Gottsched, Bodmer, Rabener, +Gellert, Kästner, and others.--2. Klopstock, Lessing, Wieland, and Herder. +--3. Goethe and Schiller.--4. The Göttingen School: Voss, Stolberg, +Claudius, Bürger, and others.--5. The Romantic School: the Schlegels, +Novalis; Tieck, Körner, Arndt, Uhland, Heine, and others.--6. The Drama: +Goethe and Schiller; the _Power Men_; Müllner, Werner, Howald, and +Grillparzer.--7. Philosophy: Kant, Fichte, Schelling, Hegel, Schopenhauer, +and Hartmann. Science: Liebig, Du Bois-Raymond, Virchow, Helmholst, +Haeckel.--8. Miscellaneous Writings. + +ENGLISH LITERATURE. + +INTRODUCTION.--1. _English Literature_. Its Divisions.--2. _The Language_. + +PERIOD FIRST.--1. _Celtic Literature_, Irish, Scotch, and Cymric Celts; +the Chronicles of Ireland; Ossian's Poems; Traditions of Arthur; the +Triads; Tales.--2. _Latin Literature_, Bede; Alcuin; Erigena.--3. _Anglo- +Saxon Literature_. Poetry; Prose; Versions of Scripture; the Saxon +Chronicle; Alfred. + +PERIOD SECOND.--The Norman Age and the Fourteenth and Fifteenth +Centuries.--1. _Literature in the Latin Tongue_.--2. _Literature in +Norman-French_. Poetry; Romances of Chivalry.--3. _Saxon-English_. +Metrical Remains.--4. _Literature in the fourteenth Century_.--Prose +Writers: Occam, Duns Scotus, Wickliffe, Mandeville, Chaucer. Poetry; +Langland, Gower, Chaucer.--5. _Literature in the Fifteenth Century_. +Ballads.--6. _Poets of the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Centuries in +Scotland_. Wyntoun, Harbour, and others. + +PERIOD THIRD.--1. _Age of the Reformation_ (1509-1558). Classical, +Theological, and Miscellaneous Literature: Sir Thomas More and others. +Poetry: Skelton, Surrey, and Sackville; the Drama.--2. _The Age of +Spenser, Shakespeare, Bacon, and Milton_ (1558-1660). Scholastic and +Ecclesiastical Literature. Translations of the Bible: Hooker, Andrews, +Donne. Hall, Taylor, Baxter; other Prose Writers: Fuller, Cudworth, Bacon, +Hobbes, Raleigh, Milton, Sidney, Selden, Burton, Browne, and Cowley. +Dramatic Poetry: Marlowe and Greene, Shakspeare, Beaumont and Fletcher, +Ben Jonson, and others; Massinger, Ford, and Shirley; Decline of the +Drama. Non-dramatic Poetry: Spenser and the Minor Poets. Lyrical Poets: +Donne, Cowley, Denham, Waller, Milton.--3. _The Age of the Restoration and +Revolution_ (1660-1702). Prose: Leighton, Tillotson, Barrow, Bunyan, +Locke, and others. The Drama: Dryden, Otway. Comedy: Didactic Poetry: +Roscommon, Marvell, Butler, Pryor, Dryden.--4. _The Eighteenth Century_. +The _First_ Generation (1702-1727): Pope, Swift, and others; the +Periodical Essayists: Addison, Steele. The _Second_ Generation (1727- +1760); Theology: Warburton, Butler, Watts, Doddridge. Philosophy: Hume. +Miscellaneous Prose: Johnson; the Novelists: Richardson, Fielding, +Smollett, and Sterne. The Drama; Non-dramatic Poetry: Young, Blair, +Akenside, Thomson, Gray, and Collins. The _Third_ Generation (1760-1800); +the Historians: Hume, Robertson, and Gibbon. Miscellaneous Prose: Johnson, +Goldsmith, "Junius," Pitt, Fox, Sheridan, and Burke, Criticism: Burke, +Reynolds, Campbell, Kames. Political Economy: Adam Smith. Ethics: Paley, +Smith, Tucker. Metaphysics: Reid. Theological and Religious Writers: +Campbell, Paley, Watson, Newton, Hannah More, and Wilberforce. Poetry: +Comedies of Goldsmith and Sheridan; Minor Poets; Later Poems; Beattie's +Minstrel; Cowper and Burns. 5. _The Nineteenth Century_. The Poets: +Campbell, Southey, Scott, Byron; Coleridge and Wordsworth; Wilson, +Shelley, Keats; Crabbe, Moore, and others; Tennyson, Browning, Procter, +and others. Fiction: the Waverley and other Novels; Dickens, Thackeray, +and others. History: Arnold, Thirlwall, Grote, Macaulay, Alison, Carlyle, +Freeman, Buckle. Criticism: Hallam, De Quincey, Macaulay, Carlyle, Wilson, +Lamb, and others. Theology: Poster, Hall, Chalmers. Philosophy: Stewart, +Brown, Mackintosh, Bentham, Alison, and others. Political Economy: Mill, +Whewell, Whately, De Morgan, Hamilton. Periodical Writings: the Edinburgh, +Quarterly, and Westminster Reviews, and Blackwood's Magazine. Physical +Science: Brewster, Herschel, Playfair, Miller, Buckland, Whewell.--Since +1860. I. Poets: Matthew Arnold, Algernon Swinburne, Dante Rossetti, Robert +Buchanan, Edwin Arnold, "Owen Meredith," William Morris, Jean Ingelow, +Adelaide Procter, Christina Rossetti, Augusta Webster, Mary Robinson, and +others. 2. Fiction: "George Eliot," McDonald, Collins, Black, Blackmore, +Mrs. Oliphant, Yates, McCarthy, Trollope, and others. 3. Scientific +Writers: Herbert Spencer, Charles Darwin, Tyndall, Huxley, and others. +4. Miscellaneous. + +AMERICAN LITERATURE. + +THE COLONIAL PERIOD.--1. The Seventeenth Century. George Sandys; The Bay +Psalm Book; Anne Bradstreet, John Eliot, and Cotton Mather.--2. From 1700 +to 1770. Jonathan Edwards, Benjamin Franklin, Cadwallader Colden. + +FIRST AMERICAN PERIOD, FROM 1771 TO 1820.--1. Statesmen and Political +Writers: Washington, Jefferson, Hamilton; The Federalist; Jay, Madison, +Marshall, Fisher Ames, and others.--2. The Poets: Freneau, Trumbull, +Hopkinson, Barlow, Clifton, and Dwight.--3. Writers in other Departments: +Bellamy, Hopkins, Dwight, and Bishop White. Rush, McClurg, Lindley Murray, +Charles Brockden Brown. Ramsay, Graydon. Count Rumford, Wirt, Ledyard, +Pinkney, and Pike. + +SECOND AMERICAN PERIOD, FROM 1820 TO 1860.--1. History, Biography, and +Travels: Bancroft, Prescott, Motley, Godwin, Ticknor, Schoolcraft, +Hildreth, Sparks, Irving, Headley, Stephens, Kane, Squier, Perry, Lynch, +Taylor, and others.--2. Oratory: Webster, Clay, Calhoun, Benton, Everett, +and others.--3. Fiction: Cooper, Irving, Willis, Hawthorne, Poe, Simms, +Mrs. Stowe, and others.--4. Poetry: Bryant, Dana, Halleck, Longfellow, +Willis, Lowell, Allston, Hillhouse, Drake, Whittier, Hoffman, and others. +--5. The Transcendental Movement in New England.--6. Miscellaneous +Writings: Whipple, Tuckerman, Curtis, Brigge, Prentice, and others.--7. +Encyclopaedias, Dictionaries, and Educational Books. The Encyclopaedia +Americana. The New American Cyclopaedia. Allibone, Griswold, Duyckinck, +Webster, Worcester, Anthon, Felton, Barnard, and others.--8. Theology, +Philosophy, Economy, and Jurisprudence: Stuart, Robinson, Wayland, Barnes, +Channing, Parker. Tappan, Henry, Hickok, Haven. Carey, Kent, Wheaton, +Story, Livingston, Lawrence, Bouvier.--9. Natural Sciences: Franklin, +Morse, Fulton, Silliman, Dana, Hitchcock, Rogers, Bowditch, Peirce, Bache, +Holbrook, Audubon, Morton, Gliddon, Maury, and others.--10. Foreign +Writers: Paine, Witherspoon, Rowson, Priestley, Wilson, Agassiz, Guyot, +Mrs. Robinson, Gurowski, and others.--11. Newspapers and Periodicals. +--12. Since 1860. + +CONCLUSION. + +INDEX. + + + + +LIST OF AUTHORITIES. + + +The following works are the sources from which this book is wholly or +chiefly derived:-- + +Taylor's History of the Alphabet; Dwight's Philology; Herder's Spirit of +Hebrew Poetry; Lowth's Hebrew Poetry; Asiatic Researches; the works of +Gesenius, De Wette, Ewald, Colebrooke, Sir William Jones, Wilson, Ward; +Schlegel's Hindu Language and Literature; Max Müller's History of Sanskrit +Literature; and What India has taught us; Malcolm's History of Persia; +Richardson on the Language of Eastern Nations; Adelung's Mithridates; +Chodzko's Specimens of the Popular Poetry of Persia; Costello's Rose +Garden of Persia; Rémusat's Mémoire sur l'Ecriture Chinoise; Davis on the +Poetry of the Chinese; Williams's Middle Kingdom; The Mikado's Empire; +Rein's Travels in Japan; Duhalde's Description de la Chine; Champollion's +Letters; Wilkinson's Extracts from Hieroglyphical Subjects; the works of +Bunsen, Müller, and Lane; Müller's History of the Literature of Ancient +Greece, continued by Donaldson; Browne's History of Roman Classical +Literature; Fiske's Manual of Classical Literature; Sismondi's Literature +of the South of Europe; Goodrich's Universal History; Sanford's Rise and +Progress of Literature; Schlegel's Lectures on the History of Literature; +Schlegel's History of Dramatic Art; Tiraboschi's History of Italian +Literature; Maffei, Corniani, and Ugoni on the same subject; Chambers's +Handbooks of Italian and German Literature; Vilmar's History of German +Literature; Foster's Handbook of French Literature; Nisard's Histoire de +la Littérature Française; Demogeot's Histoire de la Littérature française; +Ticknor's History of Spanish Literature; Talvi's (Mrs. Robinson) +Literature of the Slavic Nations; Mallet's Northern Antiquities; Keyson's +Religion of the Northmen; Pigott's Northern Mythology; William and Mary +Howitt's Literature and Romance of Northern Europe; De s'Gravenweert's Sur +la Littérature Néerlandaise; Siegenbeck's Histoire Littéraire des Pays- +Bas; Da Pontes' Poets and Poetry of Germany; Menzel's German Literature; +Spaulding's History of English Literature; Chambers's Cyclopaedia of +English Literature; Shaw's English Literature; Stedman's Victorian Poets; +Trübner's guide to American Literature; Duyckinck's Cyclopaedia of +American Literature; Griswold's Poets and Prose Writers of America; +Tuckerman's Sketch of American Literature; Frothingham's Transcendental +Movement in New England. French, English, and American Encyclopaedias, +Biographies, Dictionaries, and numerous other works of reference have also +been extensively consulted. + + + + +INTRODUCTION. + + +THE ALPHABET. + +1. The Origin of Letters.--2. The Phoenician Alphabet and Inscriptions.-- +3, The Greek Alphabet. Its Three Epochs.--4. The Medieval Scripts. The +Irish. The Anglo-Saxon. The Roman. The Gothic. The Runic. + + +1. THE ORIGIN OF LETTERS.--Alphabetic writing is an art easy to acquire, +but its invention has tasked the genius of the three most gifted nations +of the ancient world. All primitive people have begun to record events and +transmit messages by means of rude pictures of objects, intended to +represent things or thoughts, which afterwards became the symbols of +sounds. For instance, the letter _M_ is traced down from the +conventionalized picture of an owl in the ancient language of Egypt, +_Mulak_. This was used first to denote the bird itself; then it stood for +the name of the bird; then gradually became a syllabic sign to express the +sound "mu," the first syllable of the name, and ultimately to denote "M," +the initial sound of that syllable. + +In like manner _A_ can be shown to be originally the picture of an eagle, +_D_ of a hand, _F_ of the horned asp, _R_, of the mouth, and so on. + +Five systems of picture writing have been independently invented,--the +Egyptian, the Cuneiform, the Chinese, the Mexican, and the Hittite. The +tradition of the ancient world, which assigned to the Phoenicians the +glory of the invention of letters, declared that it was from Egypt that +they originally derived the art of writing, which they afterwards carried +into Greece, and the latest investigations have confirmed this tradition. + +2. THE PHOENICIAN ALPHABET.--Of the Phoenician alphabet the Samaritan is +the only living representative, the Sacred Script of the few families who +still worship on Mount Gerizim. With this exception, it is only known to +us by inscriptions, of which several hundred have been discovered. They +form two well-marked varieties, the Moabite and the Sidonian. The most +important monument of the first is the celebrated Moabite stone, +discovered in 1868 on the site of the ancient capital of the land of Moab, +portions of which are preserved in the Louvre. It gives an account of the +revolt of the King of Moab against Jehoram, King of Israel, 890 B.C. The +most important inscription of the Sidonian type is that on the magnificent +sarcophagus of a king of Sidon, now one of the glories of the Louvre. + +A monument of the early Hebrew alphabet, another offshoot of the +Phoenician, was discovered in 1880 in an inscription in the ancient tunnel +which conveys water to the pool of Siloam. + +3. THE GREEK ALPHABET.--The names, number, order, and forms of the +primitive Greek alphabet attest its Semitic origin. Of the many +inscriptions which remain, the earliest has been discovered, not in +Greece, but upon the colossal portrait statues carved by Rameses the +Great, in front of the stupendous cave temple at Abou-Simbel, at the time +when the Hebrews were still in Egyptian bondage. In the seventh century B. +C., certain Greek mercenaries in the service of an Egyptian king inscribed +a record of their visit in five precious lines of writing, which the dry +Nubian atmosphere has preserved almost in their pristine sharpness. + +The legend, according to which Cadmus the Tyrian sailed for Greece in +search of Europa, the damsel who personified the West, designates the +island of Thera as the earliest site of Phoenician colonization in the +Aegean, and from inscriptions found there this may be regarded as the +first spot of European soil on which words were written, and they exhibit +better than any others the progressive form of the Cadmean alphabet. The +oldest inscriptions found on Hellenic soil bearing a definite date are +those cut on the pedestals of the statues which lined the sacred way +leading to the temple of Apollo, near Miletus. Several of those, now in +the British Museum, range in date over the sixth century B.C. They belong, +not to the primitive alphabet, but to the Ionian, one of the local +varieties which mark the second stage, which may be called the epoch of +transition, which began in the seventh and lasted to the close of the +fifth century B.C. It is not till the middle of the fifth century that we +have any dated monuments belonging to the Western types. Among these are +the names of the allied states of Hellas, inscribed on the coils of the +three-headed bronze serpent which supported the gold tripod dedicated to +the Delphian Apollo, 476 B.C. This famous monument was transported to +Byzantium by Constantine the Great, and still stands in the Hippodrome at +Constantinople. Of equal interest is the bronze Etruscan helmet in the +British Museum, dedicated to the Olympian Zeus, in commemoration of the +great victory off Cumae, which destroyed the naval supremacy of the +Etruscans, 474 B.C., and is celebrated in an ode by Pindar. + +The third epoch witnessed the emergence of the classical alphabets of +European culture, the Ionian and the Italic. + +The Ionian has been the source of the Eastern scripts, Romaic, Coptic, +Slavic, and others. The Italic became the parent of the modern alphabets +of Western Europe. + +4. THE MEDIAEVAL SCRIPTS.--A variety of national scripts arose in the +establishment of the Teutonic kingdoms upon the ruins of the Roman Empire. +But the most magnificent of all mediaeval scripts was the Irish, which +exercised a profound influence on the later alphabets of Europe. From a +combination of the Roman and Irish arose the Anglo-Saxon script, the +precursor of that which was developed in the ninth century by Alcuin of +York, the friend and preceptor of Charlemagne. This was the parent of the +Roman alphabet, in which our books are now printed. Among other +deteriorations, there crept in, in the fourteenth century, the Gothic or +black letter character, and these barbarous forms are still essentially +retained by the Teutonic nations though discarded by the English and Latin +races; but from its superior excellences the Roman alphabet is constantly +extending its range and bids fair to become the sole alphabet of the +future. In all the lands that were settled and overrun by the +Scandinavians, there are found multitudes of inscriptions in the ancient +alphabet of the Norsemen, which is called the Runic. The latest modern +researches seem to prove that this was derived from the Greek, and +probably dates back as far as the sixth century B.C.The Goths were early +in occupation of the regions south of the Baltic and east of the Vistula, +and in direct commercial intercourse with the Greek traders, from whom +they doubtless obtained a knowledge of the Greek alphabet, as the Greeks +themselves had gained it from the Phoenicians. + + + +CLASSIFICATION OF LANGUAGES. + + +Modern philologists have made different classifications of the various +languages of the world, one of which divides them into three great +classes: the Monosyllabic, the Agglutinated, and the Inflected. + +--The _first_, or Monosyllabic class, contains those languages which +consist only of separate, unvaried monosyllables. The words have no +organization that adapts them for mutual affiliation, and there is in +them, accordingly, an utter absence of all scientific forms and principles +of grammar. The Chinese and a few languages in its vicinity, doubtless +originally identical with it, are all that belong to this class. The +languages of the North American Indians, though differing in many +respects, have the same general grade of character. + +The _second_ class consists of those languages which are formed by +agglutination. The words combine only in a mechanical way; they have _no_ +elective affinity, and exhibit toward each other none of the active or +sensitive capabilities of living organisms. Prepositions are joined to +substantives, and pronouns to verbs, but never so as to make a new form of +the original word, as in the inflected languages, and words thus placed in +juxtaposition retain their personal identity unimpaired. + +The agglutinative languages are known also as the Turanian, from Turan, a +name of Central Asia, and the principal varieties of this family are the +Tartar, Finnish, Lappish, Hungarian, and Caucasian. They are classed +together almost exclusively on the ground of correspondence in their +grammatical structure, but they are bound together by ties of far less +strength than those which connect the inflected languages. The race by +whom they are spoken has, from the first, occupied more of the surface of +the earth than either of the others, stretching westward from the shores +of the Japan Sea to the neighborhood of Vienna, and southward from the +Arctic Ocean to Afghanistan and the southern coast of Asia Minor. + +The inflected languages form the _third_ great division. They have all a +complete interior organization, complicated with many mutual relations and +adaptations, and are thoroughly systematic in all their parts. Between +this class and the monosyllabic there is all the difference that there is +between organic and inorganic forms of matter; and between them and the +agglutinative languages there is the same difference that exists in nature +between mineral accretions and vegetable growths. The boundaries of this +class of languages are the boundaries of cultivated humanity, and in their +history lies embosomed that of the civilized portions of the world. + +Two great races speaking inflected languages, the Semitic and the Indo- +European, have shared between them the peopling of the historic portions +of the earth; and on this account these two languages have sometimes been +called political or state languages, in contrast with the appellation of +the Turanian as nomadic. The term Semitic is applied to that family of +languages which are native in Southwestern Asia, and which are supposed to +have been spoken by the descendants of Shem, the son of Noah. They are the +Hebrew, Aramaeic, Arabic, the ancient Egyptian or Coptic, the Chaldaic, +and Phoenician. Of these the only living language of note is the Arabic, +which has supplanted all the others, and wonderfully diffused its elements +among the constituents of many of the Asiatic tongues. In Europe the +Arabic has left a deep impress on the Spanish language, and is still +represented in the Maltese, which is one of its dialects. + +The Semitic languages differ widely from the Indo-European in reference to +their grammar, vocabulary, and idioms. On account of the great +preponderance of the pictorial element in them, they may be called the +metaphorical languages, while the Indo-European, from the prevailing style +of their higher literature, may be called the philosophical languages. The +Semitic nations also differ from the Indo-European in their national +characteristics; while they have lived with remarkable uniformity on the +vast open plains, or wandered over the wide and dreary deserts of their +native region, the Indo-Europeans have spread themselves over both +hemispheres, and carried civilization to its highest development. But the +Semitic mind has not been without influence on human progress. It early +recorded its thoughts, its wants, and achievements in the hieroglyphs of +ancient Egypt; the Phoenicians, foremost in their day in commerce and the +arts, introduced from Egypt alphabetic letters, of which all the world has +since made use. The Jewish portion of the race, long in communication with +Egypt, Phoenicia, Babylonia, and Persia, could not fail to impart to these +nations some knowledge of their religion and literature, and it cannot be +doubted that many new ideas and quickening influences were thus set in +motion, and communicated to the more remote countries both of the East and +West. + +The most ancient languages of the Indo-European stock may be grouped in +two distinct family pairs: the Aryan, which comprises two leading +families, the Indian and Iranian, and the Graeco-Italic or Pelasgic, which +comprises the Greek family and its various dialects, and the Italic +family, the chief-subdivisions of which are the Etruscan, the Latin, and +the modern languages derived from the Latin. The other Indo-European +families are the Lettic, Slavic, Gothic, and Celtic, with their various +subdivisions. + +The word Aryan (Sanskrit, Arya), the oldest known name of the entire Indo- +European family, signifies well-born, and was applied by the ancient +Hindus to themselves in contradistinction to the rest of the world, whom +they considered base-born and contemptible. + +In the country called Aryavarta, lying between the Himalaya and the +Vindhya Mountains, the high table-land of Central Asia, more than two +thousand years before Christ, our Hindu ancestors had their early home. +From this source there have been, historically, two great streams of Aryan +migration. One, towards the south, stagnated in the fertile valleys, where +they were walled in from all danger of invasion by the Himalaya Mountains +on the north, the Indian Ocean on the south, and the deserts of Bactria on +the west, and where the people sunk into a life of inglorious ease, or +wasted their powers in the regions of dreamy mysticism. The other +migration, at first northern, and then western, includes the great +families of nations in Northwestern Asia and in Europe. Forced by +circumstances into a more objective life, and under the stimulus of more +favorable influences, these nations have been brought into a marvelous +state of individual and social progress, and to this branch of the human +family belongs all the civilization of the present, and most of that which +distinguishes the past. + +The Indo-European family of languages far surpasses the Semitic in +variety, flexibility, beauty, and strength. It is remarkable for its +vitality, and has the power of continually regenerating itself and +bringing forth new linguistic creations. It renders most faithfully the +various workings of the human mind, its wants, its aspirations, its +passion, imagination, and reasoning power, and is most in harmony with the +ever progressive spirit of man. In its varied scientific and artistic +development it forms the most perfect family of languages on the globe, +and modern civilization, by a chain reaching through thousands of years, +ascends to this primitive source. + + + + +CHINESE LITERATURE. + +1. Chinese literature.--2. The Language.--3. The Writing.--4. The five +Classics and four Books.--5. Chinese Religion and Philosophy, Lao-tsé, +Confucius, Meng-tsé or Mencius.--6. Buddhism.--7. Social Constitution of +China.--8. Invention of Printing.--9. Science, History, and Geography. +Encyclopaedias.--10. Poetry.--11. Dramatic Literature and Fiction.--12. +Education in China. + + +1. CHINESE LITERATURE.--The Chinese literature is one of the most +voluminous of all literatures, and among the most important of those of +Asia. Originating in a vast empire, it is diffused among a population +numbering nearly half the inhabitants of the globe. It is expressed by an +original language differing from all others, it refers to a nation whose +history may be traced back nearly five thousand years in an almost +unbroken series of annals, and it illustrates the peculiar character of a +people long unknown to the Western world. + +2. THE LANGUAGE.--The date of the origin of this language is lost in +antiquity, but there is no doubt that it is the most ancient now spoken, +and probably the oldest written language used by man. It has undergone few +alterations during successive ages, and this fact has served to deepen the +lines of demarkation between the Chinese and other branches of the race +and has resulted in a marked national life. It belongs to the monosyllabic +family; its radical words number 450, but as many of these, by being +pronounced with a different accent convey a different meaning, in reality +they amount to 1,203. Its pronunciation varies in different provinces, but +that of Nanking, the ancient capital of the Empire, is the most pure. Many +dialects are spoken in the different provinces, but the Chinese proper is +the literary tongue of the nation, the language of the court and of polite +society, and it is vernacular in that portion of China called the Middle +Kingdom. + +3. THE WRITING.--There is an essential difference between the Chinese +language as spoken and written, and the poverty of the former presents a +striking contrast with the exuberance of the latter. Chinese writing, +generally speaking, does not express the sounds of the words, but it +represents the ideas or the objects indicated by them. Its alphabetical +characters are therefore ideographic, and not phonetic. They were +originally rude representations of the thing signified; but they have +undergone various changes from picture-writing to the present more +symbolical and more complete system. + +As the alphabetic signs represent objects or ideas, it would follow that +there must be in writing as many characters as words in the spoken +language. Yet many words, which have the same sound, represent different +ideas; and these must be represented also in the written language. Thus +the number of the written words far surpasses that of the spoken language. +As far as they are used in the common writing, they amount to 2,425. The +number of characters in the Chinese dictionary is 40,000, of which, +however, only 10,000 are required for the general purposes of literature. +They are disposed under 214 signs, which serve as keys, and which +correspond to our alphabetic order. + +The Chinese language is written, from right to left, in vertical columns +or in horizontal lines. + +4. THE CLASSICS.--The first five canonical books are "The Book of +Transformations," "The Book of History," "The Book of Rites," "The Spring +and Autumn Annals," and "The Book of Odes" + +"The Book of Transformations" consists of sixty-four short essays on +important themes, symbolically and enigmatically expressed, based on +linear figures and diagrams. These cabala are held in high esteem by the +learned, and the hundreds of fortune-tellers in the streets of Chinese +towns practice their art on the basis of these mysteries. + +"The Book of History" was compiled by Confucius, 551-470 B. C., from the +earliest records of the Empire, and in the estimation of the Chinese it +contains the seeds of all that is valuable in their political system, +their history, and their religious rites, and is the basis of their +tactics, music, and astronomy. It consists mainly of conversations between +kings and their ministers, in which are traced the same patriarchal +principles of government that guide the rulers of the present day. + +"The Book of Rites" is still the rule by which the Chinese regulate all +the relations of life. No every-day ceremony is too insignificant to +escape notice, and no social or domestic duty is beyond its scope. No work +of the classics has left such an impression on the manners and customs of +the people. Its rules are still minutely observed, and the office of the +Board of Rites, one of the six governing boards of Peking, is to see that +its precepts are carried out throughout the Empire. According to this +system, all the relations of man to the family, society, the state, to +morals, and to religion, are reduced to ceremonial, but this includes not +only the external conduct, but it involves those right principles from +which all true politeness and etiquette spring. + +The "Book of Odes" consists of national airs, chants, and sacrificial odes +of great antiquity, some of them remarkable for their sublimity. It is +difficult to estimate the power they have exerted over all subsequent +generations of Chinese scholars. They are valuable for their religious +character and for their illustration of early Chinese customs and +feelings; but they are crude in measure, and wanting in that harmony which +comes from study and cultivation. + +The "Spring and Autumn Annals" consist of bald statements of historical +facts. Of the Four Books, the first three--the "Great Learning," the "Just +Medium," and the "Confucian Analects"--are by the pupils and followers of +Confucius. The last of the four books consists entirely of the writings of +Mencius (371-288 B. C.). In originality and breadth of view he is superior +to Confucius, and must be regarded as one of the greatest men Asiatic +nations have produced. + +The Five Classics and Four Books would scarcely be considered more than +curiosities in literature were it not for the incomparable influence, free +from any debasing character, which they have exerted over so many millions +of minds. + +5. CHINESE RELIGION AND PHILOSOPHY.--Three periods may be distinguished in +the history of the religious and philosophical progress of China. The +first relates to ancient tradition, to the idea of one supreme God, to the +patriarchal institutions, which were the foundation of the social +organization of the Empire, and to the primitive customs and moral +doctrines. It appears that this religion at length degenerated into that +mingled idolatry and indifference which still characterizes the people of +China. + +In the sixth century B.C., the corruption of the ancient religion having +reached its height, a reaction took place which gave birth to the second, +or philosophical period, which produced three systems. Lao-tsé, born 604 +B.C., was the founder of the religion of the Tao, or of the external and +supreme reason. The Tao is the primitive existence and intelligence, the +great principle of the spiritual and material world, which must be +worshiped through the purification of the soul, by retirement, abnegation, +contemplation, and metempsychosis. This school gave rise to a sect of +mystics similar to those of India. + +Later writers have debased the system of Lao-tsé, and cast aside his +profound speculations for superstitious rituals and the multiplication of +gods and goddesses. + +Confucius was the founder of the second school, which has exerted a far +more extensive and beneficial influence on the political and social +institutions of China. Confucius is a Latin name, corresponding to the +original Kung-fu-tsé, Kung being the proper name, and Fu-tsé signifying +reverend teacher or doctor. He was born 551 B.C., and educated by his +mother, who impressed upon him a strong sense of morality. After a careful +study of the ancient writings he decided to undertake the moral reform of +his country, and giving up his high position of prime minister, he +traveled extensively in China, preaching justice and virtue wherever he +went. His doctrines, founded on the unity of God and the necessities of +human nature, bore essentially a moral character, and being of a practical +tendency, they exerted a great influence not only on the morals of the +people, but also on their legislation, and the authority of Confucius +became supreme. He died 479 B.C., at the age of seventy-two, eleven years +before the birth of Socrates. He left a grandson, through whom the +succession has been transmitted to the present day, and his descendants +constitute a distinct class in Chinese society. + +At the close of the fourth century B.C., another philosopher appeared by +the name of Meng-tsé, or Mencius (eminent and venerable teacher), whose +method of instruction bore a strong similarity to that of Socrates. His +books rank among the classics, and breathe a spirit of freedom and +independence; they are full of irony on petty sovereigns and on their +vices; they establish moral goodness above social position, and the will +of the people above the arbitrary power of their rulers. He was much +revered, and considered bolder and more eloquent than Confucius. + +6. The third period of the intellectual development of the Chinese dates +from the introduction of Buddhism into the country, under the name of the +religion of Fo, 70 A.D. The emperor himself professes this religion, and +its followers have the largest number of temples. The great bulk of +Buddhist literature is of Indian origin. Buddhism, however, has lost in +China much of its originality, and for the mass it has sunk into a low and +debasing idolatry. Recently a new religion has sprung up in China, a +mixture of ancient Chinese and Christian doctrines, which apparently finds +great favor in some portions of the country. + +7. SOCIAL CONSTITUTION OF CHINA.--The social constitution of China rests +on the ancient traditions preserved in the canonical and classic books. +The Chinese empire is founded on the patriarchal system, in which all +authority over the family belongs to the _pater familias_. The emperor +represents the great father of the nation, and is the supreme master of +the state and the head of religion. All his subjects being considered as +his children, they are all equal before him, and according to their +capacity are admitted to the public offices. Hence no distinction of +castes, no privileged classes, no nobility of birth; but a general +equality under an absolute chief. The public administration is entirely in +the hands of the emperor, who is assisted by his mandarins, both military +and civil. They are admitted to this rank only after severe examinations, +and from them the members of the different councils of the empire are +selected. Among these the Board of Control, or the all-examining Court, +and the Court of History and Literature deserve particular mention, as +being more closely related to the subject of this work. The duty of this +board consists in examining all the official acts of the government, and +in preventing the enacting of those measures which they may deem +detrimental to the best interests of the country. They can even reprove +the personal acts of the emperor, an office which has afforded many +occasions for the display of eloquence. The courage of some of the members +of this board has been indeed sublime, giving to their words wonderful +power. + +The Court of History and Literature superintends public education, +examines those who aspire to the degree of mandarins, and decides on the +pecuniary subsidies, which the government usually grants for defraying the +expenses of the publication of great works on history and science. + +8. INVENTION OF PRINTING.--At the close of the sixth century B.C. it was +ordained that various texts in circulation should be engraved on wood to +be printed and published. At first comparatively little use seems to have +been made of the invention, which only reached its full development in the +eleventh century, when movable types were first invented by a Chinese +blacksmith, who printed books with them nearly five hundred years before +Gutenberg appeared. + +In the third century B.C., one of the emperors conceived the mad scheme of +destroying all existing records, and writing a new set of annals in his +own name, in order that posterity might consider him the founder of the +empire. Sixty years after this barbarous decree had been carried into +execution, one of his successors, who desired as far as possible to repair +the injury, caused these books to be re-written from a copy which had +escaped destruction. + +9. SCIENCE, HISTORY, AND GEOGRAPHY.--Comparing the scientific development +of the Chinese with that of the Western world, it may be said that they +have made little progress in any branch of science. There are, however, to +be found in almost every department some works of no indifferent merit. In +mathematics they begin only now to make some progress, since the +mathematical works of Europe have been introduced into their country. +Astrology still takes the place of astronomy, and the almanacs prepared at +the observatory of Peking are made chiefly by foreigners. Books on natural +philosophy abound, some of which are written by the emperors themselves. +Medicine is imperfectly understood. They possess several valuable works on +Chinese jurisprudence, on agriculture, economy, mechanics, trades, many +cyclopaedias and compendia, and several dictionaries, composed with +extraordinary skill and patience. + +To this department may be referred all educational books, the most of them +written in rhyme, and according to a system of intellectual gradation. + +The historical and geographical works of China are the most valuable and +interesting department of its literature. Each dynasty has its official +chronicle, and the celebrated collection of twenty-one histories forms an +almost unbroken record of the annals from, the third century B.C. to the +middle of the seventeenth century, and contains a vast amount of +information to European readers. The edition of this huge work, in sixty- +six folio volumes, is to be found in the British Museum. This and many +similar works of a general and of a local character unite in rendering +this department rich and important for those who are interested in the +history of Asiatic civilization. "The General Geography of the Chinese +Empire" is a collection of the statistics of the country, with maps and +tables, in two hundred and sixty volumes. The "Statutes of the Reigning +Dynasty," from the year 1818, form more than one thousand volumes. Chinese +topographical works are characterized by a minuteness of detail rarely +equaled. + +Historical and literary encyclopaedias form a very notable feature in all +Chinese libraries. These works show great research, clearness, and +precision, and are largely drawn upon by European scholars. Early in the +last century one of the emperors appointed a commission to reprint in one +great collection all the works they might think worthy of preservation. +The result was a compilation of 6,109 volumes, arranged under thirty-two +heads, embracing works on every subject contained in the national +literature. This work is unique of its kind, and the largest in the world. + +10. POETRY.--The first development of literary talent in China, as +elsewhere, is found in poetry, and in the earliest days songs and ballads +were brought as offerings from the various principalities to the heads of +government. At the time of Confucius there existed a collection of three +thousand songs, from which he selected those contained in the "Book of +Odes." There is not much sublimity or depth of thought in these odes, but +they abound in touches of nature, and are exceedingly interesting and +curious, as showing how little change time has effected in the manners and +customs of this singular people. Similar in character are the poems of the +Tshian-teng-shi, another collection of lyrics published at the expense of +the emperor, in several thousand volumes. Among modern poets may be +mentioned the Emperor Khian-lung, who died at the close of the last +century. + +After the time of Confucius the change in Chinese poetry became very +marked, and, instead of the peaceful tone of his day, it reflected the +unsettled condition of social and political affairs. The simple, +monotheistic faith was exchanged for a superstitious belief in a host of +gods and goddesses, a contempt for life, and an uncertainty of all beyond +it. The period between 620 and 907 A.D., was one of great prosperity, and +is looked upon as the golden age. + +11. DRAMATIC LITERATURE AND FICTION.--Chinese literature affords no +instance of real dramatic poetry or sustained effort of the imagination. +The "Hundred Plays of the Yuen Dynasty" is the most celebrated collection, +and many have been translated into European languages. One of them, "The +Orphan of China," served as the groundwork of Voltaire's tragedy of that +name. The drama, however, constitutes a large department in Chinese +literature, though there are, properly speaking, no theatres in China. A +platform in the open air is the ordinary stage, the decorations are +hangings of cotton supported by a few poles of bamboo, and the action is +frequently of the coarsest kind. When an actor comes on the stage, he +says, "I am the mandarin so-and-so." If the drama requires the actor to +enter a house, he takes some steps and says, "I have entered;" and if he +is supposed to travel, he does so by rapid running on the stage, cracking +his whip, and saying afterwards, "I have arrived." The dialogue is written +partly in verse and partly in prose, and the poetry is sometimes sung and +sometimes recited. Many of their dramas are full of bustle and abound in +incident. They often contain the life and adventures of an individual, +some great sovereign or general, a history, in fact, thrown into action. +Two thousand volumes of dramatic compositions are known, and the best of +these amount to five hundred pieces. Among them may be mentioned the +"Orphan of the House of Tacho," and the "Heir in Old Age," which have much +force and character, and vividly describe the habits of the people. + +The Chinese are fond of historical and moral romances, which, however, are +founded on reason and not on imagination, as are the Hindu and Persian +tales. Their subjects are not submarine abysses, enchanted palaces, giants +and genii, but man as he is in his actual life, as he lives with his +fellow-men, with all his virtues and vices, sufferings and joys. But the +Chinese novelists show more skill in the details than in the conception of +their works; the characters are finished and developed in every respect. +The pictures with which they adorn their works are minute and the +descriptions poetical, though they often sacrifice to these qualities the +unity of the subject. The characters of their novels are principally drawn +from the middle class, as governors, literary men, etc. The episodes are, +generally speaking, ordinary actions of common life--all the quiet +incidents of the phlegmatic life of the Chinese, coupled with the regular +and mechanical movements which distinguish that people. Among the +numberless Chinese romances there are several which are considered +classic. Such are the "Four Great Marvels' Books," and the "Stories of the +Pirates on the Coast of Kiangnan." + +12. EDUCATION IN CHINA. Most of the Chinese people have a knowledge of the +rudiments of education. There is scarcely a man who does not know how to +read the hooks of his profession. Public schools are everywhere +established; in the cities there are colleges, in which pupils are taught +the Chinese literature; and in Peking there is an imperial college for the +education of the mandarins. The offices of the empire are only attained by +scholarship. There are four literary degrees, which give title to +different positions in the country. The government fosters the higher +branches of education and patronizes the publication of literary works, +which are distributed among the libraries, colleges, and functionaries. +The press is restricted only from publishing licentious and revolutionary +books. + +The future literature of China in many branches will be greatly modified +by the introduction of foreign knowledge and influences. + + + + +JAPANESE LITERATURE + +1. The Language.--2. The Religion.--3. The Literature. Influence of +Women.--4. History.--5. The Drama and Poetry.--6. Geography. Newspapers. +Novels. Medical Science.--7. Position of Woman. + + +1. THE LANGUAGE.--The Japanese is considered as belonging to the isolated +languages, as philologists have thus far failed to classify it. It is +agglutinative in its syntax, each word consisting of an unchangeable root +and one or several suffixes. Before the art of writing was known, poems, +odes to the gods, and other fragments which still exist had been composed +in this tongue, and it is probable that a much larger literature existed. +During the first centuries of writing in Japan, the spoken and written +language was identical, but with the study of the Chinese literature and +the composition of native works almost exclusively in that language, there +grew up differences between the colloquial and literary idiom, and the +infusion of Chinese words steadily increased. In writing, the Chinese +characters occupy the most important place. But all those words which +express the wants, feelings, and concerns of everyday life, all that is +deepest in the human heart, are for the most part native. If we would +trace the fountains of the musical and beautiful language of Japan, we +must seek them in the hearts and hear them flow from the lips of the +mothers of the Island Empire. Among the anomalies with which Japan has +surprised and delighted the world may be claimed that of woman's +achievements in the domain of letters. It was woman's services, not man's, +that made the Japanese a literary language, and under her influence the +mobile forms of speech crystallized into perennial beauty. + +The written language has heretofore consisted mainly of characters +borrowed from the Chinese, each character representing an idea of its own, +so that in order to read and write the student must make himself +acquainted with several thousand characters, and years are required to +gain proficiency in these elementary arts. There also exists in Japan a +syllabary alphabet of forty-seven characters, used at present as an +auxiliary to the Chinese. Within a very recent period, since the +acquisition of knowledge has become a necessity in Japan, a society has +been formed by the most prominent men of the empire, for the purpose of +assimilating the spoken and written language, taking the forty-seven +native characters as the basis. + +2. RELIGION.--The two great religions of Japan are Shintoism and Buddhism. +The chief characteristic of the Shinto religion is the worship of +ancestors, the deification of emperors, heroes, and scholars, and the +adoration of the personified forces of nature. It lays down no precepts, +teaches no morals or doctrines, and prescribes no ritual. + +The number of Shinto deities is enormous. In its higher form the chief +object of the Shinto faith is to enjoy this life; in its lower forms it +consists in a blind obedience to governmental and priestly dictates. + +On the recent accession of the Mikado to his former supreme power, an +attempt was made to restore this ancient faith, but it failed, and Japan +continues as it has been for ten centuries in the Buddhist faith. + +The religion of Buddha was introduced into Japan 581 A.D., and has exerted +a most potent influence in forming the Japanese character. + +The Protestants of Japanese Buddhism are the followers of Shinran, 1262 +A.D., who have wielded a vast influence in the religious development of +the people both for good and evil. In this creed prayer, purity, and +earnestness of life are insisted upon. The Scriptures of other sects are +written in Sanskrit and Chinese which only the learned are able to read, +those of the Shin sect are in the vernacular Japanese idiom. After the +death of Shinran, Rennio, who died in 1500 A.D., produced sacred writings +now daily read by the disciples of this denomination. + +Though greatly persecuted, the Shin sect have continually increased in +numbers, wealth, and power, and now lead all in intelligence and +influence. Of late they have organized their theological schools on the +model of foreign countries that their young men may be trained to resist +the Shinto and Christian faiths. + +3. THE LITERATURE. INFLUENCE OF WOMEN.--Previous to the fourteenth century +learning in Japan was confined to the court circle. The fourteenth, +fifteenth, and sixteenth centuries are the dark ages when military +domination put a stop to all learning except with, a few priests. With the +seventeenth century begins the modern period of general culture. The +people are all fond of reading, and it is very common to see circulating +libraries carried from house to house on the backs of men. + +As early as the tenth century, while the learned affected a pedantic style +so interlarded with Chinese as to be unintelligible, the cultivation of +the native tongue was left to the ladies of the court, a task which they +nobly discharged. It is a remarkable fact, without parallel in the history +of letters, that a very large proportion of the best writings of the best +ages was the work of women, and their achievement in the domain of letters +is one of the anomalies with which Japan has surprised and delighted the +world. It was their genius that made the Japanese a literary language. The +names and works of these authoresses are quoted at the present day. + +4. HISTORY.--The earliest extant Japanese record is a work entitled +"Kojiki," or book of ancient traditions. It treats of the creation, the +gods and goddesses of the mythological period, and gives the history of +the Mikados from the accession of Jimmu, year 1 (660 B.C.), to 1288 of the +Japanese year. It was supposed to date from the first half of the eighth +century, and another work "Nihonghi," a little later, also treats of the +mythological period. It abounds in traces of Chinese influence, and in a +measure supersedes the "Kojiki." These are the oldest books in the +language. They are the chief exponents of the Shinto faith, and form the +bases of many commentaries and subsequent works. + +The "History of Great Japan," composed in the latter part of the +seventeenth century, by the Lord of Mito (died 1700), is the standard +history of the present day. The external history of Japan, in twenty-two +volumes, by Rai Sanyo (died 1832), composed in classical Chinese, is most +widely read by men of education. + +The Japanese are intensely proud of their history and take great care in +making and preserving records. Memorial stones are among the most striking +sights on the highways and in the towns, villages, and temple yards, in +honor of some noted scholar, ruler, or benefactor. Few people are more +thoroughly informed as to their own history. Every city, town, and village +has its annals. Family records are faithfully copied from generation to +generation. Almost every province has its encyclopaedic history, and every +high-road its itineraries and guide-books, in which famous places and +events are noted. In the large cities professional story-tellers and +readers gain a lucrative livelihood by narrating both legendary and +classical history, and the theatre is often the most faithful mirror of +actual history. There are hundreds of child's histories in Japan. Many of +the standard works are profusely illustrated, are models of style and +eloquence, and parents delight to instruct their children in the national +laws and traditions. + +5. THE DRAMA.--The theatre is a favorite amusement, especially among the +lower classes; the pieces represented are of a popular character and +written in colloquial language, and generally founded on national history +and tradition, or on the lives and adventures of the heroes and gods; and +the scene is always laid in Japan. The play begins in the morning and +lasts all day, spectators bringing their food with them. No classical +dramatic author is known. + +Poetry has always been a favorite study with the Japanese. The most +ancient poetical fragment, called a "Collection of Myriad Leaves," dates +from the eighth century. The collection of "One Hundred Persons" is much +later, and contains many poems written by the emperors themselves. The +Japanese possess no great epic or didactic poems, although some of their +lyrics are happy examples of quaint modes of thought and expression. It is +difficult to translate them into a foreign tongue. + +6. GEOGRAPHY. NEWSPAPERS AND NOVELS.--The largest section of Japanese +literature is that treating of the local geography of the country itself. +These works are minute in detail and of great length, describing events +and monuments of historic interest. + +Before the recent revolution bat one newspaper existed in Japan, but at +present the list numbers several hundred. Freedom of the press is unknown, +and fines and imprisonment for violation of the stringent laws are very +frequent. + +Novels constitute a large section of Japanese literature. Fairy tales and +story books abound. Many of them are translated into English; "The Royal +Ronans" and other works have recently been published in New York. + +Medical science was borrowed from China, but upon this, as upon other +matters, the Japanese improved. Acupuncture, or the introduction of +needles into the living tissues for remedial purposes, was invented by the +Japanese, as was the moxa, or the burning of the flesh for the same +purpose. + +7. POSITION OF WOMAN.--Women in Japan are treated with far more respect +and consideration than elsewhere in the East. According to Japanese +history the women of the early centuries were possessed of more +intellectual and physical vigor, filling the offices of state and +religion, and reaching a high plane of social dignity and honor. Of the +one hundred and twenty-three Japanese sovereigns, nine have been women. +The great heroine of Japanese history and tradition was the Empress Jingu, +renowned for her beauty, piety, intelligence, and martial valor, who, +about 200 A.D., invaded and conquered Corea. + +The female children of the lower classes receive tuition in private +schools so generally established during the last two centuries throughout +the country, and those of the higher classes at the hands of private +tutors or governesses; and in every household may be found a great number +of books exclusively on the duties of women. + + + + +SANSKRIT LITERATURE. + +1. The Language.--2. The Social Constitution of India. Brahmanism.--3. +Characteristics of the Literature and its Divisions.--4. The Vedas and +other Sacred Books.--5. Sanskrit Poetry; Epic; The Ramayana and +Mahabharata. Lyric Poetry. Didactic Poetry; the Hitopadesa. Dramatic +Poetry.--6.. History and Science.--7. Philosophy. 8. Buddhism.--9. Moral +Philosophy. The Code of Manu.--10. Modern Literatures of India.--11. +Education. The Brahmo Somaj. + + +1. THE LANGUAGE.--Sanskrit is the literary language of the Hindus, and for +two thousand years has served as the means of learned intercourse and +composition. The name denotes _cultivated_ or _perfected_, in distinction +to the Prakrit or _uncultivated_, which sprang from it and was +contemporary with it. + +The study of Sanskrit by European scholars dates less than a century back, +and it is important as the vehicle of an immense literature which lays +open the outward and inner life of a remarkable people from a remote epoch +nearly to the present day, and as being the most ancient and original of +the Indo-European languages, throwing light upon them all. The Aryan or +Indo-European race had its ancient home in Central Asia. Colonies migrated +to the west and founded the Persian, Greek, and Roman civilization, and +settled in Spain and England. Other branches found their way through the +passes of the Himalayas and spread themselves over India. Wherever they +went they asserted their superiority over the earlier people whom they +found in possession of the soil, and the history of civilization is +everywhere the history of the Aryan race. The forefathers of the Greek and +Roman, of the Englishman and the Hindu, dwelt together in India, spoke the +same language, and worshiped the same gods. The languages of Europe and +India are merely different forms of the original Aryan speech. This is +especially true of the words of common family life. _Father, mother, +brother, sister_, and _widow_, are substantially the same in most of the +Aryan languages, whether spoken on the banks of the Ganges, the Tiber, or +the Thames. The word _daughter_, which occurs in nearly all of them, is +derived from the Sanskrit word signifying _to draw milk_, and preserves +the memory of the time when the daughter was the little milkmaid in the +primitive Aryan household. + +It is probable that as late as the third or fourth century B.C. it was +still spoken. New dialects were engrafted upon it which at length +superseded it, though it has continued to be revered as the sacred and +literary language of the country. Among the modern tongues of India, the +Hindui and the Hindustani may be mentioned; the former, the language of +the pure Hindu population, is written in Sanskrit characters; the latter +is the language of the Mohammedan Hindus, in which Arabic letters are +used. Many of the other dialects spoken and written in Northern India are +derived from the Sanskrit. Of the more important among them there are +English grammars and dictionaries. + +2. SOCIAL CONSTITUTION OF INDIA.--Hindu literature takes its character +both from the social and the religious institutions of the country. The +social constitution is based on the distinction of classes into which the +people, from the earliest times, have been divided, and which were the +natural effect of the long struggle between the aboriginal tribes and the +new race which had invaded India. These castes are four: 1st. The Brahmins +or priests; 2d. The warriors and princes; 3d. The husbandmen; 4th. The +laborers. There are, besides, several impure classes, the result of an +intermingling of the different castes. Of these lower classes some are +considered utterly abominable--as that of the Pariahs. The different +castes are kept distinct from each other by the most rigorous laws; though +in modern times the system has been somewhat modified. + + +THE RELIGION. + +In the period of the Vedas the religion of the Hindus was founded on the +simple worship of Nature. But the Pantheism of this age was gradually +superseded by the worship of the one Brahm, from which, according to this +belief, the soul emanated, and to which it seeks to return. Brahm is an +impersonality, the sum of all nature, the germ of all that is. Existence +has no purpose, the world is wholly evil, and all good persons should +desire to be taken out of it and to return to Brahm. This end is to be +attained only by transmigration of the soul through all previous stages of +life, migrating into the body of a higher or lower being according to the +sins or merits of its former existence, either to finish or begin anew its +purification. This religion of the Hindus led to the growth of a +philosophy the precursor of that of Greece, whose aims were loftier and +whose methods more ingenious. + +From Brahm, the impersonal soul of the universe, emanated the personal and +active Brahma, who with Siva and Vishnu constitute the Trimurti or god +under three forms. + +Siva is the second of the Hindu deities, and represents the primitive +animating and destroying forces of nature. His symbols relate to these +powers, and are worshiped more especially by the Sivaites--a numerous sect +of this religion. The worshipers of Vishnu, called the Preserver, the +first-born of Brahma, constitute the most extensive sect of India, and +their ideas relating to this form of the Divinity are represented by +tradition and poetry, and are particularly developed in the great +monuments of Sanskrit literature. The myths connected with Vishnu refer +especially to his incarnations or corporeal apparitions both in men and +animals, which he submits to in order to conquer the spirit of evil. + +These incarnations are called Avatars, or descendings, and form an +important part of Hindu epic poetry. Of the ten Avatars which are +attributed to Vishnu, nine have already taken place; the last is yet to +come, when the god shall descend again from heaven, to destroy the present +world, and to restore peace and parity. The three forms of the Deity, +emanating mutually from each other, are expressed by the three symbols, A +U M, three letters in Sanskrit having but one sound, forming the mystical +name _Om_, which never escapes the lips of the Hindus, but is meditated on +in silence. The predominant worship of one or the other of these forms +constitutes the peculiarities of the numerous sects of this religion. + +There are other inferior divinities, symbols of the forces of nature, +guardians of the world, demi-gods, demons, and heroes, whose worship, +however, is considered as a mode of reaching that divine rest, immersion +and absorption in Brahm. To this end are directed the sacrifices, the +prayers, the ablutions, the pilgrimages, and the penances, which occupy so +large a place in the Hindu worship. + +3. CHARACTERISTICS OF THE LITERATURE AND ITS DIVISIONS.--A greater part of +the Sanskrit literature, which counts its works by thousands, still +remains in manuscript. It was nearly all composed in metre, even works of +law, morality, and science. Every department of knowledge and every branch +of inquiry is represented, with the single exception of history, and this +forms the most striking general characteristic of the literature, and one +which robs it of a great share of worth and interest. Its place is in the +intellectual rather than in the political history of the world. + +The literary monuments of the Sanskrit language correspond to the great +eras in the history of India. The first period reaches back to that remote +age, when those tribes of the Aryan race speaking Sanskrit emigrated to +the northwestern portion of the Indian Peninsula, and established +themselves there, an agricultural and pastoral people. That was the age in +which were composed the prayers, hymns, and precepts afterwards collected +in the form of the Vedas, the sacred books of the country. In the second +period, the people, incited by the desire of conquest, penetrated into the +fertile valleys lying between the Indus and the Ganges; and the struggle +with the aboriginal inhabitants, which followed their invasion, gave birth +to epic poetry, in which the wars of the different races were celebrated +and the extension of Hindu civilization related. The third period embraces +the successive ages of the formation and development of a learned and +artistic literature. It contains collections of the ancient traditions, +expositions of the Vedas, works on grammar, lexicography, and science; and +its conclusion forms the golden age of Sanskrit literature, when, the +country being ruled by liberal princes, poetry, and especially the drama, +reached its highest degree of perfection. + +The chronology of these periods varies according to the systems of +different orientalists. It is, however, admitted that the Vedas are the +first literary productions of India, and that their origin cannot be later +than the fifteenth century B.C. The period of the Vedas embraces the other +sacred books, or commentaries founded upon them, though written several +centuries afterwards. The second period, to which belong the two great +epic poems, the "Ramayana" and the "Mahabharata," according to the best +authorities ends with the sixth or seventh century B.C. The third period +embraces all the poetical and scientific works written from that time to +the third or fourth century B.C., when the language, having been +progressively refined, became fixed in the writings of Kalidasa, Jayadeva, +and other poets. A fourth period, including the tenth century A.D., may be +added, distinguished by its erudition, grammatical, rhetorical, and +scientific disquisitions, which, however, is not considered as belonging +to the classical age. From the Hindu languages, originating in the +Sanskrit, new literatures have sprung; but they are essentially founded on +the ancient literature, which far surpasses them in extent and importance, +and is the great model of them all. Indeed, its influence has not been +limited to India; all the poetical and scientific works of Asia, China, +and Japan included, have borrowed largely from it, and in Southern Russia +the scanty literature of the Kalmucks is derived entirely from Hindu +sources. The Sanskrit literature, known to Europe only recently, through +the researches of the English and German orientalists, has now become the +auxiliary and foundation of all philological studies. + +4. THE VEDAS AND OTHER SACRED BOOKS.--The Vedas (knowledge or science) are +the Bible of the Hindus, the most ancient book of the Aryan family, and +contain the revelation of Brahm which was preserved by tradition and +collected by Vyasa, a name which means compiler. The word Veda, however, +should be taken, as a collective name for the sacred literature of the +Vedic age which forms the background of the whole Indian world. Many works +belonging to that age are lost, though a large number still exists. + +The most important of the Vedas are three in number. First, The "Rig- +Veda," which is the great literary memorial of the settlement of the +Aryans in the Punjaub, and of their religious hymns and songs. Second, The +"Yajur-Veda." Third, The "Sama-Veda." + +Each Veda divided into two parts: the first contains prayers and +invocations, most of which are of a rhythmical character; the second +records the precepts relative to those prayers and to the ceremonies of +the sacrifices, and describes the religious myths and symbols. + +There are many commentaries on the Vedas of an ancient date, which are +considered as sacred books, and relate to medicine, music, astronomy, +astrology, grammar, philosophy, jurisprudence, and, indeed, to the whole +circle of Hindu science. + +They represent a period of unknown antiquity, when the Aryans were divided +into tribes of which the chieftain was the father and priest, and when +women held a high position. Some of the most beautiful hymns of this age +were composed by ladies and queens. The morals of Avyan, a woman of an +early age, are still taught in the Hindu schools as the golden rule of +life. + +India to-day acknowledges no higher authority in matters of religion, +ceremonial, customs, and law than the Vedas, and the spirit of Vedantism, +which is breathed by every Hindu from his earliest youth, pervades the +prayers of the idolater, the speculations of the philosopher, and the +proverbs of the beggar. + +The "Puranas" (ancient writings) hold an eminent rank in the religion and +literature of the Hindus. Though of a more recent date than the Vedas, +they possess the credit of an ancient and divine origin, and exercise an +extensive and practical influence upon the people. They comprise vast +collections of ancient traditions relating to theology, cosmology, and to +the genealogy of gods and heroes. There are eighteen acknowledged Puranas, +which altogether contain 400,000 stanzas. The "Upapuranas," also eighteen +in number, are commentaries on the Puranas. Finally, to the sacred books, +and next to the Vedas both in antiquity and authority, belong the +"Manavadharmasastra," or the ordinances of Manu, spoken of hereafter. + +5. SANSKRIT POETRY.--This poetry, springing from the lively and powerful +imagination of the Hindus, is inspired by their religious doctrines, and +embodied in the most harmonious language. Exalted by their peculiar belief +in pantheism and metempsychosis, they consider the universe and themselves +as directly emanating from Brahm, and they strive to lose their own +individuality, in its infinite essence. Yet, as impure beings, they feel +their incapacity to obtain the highest moral perfection, except through a +continual atonement, to which all nature is condemned. Hence Hindu poetry +expresses a profound melancholy, which pervades the character as well as +the literature of that people. This poetry breathes a spirit of perpetual +sacrifice of the individual self, as the ideal of human life. The bards of +India, inspired by this predominant feeling, have given to poetry nearly +every form it has assumed in the Western world, and in each and all they +have excelled. + +Sanskrit poetry is both metrical and rhythmical, equally free from the +confused strains of unmoulded genius and from the servile pedantry of +conventional rules. The verse of eight syllables is the source of all +other metres, and the _sloka_ or double distich is the stanza most +frequently used. Though this poetry presents too often extravagance of +ideas, incumbrance of episodes, and monstrosity of images, as a general +rule it is endowed with simplicity of style, pure coloring, sublime ideas, +rare figures, and chaste epithets. Its exuberance must be attributed to +the strange mythology of the Hindus, to the immensity of the fables which +constitute the groundwork of their poems, and to the gigantic strength of +their poetical imaginations. A striking peculiarity of Sanskrit poetry is +its extensive use in treating of those subjects apparently the most +difficult to reduce to a metrical form--not only the Vedas and Manu's code +are composed in verse, but the sciences are expressed in this form. Even +in the few works which may be called prose, the style is so modulated and +bears so great a resemblance to the language of poetry as scarcely to be +distinguished from it. The history of Sanskrit poetry is, in reality, the +history of Sanskrit literature. + +The subjects of the epic poems of the Hindus are derived chiefly from +their religious tenets, and relate to the incarnations of the gods, who, +in their human forms, become the heroes of this poetry. The idea of an +Almighty power warring against the spirit of evil destroys the possibility +of struggle, and impairs the character of epic poetry; but the Hindu +poets, by submitting their gods both to fate and to the condition of men, +diminish their power and give them the character of epic heroes. + +The Hindu mythology, however, is the great obstacle which must ever +prevent this poetry from becoming popular in the Western world. The great +personifications of the Deity have not been softened down, as in the +mythology of the Greeks, to the perfection of human symmetry, but are here +exhibited in their original gigantic forms. Majesty is often expressed by +enormous stature; power, by multitudinous hands; providence, by countless +eyes; and omnipresence, by innumerable bodies. + +In addition to this, Hindu epic poetry departs so far from what may be +called the vernacular idiom of thought and feeling, and refers to a people +whose political and religious institutions, as well as moral habits, are +so much at variance with our own, that no labor or skill could render its +associations familiar. + +The Ramayana and the Mahabharata are the most important and sublime +creations of Hindu literature, and the most colossal epic poems to be +found in the literature of the world. They surpass in magnitude the Iliad +and Odyssey, the Jerusalem Delivered and the Lusiad, as the pyramids of +Egypt tower above the temples of Greece. + +The Ramayana (_Rama_ and _yana_, expedition) describes the exploits of +Rama, an incarnation of Vishnu, and the son of Dasaratha, king of Oude. +Ravana, the prince of demons, bad stolen from the gods the privilege of +being invulnerable, and had thus acquired an equality with them. He could +not be overcome except by a man, and the gods implored Vishnu to become +incarnate in order that Ravana might be conquered. The origin and the +development of this Avatar, the departing of Rama for the battlefield, the +divine signs of his mission, his love and marriage with Sita, the daughter +of the king Janaka, the persecution of his step-mother, by which the hero +is sent into exile, his penance in the desert, the abduction of his bride +by Ravana, the gigantic battles that ensue, the rescue of Sita, and the +triumph of Rama constitute the principal plot of this wonderful poem, full +of incidents and episodes of the most singular and beautiful character. +Among these may be mentioned the descent of the goddess Ganga, which +relates to the mythological origin of the river Ganges, and the story of +Yajnadatta, a young penitent, who through mistake was killed by Dasaratha; +the former splendid for its rich imagery, the latter incomparable for its +elegiac character, and for its expression of the passionate sorrow of +parental affection. + +The Ramayana was written by Valmiki, a poet belonging to an unknown +period. It consists of seven cantos, and contains twenty-five thousand +verses. The original, with its translation into Italian, was published in +Paris by the government of Sardinia about the middle of this century. + +The Mahabharata (the great Bharata) has nearly the same antiquity as the +Ramayana. It describes the greatest Avatar of Vishnu, the incarnation of +the god in Krishna, and it presents a vast picture of the Hindu religion. +It relates to the legendary history of the Bharata dynasty, especially to +the wars between the Pandus and Kurus, two branches of a princely family +of ancient India. Five sons of Pandu, having been unjustly exiled by their +uncle, return, after many wonderful adventures, with a powerful army to +oppose the Kurus, and being aided by Krishna, the incarnated Vishnu, +defeat their enemies and become lords of all the country. The poem +describes the birth of Krishna, his escape from the dangers which +surrounded his cradle, his miracles, his pastoral life, his rescue of +sixteen thousand young girls who had become prisoners of a giant, his +heroic deeds in the war of the Pandus, and finally his ascent to heaven, +where he still leads the round dances of the spheres. This work is not +more remarkable for the grandeur of its conceptions than for the +information it affords respecting the social and religious systems of the +ancient Hindus, which are here revealed with majestic and sublime +eloquence. Five of its most esteemed episodes are called the Five Precious +Stones. First among these may be mentioned the "Bhagavad-Gita," or the +Divine Song, containing the revelation of Krishna, in the form of a +dialogue between the god and his pupil Arjuna. Schlegel calls this episode +the most beautiful, and perhaps the most truly philosophical, poem that +the whole range of literature has produced. + +The Mahabharata is divided into eighteen cantos, and it contains two +hundred thousand verses. It is attributed to Vyasa, the compiler of the +Vedas, but it appears that it was the result of a period of literature +rather than the work of a single poet. Its different incidents and +episodes were probably separate poems, which from the earliest age were +sung by the people, and later, by degrees, collected in one complete work. +Of the Mahabharata we possess only a few episodes translated into English, +such as the Bhagavad-Gita, by Wilkins. + +At a later period other epic poems were written, either as abridgments of +the Ramayana and the Mahabharata, or founded on episodes contained in +them. These, however, belong to a lower order of composition, and cannot +be compared with the great works of Valmiki and Vyasa. + +In the development of lyric poetry the Hindu bards, particularly those of +the third period, have been eminently successful; their power is great in +the sublime and the pathetic, and manifests itself more particularly in +awakening the tender sympathies of our nature. Here we find many poems +full of grace and delicacy, and splendid for their charming descriptions +of nature. Such are the "Meghaduta" and the "Ritusanhara" of Kalidasa, the +"Madhava and Radha" of Jayadeva, and especially the "Gita-Govinda" of the +same poet, or the adventures of Krishna as a shepherd, a poem in which the +soft languors of love are depicted in enchanting colors, and which is +adorned with all the magnificence of language and sentiment. + +Hindu poetry has a particular tendency to the didactic style and to embody +religious and historical knowledge; every subject is treated in the form +of verse, such as inscriptions, deeds, and dictionaries. Splendid examples +of didactic poetry may be found in the episodes of the epic poems, and +more particularly in the collections of fables and apologues in which the +Sanskrit literature abounds. Among these the Hitopadesa is the most +celebrated, in which Vishnu-saima instructs the sons of a king committed +to his care. Perhaps there is no book, except the Bible, which has been +translated into so many languages as these fables. They have spread in two +branches over nearly the whole civilized world. The one, under the +original name of the Hitopadesa, remains almost confined to India, while +the other, under the title of "Calila and Dimna," has become famous over +all western Asia and in all the countries of Europe, and has served as the +model of the fables of all languages. To this department belong also the +"Adventures of the Ten Princes," by Dandin, which, in an artistic point of +view, is far superior to any other didactic writings of Hindu literature. + +The drama is the most interesting branch of Hindu literature. No other +ancient people, except the Greeks, has brought forth anything so admirable +in this department. It had its most flourishing period probably in the +third or fourth century B.C. Its origin is attributed to Brahm, and its +subjects are selected from the mythology. Whether the drama represents the +legends of the gods, or the simple circumstances of ordinary life; whether +it describes allegorical or historical subjects, it bears always the same +character of its origin and of its tendency. Simplicity of plot, unity of +episodes, and purity of language, unite in the formation of the Hindu +dramas. Prose and verse, the serious and the comic, pantomime and music +are intermingled in their representations. Only the principal characters, +the gods, the Brahmins, and the kings, speak Sanskrit; women and the less +important characters speak Prakrit, more or less refined according to +their rank. Whatever may offend propriety, whatever may produce an +unwholesome excitement, is excluded; for the hilarity of the audience, +there is an occasional introduction on the stage of a parasite or a +buffoon. The representation is usually opened by an apologue and always +concluded with a prayer. + +Kalidasa, the Hindu Shakespeare, has been called by his countrymen the +Bridegroom of Poetry. His language is harmonious and elevated, and in his +compositions he unites grace and tenderness with grandeur and sublimity. +Many of his dramas contain episodes selected from the epic poems, and are +founded on the principles of Brahmanism. The "Messenger Cloud" of this +author, a monologue rather than a drama, is unsurpassed in beauty of +sentiment by any European poet. "Sakuntala," or the Fatal Ring, is +considered one of the best dramas of Kalidasa. It has been translated into +English by Sir W. Jones. + +Bhavabhuti, a Brahmin by birth, was called by his contemporaries the Sweet +Speaking. He was the author of many dramas of distinguished merit, which +rank next to those of Kalidasa. + +6. HISTORY AND SCIENCE.--History, considered as the development of mankind +in relation to its ideal, is unknown to Sanskrit literature. Indeed, the +only historical work thus far discovered is the "History of Cashmere," a +series of poetical compositions, written by different authors at different +periods, the last of which brings down the annals to the sixteenth century +A.D., when Cashmere became a province of the Mogul empire. + +In the scientific department, the works on Sanskrit grammar and +lexicography are models of logical and analytical research. There are also +valuable works on jurisprudence, on rhetoric, poetry, music, and other +arts. The Hindu system of decimal notation made its way through the Arabs +to modern nations, our usual figures being, in their origin, letters of +the Sanskrit alphabet. Their medical and surgical knowledge is deserving +of study. + +7. PHILOSOPHY.--The object of Hindu philosophy consists in obtaining +emancipation from metempsychosis, through the absorption of the soul into +Brahm, or the universal being. According to the different principles which +philosophers adopt in attaining this supreme object, their doctrines are +divided into the four following systems: 1st, Sensualism; 2d, Idealism; +3d, Mysticism; 4th, Eclecticism. + +Sensualism is represented in the school of Kapila, according to whose +doctrine the purification of the soul must be effected through knowledge, +the only source of which lies in sensual perception. In this system, +nature, eternal and universal, is considered as the first cause, which +produces intelligence and all the other principles of knowledge and +existence. This philosophy of nature leads some of its followers to seek +their purification in the sensual pleasures of this life, and in the loss +of their own individuality in nature itself, in which they strive to be +absorbed. Materialism, fatalism, and atheism are the natural consequences +of the system of Kapila. + +Idealism is the foundation of three philosophical schools: the Dialectic, +the Atomic, and the Vedanta. The Dialectic school considers the principles +of knowledge as entirely distinct from nature; it admits the existence of +universal ideas in the human mind; it establishes the syllogistic form as +the complete method of reasoning, and finally, it holds as fundamental the +duality of intelligence and nature. In this theory, the soul is considered +as distinct from Brahm and also from the body. Man can approach Brahm, can +unite himself to the universal soul, but can never lose his own +individuality. + +The Atomic doctrine explains the origin of the world through the +combination of eternal, simple atoms. It belongs to Idealism, for the +predominance which it gives to ideas over sensation, and for the +individuality and consciousness which it recognizes in man. + +The Vedanta is the true ideal pantheistic philosophy of India. It +considers Brahm in two different states: first, as a pure, simple, +abstract, and inert essence; secondly, as an active individuality. Nature +in this system is only a special quality or quantity of Brahm, having no +actual reality, and he who turns away from ail that is unreal and +changeable and contemplates Brahm unceasingly, becomes one with it, and +attains liberation. + +Mysticism comprehends all doctrines which deny authority to reason, and +admit no other principles of knowledge or rule of life than supernatural +or direct revelation. To this system belong the doctrines of Patanjali, +which teach that man must emancipate himself from metempsychosis through +contemplation and ecstasy to be attained by the calm of the senses, by +corporeal penance, suspension of breath, and immobility of position. The +followers of this school pass their lives in solitude, absorbed in this +mystic contemplation. The forests, the deserts, and the environs of the +temples are filled with these mystics, who, thus separated from external +life, believe themselves the subjects of supernatural illumination and +power. The Bhagavad-Gita, already spoken of, is the best exposition of +this doctrine. + +The Eclectic school comprises all theories which deny the authority of the +Vedas, and admit rational principles borrowed both from sensualism and +idealism. Among these doctrines Buddhism is the principal. + +8. BUDDHISM.--Buddhism is so called from Buddha, a name meaning deified +teacher, which was given to Sakyamuni, or Saint Sakya, a reformer of +Brahmanism, who introduced into the Hindu religion a more simple creed, +and a milder and more humane code of morality. The date of the origin of +this reform is uncertain. It is probably not earlier than the sixth +century B.C. Buddhism, essentially a proselyting religion, spread over +Central Asia and through the island of Ceylon. Its followers in India +being persecuted and expelled from the country, penetrated into Thibet, +and pushing forward into the wilderness of the Kalmucks and Mongols, +entered China and Japan, where they introduced their warship under the +name of the religion of Fo. Buddhism is more extensively diffused than any +other form of religion in the world. Though it has never extended beyond +the limits of Asia, its followers number over four hundred millions. + +As a philosophical school, Buddhism partakes both of sensualism and +idealism; it admits sensual perception as the source of knowledge, but it +grants to nature only an apparent existence. On this universal illusion, +Buddhism founded a gigantic system of cosmogony, establishing an infinity +of degrees in the scale of existences from that of pure being without form +or quality to the lowest emanations. According to Buddha, the object of +philosophy, as well as of religion, is the deliverance of the soul from +metempsychosis, and therefore from all pain and illusion. He teaches that +to break the endless rotation of transmigration the soul must be prevented +from being born again, by purifying it even from the desire of existence. +He denied the authority of the Vedas, and abolished or ignored the +division of the people into castes, admitting whoever desired it to the +priesthood. Notwithstanding the doctrine of metempsychosis, and the belief +that life is only an endless round of birth and death, sin and suffering, +the most sacred Buddhistic books teach a pure and elevated morality, and +that the highest happiness is only to be reached through self-abnegation, +universal benevolence, humility, patience, courage, self-knowledge, and +contemplation. Much has been added to the original doctrines of Buddha in +the way of mythology, sacrifices, penances, mysticism, and hierarchy. + +Buddhism possesses a literature of its own; its language and style are +simple and intelligible to the common people, to whom it is particularly +addressed. For this reason the priests of this religion prefer to write in +the dialects used by the people, and indeed some of their principal works +are written in Prakrit or in Pali. Among these are many legends, and +chronicles, and books on theology and jurisprudence. The literary men of +Buddhism are generally the priests, who receive different names in +different countries. A complete collection of the sacred books of Buddhism +forms a theological body of one hundred and eight volumes. + +9. MORAL PHILOSOPHY.--The moral philosophy of India is contained in the +Sacred Book of Manavadharmasastra, or Code of Manu. This embraces a +poetical account of Brahma and other gods, of the origin of the world and +man, and of the duties arising from the relation of man towards Brahma and +towards his fellow-men. Whether regarded for its great antiquity and +classic beauty, or for its importance as being considered of divine +revelation by the Hindu people, this Code must ever claim the attention of +those who devote themselves to the study of the Sanskrit literature. +Though inferior to the Vedas in antiquity, it is held to be equally +sacred; and being more closely connected with the business of life, it has +done so much towards moulding the opinions of the Hindus that it would be +impossible to comprehend the literature or local usages of India without +being master of its contents. + +It is believed by the Hindus that Brahma taught his laws to Manu in one +hundred thousand verses, and that they were afterwards abridged for the +use of mankind to four thousand. It is most probable that the work +attributed to Manu is a collection made from various sources and at +different periods. + +Among the duties prescribed by the laws of Manu man is enjoined to exert a +full dominion over his senses, to study sacred science, to keep his heart +pure, without which sacrifices are useless, to speak only when necessity +requires, and to despise worldly honors. His principal duties toward his +neighbor are to honor old age, to respect parents, the mother more than a +thousand fathers, and the Brahmins more than father or mother, to injure +no one, even in wish. Woman is taught that she cannot aspire to freedom, a +girl is to depend on her father, a wife on her husband, and a widow on her +son. The law forbids her to marry a second time. + +The Code of Manu is divided into twelve books or chapters, in which are +treated separately the subjects of creation, education, marriage, domestic +economy, the art of living, penal and civil laws, of punishments and +atonements, of transmigration, and of the final blessed state. These +ordinances or institutes contain much to be admired and much to be +condemned. They form a system of despotism and priestcraft, both limited +by law, but artfully conspiring to give mutual support, though with mutual +checks. A spirit of sublime elevation and amiable benevolence pervades the +whole work, sufficient to prove the author to have adored not the visible +sun, but the incomparably greater light, according to the Vedas, which +illuminates all, delights all, from which all proceed, to which all must +return, and which alone can irradiate our souls. + +10. MODERN LITERATURES OF INDIA.--The literature of the modern tongues of +the Hindus consists chiefly of imitations and translations from the +Sanskrit, Persian, Arabic, and from European languages. There is, however, +an original epic poem, written in Hindui by Tshand, under the title of the +"Adventures of Prithivi Raja," which is second only to the great Sanskrit +poems. This work, which relates to the twelfth century A.D., describes the +struggle of the Hindus against their Mohammedan conquerors. The poem of +"Ramayana," by Tulsi-Das, and that of the "Ocean of Love," are extremely +popular in India. The modern dialects contain many religious and national +songs of exquisite beauty and delicacy. Among the poets of India, who have +written in these dialects, Sauday, Mir-Mohammed Taqui, Wali, and Azad are +the principal. + +The Hindi, which dates from the eleventh century A.D., is one of the +languages of Aryan stock still spoken in Northern India. One of its +principal dialects is the Hindustani, which is employed in the literature +of the northern country. Its two divisions are the Hindi and Urdu, which +represent the popular side of the national culture, and are almost +exclusively used at the present day; the first chiefly by writers not +belonging to the Brahminical order, while those of the Urdu dialect follow +Persian models. The writings in each, though numerous, and not without +pretension, have little interest for the European reader. + +11. EDUCATION IN INDIA.--For the education of the Brahmins and of the +higher classes, there was founded, in 1792, a Sanskrit College at Benares, +the Hindu capital. The course of instruction embraces Persian, English, +and Hindu law, and general literature. In 1854 universities were +established at Calcutta, Madras, and Bombay. Of late public instruction +has become a department of the government, and schools and colleges for +higher instruction have been established in various parts of the country, +and books and newspapers in English and in the vernacular are everywhere +increasing. As far back as 1824 the American and English missionaries were +the pioneers of female education. The recent report of the Indian +Commission of Education deals particularly with this question, and +attributes the wide difference between the extent of male and female +acquirements to no inferiority in the mental capacities of women; on the +contrary, they find their intellectual activity very keen, and often +outlasting the mental energies of men. According to the traditions of +pre-historic times, women occupied a high place in the early civilization +of India, and their capacity to govern is shown by the fact, that at the +present day one of the best administered States has been ruled by native +ladies during two generations, and that the most ably managed of the great +landed properties are entirely in the hands of women. The chief causes +which retard their education are to be found in the social customs of the +country, the seclusion in which women live, the appropriation of the +educational fund to the schools for boys, and the need of trained +teachers. + +Notwithstanding all these disadvantages, the first Asiatic writer in the +languages of the West who has made a literary fame in Europe is a young +Hindu girl, Tora Dutt (1856-1877), whose writings in prose and verse in +English, as well as in French, have called forth admiration and +astonishment from the critics, and a sincere lament for her early death. + +12. THE BRAMO-SOMAJ.--In 1830, under this name (Worshiping Assembly), +Rammohun Roy founded a religious society in India, of which, after him, +Keshub Chunder Sen (died 1884) was the most eminent member. Their aim is +to establish a new religion for India and the world, founded on a belief +in one God, which shall be freed from all the errors and corruptions of +the past. They propose many important reforms, such as the abolition of +caste, the remodeling of marriage customs, the emancipation and education +of women, the abolition of infanticide and the worship of ancestors, and a +general moral regeneration. Their chief aid to spiritual growth may be +summed up in four words, self-culture, meditation, personal purity, and +universal beneficence. Their influence has been already felt in the +legislative affairs of India. + + + + +BABYLONIAN AND ASSYRIAN LITERATURE + +1. The Accadians and Babylonians.--2. The Cuneiform Letters.--3. +Babylonian and Assyrian Remains. + + +1. ACCADIANS AND BABYLONIANS.--Geographically, as well as historically and +ethnographically, the district lying between the Tigris and Euphrates +forms but one country, though the rival kingdoms of Assyria and Babylonia +became, each in turn, superior to the other. The primitive inhabitants of +this district were called Accadians, or Chaldeans, but little or nothing +was known of them until within the last fifteen or twenty years. Their +language was agglutinative, and they were the inventors of the cuneiform +system of writing. The Babylonians conquered this people, borrowed their +signs, and incorporated their literature. Soon after their conquest by the +Babylonians, they established priestly caste in the state and assumed the +worship, laws, and manners of their conquerors. They were devoted to the +science of the stars, and determined the equinoctial and solstitial +points, divided the ecliptic into twelve parts and the day into hours. The +signs, names, and figures of the Zodiac, and the invention of the dial are +some of the improvements in astronomy attributed to this people. With the +decline of Babylon their influence declined, and they were afterwards +known to the Greeks and Romans only as astrologers, magicians, and +soothsayers. + +2. THE CUNEIFORM LETTERS.--These characters, borrowed by the Semitic +conquerors of the Accadians, the Babylonians, and Assyrians, were +originally hieroglyphics, each denoting an object or an idea, but they +were gradually corrupted into the forms we see on Assyrian monuments. They +underwent many changes, and the various periods are distinguished as +Archaic, hieratic, Assyrian, and later Babylonian. + +3. BABYLONIAN AND ASSYRIAN REMAINS.--The origin and history of this +civilization have only been made known to us by the very recent +decipherment of native monuments. Before these discoveries the principal +source of information was found in the writings of Borosus, a priest of +Babylon, who lived about 300 B.C., and who translated the records of +astronomy into Greek. Though his works have perished, we have quotations +from them in Eusebius and other writers, which have been strikingly +verified by the inscriptions. The chief work on astronomy, compiled for +Sargon, one of the earliest Babylonian monarchs, is inscribed on seventy +tablets, a copy of which is in the British Museum. The Babylonians +understood the movements of the heavenly bodies, and Calisthenes, who +accompanied Alexander on his eastern expedition, brought with him on his +return the observations of 1903 years. The main purpose of all Babylonian +astronomical observation, however, was astrological, to cast horoscopes, +or to predict the weather. Babylon retained for a long time its ancient +splendor after the conquest by Cyrus and the final fall of the empire, and +in the first period of the Macedonian sway. But soon after that time its +fame was extinguished, and its monuments, arts, and sciences perished. + +Assyria was a land of soldiers and possessed little native literature. The +more peaceful pursuits had their home in Babylonia, where the universities +of Erech and Borsippa were renowned down to classical times. The larger +part of this literature was stamped in clay tablets and baked, and these +were numbered and arranged in order. Papyrus was also used, but none of +this fragile material has been preserved. + +In the reign of Sardanapalus (660-647 B.C.) Assyrian art and literature +reached their highest point. In the ruins of his palace have been found +three chambers the floors of which were covered a foot deep with tablets +of all sizes, from an inch to nine inches long, bearing inscriptions many +of them so minute as to be read only by the aid of a magnifying glass. +Though broken they have been partially restored and are among the most +precious cuneiform inscriptions. They have only been deciphered within the +present century, and thousands of inscriptions are yet buried among the +ruins of Assyria. The most interesting of these remains yet discovered are +the hymns to the gods, some of which strikingly resemble the Hebrew +Psalms. Of older date is the collection of formulas which consists of +omens and hymns and tablets relating to astronomy. Later than the hymns +are the mythological poems, two of which are preserved intact. They are +"The Deluge" and "The Descent of Istar into Hades." They form part of a +very remarkable epic which centred round the adventures of a solar hero, +and into which older and independent lays were woven as episodes. Copies +are preserved in the British Museum. The literature on the subject of +these remains is very extensive and rapidly increasing. + + + + +PHOENICIAN LITERATURE. + +The Language.--The Remains. + +The Phoenician language bore a strong affinity to the Hebrew, through +which alone the inscriptions on coins and monuments can be interpreted, +and these constitute the entire literary remains, though the Phoenicians +had doubtless their archives and written laws. The inscriptions engraved +on stone or metal are found chiefly in places once colonies, remote from +Phoenicia itself. The Phoenician alphabet forms the basis of the Semitic +and Indo-European graphic systems, and was itself doubtless based on the +Egyptian hieratic writing. Sanchuniathon is the name given as that of the +author of a history of Phoenicia which was translated into Greek and +published by Philo, a grammarian of the second century A.D. A considerable +fragment of this work is preserved in Eusebius, but after much learned +controversy it is now believed that it was the work of Philo himself. + + + + +SYRIAC LITERATURE. + +The Language.--Influence of the Literature In the Eighth and Ninth +Century. + + +THE LANGUAGE.--The Aramaic language, early spoken in Syria and +Mesopotamia, is a branch of the Semitic, and of this tongue the Chaldaic +and Syriac were dialects. Chaldaic is supposed to be the language of +Babylonia at the time of the captivity, and the earliest remains are a +part of the Books of Daniel and Ezra, and the paraphrases or free +translations of the Old Testament. The Hebrews having learned this +language during the Babylonian exile, it continued in use for some time +after their return, though the Hebrew remained the written and sacred +tongue. Gradually, however, it lost this prerogative, and in the second +century A.D. the Chaldaic was the only spoken language of Palestine. It is +still used by the Nestorians and Maronites in their religious services and +in their literary works. The spoken language of Syria has undergone many +changes corresponding to the political changes of the country. + +The most prominent Syriac author is St. Ephraem, or Ephraem Syrus (350 +A.D.), with whom begins the best period of Syriac literature, which +continued until the ninth century. A great part of this literature has +been lost, and what remains is only partially accessible. Its principal +work was in the eighth and ninth centuries in introducing classical +learning to the knowledge of the Arabs. In the seventh century, Jacob of +Edessa gave the classical and sacred dialect its final form, and from this +time the series of native grammarians and lexicographers continued +unbroken to the time of its decline. The study of Syriac was introduced +into Europe in the fifteenth century. Valuable collections of MSS., in +this language, are to be found in the British Museum, and grammars and +dictionaries have been published in Germany and in New York. + + + + +PERSIAN LITERATURE. + +1. The Persian language and its Divisions.--2. Zendic Literature; The +Zendavesta.--3. Pehlvi and Parsee Literatures.--4. The Ancient Religion of +Persia; Zoroaster.--5. Modern Literature.--6. The Sufis.--7. Persian +Poetry.--8. Persian Poets; Ferdasi; Essedi of Tus; Togray, etc.--9. +History and Philosophy.--10. Education in Persia. + + +1. THE PERSIAN LANGUAGE AND ITS DIVISIONS.--The Persian language and its +varieties, as far as they are known, belong to the great Indo-European +family, and this common origin explains the affinities that exist between +them and those of the ancient and modern languages of Europe. During +successive ages, four idioms have prevailed in Persia, and Persian +literature may be divided into four corresponding periods. + +First. The period of the Zend (living), the most ancient of the Persian +languages; it was from a remote, unknown age spoken in Media, Bactria, and +in the northern part of Persia. This language partakes of the character +both of the Sanskrit and of the Chaldaic. It is written from right to +left, and it possesses, in its grammatical construction and its radical +words, many elements in common with the Sanskrit and the German languages. + +Second. The period of the Pehlvi, or language of heroes, anciently spoken +in the western part of the country. Its alphabet is closely allied with +the Zendic, to which it bears a great resemblance. It attained a high +degree of perfection under the Parthian kings, 246 B.C. to 229 A.D. + +Third. The period of the Parsee or the dialect of the southwestern part of +the country. It reached its perfection under the dynasty of the +Sassanides, 229-636 A.D. It has great analogy with the Zend, Pehlvi, and +Sanskrit, and is endowed with peculiar grace and sweetness. + +Fourth. The period of the modern Persian. After the conquest of Persia, +and the introduction of the Mohammedan faith in the seventh century A.D., +the ancient Parsee language became greatly modified by the Arabic. It +adopted its alphabet, adding to it, however, four letters and three +points, and borrowed from it not only words but whole phrases, and thus +from the union of the Parsee and the Arabic was formed the modern Persian. +Of its various dialects, the Deri is the language of the court and of +literature. + +2. ZENDIC LITERATURE.--To the first period belong the ancient sacred books +of Persia, collected under the name of _Zendavesta_ (living word), which +contain the doctrines of Zoroaster, the prophet and lawgiver of ancient +Persia. The Zendavesta is divided into two parts, one written in Zend, the +other in Pehlvi; it contains traditions relating to the primitive +condition and colonization of Persia, moral precepts, theological dogmas, +prayers, and astronomical observations. The collection originally +consisted of twenty-one chapters or treatises, of which only three have +been preserved. Besides the Zendavesta there are two other sacred books, +one containing prayers and hymns, and the other prayers to the Genii who +preside over the days of the month. To this first period some writers +refer the fables of Lokman, who is supposed to have lived in the tenth +century B.C., and to have been a slave of Ethiopic origin; his apologues +have been considered the model on which Greek fable was constructed. The +work of Lokman, however, existing now only in the Arabic language, is +believed by other writers to be of Arabic origin. It has been translated +into the European languages, and is still read in the Persian schools. +Among the Zendic books preserved in Arabic translations may also be +mentioned the "Giavidan Kird," or the Eternal Reason, the work of Hushang, +an ancient priest of Persia, a book full of beautiful and sublime maxims. + +3. PEHLVI AHD PARSEE LITERATURES.--The second period of Persian literature +includes all the books written in Pehlvic, and especially all the +translations and paraphrases of the works of the first period. There are +also in this language a manual of the religion of Zoroaster, dictionaries +of Pehlvi explained by the Parsee, inscriptions, and legends. + +When the seat of the Persian empire was transferred to the southern states +under the Sassanides, the Pehlvi gave way to the Parsee, which became the +prevailing language of Persia in the third period of its literature. The +sacred books were translated into this tongue, in which many records, +annals, and treatises on astronomy and medicine were also written. But all +these monuments of Persian literature were destroyed by the conquest of +Alexander the Great, and by the fury of the Mongols and Arabs. This +language, however, has been immortalized by Ferdusi, whose poems contain +little of that admixture of Arabic which characterizes the writings of the +modern poets of Persia. + +4. THE ANCIENT RELIGION OF PERSIA.--The ancient literature of Persia is +mainly the exposition of its religion. Persia, Media, and Bactria +acknowledged as their first religious prophet Honover, or Hom, symbolized +in the star Sirius, and himself the symbol of the first eternal word, and +of the tree of knowledge. In the numberless astronomical and mystic +personifications under which Hom was represented, his individuality was +lost, and little is known of his history or of his doctrines. It appears, +however, that he was the founder of the magi (priests), the conservators +and teachers of his doctrine, who formed a particular order, like that of +the Levites of Israel and of the Chaldeans of Assyria. They did not +constitute a hereditary caste like the Brahmins of India, but they were +chosen from among the people. They claimed to foretell future events. They +worshiped fire and the stars, and believed in two principles of good and +evil, of which light and darkness were the symbols. + +Zoroaster, one of these magi, who probably lived in the eighth century +B.C., undertook to elevate and reform this religion, which had then fallen +from its primitive purity. Availing himself of the doctrines of the +Chaldeans and of the Hebrews, Zoroaster, endowed by nature with +extraordinary powers, sustained by popular enthusiasm, and aided by the +favor of powerful princes, extended his reform throughout the country, and +founded a new religion on the ancient worship. According to this religion +the two great principles of the world were represented by Ormuzd and +Ahriman, both born from eternity, and both contending for the dominion of +the world. Ormuzd, the principle of good, is represented by light, and +Ahriman, the principle of evil, by darkness. Light, then, being the body +or symbol of Ormuzd, is worshiped in the sun and stars, in fire, and +wherever it is found. Men are either the servants of Ormuzd, through +virtue and wisdom, or the slaves of Ahriman, through folly and vice. +Zoroaster explained the history of the world as the long contest of these +two principles, which was to close with the conquest of Ormuzd over +Ahriman. + +The moral code of Zoroaster is pure and elevated. It aims to assimilate +the character of man to light, to dissipate the darkness of ignorance; it +acknowledges Ormuzd as the ruler of the universe; it seeks to extend the +triumph of virtue over the material and spiritual world. + +The religion of Zoroaster prevailed for many centuries in Persia. The +Greeks adopted some of its ideas into their philosophy, and through the +schools of the Gnostics and Neo-Platonists, its influence extended over +Europe. After the conquest of Persia by the Mohammedans, the Fire- +worshipers were driven to the deserts of Kerman, or took refuge in India, +where, under the name of Parsees or Guebers, they still keep alive the +sacred fire, and preserve the code of Zoroaster. + +5. MODERN LITERATURE.--Some traces of the modern literature of Persia +appeared shortly after the conquest of the country by the Arabians in the +seventh century A.D.; but the true era dates from the ninth or tenth +century. It may be divided into the departments of Poetry, History, and +Philosophy. + +6. THE SUFIS.--After the introduction of Mohammedanism into Persia, there +arose a sect of pantheistic mystics called Sufis, to which most of the +Persian poets belong. They teach their doctrine under the images of love, +wine, intoxication, etc., by which, with them, a divine sentiment is +always understood. The doctrines of the Sufis are undoubtedly of Hindu +origin. Their fundamental tenets are, that nothing exists absolutely but +God; that the human soul is an emanation from his essence and will finally +be restored to him; that the great object of life should be a constant +approach to the eternal spirit, to form as perfect a union with the divine +nature as possible. Hence all worldly attachments should be avoided, and +in all that we do a spiritual object should be kept in view. The great end +with these philosophers is to attain to a state of perfection in +spirituality and to be absorbed in holy contemplation, to the exclusion of +all worldly recollections or interests. + +7. PERSIAN POETRY.--The Persian tongue is peculiarly adapted to the +purposes of poetry, which in that language is rich in forcible +expressions, in bold metaphors, in ardent sentiments, and in descriptions +animated with the most lively coloring. In poetical composition there is +much art exercised by the Persian poets, and the arrangement of their +language is a work of great care. One favorite measure which frequently +ends a poem is called the Suja, literally the _cooing of doves_. + +The poetical compositions of the Persians are of several kinds; the gazel +or ode usually treats of love, beauty, or friendship. The poet generally +introduces his name in the last couplet. The idyl resembles the gazel, +except that it is longer. Poetry enters as a universal element into all +compositions; physics, mathematics, medicine, ethics, natural history, +astronomy, grammar--all lend themselves to verse in Persia. + +The works of favorite poets are generally written on fine, silky paper, +the ground of which is often powdered with gold or silver dust, the +margins illuminated, and the whole perfumed with some costly essence. The +magnificent volume containing the poem of Tussuf and Zuleika in the public +library at Oxford affords a proof of the honors accorded to poetical +composition. One of the finest specimens of caligraphy and illumination is +the exordium to the life of Shah Jehan, for which the writer, besides the +stipulated remuneration, had _his mouth stuffed with pearls_. + +There are three principal love stories in Persia which, from the earliest +times, have been the themes of every poet. Scarcely one of the great +masters of Persian literature but has adopted and added celebrity to these +beautiful and interesting legends, which can never be too often repeated +to an Oriental ear. They are, the "History of Khosru and Shireen," the +"Loves of Yussuf and Zuleika," and the "Misfortunes of Mejnoun and Leila." +So powerful is the charm attached to these stories, that it appears to +have been considered almost the imperative duty of all the poets to +compose a new version of the old, familiar, and beloved traditions. Even +down to a modern date, the Persians have not deserted their favorites, and +these celebrated themes of verse reappear, from time to time, under new +auspices. Each of these poems is expressive of a peculiar character. That +of Khosru and Shireen may be considered exclusively the Persian romance; +that of Mejnoun the Arabian; and that of Yussuf and Zuleika the sacred. +The first presents a picture of happy love and female excellence in +Shireen; Mejnoun is a representation of unfortunate love carried to +madness; the third romance contains the ideal of perfection in Yussuf +(Joseph) and the most passionate and imprudent love in Zuleika (the wife +of Potiphar), and exhibits in strong relief the power of love and beauty, +the mastery of mind, the weakness of overwhelming passion, and the +victorious spirit of holiness. + +8. PERSIAN POETS.--The first of Persian poets, the Homer of his country, +is Abul Kasim Mansur, called Ferdusi or "Paradise," from the exquisite +beauty of his compositions. He flourished in the reign of the Shah Mahmud +(940-1020 A.D.). Mahmud commissioned him to write in his faultless verse a +history of the monarchs of Persia, promising that for every thousand +couplets he should receive a thousand pieces of gold. For thirty years he +studied and labored on his epic poem, "the Shah Namah," or Book of Kings, +and when it was completed he sent a copy of it, exquisitely written, to +the sultan, who received it coldly, and treated the work of the aged poet +with contempt. Disappointed at the ingratitude of the Shah, Ferdusi wrote +some satirical lines, which soon reached the ear of Mahmud, who, piqued +and offended at the freedom of the poet, ordered sixty thousand small +pieces of money to be sent to him, instead of the gold which he had +promised. Ferdusi was in the public bath when the money was given to him, +and his rage and amazement exceeded all bounds when he found himself thus +insulted. He distributed the paltry sum among the attendants of the bath +and the slaves who brought it. + +He soon after avenged himself by writing a satire full of stinging +invective, which he caused to be transmitted to the favorite vizier who +had instigated the sultan against him. It was carefully sealed up, with +directions that it should be read to Mahmud on some occasion when his mind +was perturbed with affairs of state, and his temper ruffled, as it was a +poem likely to afford him entertainment. Ferdusi having thus prepared his +vengeance, quitted the ungrateful court without leave-taking, and was at a +safe distance when news reached him that his lines had fully answered +their intended purpose. Mahmud had heard and trembled, and too late +discovered that he had ruined his own reputation forever. After the satire +had been read by Shah Mahmud, the poet sought shelter in the court of the +caliph of Bagdad, in whose honor he added a thousand couplets to the poem +of the Shah Namah, and who rewarded him with the sixty thousand gold +pieces, which had been withheld by Mahmud. Meantime, Ferdusi's poem of +Yussuf, and his magnificent verses on several subjects, had received the +fame they deserved. Shah Mahmud's late remorse awoke. Thinking by a tardy +act of liberality to repair his former meanness, he dispatched to the +author of the Shah Namah the sixty thousand pieces he had promised, a robe +of state, and many apologies and expressions of friendship and admiration, +requesting his return, and professing great sorrow for the past. But when +the message arrived, Ferdusi was dead, and his family devoted the whole +sum to the benevolent purpose he had intended,--the erection of public +buildings, and the general improvement of his native village, Tus. He died +at the age of eighty. The Shah Namah contains the history of the kings of +Persia down to the death of the last of the Sassanide race, who was +deprived of his kingdom by the invasion of the Arabs during the caliphat +of Omar, 636 A.D. The language of Ferdusi may be considered as the purest +specimen of the ancient Parsee: Arabic words are seldom introduced. There +are many episodes in the Shah Namah of great beauty, and the power and +elegance of its verse are unrivaled. + +Essedi of Tus is distinguished as having been the master of Ferdusi, and +as having aided his illustrious pupil in the completion of his great work. +Among many poems which he wrote, the "Dispute between Day and Night" is +the most celebrated. + +Togray was a native of Ispahan and contemporary with Ferdusi. He became so +celebrated as a writer, that the title of Honor of Writers was given him. +He was an alchemist, and wrote a treatise on the philosopher's stone. + +Moasi, called King of Poets, lived about the middle of the eleventh +century. He obtained his title at the court of Ispahan, and rose to high +dignity and honor. So renowned were his odes, that more than a hundred +poets endeavored to imitate his style. + +Omar Kheyam, who was one of the most distinguished of the poets of Persia, +lived toward the close of the eleventh century. He was remarkable for the +freedom of his religious opinions and the boldness with which he denounced +hypocrisy and intolerance. He particularly directed his satire against the +mystic poets. + +Nizami, the first of the romantic poets, flourished in the latter part of +the twelfth century A.D. His principal works are called the "Five +Treasures," of which the "Loves of Khosru and Shireen" is the most +celebrated, and in the treatment of which he has succeeded beyond all +other poets. + +Sadi (1194-1282) is esteemed among the Persians as a master in poetry and +in morality. He is better known in Europe than any other Eastern author, +except Hafiz, and has been more frequently translated. Jami calls him the +nightingale of the groves of Shiraz, of which city he was a native. He +spent a part of his long life in travel and in the acquisition of +knowledge, and the remainder in retirement and devotion. His works are +termed the salt-mine of poets, being revered as unrivaled models of the +first genius in the world. His philosophy enabled him to support all the +ills of life with patience and fortitude, and one of his remarks, arising +from the destitute condition in which he once found himself, deserves +preservation: "I never complained of my condition but once, when my feet +were bare, and I had not money to buy shoes; but I met a man without feet, +and I became contented with my lot." The works of Sadi are very numerous, +and are popular and familiar everywhere in the East. His two greatest +works are the "Bostan" and "Gulistan" (Bostan, the rose garden, and +Gulistan, the fruit garden). They abound in striking beauties, and show +great knowledge of human nature. + +Attar (1119-1233) was one of the great Sufi masters, and spent his life in +devotion and contemplation. He died at the advanced age of 114. It would +seem that poetry in the East was favorable to human life, so many of its +professors attained to a great age, particularly those who professed the +Sufi doctrine. The great work of Attar is a poem containing useful moral +maxims. + +Roumi (1203-1272), usually called the Mulah, was an enthusiastic follower +of the doctrine of the Sufis. His son succeeded him at the head of the +sect, and surpassed his father not only in the virtues and attainments of +the Sufis, but by his splendid poetical genius. His poems are regarded as +the most perfect models of the mystic style. Sir William Jones says, +"There is a depth and solemnity in his works unequaled by any poet of this +class; even Hafiz must be considered inferior to him." + +Among the poets of Persia the name of Hafiz (d. 1389), the prince of +Persian lyric poets, is most familiar to the English reader. He was born +at Shiraz. Leading a life of poverty, of which he was proud, for he +considered poverty the companion of genius, he constantly refused the +invitation, of monarchs to visit their courts. There is endless variety in +the poems of Hafiz, and they are replete with surpassing beauty of +thought, feeling, and expression. The grace, ease, and fancy of his +numbers are inimitable, and there is a magic in his lays which few even of +his professed enemies have been able to resist. To the young, the gay, and +the enthusiastic his verses are ever welcome, and the sage discovers in +them a hidden mystery which reconciles him to their subjects. His tomb, +near Shiraz, is visited as a sacred spot by pilgrims of all ages. The +place of his birth is held in veneration, and there is not a Persian whose +heart does not echo his strains. + +Jami (d. 1492) was born in Khorassan, in the village of Jam, from whence +he is named,--his proper appellation being Abd Arahman. He was a Sufi, and +preferred, like many of his fellow-poets, the meditations and ecstasies of +mysticism to the pleasures of a court. His writings are very voluminous; +he composed nearly forty volumes, all of great length, of which twenty-two +are preserved at Oxford. The greater part of them treat of Mohammedan +theology, and are written in the mystic style. He collected the most +interesting under the name of the "Seven Stars of the Bear," or the "Seven +Brothers," and among these is the famous poem of Yussuf and Zuleika. This +favorite subject, which every Persian poet has touched with more or less +success, has never been so beautifully rendered as by Jami. Nothing can +exceed the admiration which this poem inspires in the East. + +Hatifi (d. 1520) was the nephew of the great poet Jami. It was his +ambition to enter the lists with his uncle, by composing poems on similar +subjects. Opinions are divided as to whether he succeeded as well as his +master, but none can exceed him in sweetness and pathos. His version of +the sad tale of Mejnoun and Leila, the Romeo and Juliet of the East, is +confessedly superior to that of Nizami. + +The lyrical compositions of Sheik Feizi (d. 1575) are highly valued. In +his mystic poems he approaches to the sublimity of Attar. His ideas are +tinged with the belief of the Hindus, in which he was educated. When a boy +he was introduced to the Brahmins by the Sultan Mohammed Akbar, as an +orphan of their tribe, in order that he might learn their language and +obtain possession of their religions secrets. He became attached to the +daughter of the Brahmin who protected him, and she was offered to him--in +marriage by the unsuspecting parent. After a struggle between inclination +and honor, the latter prevailed, and he confessed the fraud. The Brahmin, +struck with horror, attempted to put an end to his own existence, fearing +that he had betrayed his oath and brought danger and disgrace on his sect. +Feizi, with tears--and protestations, besought him to forbear, promising +to submit to any command he might impose on him. The Brahmin consented to +live, on condition that Feizi should take an oath never to translate the +Vedas nor to repeat to any one the creed of the Hindus. Feizi entered into +the desired obligations, parted with his adopted father, bade adieu to his +love, and with a sinking heart returned home. Among his works the most +important is the "Mahabarit," which contains the chronicles of the Hindu +princes, and abounds in romantic episodes. + +The most celebrated recent Persian poet is Blab Phelair (1729-1825). He +left many astronomical, moral, political, and literary works. He is called +the Persian Voltaire. + +Among the collections of novels and fables, the "Lights of Canope" may be +mentioned, imitated from the Hitopadesa. Persian literature is also +enriched by translations of the standard works in Sanskrit, among which +are the epic poems of Valmiki and Vyasa. + +9. HISTORY AND PHILOSOPHY.--Among the most celebrated of the Persian +historians is Mirkhond, who lived in the middle of the fifteenth century. +His great work on universal history contains an account of the origin of +the world, the life of the patriarchs, prophets, and philosophers of +Persia, and affords valuable materials, especially for the history of the +Middle Ages. His son, Khondemir, distinguished himself in the same branch +of literature, and wrote two works which, for their historical correctness +and elegance of style, are in great favor among the Persians. Ferischta, +who flourished in the beginning of the seventeenth century, is the author +of a valuable history of India. Mirgholah, a historian of the eighteenth +century, gives a contemporary history of Hindustan and of his own country, +under the title of "A Glance at Recent Affairs," and in another work he +treats of the causes which, at some future time, will probably lead to the +fall of the British power in India. The "History of the Reigning Dynasty" +is among the principal modern historical works of Persia. + +The Persians possess numerous works on rhetoric, geography, medicine, +mathematics, and astronomy, few of which are entitled to much +consideration. In philosophy may be mentioned the "Essence of Logic," an +exposition in the Arabic language of the doctrines of Aristotle on logic; +and the "Moral System of Nasir," published in the thirteenth century A.D., +a valuable treatise on morals, economy, and politics. + +10. EDUCATION IN PERSIA.--There are established, in every town and city, +schools in which the poorer children can be instructed in the rudiments of +the Persian and Arabic languages. The pupil, after he has learned the +alphabet, reads the Koran in Arabic; next, fables in Persian; and lastly +is taught to write a beautiful hand, which is considered a great +accomplishment. The Persians are fond of poetry, and the lowest artisans +can read or repeat the finest passages of their most admired poets. For +the education of the higher classes there are in Persia many colleges and +universities where the pupils are taught grammar, the Turkish and Arabic +languages, rhetoric, philosophy, and poetry. The literary men are +numerous; they pursue their studies till they are entitled to the honors +of the colleges; afterwards they devote themselves to copying and +illuminating manuscripts. + +Of late many celebrated European works have been translated and published +in Persia. + + + + +HEBREW LITERATURE. + +1. Hebrew Literature; its Divisions.--2. The Language; its Alphabet; its +Structure; Peculiarities, Formation, and Phases.--3. The Old Testament.-- +4. Hebrew Education.--5. Fundamental Idea of Hebrew Literature.--6. Hebrew +Poetry.--7. Lyric Poetry; Songs; the Psalms; the Prophets.--8. Pastoral +Poetry and Didactic Poetry; the Proverbs and Ecclesiastes.--9. Epic and +Dramatic Poetry; the Book of Job.--10. Hebrew History; the Pentateuch and +other Historical Books.--11. Hebrew Philosophy.--12. Restoration of the +Sacred Books.--13. Manuscripts and Translations.--14. Rabbinical +Literature.--15. The New Revision of the Bible, and the New Biblical +Manuscript. + +1. HEBREW LITERATURE.--In the Hebrew literature we find expressed the +national character of that ancient people who, for a period of four +thousand years, through captivity, dispersion, and persecution of every +kind, present the wonderful spectacle of a race preserving its +nationality, its peculiarities of worship, of doctrine, and of literature. +Its history reaches back to an early period of the world, its code of laws +has been studied and imitated by the legislators of all ages and +countries, and its literary monuments surpass in originality, poetic +strength, and religious importance those of any other nation before the +Christian era. + +The literature of the Hebrews may be divided into the four following +periods:-- + +The first, extending from remote antiquity to the time of David, 1010 +B.C., includes all the records of patriarchal civilization transmitted by +tradition previous to the age of Moses, and contained in the Pentateuch or +five books attributed to him after he had delivered the people from the +bondage of Egypt. + +The second period extends from the time of David to the death of Solomon, +1010-940 B.C., and to this are referred some of the Psalms, Joshua, the +Judges, and the Chronicles. + +The third period extends from the death of Solomon to the return from the +Babylonian captivity, 940-532 B.C., and to this age belong the writings of +most of the Prophets, The Song of Solomon, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, the +books of Samuel, of Kings, and of Ruth. + +The fourth period extends from their return from the Babylonian Captivity +to the present time, and to this belong some of the Prophets, the +Chronicles, Ezra, Nehemiah, Esther, the final completion of the Psalms, +the Septuagint translation of the Bible, the writings of Josephus, of +Philo of Alexandria, and the rabbinical literature. + +2. THE LANGUAGE.--The Hebrew language is of Semitic origin; its alphabet +consists of twenty-two letters. The number of accents is nearly forty, +some of which distinguish the sentences like the punctuation of our +language, and others serve to determine the number of syllables, or to +mark the tone with which they are to be sung or spoken. + +The Hebrew character is of two kinds, the ancient or square, and the +modern or rabbinical. In the first of these the Scriptures were originally +written. The last is deprived of most of its angles, and is more easy and +flowing. The Hebrew words as well as letters are written from right to +left in common with, the Semitic tongues generally, and the language is +regular, particularly in its conjugations. Indeed, it has but one +conjugation, but with seven or eight variations, having the effect of as +many different conjugations, and giving great variety of expression. The +predominance of these modifications over the noun, the idea of time +contained in the roots of almost all its verbs, so expressive and so +picturesque, and even the scarcity of its prepositions, adjectives, and +adverbs, make this language in its organic structure breathe life, vigor, +and emotion. If it lacks the flowery and luxuriant elements of the other +oriental idioms, no one of these can be compared with the Hebrew tongue +for the richness of its figures and imagery, for its depth, and for its +majestic and imposing features. + +In the formation, development, and decay of this language, the following +periods may be distinguished:-- + +First. From Abraham to Moses, when the old stock was changed by the +infusion of the Egyptian and Arabic. Abraham, residing in Chaldea, spoke +the Chaldaic language, then traveling through Egypt, and establishing +himself in Canaan or Palestine, his language mingled its elements with the +tongues spoken by those nations, and perhaps also with that of the +Phoenicians, who early established commercial intercourse with him and his +descendants. It is probable that the Hebrew language sprung from the +mixture of these elements. + +Second. From Moses and the composition of the Pentateuch to Solomon, when +it attained its perfection, not without being influenced by the +Phoenician. This is the Golden Age of the Hebrew language. + +Third. From Solomon to Ezra, when, although increasing in beauty and +sweetness, it became less pure by the adoption of foreign ideas and +idioms. + +Fourth. From Ezra to the end of the reign of the Maccabees, when it was +gradually lost in the Aramaean or Chaldaic tongue, and became a dead +language. + +The Jews of the Middle Ages, incited by the learning of the Arabs in +Spain, among whom they received the protection denied them by Christian +nations, endeavored to restore their language to something of its original +purity, and to render the Biblical Hebrew again a written language; but +the Chaldaic idioms had taken too deep root to be eradicated, and besides, +the ancient language was found insufficient for the necessities of an +advancing civilization. Hence arose a new form of written Hebrew, called +rabbinical from its origin and use among the rabbins. It borrowed largely +from many contemporary languages, and though it became richer and more +regular in its structure, it retained little of the strength and purity of +the ancient Hebrew. + +3. THE OLD TESTAMENT.--The literary productions of the Hebrews are +collected in the sacred books of the Old Testament, in which, according to +the celebrated orientalist, Sir William Jones, we can find more eloquence, +more historical and moral truth, more poetry,--in a word, more beauties +than we could gather from all other books together, of whatever country or +language. Aside from its supernatural claims, this book stands alone among +the literary monuments of other nations, for the sublimity of its +doctrine, as well as for the simplicity of its style. + +It is the book of all centuries, countries, and conditions, and affords +the best solution of the most mysterious problems concerning God and the +world. It cultivates the taste, it elevates the mind, it nurses the soul +with the word of life, and it has inspired the best productions of human +genius. + +4. HEBREW EDUCATION.--Religion, morals, legislation, history, poetry, and +music were the special objects to which the attention of the Levites and +Prophets was particularly directed. The general education of the people, +however, was rather simple and domestic. They were trained in husbandry, +and in military and gymnastic exercises, and they applied their minds +almost exclusively to religious and moral doctrines and to divine worship; +they learned to read and write their own language correctly, but they +seldom learned foreign languages or read foreign books, and they carefully +prevented strangers from obtaining a knowledge of their own. + +5. FUNDAMENTAL IDEA OF HEBREW LITERATURE.--Monotheism was the fundamental +idea of the Hebrew literature, as well as of the Hebrew religion, +legislation, morals, politics, and philosophy. The idea of the unity of +God constitutes the most striking characteristic of Hebrew poetry, and +chiefly distinguishes it from that of all mythological nations. Other +ancient literatures have created their divinities, endowed them with human +passions, and painted their achievements in the glowing colors of poetry. +The Hebrew poetry, on the contrary, makes no attempt to portray the Deity +by the instruments of sensuous representation, but simple, majestic, and +severe, it pours forth a perpetual anthem of praise and thanksgiving. The +attributes of God, his power, his paternal love and wisdom, are described +in the most sublime language of any age or nation. His seat is the +heavens, the earth is his footstool, the heavenly hosts his servants; the +sea is his, and he made it, and his hands prepared the dry land. + +Placed under the immediate government of Jehovah, having with Him common +objects of aversion and love, the Hebrews reached the very source of +enthusiasm, the fire of which burned in the hearts of the prophets so +fervently as to cause them to utter the denunciations and the promises of +the Eternal in a tone suited to the inspired of God, and to sing his +attributes and glories with a dignity and authority becoming them, as the +vicegerents of God upon earth. + +6. HEBREW POETRY.--The character of the people and their language, its +mission, the pastoral life of the patriarchs, the beautiful and grand +scenery of the country, the wonderful history of the nation, the feeling +of divine inspiration, the promise of a Messiah who should raise the +nation to glory, the imposing solemnities of the divine worship, and +finally, the special order of the prophets, gave a strong impulse to the +poetical genius of the nation, and concurred in producing a form of poetry +which cannot be compared with any other for its simplicity and clearness, +for its depth and majesty. + +These features of Hebrew poetry, however, spring from its internal force +rather than from any external form. Indeed, the Hebrew poets soar far +above all others in that energy of feeling, impetuous and irresistible, +which penetrates, warms, and moves the very soul. They reveal their +anxieties as well as their hopes; they paint with truth and love the +actual condition of the human race, with its sorrows and consolations, its +hopes and fears, its love and hate. They select their images from the +habitual ideas of the people, and personify inanimate objects--the +mountains tremble and exult, deep cries unto deep. Another characteristic +of Hebrew poetry is the strong feeling of nationality it expresses. Of +their two most sublime poets, one was their legislator, the other their +greatest king. + +7. LYRIC POETRY.--In their national festivals the Hebrews sang the hymns +of their lyric poets, accompanied by musical instruments. The art of +singing, as connected with poetry, flourished especially under David, who +instituted twenty-four choruses, composed of four thousand Levites, whose +duty it was to sing in the public solemnities. It is generally believed +that the Hebrew lyric poetry was not ruled by any measure, either of +syllables or of time. Its predominant form was a succession of thoughts +and a rhythmic movement, less of syllables and words than of ideas and +images systematically arranged. The Psalms, especially, are essentially +symmetrical, according to the Hebrew ritual, their verses being sung +alternately by Levites and people, both in the synagogues and more +frequently in the open air. The song of Moses after the passage of the Bed +Sea is the most sublime triumphal hymn in any language, and of equal merit +is his song of thanksgiving in Deuteronomy. Beautiful examples of the same +order of poetry may be found in the song of Judith (though not canonical), +and the songs of Deborah and Balaam. But Hebrew poetry attained its +meridian splendor in the Psalms of David. The works of God in the creation +of the world, and in the government of men; the illustrious deeds of the +House of Jacob; the wonders and mysteries of the new Covenant are sung by +David in a fervent out-pouring of an impulsive, passionate spirit, that +alternately laments and exults, bows in contrition, or soars to the +sublimest heights of devotion. The Psalms, even now, reduced to prose, +after three thousand years, present the best and most sublime collection +of lyrical poems, unequaled for their aspiration, their living imagery, +their grand ideas, and majesty of style. + +When at length the Hebrews, forgetful of their high duties and calling, +trampled on their institutions and laws, prophets were raised up to recall +the wandering people to their allegiance. ISAIAH, whether he foretells the +future destiny of the nation, or the coming of the Messiah, in his +majestic eloquence, sweetness, and simplicity, gives us the most perfect +model of lyric poetry. He prophesied during the reigns of Azariah and +Hezekiah, and his writings bear the mark of true inspiration. + +JEREMIAH flourished during the darkest period in the history of the +kingdom of Judah, and under the last four kings, previous to the +Captivity. The Lamentations, in which he pours forth his grief for the +fate of his country, are full of touching melancholy and pious +resignation, and, in their harmonious and beautiful tone, show his ardent +patriotism and his unshaken trust in the God of his fathers. He does not +equal Isaiah in the sublimity of his conceptions and the variety of his +imagery, but whatever may be the imperfections of his style, they are lost +in the passion and vehemence of his poems. + +DANIEL, after having straggled against the corruptions of Babylon, boldly +foretells the decay of that empire with terrible power. His conceptions +and images are truly sublime; but his style is less correct and regular +than that of his predecessors, his language being a mixture of Hebrew and +Chaldaic. + +Such is also the style of EZEKIEL, who sings the development of the +obscure prophesies of his master. His writings abound in dreams and +visions, and convey rather the idea of the terrible than of the sublime. + +These four, from the length of their writings, are called the Greater +Prophets, to distinguish them from the twelve Minor Prophets: HOSEA, JOEL, +AMOS, OBADIAH, JONAH, MICAH, NAHUM, HABAKKUK, ZEPHANIAH, HAGGAI, +ZECHARIAH, and MALACHI, all of whom, though endowed with different +characteristics and genius, show in their writings more or less of that +fire and vigor which can only be found in writers who were moved and +warmed by the very spirit of God. + +8. PASTORAL POETRY AND DIDACTIC POETRY.--The Song of Solomon and the +history of Ruth are the best specimens of the Hebrew idyl, and breathe all +the simplicity of pastoral life. + +The books of Proverbs and Ecclesiastes contain treatises on moral +philosophy, or rather, are didactic poems. The Proverb, which is a maxim +of wisdom, greatly used by the ancients before the introduction of +dissertation, is, as the name indicates, the prevalent form of the first +of these books. In Ecclesiastes we have described the trials of a mind +which has lost itself in undefined wishes and in despair, and the +efficacious remedies for these mental diseases are shown in the pictures +of the vanity of the world and in the final divine judgment, in which the +problem of this life will have its complete solution. SOLOMON, the author +of these works, adds splendor to the sublimity of his doctrines by the +dignity of his style. + +9. EPIC AND DRAMATIC POETRY.--The Book of Job may be considered as +belonging either to epic or to dramatic poetry. Its exact date is +uncertain; some writers refer it to the primitive period of Hebrew +literature, and others to a later age; and, while some contend that Job +was but an ideal, representing human suffering, whose story was sung by an +anonymous poet, others, with more probability, regard him as an actual +person, exposed to the trials and temptations described in this wonderful +book. However this may be, it is certain that this monument of wisdom +stands alone, and that it can be compared to no other production for the +sublimity of its ideas, the vivacity and force of its expressions, the +grandeur of its imagery, and the variety of its characters. No other work +represents, in more true and vivid colors, the nobility and misery of +humanity, the laws of necessity and Providence, and the trials to which +the good are subjected for their moral improvement. Here the great +straggle between evil and good appears in its true light, and human virtue +heroically submits itself to the ordeal of misfortune. Here we learn that +the evil and good of this life are by no means the measure of morality, +and here we witness the final triumph of justice. + +10. HEBREW HISTORY.--Moses, the most ancient of all historians, was also +the first leader and legislator of the Hebrews. When at length the +traditions of the patriarchs had become obscured and confused among the +different nations of the earth, Moses was inspired to write the history of +the human race, and especially of the chosen people, in order to bequeath +to coming centuries a memorial of revealed truths and of the divine works +of eternal Wisdom. Thus in the first chapters of Genesis, without aiming +to write the complete annals of the first period of the world, he summed +up the general history of man, and described, more especially, the +genealogy of the patriarchs and of the generations previous to the time of +the dispersion. + +The subject of the book of Exodus is the delivery of the people from the +Egyptian bondage, and it is not less admirable for the importance of the +events which it describes, than for the manner in which they are related. +In this, and in the following book of Numbers, the record of patriarchal +life gives place to the teachings of Moses and to the history of the +wanderings in the deserts of Arabia. + +In Leviticus the constitution of the priesthood is described, as well as +the peculiarities of a worship. + +Deuteronomy records the laws of Moses, and concludes with his sublime hymn +of thanksgiving. + +The historical books of Joshua, Judges, Samuel, Kings, Chronicles, Ezra, +etc., contain the history of the Hebrew nation for nearly a thousand +years, and relate the prosperity and the disasters of the chosen people. +Here are recorded the deeds of Joshua, of Samson, of Samuel, of David, and +of Solomon, the building of the Temple, the division of the tribes into +two kingdoms, the prodigies of Elijah and Elisha, the impieties of Ahab, +the calamities of Jedekiah, the destruction of Jerusalem and of the first +Temple, the dispersion and the Babylonish captivity, the deliverance under +Cyrus, and the rebuilding of the city and Temple under Ezra, and other +great events in Hebrew history. + +The internal evidence derived from the peculiar character of each of the +historical books is decisive of their genuineness, which is supported +above all suspicion of alteration or addition by the scrupulous +conscientiousness and veneration with which the Hebrews regarded their +sacred writings. Their authenticity is also proved by the uniformity of +doctrine which pervades them all, though written at different periods, by +the simplicity and naturalness of the narrations, and by the sincerity of +the writers. + +These histories display neither vanity nor adulation, nor do they attempt +to conceal from the reader whatever might be considered as faults in their +authors or their heroes. While they select facts with a nice judgment, and +present the most luminous picture of events and of their causes, they +abstain from reasoning or speculation in regard to them. + +11. HEBREW PHILOSOPHY.--Although the Hebrews, in their different sacred +writings, have transmitted to us the best solution of the ancient +philosophical questions on the creation of the world, on the Providence +which rules it, on monotheism, and on the origin of sin, yet they have +nowhere presented us with a complete system of philosophy. + +During the Captivity, their doctrines were influenced by those of +Zoroaster, and later, when many of the Jews established themselves in +Egypt, they acquired some knowledge of the Greek philosophy, and the +tenets of the sects of the Essenes bear a strong resemblance to the +Pythagorean and Platonic schools. This resemblance appears most clearly in +the writings of Philo of Alexandria, a Jew, born a few years before the +birth of our Saviour. Though not belonging to the sect of the Essenes, he +followed their example in adopting the doctrines of Plato and taking them +as the criterion in the interpretation of the Scriptures. So, also, +Flavius Josephus, born in Jerusalem, 37 A.D., and Numenius, born in Syria, +in the second century A.D., adopted the Greek philosophy, and by its +doctrines amplified and expanded the tenets of Judaism. + +12. RESTORATION OF THE SACRED BOOKS.--One of the most important eras in +Hebrew literature is the period of the restoration of the Mosaic +institutions, after the return from the Captivity. According to tradition, +at that time Ezra established the great Synagogue, a college of one +hundred and twenty learned men, who were appointed to collect copies of +the ancient sacred books, the originals of which had been lost in the +capture of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar, and Nehemiah soon after placed +this, or a new collection, in the Temple. The design of these reformers to +give the people a religious canon in their ancient tongue induces the +belief that they engaged in the work with the strictest fidelity to the +old Mosaic institutions, and it is certain that the canon of the Old +Testament, in the time of the Maccabees, was the same as that which we +have at present. + +13. MANUSCRIPTS AND TRANSLATIONS.--Of the canonical books of the Old +Testament we have Hebrew manuscripts, printed editions, and translations. +The most esteemed manuscripts are those of the Spanish Jews, of which the +most ancient belong to the eleventh and twelfth centuries. The printed +editions of the Bible in Hebrew are numerous. The earliest are those of +Italy. Luther made his German translation from the edition of Brescia, +printed in 1494. The earliest and most famous translation of the Old +Testament is the Septuagint, or Greek translation, which was made about +283 B.C. It may, probably, be attributed to the Alexandrian Jews, who, +having lost the knowledge of the Hebrew, caused the translation to be made +by some of their learned countrymen for the use of the Synagogues of +Egypt. It was probably accomplished under the authority of the Sanhedrim, +composed of seventy elders, and therefore called the Septuagint version, +and from it the quotations in the New Testament are chiefly taken. It was +regarded as canonical by the Jews to the exclusion of other books written +in Greek, but not translated from the Hebrew, which we now call, by the +Greek name, the Apocrypha. + +The Vulgate or Latin translation, which has official authority in the +Catholic Church, was made gradually from the eighth to the sixteenth +century, partly from an old translation which was made from the Greek in +the early history of the Church, and partly from translations from the +Hebrew made by St. Jerome. + +The English version of the Bible now in use in England and America was +made by order of James I. It was accomplished by forty-seven distinguished +scholars, divided into six classes, to each of which a part of the work +was assigned. This translation occupied three years, and was printed in +1611. + +14. RABBINICAL LITERATURE.--Rabbinical literature includes all the +writings of the rabbins, or teachers of the Jews in the later period of +Hebrew letters, who have interpreted and developed the literature of the +earlier ages. The language made use of by them has its foundation in the +Hebrew and Chaldaic, with various alterations and modifications in the use +of words, the meaning of which they have considerably enlarged and +extended. They have frequently borrowed from the Arabic, Greek, and Latin, +and from those modern tongues spoken where they severally resided. + +The Talmud, from the Hebrew word signifying _he has learned_, is a +collection of traditions illustrative of the laws and usages of the Jews. +The Talmud consists of two parts, the Mishna and the Gemara. The Mishna, +or _second law_, is a collection of rabbinical rules and precepts made in +the second century. The Gemara (_completion_ or _doctrine_) was composed +in the third century. It is a collection of commentaries and explanations +of the Mishna, and both together formed the Jerusalem Talmud. + +The Babylonian rabbins composed new commentaries on the Mishna, and this +formed the Babylonian Talmud. Both Talmuds were first committed to writing +about 500 A.D. At the period of the Christian Era, the civil constitution, +language, and mode of thinking among the Jews had undergone a complete +revolution, and were entirely different from what they had been in the +early period of the commonwealth. The Mosaic books contained rules no +longer adapted to the situation of the nation, and many difficult +questions arose to which their law afforded no satisfactory solution. The +rabbins undertook to supply this defect, partly by commentaries on the +Mosaic precepts, and partly by the composition of new rules. + +The Talmud requires that wherever twelve adults reside together in one +place, they shall erect a synagogue and serve the God of their fathers by +a multitude of prayers and formalities, amidst the daily occupations of +life. It allows usury, treats agricultural pursuits with contempt, and +requires strict separation from the other races, and commits the +government to the rabbins. The Talmud is followed by the Rabbinites, to +which sect nearly all the European and American Jews belong. The sect of +the Caraites rejects the Talmud and holds to the law of Moses only. It is +less numerous, and its members are found chiefly in the East, or in Turkey +and Eastern Russia. + +The Cabala, or oral tradition, is, according to the Jews, a perpetual +divine revelation, preserved among the Jewish people by secret +transmission. It sometimes denotes the doctrines of the prophets, but most +commonly the mystical philosophy, which was probably introduced into +Palestine from Egypt and Persia. It was first committed to writing in the +second century A.D. The Cabala is divided into the symbolical and the +real, of which the former gives a mystical signification to letters. The +latter comprehends doctrines, and is divided into the theoretical and +practical. The first aims to explain the Scriptures according to the +secret traditions, while the last pretends to teach the art of performing +miracles by an artificial use of the divine names and sentences of the +sacred Scriptures. + +The Jews of the Middle Ages acquired great reputation for learning, +especially in Spain, where they were allowed to study astronomy, +mathematics, and medicine in the schools of the Moors. Granada and Cordova +became the centres of rabbinical literature, which was also cultivated in +France, Italy, Portugal, and Germany. In the sixteenth century the study +of Hebrew and rabbinical literature became common among Christian +scholars, and in the following centuries it became more interesting and +important from the introduction of comparative philology in the department +of languages. Rabbinical literature still has its students and +interpreters. In Padua, Berlin, and Metz there are seminaries for the +education of rabbins, which supply with able doctors the synagogues of +Italy, Germany, and France. There is also a rabbinical school in +Cincinnati, Ohio. The Polish rabbins and Talmudists, however, are the most +celebrated. + +15. THE NEW REVISION OF THE BIBLE.--The convocation of the English House +of Bishops, which met at Canterbury in 1870, recommended a revised version +of the Scriptures, and appointed a committee for the work of sixty-seven +members from various ecclesiastical bodies of England, to which an +American committee of thirty-five was added, and by their joint labors the +revised edition of the New Testament was issued in 1881. The revised Old +Testament is expected to appear during 1884. The advantages claimed for +these new versions are: a more accurate rendering of the text, a +correction of the errors of former translations, the removal of misleading +archaisms and obsolete terms, better punctuation, arrangement in sections +as well as chapters and verses, the metrical arrangement of poetry, and an +increased number of marginal readings. + +In 1875, Bryennios, a metropolitan of the Greek Church, discovered in the +library of the Most Holy Sepulchre at Constantinople a manuscript +belonging to the second century A.D., which contains, among other valuable +and interesting documents, one on the "Teaching of the Twelve Apostles," +many points of which bear on the usages of the church, such as the mode of +baptism, the celebration of the Eucharist, and the orders of the ministry. +It was at first considered authentic and highly important, but more +deliberate study tends to discredit its authority. + + + + +EGYPTIAN LITERATURE. + +1. The Language.--2. The Writing.--3. The Literature.--4. The Monuments. +--5. The Discovery of Champollion.--6. Literary Remains; Historical; +Religious; Epistolary; Fictitious; Scientific; Epic; Satirical and +Judicial.--7. The Alexandrian Period.--8. The Literary Condition of Modern +Egypt. + + +1. THE LANGUAGE.--From the earliest times the language of Egypt was +divided into three dialects: the Memphitic, spoken in Memphis and Lower +Egypt; the Theban, or Sahidic, spoken in Upper Egypt; and the Bashmuric, a +provincial variety belonging to the oases of the Lybian Desert. + +The Coptic tongue, which arose from a union of ancient Egyptian with the +vulgar vernacular, later became mingled with Greek and Arabic words, and +was written in the Greek alphabet. It was used in Egypt until the tenth +century A.D., when it gave way to the Arabic; but the Christians still +preserve it in their worship and in their translation of the Bible. By +rejecting its foreign elements Egyptologists have been enabled to study +this language in its purity, and to establish its grammar and +construction. It is the exclusive character of the Christian Egyptian +literature, and marks the last development and final decay of the Egyptian +language. + +2. THE WRITING.--Four distinct graphic systems were in use in ancient +Egypt: the hieroglyphic, the hieratic, the demotic, and Coptic. The first +expresses words partly by representation of the object and partly by signs +indicating sounds, and was used chiefly for inscriptions. The hieratic +characters presented a flowing and abbreviated form of the hieroglyphic, +and were used more particularly in the papyri. The great body of Egyptian +literature has reached us through this character, the reading of which can +only be determined by resolving it into its prototype, hieroglyphics. + +The demotic writing indicates the rise of the vulgar tongue, which took +place about the beginning of the seventh century B.C. It was used to +transcribe hieroglyphic and hieratic inscriptions and papyri into the +common idiom until the second century A.D., when the Coptic generally +superseded it. + +3. THE LITERATURE.--The literary history of ancient Egypt presents a +remarkable exception to that of any other country. While the language +underwent various modifications, and the written characters changed, the +literature remained the same in all its principal features. This +literature consists solely of inscriptions painted or engraved on +monuments, or of written manuscripts on papyrus buried in the tombs or +beneath the ruins of temples. It is so deficient in style, and so +unsystematic in its construction, that it has taxed the labors of the +ablest critics for the last fifty years to construct a whole from its +disjointed materials, and these are so imperfect that many periods of +Egyptian history are complete literary blanks. In the great period of the +Rameses, novels or works of amusement predominated; under the Ptolemies, +historical records, and in the Coptic or Christian stage, homolies and +church rituals prevailed; but through every epoch the same general type +appears. Notwithstanding these deficiencies, however, Egypt offers a most +attractive field for the archaeologist, and new discoveries are constantly +adding to our knowledge of this interesting country. + +4. THE MONUMENTS.--The monuments of Egypt are religious, as the temples, +sepulchral, as the necropoles, or triumphal, as the obelisks. The temples +were the principal structures of the Egyptian cities, and their splendid +ruins, covered with inscriptions, are among the most interesting remains +of antiquity. Life after death, the leading idea of the religion of Egypt, +was expressed in the construction of the tombs, so numerous in the +vicinity of all the large cities. These necropoles, excavated in the rocks +or hillsides, or built within the pyramids, consist of rows of chambers +with halls supported by columns, which, with the walls, are often covered +with paintings, historical or monumental, representing scenes from +domestic or civil life. The great pyramids were probably built for the +sepulchres of kings and their families, and the smaller ones for persons +of inferior rank. + +The most magnificent of the triumphal monuments are the obelisks, gigantic +monoliths of red or white granite, some of which are more than two hundred +feet high, covered with inscriptions, and bearing the image of the +triumphant king, painted or engraved. The splendid obelisk in the Place de +la Concorde, at Paris, celebrates the glories of Rameses II. + +The obelisk now in New York is one of a pair erected at Heliopolis, before +the Temple of the Sun, about 1600 B.C. In the reign of Augustus both were +removed to Alexandria, and were known in modern times as Cleopatra's +Needles. One was presented by the Khedive to the city of London in 1877, +and the other to the city of New York the same year. The shaft on the +latter bears two inscriptions, one celebrating Thothmes III., and the +other Rameses II. + +One of the most characteristic monuments of Egypt is the statue of the +Sphinx, so often found in the temples and necropoles. It is a recumbent +figure, having a human head and breast and the body of a lion. Whatever +idea the Egyptians may have attached to this symbol, it represents most +truly the character of that people and the struggle of mind to free itself +from the instincts of brutal nature. + +5. THE DISCOVERY OF CHAMPOLLION.--During the expedition into Egypt, in +1799, in throwing up some earthworks near Rosetta, a town on the western +arm of the Nile, an officer of the French army discovered a block or +tablet of black basalt, upon which were engraved inscriptions in Egyptian +and Greek characters. This tablet, called the Rosetta Stone, was sent to +France and submitted to the orientalists for interpretation. The +inscription was found to be a decree of the Egyptian priests in honor of +Ptolemy Epiphanes (196 B.C.), which was ordered to be engraved on stone in +sacred (hieroglyphic), common (demotic), and in Greek characters. Through +this interpretation, Champollion (1790-1832), after much study, discovered +and established the alphabetic system of Egyptian writing, and applying +his discovery more extensively, he was able to decipher the names of the +kings of Egypt from the Roman emperors back, through the Ptolemies, to the +Pharaohs of the elder dynasties. This discovery was the key to the +interpretation of all the ancient monuments of Egypt; by it the history of +the country was thrown open for a period of twenty-six centuries, the +annals of the neighboring nations were rendered more intelligible, the +religion, arts, sciences, life, and manners of the ancient Egyptians were +revealed to the modern world, and the obelisks, the innumerable papyri, +and the walls of the temples and tombs were transformed into inexhaustible +mines of historical and scientific knowledge. + +6. LITERARY REMAINS; HISTORICAL; RELIGIOUS; EPISTOLARY; FICTITIOUS; +SCIENTIFIC; EPIC; SATIRICAL AND JUDICIAL.--The Egyptian priests from the +earliest times must have preserved the annals of their country, though +obscured by myths and symbols. These annals, however, were destroyed by +Cambyses (500 B.C.), who, during his invasion of the country, burned the +temples where they were preserved, although they were soon rewritten, +according to the testimony of Herodotus, who visited Egypt 450 B.C. In the +third century B.C., Manetho, a priest and librarian of Heliopolis, wrote +the succession of kings, and though the original work was lost, important +fragments of it have been preserved by other writers. There seem to have +been four periods in this history of ancient Egypt, marked by great +changes in the social and political constitution of the country. In the +first epoch, under the rule of the gods, demigods, and heroes, according +to Manetho, it was probably colonized and ruled by the priests, in the +name of the gods. The second period extends from Menes, the supposed +founder of the monarchy, to the invasion of the Shepherd Kings, about 2000 +B.C. In the third period, under this title, the Phoenicians probably ruled +Egypt for three centuries, and it was one of these kings or Pharaohs of +whom Joseph was the prime minister. In the fourth period, from 1180 to 350 +B.C., the invaders were expelled and native rule restored, until the +country was again conquered, first by the Persians, about 500 B.C., and +again by the Greeks under Alexander, 350 B.C. From that time to the +present no native ruler has sat on the throne of that country. After the +conquest by Alexander the Great, who left it to the sway of the Ptolemies, +it was successively conquered by the Romans, the Saracens, the Mamelukes, +and the Turks. Since 1841 it has been governed by a viceroy under nominal +allegiance to the Sultan of Turkey. In 1865 the title of khedive was +substituted for that of viceroy. + +Early Egyptian chronology is in a great measure merely conjectural, and +new information from the monuments only adds to the obscurity. The +historical papyri are records of the kings or accounts of contemporary +events. These, as well as the inscriptions on the monuments, generally in +the form of panegyric, are inflated records of the successes of the heroes +they celebrate, or explanations of the historical scenes painted or +sculptured on the monuments. + +The early religion of Egypt was founded on a personification of the laws +of Nature, centred in a mysterious unity. Egyptian nature, however, +supplied but few great objects of worship as symbols of divine power, +the desert, a natural enemy, the fertilizing river, and the sun, the +all-pervading presence, worshiped as the source of life, the lord of time, +and author of eternity. Three great realms composed the Egyptian cosmos; the +heavens, where the sun, moon, and stars paced their daily round, the abode +of the invisible king, typified by the sun and worshiped as Ammon Ra, the +earth and the under-world, the abode of the dead. Here, too, reigned the +universal lord under the name of Osiris, whose material manifestation, the +sun, as he passed beneath the earth, lightened up the under-world, where +the dead were judged, the just recompensed, and the guilty punished. + +Innumerable minor divinities, which originally personified attributes of +the one Supreme Deity, were represented under the form of such animals as +were endowed with like qualities. Every god was symbolized by some animal, +which thus became an object of worship; but by confounding symbols with +realities this worship soon degenerated into gross materialism and +idolatry. + +The most important religious work in this literature is the "Book of the +Dead," a funeral ritual. The earliest known copy is in hieratic writing of +the oldest type, and was found in the tomb of a queen, who lived probably +about 3000 B.C. The latest copy is of the second century A.D., and is +written in pure Coptic. This work, consisting of one hundred and sixty-six +chapters, is a collection of prayers of a magical character, an account of +the adventures of the soul after death, and directions for reaching the +Hall of Osiris. It is a marvel of confusion and poverty of thought. A +complete translation may be found in "Egypt's Place in Universal History," +by Bunsen (second edition), and specimens in almost every museum of +Europe. There are other theological remains, such as the Metamorphoses of +the gods and the Lament of Isis, but their meaning is disguised in +allegory. The hymns and addresses to the sun abound in pure and lofty +sentiment. + +The epistolary writings are the best known and understood branch of +Egyptian literature. From the Ramesid era, the most literary of all, we +have about eighty letters on various subjects, interesting as +illustrations of manners and specimens of style. The most important of +these is the "Anastasi Papyri" in the British Museum, written about the +time of the Exodus. + +Two valuable and tolerably complete relics represent the fictitious +writing of Egyptian literature; they are "The Tale of Two Brothers," now +in the British Museum, and "The Romance of Setna," recently discovered in +the tomb of a Coptic monk. The former was evidently intended for the +amusement of a royal prince. One of its most striking features is the low +moral tone of the women introduced. "The Romance of Setna" turns upon the +danger of acquiring possession of the sacred books. The opening and date +of the story are missing. + +Fresh information is being constantly acquired as to the knowledge of +science possessed by the ancient Egyptians. Geometry originated with them, +or from remote ages they were acquainted with the principles of this +science, as well as with those of hydrostatics and mechanics, as is proved +by the immense structures which remain the wonder of the modern world. +They cultivated astronomy from the earliest times, and they have +transmitted to us their observations on the movements of the sun, the +stars, the earth, and other planets. The obelisks served them as sun +dials, and the pyramids as astronomical observatories. They had great +skill in medicine and much knowledge of anatomy. The most remarkable +medical papyri are to be found in the Berlin Museum. + +The epics and biographical sketches are narratives of personal adventure +in war or travel, and are distinguished by some effort at grace of style. +The epic of Pentaur, or the achievements of Rameses II., has been called +the Egyptian Iliad. It is several centuries older than the Greek Iliad, +and deserves admiration for its rapid narrative and epic unity. + +The history of Mohan (by some thought to be Moses) has been called the +Egyptian Odyssey, in contrast to the preceding. Mohan was a high official, +and this narrative describes his travels in Syria and Palestine. This +papyrus is in the British Museum, and both epics have been translated. + +The satirical writings and beast fables of the Egyptians caricature the +foibles of all classes, not sparing the sacred person of the king, and are +often illustrated with satirical pictures. Besides these strictly literary +remains, a large number of judicial documents, petitions, decrees, and +treaties has been recovered. + +7. THE ALEXANDRIAN PERIOD.--Egypt, in its flourishing period, having +contributed to the civilization of Greece, became, in its turn, the pupil +of that country. In the century following the age of Alexander the Great, +under the rule of the Ptolemies, the philosophy and literature of Athens +were transferred to Alexandria. Ptolemy Philadelphus, in the third century +B.C., completed the celebrated Alexandrian Library, formed for the most +part of Greek books, and presided over by Greek librarians. The school of +Alexandria had its poets, its grammarians, and philosophers; but its +poetry lacked the fire of genius, and its grammatical productions were +more remarkable for sophistry and subtlety, than for soundness and depth +of research. In the philosophy of Alexandria, the Eastern and Western +systems combined, and this school had many distinguished disciples. + +In the first century of the Christian era, Egypt passed from the Greek +kings to the Roman emperors, and the Alexandrian school continued to be +adorned by the first men of the age. This splendor, more Grecian than +Egyptian, was extinguished in the seventh century by the Saracens, who +conquered the country, and, it is believed, burned the great Alexandrian +Library. After the wars of the immediate successors of Mohammed, the +Arabian princes protected literature, Alexandria recovered its schools, +and other institutions of learning were established; but in the conquest +of the country by the Turks, in the thirteenth century, all literary light +was extinguished. + +8. LITERARY CONDITION OF MODERN EGYPT.--For more than nine hundred years +Cairo has possessed a university of high rank, which greatly increased in +importance on the accession of Mehemet Ali, in 1805, who established many +other schools, primary, scientific, medical, and military, though they +were suffered to languish under his two successors. In 1865, when Ismail- +Pacha mounted the throne as Khedive (tributary king), he gave powerful aid +to the university and to public instruction everywhere. The number of +students at the University of Cairo advanced to eleven thousand. The wife +of the Khedive, the Princess Cachma-Afet, founded in 1873, and maintained +from her privy purse, a school for the thorough instruction of girls, +which led to the establishment of a similar institution by the Ministry of +Public Instruction. This princess is the first in the history of Islam +who, from the interior of the harem, has exerted her influence to educate +and enlighten her sex. + +When the Khedive was driven into exile in 1879, the number of schools, +nearly all the result of his energetic rule, was 4,817 and of pupils +170,000. Since the European intervention and domination the number of both +has sensibly diminished, and a serious retrograde movement has taken +place. + +The higher literature of Egypt at the present time is written in pure +Arabic. The popular writing in magazines, periodicals, etc., is in Arabic +mixed with Syriac and Egyptian dialects. Newspaper literature has greatly +increased during the past eight years. + + + + +GREEK LITERATURE. + +INTRODUCTION.--1. Greek Literature and its Divisions.--2. The Language.-- +3. The Religion. + +PERIOD FIRST.--1. Ante-Homeric Songs and Bards.--2. Poems of Homer; the +Iliad; the Odyssey.--3. The Cyclic Poets and the Homeric Hymns.--4. Poems +of Hesiod; the Works and Days; the Theogony.--5. Elegy and Epigram; +Tyrtaeus; Archilochus; Simonides.--6. Iambic Poetry, the Fable, and +Parody; Aesop.--7. Greek Music and Lyric Poetry; Terpander.--8. Aeolic +Lyric Poets; Alcasus; Sappho; Anacreon.--9. Doric, or Choral Lyric Poets; +Alcman; Stesichorus; Pindar.--10. The Orphic Doctrines and Poems.--11. +Pre-Socratic Philosophy; Ionian, Eleatic, Pythagorean Schools.--12. +History; Herodotus. + +PERIOD SECOND.--1. Literary Predominance of Athens.--2. Greek Drama.--3. +Tragedy.--4. The Tragic Poets; Aeschylus; Sophocles; Euripides.--5. +Comedy; Aristophanes; Menander.--6. Oratory, Rhetoric, and History; +Pericles; the Sophists; Lysias; Isocrates; Demosthenes; Thucydides; +Xenophon.--7. Socrates and the Socratic Schools; Plato; Aristotle. + +PERIOD THIRD.--1. Origin of the Alexandrian Literature.--2. The +Alexandrian Poets; Philetas; Callimachus; Theocritus; Bion; Moschus.--3. +The Prose Writers of Alexandria; Zenodotus; Aristophanes; Aristarchus; +Eratosthenes; Euclid; Archimedes.--4. Philosophy of Alexandria; Neo- +Platonism.--5. Anti-Neo-Platonic Tendencies; Epictetus; Lucian; Longinus. +--6. Greek Literature in Rome; Dionysius of Halicarnassus; Flavius +Josephus; Polybius; Diodorus; Strabo; Plutarch.--7. Continued Decline of +Greek Literature.--8. Last Echoes of the Old Literature; Hypatia; Nonnus; +Musaeus; Byzantine Literature.--9. The New Testament and the Greek +Fathers. Modern Literature; the Brothers Santsos and Alexander Rangabé. + + +INTRODUCTION. + +1. GREEK LITERATURE AND ITS DIVISIONS.--The literary histories thus far +sketched, with the exception of the Hebrew, occupy a subordinate position, +and constitute but a small part of the general and continuous history of +literature. As there are states whose interests are so detached from +foreign nations and so centred in themselves that their history seems to +form no link in the great chain of political events, so there are bodies +of literature cut off from all connection with the course of general +refinement, and bearing no relation to the development of mental power in +the most civilized portions of the globe. Thus, the literature of India, +with its great antiquity, its language, which, in fullness of expression, +sweetness of tone, and regularity of structure, rivals the most perfect of +those Western tongues to which it bears such an affinity, with all its +affluence of imagery and its treasures of thought, has hitherto been +destitute of any direct influence on the progress of general literature, +and China has contributed still less to its advancement. Other branches of +Oriental literature, as the Persian and Arabian, were equally isolated, +until they were brought into contact with the European mind through the +medium of the Crusaders and of the Moorish empire in Spain. + +We come now to speak of the literature of the Greeks; a literature whose +continuous current has rolled down from remote ages to our own day, and +whose influence has been more extensive and lasting than that of any other +nation of the ancient or modern world. Endowed with profound sensibility +and a lively imagination, surrounded by all the circumstances that could +aid in perfecting the physical and intellectual powers, the Greeks early +acquired that essentially literary and artistic character which became the +source of the greatest productions of literature and art. This excellence +was, also, in some measure due to their institutions; free from the system +of castes which prevailed in India and Egypt, and which confined all +learning by a sort of hereditary right to the priests, the tendency of the +Greek mind was from the first liberal, diffusive, and aesthetic. The +manifestation of their genius, from the first dawn of their intellectual +culture, was of an original and peculiar character, and their plastic +minds gave a new shape and value to whatever materials they drew from +foreign sources. The ideas of the Egyptians and Orientals, which they +adopted into their mythology, they cast in new moulds, and reproduced in +more beautiful forms. The monstrous they subdued into the vast, the +grotesque they softened into the graceful, and they diffused a fine spirit +of humanity over the rude proportions of the primeval figures. So with the +dogmas of their philosophy, borrowed from the same sources; all that could +beautify the meagre, harmonize the incongruous, enliven the dull, or +convert the crude materials of metaphysics into an elegant department of +literature, belongs to the Greeks themselves. The Grecian mind became the +foundation of the Roman and of all modern literatures, and its master- +pieces afford the most splendid examples of artistic beauty and perfection +that the world has ever seen. + +The history of Greek literature may be divided into three periods. The +first, extending from remote antiquity to the age of Herodotus (484 B.C.), +includes the earliest poetry of Greece, the ante-Homeric and the Homeric +eras, the origin of Greek elegy, epigram, iambic, and lyric poetry, and +the first development of Greek philosophy. + +The second, or Athenian period, the golden age of Greek literature, +extends from the age of Herodotus (484 B.C.) to the death of Alexander the +Great (323 B.C.), and comprehends the development of the Greek drama in +the works of Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides, and of political +oratory, history, and philosophy, in the works of Demosthenes, Thucydides, +Xenophon, Plato, and Aristotle. + +The third, or the period of the decline of Greek literature, extending +from the death of Alexander the Great (323 B.C.) to the fall of the +Byzantine empire (1453 A.D.), is characterized by the removal of Greek +learning and literature from Athens to Alexandria, and by its gradual +decline and extinction. + +2. THE LANGUAGE.--Of all known languages none has attained so high a +degree of perfection as that of the Greeks. Belonging to the great Indo- +European family, it is rich in significant words, strong and elegant in +its combinations and phrases, and extremely musical, not only in its +poetry, but in its prose. The Greek language must have attained great +excellence at a very early period, for it existed in its essential +perfection in the time of Homer. It was, also, early divided into +dialects, as spoken by the various Hellenic tribes that inhabited +different parts of the country. The principal of these found in written +composition are the Aeolic, Doric, Ionic, and Attic, of which the Aeolic, +the most ancient, was spoken north of the Isthmus, in the Aeolic colonies +of Asia Minor, and in the northern islands of the Aegean Sea. It was +chiefly cultivated by the lyric poets. The Doric, a variety of the Aeolic, +characterized by its strength, was spoken in Peloponnesus, and in the +Doric colonies of Asia Minor, Lower Italy, and Sicily. The Ionic, the most +soft and liquid of all the dialects, belonged to the Ionian colonies of +Asia Minor and the islands of the Archipelago. It was the language of +Homer, Hesiod, and Herodotus. The Attic, which was the Ionic developed, +enriched, and refined, was spoken in Attica, and prevailed in the +flourishing period of Greek literature. + +After the fall of Constantinople, in 1453, the Greek language, which had +been gradually declining, became entirely extinct, and a dialect, which +had long before sprung up among the common people, took the place of the +ancient, majestic, and refined tongue. This popular dialect in turn +continued to degenerate until the middle of the last century. Recently +institutions of learning have been established, and a new impulse given to +improvement in Greece. Great progress has been made in the cultivation of +the language, and great care is taken by modern Greek writers to avoid the +use of foreign idioms and to preserve the ancient orthography. Many +newspapers, periodicals, original works, and translations are published +every year in Greece. The name Romaic, which has been applied to modern +Greek, is now almost superseded by that of Neo-Hellenic. + +3. THE RELIGION.--In the development of the Greek religion two periods may +be distinguished, the ante-Homeric and the Homeric. As the heroic age of +the Greek nation was preceded by one in which the cultivation of the land +chiefly occupied the attention of the inhabitants, so there are traces and +remnants of a state of the Greek religion, in which the gods were +considered as exhibiting their power chiefly in the changes of the +seasons, and in the operations and phenomena of outward nature. +Imagination led these early inhabitants to discover, not only in the +general phenomena of vegetation, the unfolding and death of the leaf and +flower, and in the moist and dry seasons of the year, but also in the +peculiar physical character of certain districts, a sign of the +alternately hostile or peaceful, happy or ill-omened interference of +certain deities. There are still preserved in the Greek mythology many +legends of charming and touching simplicity, which had their origin at +this period, when the Greek religion bore the character of a worship of +the powers of nature. + +Though founded on the same ideas as most of the religions of the East, and +particularly of Asia Minor, the earliest religion of the Greeks was richer +and more various in its forms, and took a loftier and a wider range. The +Grecian worship of nature, in all the various forms which it assumed, +recognized one deity, as the highest of all, the head of the entire +system, Zeus, the god of heaven and light; with him, and dwelling in the +pure expanse of ether, is associated the goddess of the earth, who, in +different temples, was worshiped under different names, as Hera, Demeter, +and Dione. Besides this goddess, other beings are united with the supreme +god, who are personifications of certain of his energies powerful deities +who carry the influence of light over the earth, and destroy the opposing +powers of darkness and confusion as Athena, born from the head of her +father, and Apollo, the pure and shining god of light. There are other +deities allied with earth and dwelling in her dark recesses; and as life +appears not only to spring from the earth, but to return whence it sprung, +these deities are, for the most part, also connected with death; as +Hermes, who brings up the treasures of fruitfulness from the depths of the +earth, and Cora, the child, now lost and now recovered by her mother, +Demeter, the goddess both of reviving and of decaying nature. The element +of water, Poseidon, was also introduced into this assemblage of the +personified powers of nature, and peculiarly connected with the goddess of +the earth; fire, Hephaestus, was represented as a powerful principle +derived from heaven, having dominion over the earth, and closely allied +with the goddess who sprang from the head of the supreme god. Other +deities form less important parts of this system, as Dionysus, whose +alternate joys and sufferings show a strong resemblance to the form which +religious notions assumed in Asia Minor. Though not, like the gods of +Olympus, recognized by all the races of the Greeks, Dionysus exerted an +important influence on the spirit of the Greek nation, and in sculpture +and poetry gave rise to bold flights of imagination, and to powerful +emotions, both of joy and sorrow. + +These notions concerning the gods must have undergone many changes before +they assumed the form under which they appear in the poems of Homer and +Hesiod. The Greek religion, as manifested through them, reached the second +period of its development, belonging to that time when the most +distinguished and prominent part of the people devoted their lives to the +affairs of the state and the occupation of arms, and in which the heroic +spirit was manifested according to these ideas. On Olympus, lying near the +northern boundary of Greece, the highest mountain of that country, whose +summit seems to touch the heavens, there rules the assembly or family of +the gods; the chief of which, Zeus, summons at his pleasure the other gods +to council, as Agamemnon summons the other princes. He is acquainted with +the decrees of fate, and able to control them, and being himself king +among the gods, he gives the kings of the earth their powers and dignity. +By his side his wife, Hera, whose station entitles her to a large share of +his rank and dominion; and a daughter of masculine character, Athena, a +leader of battles and a protectress of citadels, who, by her wise +counsels, deserves the confidence which her father bestows on her; besides +these, there are a number of gods with various degrees of kindred, who +have each their proper place and allotted duty on Olympus. The attention +of this divine council is chiefly turned to the fortunes of nations and +cities, and especially to the adventures and enterprises of the heroes, +who being themselves, for the most part, sprung from the blood of the +gods, form the connecting link between them and the ordinary herd of +mankind. At this stage the ancient religion of nature had disappeared, and +the gods who dwelt on Olympus scarcely manifested any connection with +natural phenomena. Zeus exercises his power as a ruler and a king; Hera, +Athena, and Apollo no longer symbolize the fertility of the earth, the +clearness of the atmosphere, and the arrival of the serene spring; +Hephaestus has passed from the powerful god of fire in heaven and earth +into a laborious smith and worker of metals; Hermes is transformed into +the messenger of Zeus; and the other deities which stood at a greater +distance from the affairs of men are entirely forgotten, or scarcely +mentioned in the Homeric mythology. + +These deities are known to us chiefly through the names given to them by +the Romans, who adopted them at a later period, or identified them with +deities of their own. _Zeus_ was called by them Jupiter; _Hera_; Juno; +_Athena_, Minerva; _Ares_, Mars; _Artemis_, Diana; _Hermes_, Mercury; +_Cora_, Proserpine; _Hephaestus_, Vulcan; _Poseidon_, Neptune; +_Aphrodite_, Venus; _Dionysus_, Bacchus. + + +PERIOD FIRST. + +FROM REMOTE ANTIQUITY TO HERODOTUS (484 B.C.), + +1. ANTE-HOMERIC SONGS AND BARDS.--Many centuries must have elapsed before +the poetical language of the Greeks could have attained the splendor, +copiousness, and fluency found in the poems of Homer. The first +outpourings of poetical enthusiasm were, doubtless, songs describing, in +few and simple verses, events which powerfully affected the feelings of +the hearers. It is probable that the earliest were those that referred to +the seasons and their phenomena, and that they were sung by the peasants +at their corn and wine harvests, and had their origin in times of ancient +rural simplicity. Songs of this kind had often a plaintive and melancholy +character. Such was the song "Linus" mentioned by Homer, which was +frequently sung at the grape-picking. This Linus evidently belongs to a +class of heroes or demi-gods, of which many instances occur in the +religions of Asia Minor. Boys of extraordinary beauty and in the flower of +youth were supposed to have been drowned, or devoured by raging dogs, and +their death was lamented at the harvests and other periods of the hot +season. According to the tradition, Linus sprang from a divine origin, +grew up with the shepherds among the lambs, and was torn in pieces by wild +dogs, whence arose the festival of the lambs, at which many dogs were +slain. The real object of lamentation was the tender beauty of spring, +destroyed by the summer heat, and other phenomena of the same kind which +the imagination of those times invested with a personal form, and +represented as beings of a divine nature. Of similar meaning are many +other songs, which were sung at the time of the summer heat or at the +cutting of the corn. Such was the song called "Bormus" from its subject, a +beautiful boy of that name, who, having gone to fetch water for the +reapers, was, while drawing it, borne down by the nymphs of the stream. +Such were the cries for the youth Hylas, swallowed up by the waters of a +fountain, and the lament for Adonis, whose untimely death was celebrated +by Sappho. + +The Paeans were songs originally dedicated to Apollo, and afterwards to +other gods; their tune and words expressed hope and confidence to +overcome, by the help of the god, great and imminent danger, or gratitude +and thanksgiving for victory and safety. To this class belonged the vernal +Paeans, which were sung at the termination of winter, and those sung in +war before the attack on the enemy. The Threnos, or lamentations for the +dead, were songs containing vehement expressions of grief, sung by +professional singers standing near the bed upon which the body was laid, +and accompanied by the cries and groans of women. The Hymenaeos was the +joyful bridal song of the wedding festivals, in which there were +ordinarily two choruses, one of boys bearing burning torches and singing +the hymenaeos to the clear sound of the pipe, and another of young girls +dancing to the notes of the harp. The Chorus originally referred chiefly +to dancing. The most ancient sense of the word is a _place for dancing_, +and in these choruses young persons of both sexes danced together in rows, +holding one another by the hand, while the citharist, or the player on the +lyre, sitting in their midst, accompanied the sound of his instrument with +songs, which took their name from the choruses in which they were sung. + +Besides these popular songs, there were the religious and heroic poems of +the bards, who were, for the most part, natives of that portion of the +country which surrounds the mountains of Helicon and Parnassus, +distinguished as the home of the Muses. Among the bards devoted to the +worship of Apollo and other deities, were Marsyas, the inventor of the +flute, Musaeus and Orpheus. Many names of these ancient poets are +recorded, but of their poetry, previous to Homer, not even a fragment +remains. + +The bards or chanters of epic poetry were called Rhapsodists, from the +manner in which they delivered their compositions; this name was applied +equally to the minstrel who recited his own poems, and to him who +declaimed anew songs that had been heard a thousand times before. The form +of these heroic songs, probably settled and fixed by tradition, was the +hexameter, as this metre gave to the epic poetry repose, majesty, a lofty +and solemn tone, and rendered it equally adapted to the pythoness who +announced the decrees of the deity, and to the rhapsodist who recited the +battles of heroes. The bards held an important post in the festal +banquets, where they flattered the pride of the princes by singing the +exploits of their forefathers. + +2. POEMS OF HOMER.--Although seven cities contended for the honor of +giving birth to Homer, it was the prevalent belief, in the flourishing +times of Greece, that he was a native of Smyrna. He was probably born in +that city about 1000 B.C. Little is known of his life, but the power of +his transcendent genius is deeply impressed upon his works. He was called +by the Greeks themselves, _the poet_; and the Iliad and the Odyssey were +with them the ultimate standard of appeal on all matters of religious +doctrine and early history. They were learned by boys at school, and +became the study of men in their riper years, and in the time of Socrates +there were Athenians who could repeat both poems by heart. In whatever +part of the world a Greek settled, he carried with him a love for the +great poet, and long after the Greek people had lost their independence, +the Iliad and the Odyssey continued to maintain an undiminished hold upon +their affections. The peculiar excellence of these poems lies in their +sublimity and pathos, in their tenderness and simplicity, and they show in +their author an inexhaustible vigor, that seems to revel in an endless +display of prodigious energies. The universality of the powers of Homer is +their most astonishing attribute. He is not great in any one thing; he is +greatest in all things. He imagines with equal ease the terrible, the +beautiful, the mean, the loathsome, and he paints them all with equal +force. In his descriptions of external nature, in his exhibitions of human +character and passion, no matter what the subject, he exhausts its +capabilities. His pictures are true to the minutest touch; his men and +women are made of flesh and blood. They lose nothing of their humanity for +being cast in a heroic mould. He transfers himself into the identity of +those whom he brings into action; masters the interior springs of their +spiritual mechanism; and makes them move, look, speak, and do exactly as +they would in real life. + +In the legends connected with the Trojan war, the _anger of Achilles_ and +the _return of Ulysses_, Homer found the subjects of the Iliad and +Odyssey. The former relates that Agamemnon had stolen from Achilles, +Briseis, his beloved slave, and describes the fatal consequences which the +subsequent anger of Achilles brought upon the Greeks; and how the loss of +his dearest friend, Patroclus, suddenly changed his hostile attitude, and +brought about the destruction of Troy and of Hector, its magnanimous +defender. The Odyssey is composed on a more artificial and complicated +plan than the Iliad. The subject is the return of Ulysses from a land +beyond the range of human knowledge to a home invaded by bands of insolent +intruders, who seek to kill his son and rob him of his wife. The poem +begins at that point where the hero is considered to be farthest from his +home, in the central portion of the sea, where the nymph Calypso has kept +him hidden from all mankind for seven years. Having by the help of the +gods passed through innumerable dangers, after many adventures he reaches +Ithaca, and is finally introduced into his own house as a beggar, where he +is made to suffer the harshest treatment from the suitors of his wife, in +order that he may afterwards appear with the stronger right as a terrible +avenger. In this simple story a second was interwoven by the poet, which +renders it richer and more complete, though more intricate and less +natural. It is probable that Homer, after having sung the Iliad in the +vigor of his youthful years, either composed the Odyssey in his old age, +or communicated to some devoted disciple the plan of this poem. + +In the age immediately succeeding Homer, his great poems were doubtless +recited as complete wholes, at the festivals of the princes; but when the +contests of the rhapsodists became more animated, and more weight was laid +on the art of the reciter than on the beauty of the poem he recited, and +when other musical and poetical performances claimed a place, then they +were permitted to repeat separate parts of poems, and the Iliad and +Odyssey, as they had not yet been reduced to writing, existed for a time +only as scattered and unconnected fragments; and we are still indebted to +the regulator of the poetical contests (either Solon or Pisistratus) for +having compelled the rhapsodists to follow one another according to the +order of 'the poem, and for having thus restored these great works to +their pristine integrity. The poets, who either recited the poems of Homer +or imitated him in their compositions, were called Homerides. + +3. THE CYCLIC POETS AND THE HOMERIC HYMNS.--The poems of Homer, as they +became the foundation of all Grecian literature, are likewise the central +point of the epic poetry of Greece. All that is most excellent in this +line originated from them, and was connected with them in the way of +completion or continuation. After the time of Homer, a class of poets +arose who, from their constant endeavor to connect their poems with those +of this master, so that they might form a great cycle, were called the +Cyclic Poets. They were probably Homeric rhapsodists by profession, to +whom the constant recitation of the ancient Homeric poems would naturally +suggest the idea of continuing them by essays of their own. The poems +known as Homeric hymns formed an essential part of the epic style. They +were hymns to the gods, bearing an epic character, and were called +_proemia_, or preludes, and served the rhapsodists either as introductory +strains for their recitation, or as a transition from the festivals of the +gods to the competition of the singers of heroic poetry. + +4. POEMS OF HESIOD.--Nothing certain can be affirmed respecting the date +of Hesiod; a Boeotian by birth, he is considered by some ancient +authorities as contemporary with Homer, while others suppose him to have +flourished two or three generations later. The poetry of Hesiod is a +faithful transcript of the whole condition of Boeotian life. It has +nothing of that youthful and inexhaustible fancy of Homer which lights up +the sublime images of a heroic age and moulds them into forms of +surpassing beauty. The poetry of Hesiod appears struggling to emerge out +of the narrow bounds of common life, which he strives to ennoble and to +render more endurable. It is purely didactic, and its object is to +disseminate knowledge, by which life may be improved, or to diffuse +certain religious notions as to the influence of a superior destiny. His +poem entitled "Works and Days" is so entirely occupied with the events of +common life, that the author would not seem to have been a poet by +profession, but some Boeotian husbandman whose mind had been moved by +circumstances to give a poetical tone to the course of his thoughts and +feelings. The unjust claim of Perses, the brother of Hesiod, to the small +portion of their father's land which had been allotted to him, called +forth this poem, in which he seeks to improve the character and habits of +Perses, to deter him from acquiring riches by litigation, and to incite +him to a life of labor, as the only source of permanent prosperity. He +points out the succession in which his labors must follow if he determines +to lead a life of industry, and gives wise rules of economy for the +management of a family; and to illustrate and enforce the principal idea, +he ingeniously combines with his precepts mythical narratives, fables, and +descriptions. The "Theogony" of Hesiod is a production of the highest +importance, as it contains the religious faith of Greece. It was through +it that Greece first obtained a religious code, which, although without +external sanction or priestly guardians and interpreters, must have +produced the greatest influence on the religious condition of the Greeks. + +5. ELEGY AND EPIGRAM.--Until the beginning of the seventh century B.C., +the epic was the only kind of poetry cultivated in Greece, with the +exception of the early songs and hymns, and the hexameter the only metre +used by the poets. This exclusive prevalence of epic poetry was doubtless +connected with the political state of the country. The ordinary subjects +of these poems must have been highly acceptable to the princes who derived +their race from the heroes, as was the case with all the royal families of +early times. The republican movements, which deprived these families of +their privileges, were favorable to the stronger development of each man's +individuality, and the poet, who in the most perfect form of the epos was +completely lost in his subject, now came before the people as a man with +thoughts and objects of his own, and gave free vent to the emotions of his +soul in elegiac and iambic strains. The word _elegeion_ means nothing more +than the combination of a hexameter and a pentameter, making together a +distich, and an elegy is a poem of such verses. It was usually sung at the +Symposia or literary festivals of the Greeks; in most cases its main +subject was political; it afterwards assumed a plaintive or amatory tone. +The elegy is the first regularly cultivated branch of Greek poetry, in +which the flute alone and neither the cithara nor lyre was employed. It +was not necessary that lamentations should form the subject of it, but +emotion was essential, and excited by events or circumstances of the time +or place the poet poured forth his heart in the unreserved expression of +his fears and hopes. + +Tyrtaeus (fl. 694 B.C.), who went from Athens to Sparta, composed the most +celebrated of his elegies on the occasion of the Messenian war, and when +the Spartans were on a campaign, it was their custom after the evening +meal, when the paean had been sung in honor of the gods, to recite these +poems. From this time we find a union between the elegiac and iambic +poetry; the same poet, who employs the elegy to express his joyous and +melancholy emotions, has recourse to the iambus when his cool sense +prompts him to censure the follies of mankind. The relation between these +two metres is observable in Archilochus (fl. 688 B.C.) and Simonides (fl. +664 B.C.). The elegies of Archilochus, of which many fragments are extant +(while of Simonides we only know that he composed elegies), had nothing of +that spirit of which his iambics were full, but they contain the frank +expression of a mind powerfully affected by outward circumstances. With +the Spartans, wine and the pleasures of the feast became the subject of +the elegy, and it was also recited at the solemnities held in honor of all +who had fallen for their country. The elegies of Solon (592-559 B.C.) were +pure expressions of his political feelings. Simonides of Scios, the +renowned lyric poet, the contemporary of Pindar and Aeschylus, was one of +the great masters of elegiac song. + +The epigram was originally an inscription on a tombstone, or a votive +offering in a temple, or on any other thing which required explanation. +The unexpected turn of thought and pointedness of expression, which the +moderns consider the essence of this species of composition, were not +required in the ancient Greek epigram, where nothing was wanted but that +the entire thought should be conveyed within the limit of a few distichs, +and thus, in the hands of the early poets, the epigram was remarkable for +the conciseness and expressiveness of its language and differed in this +respect from the elegy, in which full expression was given to the feelings +of the poet. + +It was Simonides who first gave to the epigram all the perfection of which +it was capable, and he was frequently employed by the states which fought +against the Persians to adorn with inscriptions the tombs of their fallen +warriors. The most celebrated of these is the inimitable inscription on +the Spartans who died at Thermopylae: "Foreigner, tell the Lacedaemonians +that we are lying here in obedience to their laws." On the Rhodian lyric +poet, Timocreon, an opponent of Simonides in his art, he wrote the +following in the form of an epitaph: "Having eaten much and drank much and +said much evil of other men, here I lie, Timocreon the Rhodian." + +6. IAMBIC POETRY, THE FABLE AND PARODY.--The kind of poetry known by the +ancients as Iambic was created among the Athenians by Archilochus at the +same time as the elegy. It arose at a period when the Greeks, accustomed +only to the calm, unimpassioned tone of the epos, had but just found a +temperate expression of lively emotion in the elegy. It was a light, +tripping measure, sometimes loosely constructed, or purposely halting and +broken, well adapted to vituperation, unrestrained by any regard to +morality and decency. At the public tables of Sparta keen and pointed +raillery was permitted, and some of the most venerable and sacred of their +religious rites afforded occasion for their unsparing and audacious jests. +This raillery was so ancient and inveterate a custom, that it had given +rise to a peculiar word, which originally denoted nothing but the jests +and banter used at these festivals, namely, _Iambus_. All the wanton +extravagance which was elsewhere repressed by law or custom, here, under +the protection of religion, burst forth with boundless license, and these +scurrilous effusions were at length reduced by Archilochus into the +systematic form of iambic metre. + +Akin to the iambic are two sorts of poetry, the fable and the parody, +which, though differing widely from each other, have both their source in +the turn for the delineation of the ludicrous, and both stand in close +historical relation to the iambic. The fable in Greece originated in an +intentional travesty of human affairs. It is probable that the taste for +fables of beasts and numerous similar inventions found its way from the +East, since this sort of symbolical narrative is more in accordance with +the Oriental than with the Greek character. Aesop (fl. 572 B.C.) was very +far from being regarded by the Greeks as one of their poets, and still +less as a writer. They considered him merely as an ingenious fabulist, to +whom, at a later period, nearly all fables, that were invented or derived +from any other source, were attributed. He was a slave, whose wit and +pleasantry procured him his freedom, and who finally perished in Delphi, +where the people, exasperated by his sarcastic fables, put him to death on +a charge of robbing the temple. No metrical versions of these fables are +known to have existed in early times. + +The word "parody" means an adoption of the form of some celebrated poem +with such changes as to produce a totally different effect, and generally +to substitute mean and ridiculous for elevated and poetical sentiments. +"The Battle of the Frogs and Mice," attributed to Homer, but bearing +evident traces of a later age, belongs to this species of poetry. + +7. GREEK MUSIC AND LYRIC POETRY.--It was not until the minds of the Greeks +had been elevated by the productions of the epic muse, that the genius of +original poets broke loose from the dominion of the epic style, and +invented new forms for expressing the emotions of a mind profoundly +agitated by passing events; with few innovations in the elegy, but with +greater boldness in the iambic metre. In these two forms, Greek poetry +entered the domain of real life. The elegy and iambus contain the germ of +the lyric style, though they do not themselves come under that head. The +Greek lyric poetry was characterized by the expression of deeper and more +impassioned feeling, and a more impetuous tone than the elegy and iambus, +and at the same time the effect was heightened by appropriate vocal and +instrumental music, and often by the figures of the dance. In this union +of the sister arts, poetry was indeed predominant, yet music, in its turn, +exercised a reciprocal influence on poetry, so that as it became more +cultivated, the choice of the musical measure decided the tone of the +whole poem. + +The history of Greek music begins with Terpander the Lesbian (fl. 670 +B.C.), who was many times the victor in the musical contests at the +Pythian temple of Delphi. He added three new strings to the cithara, which +had consisted only of four, and this heptachord was employed by Pindar, +and remained long in high repute; he was also the first who marked the +different tones in music. With other musicians, he united the music of +Asia Minor with that of the ancient Greeks, and founded on it a system in +which each style had its appropriate character. By the efforts of +Terpander and one or two other masters, music was brought to a high degree +of excellence, and adapted to express any feeling to which the poet could +give a more definite character and meaning, and thus they had solved the +great problem of their art. It was in Greece the constant endeavor of the +great poets, thinkers, and statesmen who interested themselves in the +education of youth, to give a good direction to this art; they all dreaded +the increasing prevalence of a luxuriant style of instrumental music and +an unrestricted flight into the boundless realms of harmony. + +The lyric poetry of the Greeks was of two kinds, and cultivated by two +different schools of poets. One, called the Aeolic, flourished among the +Aeolians of Asia Minor, and particularly in the island of Lesbos; the +other, the Doric, which, although diffused over the whole of Greece, was +at first principally cultivated by the Dorians. These two schools differed +essentially in the subjects, as in the form and style of their poems. The +Doric was intended to be executed by choruses', and to be sung to choral +dances; while the Aeolic was recited by a single person, who accompanied +his recitation with a stringed instrument, generally the lyre. + +8. AEOLIC LYRIC POETS.--Alcaeus (fl. 611 B.C.), born in Mytilene in the +island of Lesbos, being driven out of his native city for political +reasons, wandered about the world, and, in the midst of troubles and +perils, struck the lyre and gave utterance to the passionate emotions of +his mind. His war-songs express a stirring, martial spirit; and a noble +nature, accompanied with strong passions, appears in all his poems, +especially in those in which he sings the praises of love and wine, though +little of his erotic poetry has reached our time. It is evident that +poetry was not with him a mere pastime or exercise of skill, but a means +of pouring out the inmost feelings of the soul. Sappho (fl. 600 B.C.) the +other leader of the Aeolic school of poetry, was the object of the +admiration of all antiquity. She was contemporary with Alcaeus, and in her +verses to him we plainly discern the feeling of unimpeached honor proper +to a free-born and well-educated maiden. Alcaeus testifies that the +attractions and loveliness of Sappho did not derogate from her moral worth +when he calls her "violet-crowned, pure, sweetly smiling Sappho." This +testimony is, indeed, opposed to the accounts of later writers, but the +probable cause of the false imputations in reference to Sappho seems to be +that the refined Athenians were incapable of appreciating the frank +simplicity with which she poured forth her feelings, and therefore they +confounded them with unblushing immodesty. While the men of Athens were +distinguished for their perfection in every branch of art, none of their +women emerged from the obscurity of domestic life. "That woman is the +best," says Pericles, "of whom the least is said among men, whether for +good or for evil." But the Aeolians had in some degree preserved the +ancient Greek manners, and their women enjoyed a distinct individual +existence and moral character. They doubtless participated in the general +high state of civilization, which not only fostered poetical talents of a +high order among women, but produced in them a turn for philosophical +reflection. This was so utterly inconsistent with Athenian manners, that +we cannot wonder that women, who had in any degree overstepped the bounds +prescribed to their sex at Athens, should be represented by the licentious +pen of Athenian comic writers as lost to every sense of shame and decency. +Sappho, in her odes, made frequent mention of a youth to whom she gave her +whole heart, while he requited her love with cold indifference; but there +is no trace of her having named the object of her passion. She may have +celebrated the beautiful and mythical Phaon in such a manner that the +verses were supposed to refer to a lover of her own. The account of her +leap from the Leucadian rock is rather a poetical image, than a real event +in the life of the poetess. The true conception of the erotic poetry of +Sappho can only be drawn from the fragments of her odes, which, though +numerous, are for the most part very short. Among them, we must +distinguish the Epithalamia or hymeneals, which were peculiarly adapted to +the genius of the poetess from the exquisite perception she seems to have +had of whatever was attractive in either sex. From the numerous fragments +that remain, these poems appear to have had great beauty and much of that +expression which the simple and natural manners of the times allowed, and +the warm and sensitive heart of the poetess suggested. That Sappho's fame +was spread throughout Greece, may be seen from the history of Solon, who +was her contemporary. Hearing his nephew recite one of her poems, he said +that he would not willingly die until he had learned it by heart. And, +doubtless, from that circle of accomplished women, of whom she formed the +brilliant centre, a flood of poetic light was poured forth on every side. +Among them may be mentioned the names of Damophila and Erinna, whose poem, +"The Spindle," was highly esteemed by the ancients. + +The genius of Anacreon (fl. 540 B.C.), though akin to that of Alcaeus and +Sappho, had an entirely different bent. He seems to consider life as +valuable only so far as it can be spent in wine, love, and social +enjoyment. The Ionic softness and departure from strict rule may also be +perceived in his versification. The different odes preserved under his +name are the productions of poets of a much later date. With Anacreon +ceased the species of lyric poetry in which he excelled; indeed, he stands +alone in it, and the tender softness of his song was soon drowned by the +louder tones of the choral poetry. + +The Scolia were a kind of lyric songs sung at social meals, when the +spirit was raised by wine and conversation to a lyrical pitch. The lyre or +a sprig of myrtle was handed round the table and presented to any one who +could amuse the company by a song or even a good sentence in a lyrical +form. + +9. DORIC, OR CHORAL LYRIC POETS.--The chorus was in general use in Greece +before the time of Homer, and nearly every variety of the choral poetry, +which was afterwards so brilliantly developed, existed at that remote +period in a rude, unfinished state. After the improvements made by +Terpander and others in musical art, choral poetry rapidly progressed +towards perfection. The poets during the period of progress were Alcman +and Stesichorus, while finished lyric poetry is represented by Ibycus, +Simonides, his disciple Bacchylides and Pindar. These great poets were +only the representatives of the fervor with which the religious festivals +inspired all classes. Choral dances were performed by the whole people +with great ardor and enthusiasm; every considerable town had its poet, who +devoted his whole life to the training and exhibition of choruses. + +Alcman (b. 660 B.C.) was a Lydian of Sardis, and an emancipated slave. His +poems exhibit a great variety of metre, of dialect, and of poetic tone. He +is regarded as having overcome the difficulties presented by the rough +dialect of Sparta, and as having succeeded in investing it with a certain +grace. He is one of the poets whose image is most effaced by time, and of +whom we can obtain little accurate knowledge. The admiration awarded him +by antiquity is scarcely justified by the extant remains of his poems. + +Stesichorus (fl. 611 B.C.) lived at a time when the predominant tendency +of the Greek mind was towards lyric poetry. His special business was the +training and direction of the choruses, and he assumed the name of +Stesichorus, or leader of choruses, his real name being Tesias. His metres +approach more nearly to the epos than those of Aleman. As Quintilian says, +he sustained the weight of epic poetry with the lyre. His language +accorded with the tone of his poetry, and he is not less remarkable in +himself, than as the precursor of the perfect lyric poetry of Pindar. + +Arion (625-585 B.C.) was chiefly known in Greece as the perfecter of the +"Dithyramb," a song of Bacchanalian festivals, doubtless of great +antiquity. Its character, like the worship to which it belonged, was +always impassioned and enthusiastic; the extremes of feeling, rapturous +pleasure, and wild lamentation were both expressed in it. + +Ibycus (b. 528 B.C.) was a wandering poet, as is attested by the story of +his death having been avenged by the cranes. His poetical style resembles +that of Stesichorus, as also his subjects. The erotic poetry of Ibycus is +most celebrated, and breathes a fervor of passion far exceeding that of +any similar production of Greek literature. + +Simonides (556-468 B.C.) has already been described as one of the great +masters of the elegy and epigram. In depth and novelty of ideas, and in +the fervor of poetic feeling, he was far inferior to his contemporary +Pindar, but he was probably the most prolific lyric poet of Greece. +According to the frequent reproach of the ancients, he was the first that +sold his poems for money. His style was not as lofty as that of Pindar, +hut what he lost in sublimity he gained in pathos. + +Bacchylides (fl. 450 B.C.), the nephew of Simonides, devoted his genius +chiefly to the pleasures of private life, love, and wine, and his +productions, when compared with those of Simonides, are marked by less +moral elevation. + +Timocreon the Rhodian (fl. 471 B.C.) owes his chief celebrity among the +ancients to the hate he bore to Themistocles in political life, and to +Simonides on the field of poetry. + +Pindar (522-435 B.C.) was the contemporary of Aeschylus, but as the causes +which determined his poetical character are to be sought in an earlier +age, and in the Doric and Aeolic parts of Greece, he may properly be +placed at the close of the early period, while Aeschylus stands at the +head of the new epoch of literature. Like Hesiod, Pindar was a native of +Boeotia, and that there was still much love for music and poetry there is +proved by the fact that two women, Myrtis and Corinna, had obtained great +celebrity in these arts during the youth of this poet. Myrtis (fl. 490 +B.C.) strove with him for the prize at the public games, and Corinna (fl. +490 B.C.) is said to have gained the victory over him five times. Too +little of the poetry of Corinna has been preserved to allow a judgment on +her style of composition. Pindar made the arts of poetry and music the +business of his life, and his fame soon spread throughout Greece and the +neighboring countries. He excelled in all the known varieties of choral +poetry, but the only class of poems that enable us to judge of his general +style is his triumphal odes. When a victory was gained in a contest at a +festival by the speed of horses, the strength and dexterity of the human +body, or by skill in music, such a victory, which shed honor not only on +the victor, but also on his family, and even on his native city, demanded +a public celebration. An occasion of this kind had always a religious +character, and often began with a procession to an altar or temple, where +a sacrifice was offered, followed by a banquet, and the solemnity +concluded with a merry and boisterous revel. At this sacred and at the +same time joyous festival, the chorus appeared and recited the triumphal +hymn, which was considered the fairest ornament of the triumph. Such an +occasion, a victory in the sacred games and its end, the ennobling of a +ceremony connected with the worship of the gods, required that the ode +should be composed in a lofty and dignified style. Pindar does not content +himself with celebrating the bodily prowess of the victor alone, but he +usually adds some moral virtue which he has shown, and which he recommends +and extols. Sometimes this virtue is moderation, wisdom, or filial love, +more often piety to the gods, and he expounds to the victor his destiny, +by showing him the dependence of his exploits on the higher order of +things. Mythical narratives occupy much space in these odes, for in the +time of Pindar the mythical past was invested with a splendor and +sublimity, of which even the faint reflection was sufficient to embellish +the present. + +10. ORPHIC DOCTRINES AND POEMS.--The interval between Homer and Pindar is +an important period in the history of Greek civilization. In Homer we +perceive that infancy of the mind which lives in seeing and imagining, and +whose moral judgments are determined by impulses of feeling rather than by +rules of conduct, while with Pindar the chief effort of his genius is to +discover the true standard of moral government. This great change of +opinion must have been affected by the efforts of many sages and poets. +All the Greek religious poetry, treating of death and of the world beyond +the grave, refers to the deities whose influence was supposed to be +exercised in the dark regions at the centre of the earth, and who had +little connection with the political and social relations of human life. +They formed a class apart from the gods of Olympus; the mysteries of the +Greeks were connected with their worship alone, and the love of +immortality first found support in a belief in these deities. The +mysteries of Demeter, especially those celebrated at Eleusis, inspired the +most animating hopes with regard to the soul after death. These mysteries, +however, had little influence on the literature of the nation; but there +was a society of persons called the followers of Orpheus, who published +their notions and committed them to literary works. Under the guidance of +the ancient mystical poet, Orpheus, they dedicated themselves to the +worship of Bacchus or Dionysus, in which they sought satisfaction for an +ardent longing after the soothing and elevating influences of religion, +and upon the worship of this deity they founded their hopes of an ultimate +immortality of the soul. Unlike the popular worshipers of Bacchus, they +did not indulge in unrestrained pleasure or frantic enthusiasm, but rather +aimed at an ascetic purity of life and manners. It is difficult to tell +when this association was formed in Greece, but we find in Hesiod +something of the Orphic spirit, and the beginning of higher and more +hopeful views of death. + +The endeavor to obtain a knowledge of divine and human things was in +Greece slowly and with difficulty evolved from their religious notions, +and it was for a long time confined to the refining and rationalizing of +their mythology. An extensive Orphic literature first appeared at the time +of the Persian war, when the remains of the Pythagorean order in Magna +Graecia united themselves to the Orphic associations. The philosophy of +Pythagoras, however, had no analogy with the spirit of the Orphic +mysteries, in which the worship of Dionysus was the centre of all +religious ideas, while the Pythagorean philosophers preferred the worship +of Apollo and the Muses. In the Orphic theogony we find, for the first +time, the idea of creation. Another difference between the notions of the +Orphic poets and those of the early Greeks was that the former did not +limit their views to the present state of mankind, still less did they +acquiesce in Hesiod's melancholy doctrine of successive ages, each one +worse than the preceding; but they looked for a cessation of strife, a +state of happiness and beatitude at the end of all things. Their hopes of +this result were founded on Dionysus, from the worship of whom all their +peculiar religious ideas were derived. This god, the son of Zeus, is to +succeed him in the government of the world, to restore the Golden Age, and +to liberate human souls, who, according to an Orphic notion, are punished +by being confined in the body as in a prison. The sufferings of the soul +in its prison, the steps and transitions by which it passes to a higher +state of existence, and its gradual purification and enlightenment, were +all fully described in these poems. Thus, in the poetry of the first five +centuries of Greek literature, especially at the close of this period, we +find, instead of the calm enjoyment of outward nature which characterized +the early epic poetry, a profound sense of the misery of human life, and +an ardent longing for a condition of greater happiness. This feeling, +indeed, was not so extended as to become common to the whole Greek nation, +but it took deep root in individual minds, and was connected with more +serious and spiritual views of human nature. + +11. PRE-SOCRATIC PHILOSOPHY.--Philosophy was early cultivated by the +Greeks, who first among all nations distinguished it from religion and +mythology. For some time, however, after its origin, it was as far removed +from the ordinary thoughts and occupations of the people as poetry was +intimately connected with them. Poetry idealizes all that is most +characteristic of a nation; its religion, mythology, political and social +institutions, and manners. Philosophy, on the other hand, begins by +detaching the mind from the opinions and habits in which it has been bred +up, from the national conceptions of the gods and the universe, and from +traditionary maxims of ethics and politics. The philosophy of Greece, +antecedent to the time of Socrates, is contained in the doctrines of the +Ionic, Eleatic, and Pythagorean. schools. Thales of Miletus (639-548 +B.C.) was the first in the series of the Ionic philosophers. He was one of +the Seven Sages, who by their practical wisdom nobly contributed to the +flourishing condition of Greece. Thales, Solon, Bion (fl. 570 B.C.), +Cleobulus (fl. 542 B.C.), Periander (fl. 598 B.C.), Pittacus of Mytilene +(579 B.C.), and Chilon (fl. 542 B.C.), were the seven philosophers called +the seven sages by their countrymen. Thales is said to have foretold an +eclipse of the sun, for which he doubtless employed astronomical formulae, +which he had obtained from the Chaldeans. His tendency was practical, and +where his own knowledge was insufficient, he applied the discoveries of +other nations more advanced than his own. He considered all nature as +endowed with life, and sought to discover the principles of external forms +in the powers which lie beneath; he taught that water was the principle of +things. Anaximander (fl. 547 B.C.), and Anaximenes (fl. 548 B.C.) were the +other two most distinguished representatives of the Ionic school. The +former believed that chaotic matter was the principle of all things, the +latter taught that it was air. The Eleatic school is represented by +Xenophanes, Parmenides, and Zeno. As the philosophers of the first school +were called Ionians from the country in which they resided, so these were +named from Elea, a Greek colony of Italy. Xenophanes (fl. 538 B.C.), the +founder of this school, adopted a different principle from that of the +Ionic philosophers, and proceeded upon an ideal system, while that of the +latter was exclusively founded upon experience. He began with the idea of +the godhead, and showed the necessity of considering it as an eternal and +unchanging existence, and represented the anthropomorphic conceptions of +the Greeks concerning their gods as mere prejudices. In his works he +retained the poetic form of composition, some fragments of which he +himself recited at public festivals, after the manner of the rhapsodists. +Parmenides flourished 504 years B.C. His philosophy rested upon the idea +of existence which excluded the idea of creation, and thus fell into +pantheism. His poem on "Nature" was composed in the epic metre, and in it +he expressed in beautiful forms the most abstract ideas. Zeno of Elea (fl. +500 B.C.) was a pupil of Parmenides, and the earliest prose writer among +the Greek philosophers. He developed the doctrines of his master by +showing the absurdities involved in the ideas of variety and of creation, +as opposed to one and universal substance. Other philosophers belonging to +Iona or Elea may be referred to these schools, as Heraclitus, Empedocles, +Democritus, and Anaxagoras, whose doctrines, however, vary from those of +the representatives of the philosophical systems above named. Heraclitus +(fl. 505 B.C.) dealt rather in intimations of important truths than in +popular exposition of them; his cardinal doctrine seems to have been that +everything is in perpetual motion, that nothing has any permanent +existence, and that everything is assuming a new form or perishing: the +principle of this perpetual motion he supposed to be _fixe_, though +probably he did not mean material fire, but some higher and more universal +agent. Like nearly all the philosophers, he despised the popular religion. +Empedocles (fl. 440 B.C.) wrote a doctrinal poem concerning nature, +fragments of which have been preserved. He denied the possibility of +creation, and held the doctrine of an eternal and imperishable existence; +but he considered this existence as having different natures, and admitted +that fire, earth, air, and water were the four elements of all things. +These elements he supposed to be governed by two principles, one positive +and one negative, that is to say, connecting love and dissolving discord. +Democritus (fl. 460 B.C.) embodied his extensive knowledge in a series of +writings, of which only a few fragments have been preserved. Cicero +compared him with Plato for rhythm and elegance of language. He derived +the manifold phenomena of the world from the different form, disposition, +and arrangement of the innumerable elements or atoms as they become +united. He is the founder of the atomic doctrine. Anaxagoras (fl. 456 +B.C.) rejected all popular notions of religion, excluded the idea of +creation and destruction, and taught that atoms were unchangeable and +imperishable; that spirit, the purest and subtlest of all things, gave to +these atoms the impulse by which they took the forms of individual things +and beings; and that this impulse was given in circular motion, which kept +the heavenly bodies in their courses. But none of his doctrines gave so +much offence or was considered so clear a proof of his atheism as his +opinion that the sun, the bountiful god Helios, who shines both upon +mortals and immortals, was a mass of red-hot iron. His doctrines tended +powerfully by their rapid diffusion to undermine the principles on which +the worship of the ancient gods rested, and they therefore prepared the +way for the subsequent triumph of Christianity. + +The Pythagorean or Italic School was founded by Pythagoras, who is said to +have flourished between 540 and 500 B.C. Pythagoras was probably an Ionian +who emigrated to Italy, and there established his school. His principal +efforts were directed to practical life, especially to the regulation of +political institutions, and his influence was exercised by means of +lectures, or sayings, or by the establishment and direction of the +Pythagorean associations. He encouraged the study of mathematics and +music, and considered singing to the cithara as best fitted to produce +that mental repose and harmony of soul which he regarded as the highest +object of education. + +12. HISTORY.--It is remarkable that a people so cultivated as the Greeks +should have been so long without feeling the want of a correct record of +their transactions in war and peace. The difference between this nation +and the Orientals, in this respect, is very great. But the division of the +country into numerous small states, and the republican form of the +governments, prevented a concentration of interest on particular events +and persons, and owing to the dissensions between the republics, their +historical traditions could not but offend some while they flattered +others; it was not until a late period that the Greeks considered +contemporary events as worthy of being thought or written of. But for this +absence of authentic history, Greek literature could never have become +what it was. By the purely fictitious character of its poetry, and its +freedom from the shackles of particular truths, it acquired that general +probability which led Aristotle to consider poetry as more philosophical +than history. Greek art, likewise, from the lateness of the period at +which it descended from the representation of gods and heroes to the +portraits of real men, acquired a nobleness and beauty of form which it +could not otherwise have obtained. This poetical basis gave the literature +of the Greeks a noble and liberal turn. + +Writing was probably known in Greece some centuries before the time of +Cadmus of Miletus (fl. 522 B.C.), but it had not been employed for the +purpose of preserving any detailed historical record, and even when, +towards the end of the age of the Seven Sages (550 B.C.), some writers of +historical narratives began to appear, they did not select recent +historical events, but those of distant times and countries; so entirely +did they believe that oral tradition and the daily discussions of common +life were sufficient records of the events of their own time and country. +Cadmus of Miletus is mentioned as the first historian, but his works seem +to have been early lost. To him, and other Greek historians before the +time of Herodotus, scholars have given the name of Logographers, from +Logos, signifying any discourse in prose. + +The first Greek to whom it occurred that a narrative of facts might be +made intensely interesting was Herodotus (484-432 B.C.), a native of +Halicarnassus in Asia Minor, the Homer of Greek history. Obliged, for +political reasons, to leave his native land, he visited many countries, +such as Egypt, Babylon, and Persia, and spent the latter years of his life +in one of the Grecian settlements in Italy, where he devoted himself to +the composition of his work. His travels were undertaken from the pure +spirit of inquiry, and for that age they were very extensive and +important. It is probable that his great and intricate plan, hitherto +unknown in the historical writings of the Greeks, did not at first occur +to him, and that it was only in his later years that he conceived the +complete idea of a work so far beyond those of his predecessors and +contemporaries. It is stated that he recited his history at different +festivals, which is quite credible, though there is little authority for +the story that at one of these Thucydides was present as a boy, and shed +tears, drawn forth by his own desire for knowledge and his intense +interest in the narrative. His work comprehends a history of nearly all +the nations of the world at that time known. It has an epic character, not +only from the equable and uninterrupted flow of the narrative, but also +from certain pervading ideas which give a tone to the whole. The principal +of these is the idea of a fixed destiny, of a wise arrangement of the +world, which has prescribed to every being his path, and which allots ruin +and destruction not only to crime and violence, but to excessive power and +riches and the overweening pride which is their companion. In this +consists the envy of the gods so often mentioned by Herodotus, and usually +called by the other Greeks the divine Nemesis. He constantly adverts in +his narrative to the influence of this divine power, the Daemonion, as he +calls it. He shows how the Deity visits the sins of the ancestors upon +their descendants, how man rushes, as it were, wilfully upon his own +destruction, and how oracles mislead by their ambiguity, when interpreted +by blind passion. He shows his awe of the divine Nemesis by his moderation +and the firmness with which he keeps down the ebullitions of national +pride. He points out traits of greatness of character in the hostile kings +of Persia, and shows his countrymen how often they owed their successes to +Providence and external advantages rather than to their own valor and +ability. Since Herodotus saw the working of a divine agency in all human +events, and considered the exhibition of it as the main object of his +history, his aim is totally different from that of a historian who regards +the events of life merely with reference to men. He is, in truth, a +theologian and a poet as well as a historian. It is, however, vain to deny +that when Herodotus did not see himself the events which he describes, he +is often deceived by the misrepresentations of others; yet, without his +single-hearted simplicity, his disposition to listen to every remarkable +account, and his admiration for the wonders of the Eastern world, +Herodotus would never have imparted to us many valuable accounts. Modern +travelers, naturalists, and geographers have often had occasion to admire +the truth, and correctness of the information contained in his simple and +marvelous narratives. But no dissertation on this writer can convey any +idea of the impression made by reading his work; his language closely +approximates to oral narration; it is like hearing a person speak who has +seen and lived through a variety of remarkable things, and whose greatest +delight consists in recalling these images of the past. Though a Dorian by +birth, he adopted the Ionic dialect, with its uncontracted terminations, +its accumulated vowels, and its soft forms. These various elements +conspire to render the work of Herodotus a production as perfect in its +kind as any human work can be. + + +PERIOD SECOND. + +THE EPOCH OF THE ATHENIAN LITERATURE (484-322 B.C.). + +1. LITERARY PREDOMINANCE OF ATHENS.--Among the Greeks a national +literature was early formed. Every literary work in the Greek language, in +whatever dialect it might be composed, was enjoyed by the whole nation, +and the fame of remarkable writers soon spread throughout Greece. Certain +cities were considered almost as theatres, where the poets and sages could +bring their powers and acquirements into public notice. Among these, +Sparta stood highest down to the time of the Persian war. But when Athens, +raised by her political power and the mental qualities of her citizens, +acquired the rank of the capital of Greece, literature assumed a different +form, and there is no more important epoch in the history of the Greek +intellect than the time when she obtained this pre-eminence over her +sister states. The character of the Athenians peculiarly fitted them to +take this lead; they were Ionians, and the boundless resources and +mobility of the Ionian spirit are shown by their astonishing productions +in Asia Minor and in the islands, in the two centuries previous to the +Persian war; in their iambic and elegiac poetry, and in the germs of +philosophic inquiry and historical composition. The literature of those +who remained in Attica seemed poor and meagre when compared with that +luxuriant outburst; nor did it appear, till a later period, that the +progress of the Athenian intellect was the more sound and lasting. The +Ionians of Asia Minor, becoming at length enfeebled and corrupted by the +luxuries of the East, passed easily under the power of the Persians, while +the inhabitants of Attica, encompassed and oppressed by the manly tribes +of Greece, and forced to keep the sword constantly in their hands, exerted +all their talents and thus developed all their extraordinary powers. + +Solon, the great lawgiver, arose to combine moral strictness and order +with freedom of action. After Solon came the dominion of the +Pisistratidae, which lasted from about 560 to 510 B.C. They showed a +fondness for art, diffused a taste for poetry among the Athenians, and +naturalized at Athens the best literary productions of Greece. They were +unquestionably the first to introduce the entire recital of the Iliad and +Odyssey; they also brought to Athens the most distinguished lyric poets of +the time, Anacreon, Simonides, and others. But, notwithstanding their +patronage of literature and art, it was not till after the fall of their +dynasty that Athens shot up with a vigor that can only be derived from the +consciousness of every citizen that he has a share in the common weal. + +It is a remarkable fact that Athens produced her most excellent works in +literature and art in the midst of the greatest political convulsions, and +of her utmost efforts for conquest and self-preservation. The long +dominion of the Pisistratids produced nothing more important than the +first rudiments of the tragic drama, for the origin of comedy at the +country festivals of Bacchus falls in the time before Pisistratus. On the +other hand, the thirty years between the expulsion of Hippias, the last of +the Pisistratids, and the battle of Salamis (510-480 B.C.), was a period +marked by great events both in politics and literature. Athens contended +with success against her warlike neighbors, supported the Ionians in their +revolt against Persia, and warded off the first powerful attack of the +Persians upon Greece. During the same period, the pathetic tragedies of +Phrynichus and the lofty tragedies of Aeschylus appeared on the stage, +political eloquence was awakened in Themistocles, and everything seemed to +give promise of future greatness. + +The political events which followed the Persian war gradually gave to +Athens the dominion over her allies, so that she became the sovereign of a +large and flourishing empire, comprehending the islands and coasts of the +Aegean and a part of the Euxine sea. In this manner was gained a wide +basis for the lofty edifice of political glory, which was raised by her +statesmen. The completion of this splendid structure was due to Pericles +(500-429 B.C.). Through his influence Athens became a dominant community, +whose chief business it was to administer the affairs of an extensive +empire, flourishing in agriculture, industry, and commerce. Pericles, +however, did not make the acquisition of power the highest object of his +exertions; his aim was to realize in Athens the idea which he had +conceived of human greatness, that great and noble thoughts should pervade +the whole mass of the ruling people; and this was, in fact, the case as +long as his influence lasted, to a greater degree than has occurred in any +other period of history. The objects to which Pericles directed the +people, and for which he accumulated so much power and wealth at Athens, +may be best seen in the still extant works of architecture and sculpture +which originated under his administration. He induced the Athenian people +to expend on the decoration of Athens a larger part of its ample revenues +than was ever applied to this purpose in any other state, either +republican or monarchical. Of the surpassing skill with which he collected +into one focus the rays of artistic genius at Athens, no stronger proof +can be afforded, than the fact that no subsequent period, through the +patronage of Macedonian or Roman princes, produced works of equal +excellence, Indeed, it may be said that the creations of the age of +Pericles are the only works of art which completely satisfy the most +refined and cultivated taste. + +But this brilliant exhibition of human excellence was not without its dark +side, nor the flourishing state of Athenian civilization exempt from the +elements of decay. The political position of Athens soon led to a conflict +between the patriotism and moderation of her citizens, and their interests +and passions. From the earliest times, this city had stood in an +unfriendly relation to the rest of Greece, and her policy of compelling so +many cities to contribute their wealth in order to make her the focus of +art and civilization was accompanied with offensive pride and selfish +patriotism. The energy in action, which distinguished the Athenians, +degenerated into a restless love of adventure; and that dexterity in the +use of words, which they cultivated more than the other Greeks, induced +them to subject everything to discussion, and destroyed the habits founded +on unreasoning faith. The principles of the policy of Pericles were +closely connected with the demoralization which followed his +administration. By founding the power of the Athenians on the dominion of +the sea, he led them to abandon land war and the military exercises +requisite for it, which had hardened the old warriors at Marathon. As he +made them a dominant people, whose time was chiefly devoted to the +business of governing their widely-extended empire, it was necessary for +him to provide that the common citizens of Athens should be able to gain a +livelihood by their attention to public business, and accordingly, a large +revenue was distributed among them in the form of wages for attendance in +the courts of justice and other public assemblies. These payments to +citizens for their share in the public business were quite new in Greece, +and many considered the sitting and listening in these assemblies as an +idle life in comparison with the labor of the plowman and vine-grower in +the country, and for a long time the industrious cultivators, the brave +warriors, and the men of old-fashioned morality were opposed, among the +citizens of Athens, to the loquacious, luxurious, and dissolute generation +who passed their whole time in the market-place and courts of justice. The +contests between these two parties are the main subject of the early Attic +comedy. + +Literature and art, however, were not, during the Peloponnesian war, +affected by the corruption of morals. The works of this period exhibit not +only a perfection of form but also an elevation of soul and a grandeur of +conception, which fill us with admiration not only for those who produced +them, but for those who could enjoy such works of art. A step farther, and +the love of genuine beauty gave place to a desire for evil pleasures, and +the love of wisdom degenerated into an idle use of words. + +2. THE DRAMA.--The spirit of an age is more completely represented by its +poetry than by its prose composition, and accordingly we may best trace +the character of the three different stages of civilization among the +Greeks in the three grand divisions of their poetry. The epic belongs to +their monarchical period, when the minds of the people were impregnated +and swayed by legends handed down from antiquity. Elegiac, iambic, and +lyric poetry arose in the more stirring and agitated times which +accompanied the development of republican governments, times in which each +individual gave vent to his personal aims and wishes, and all the depths +of the human breast were unlocked by the inspirations of poetry. And now, +when at the summit of Greek civilization, in the very prime of Athenian +power and freedom, we see dramatic poetry spring up as the organ of the +prevailing thoughts and feelings of the time, we are naturally led to ask +how it comes that this style of poetry agreed so well with the spirit of +the age, and so far outstripped its competitors in the contest for public +favor. + +Dramatic poetry, as its name implies, represents _actions_, which are not, +as in the epos, merely narrated, but seem to take place before the eyes of +the spectator. The epic poet appears to regard the events, which he +relates from afar, as objects of calm contemplation and admiration, and is +always conscious of the great interval between him and them, while the +dramatist plunges with his entire soul into the scenes of human life, and +seems himself to experience the events which he exhibits to our view. The +drama comprehends and develops the events of human life with a force and +depth which no other style of poetry can reach. + +If we carry ourselves in imagination back to a time when dramatic +composition was unknown, we must acknowledge that its creation required +great boldness of mind. Hitherto the bard had only sung of gods and +heroes; it was, therefore, a great change for the poet himself to come +forward all at once in the character of the god or hero, in a nation +which, even in its amusements, had always adhered closely to established +usages. It is true that there is much in human nature which impels it to +dramatic representations, such as the universal love of imitating other +persons, and the child-like liveliness with which a narrator, strongly +impressed with his subject, delivers a speech which he has heard or +perhaps only imagined. Yet there is a wide step from these disjointed +elements to the genuine drama, and it seems that no nation, except the +Greeks, ever made this step. The dramatic poetry of the Hindus belongs to +a time when there had been much intercourse between Greece and India; even +in ancient Greece and Italy, dramatic poetry, and especially tragedy, +attained to perfection only in Athens, and here it was exhibited only at a +few festivals of a single god, Dionysus, while epic rhapsodies and lyric +odes were recited on various occasions. All this is incomprehensible, if +we suppose dramatic poetry to have originated in causes independent of the +peculiar circumstances of time and place. If a love of imitation and a +delight in disguising the real person under a mask were the basis upon +which this style of poetry was raised, the drama would have been as +natural and as universal among men as these qualities are common to their +nature. + +A more satisfactory explanation of the origin of the Greek drama may be +found in its connection with the worship of the gods, and particularly +that of Bacchus. The gods were supposed to dwell in their temples and to +participate in their festivals, and it was not considered presumptuous or +unbecoming to represent them as acting like human beings, as was +frequently done by mimic representations. The worship of Bacchus had one +quality which was more than any other calculated to give birth to the +drama, and particularly to tragedy, namely, the enthusiasm which formed an +essential part of it, and which proceeded from an impassioned sympathy +with the events of nature in connection with the course of the seasons. +The original participators in these festivals believed that they perceived +the god to be really affected by the changes of nature, killed or dying, +flying and rescued, or reanimated, victorious, and dominant. Although the +great changes, which took place in the religion and cultivation of the +Greeks, banished from their minds the conviction that these events really +occurred, yet an enthusiastic sympathy with the god and his fortunes, as +with real events, always remained. The swarm of subordinate beings by whom +Bacchus was surrounded--satyrs, nymphs, and a variety of beautiful and +grotesque forms--were ever present to the fancy of the Greeks, and it was +not necessary to depart very widely from the ordinary course of ideas to +imagine them visible to human eyes among the solitary woods and rocks. The +custom, so prevalent at the festivals of Bacchus, of taking the disguise +of satyrs, doubtless originated in the desire to approach more nearly to +the presence of their divinity. The desire of escaping from self into +something new and strange, of living in an imaginary world, broke forth in +a thousand instances in those festivals. It was seen in the coloring of +the body, the wearing of skins and masks of wood or bark, and in the +complete costume belonging to the character. + +The learned writers of antiquity agree in stating that tragedy, as well as +comedy, was originally a choral song. The action, the adventures of the +gods, was presupposed or only symbolically indicated; the chorus expressed +their feelings upon it. This choral song belonged to the class of the +_dithyramb_, an enthusiastic ode to Bacchus, capable of expressing every +variety of feeling excited by the worship of that god. It was first sung +by revelers at convivial meetings, afterwards it was regularly executed by +a chorus. The subject of these tragic choruses sometimes changed from +Bacchus to other heroes distinguished for their misfortunes and suffering. +The reason why the dithyramb and afterwards tragedy was transferred from +that god to heroes and not to other gods of the Greek Olympus, was that +the latter were elevated above the chances of fortune and the alternations +of joy and grief to which both Bacchus and the heroes were subject. + +It is stated by Aristotle, that tragedy originated with the chief singers +of the dithyramb. It is probable that they represented Bacchus himself or +his messengers, that they came forward and narrated his perils and +escapes, and that the chorus then expressed their feeling, as at passing +events. The chorus thus naturally assumed the character of satellites of +Bacchus, whence they easily fell into the parts of satyrs, who were his +companions in sportive adventures, as well as in combats and misfortunes. +The name of tragedy, or goat's song, was derived from the resemblance of +the singers, in their character of satyrs, to goats. + +Thus far tragedy had advanced among the Dorians, who, therefore, +considered themselves the inventors of it. All its further development +belongs to the Athenians. In the time of Pisistratus, Thespis (506 B.C.) +first caused tragedy to become a drama, though a very simple one. He +connected with the choral representation a regular dialogue, by joining +one person to the chorus who was the _first actor_. He introduced linen +masks, and thus the one actor might appear in several characters. In the +drama of Thespis we find the satyric drama confounded with tragedy, and +the persons of the chorus frequently representing satyrs. The dances of +the chorus were still a principal part of the performance; the ancient +tragedians, in general, were teachers of dancing, as well as poets and +musicians. + +In Phrynichus (fl. 512 B.C.) the lyric predominated over the dramatic +element. Like Thespis, he had only one actor, but he used this actor for +different characters, and he was the first who brought female parts upon +the stage, which, according to the manners of the ancients, could be acted +only by men. In several instances it is remarkable that Phrynichus +deviated from mythical subjects to those taken from contemporary history. + +3. TRAGEDY.--The tragedy of antiquity was entirely different from that +which, in progress of time, arose among other nations; a picture of human +life, agitated by the passions, and corresponding as accurately as +possible to its original in all its features. Ancient tragedy departs +entirely from ordinary life; its character is in the highest degree ideal, +and its development necessary, and essentially directed by the fate to +which gods and men were subjected. As tragedy and dramatic exhibitions, +generally, were seen only at the festivals of Bacchus, they retained a +sort of Bacchic coloring, and the extraordinary excitement of all minds at +these festivals, by raising them above the tone of every-day existence, +gave both to the tragic and comic muse unwonted energy and fire. + +The Bacchic festal costume, which the actors wore, consisted of long +striped garments reaching to the ground, over which were thrown upper +garments of some brilliant color, with gay trimmings and gold ornaments. +The choruses also vied with each other in the splendor of their dress, as +well as in the excellence of their singing and dancing. The chorus, which +always bore a subordinate part in the action of the tragedy, was in no +respect distinguished from the stature and appearance of ordinary men, +while the actor, who represented the god or hero, required to be raised +above the usual dimensions of mortals. A tragic actor was a strange, and, +according to the taste of the ancients themselves at a later period, a +very monstrous being. His person was lengthened out considerably beyond +the proportions of the human figure by the very high soles of the tragic +shoe, and by the length of the tragic mask, and the chest, body, legs, and +arms were stuffed and padded to a corresponding size; the body thus lost +much of its natural flexibility, and the gesticulation consisted of stiff, +angular movements, in which little was left to the emotion or the +inspiration of the moment. Masks, which had originated in the taste for +mumming and disguises of all sorts, prevalent at the Bacchic festivals, +were an indispensable accompaniment to tragedy. They not only concealed +the individual features of well-known actors, and enabled the spectators +entirely to forget the performer in his part, but gave to his whole aspect +that ideal character which the tragedy of antiquity demanded. The tragic +mask was not intentionally ugly and caricatured like the comic, but the +half-open mouth, the large eye-sockets, and sharply-defined features, in +which every characteristic was presented in its utmost strength, and the +bright and hard coloring were calculated to make the impression of a being +agitated by the emotions and passions of human nature in a degree far +above the standard of common life. The masks could, however, be changed +between the acts, so as to represent the necessary changes in the state or +emotions of the persons. + +The ancient theatres were stone buildings of enormous size, calculated to +accommodate the whole free and adult population of a great city at the +spectacles and festal games. These theatres were not designed exclusively +for dramatic poetry; choral dances, processions, revels, and all sorts of +representations were held in them. We find theatres in every part of +Greece, though dramatic poetry was the peculiar growth of Athens. + +The whole structure of the theatre, as well as the drama itself, may be +traced to the chorus, whose station was the original centre of the whole +performance. The orchestra, which occupied a circular level space in the +centre of the building, grew out of the chorus or dancing-place of the +Homeric times. The altar of Bacchus, around which the dithyrambic chorus +danced in a circle, had given rise to a sort of raised platform in the +centre of the orchestra, which served as a resting-place for the chorus. + +The chorus sang alone when the actors had quitted the stage, or +alternately with the persons of the drama, and sometimes entered into +dialogues with them. These persons represented heroes of the mythical +world, whose whole aspect bespoke something mightier and more sublime than +ordinary humanity, and it was the part of the chorus to show the +impression made by the incidents of the drama on lower and feebler minds, +and thus, as it were, to interpret them to the audience, with whom they +owned a more kindred nature. The ancient stage was remarkably long, and of +little depth; it was called the _proscenium_, because it was in front of +the _scene_. _Scene_ properly means _tent_ or _hut_, such as originally +marked the dwelling of the principal person. This hut at length gave place +to a stately scene, enriched with architectural decorations, yet its +purpose remained the same. + +We have seen how a single actor was added to the chorus by Thespis, who +caused him to represent in succession all the persons of the drama. +Aeschylus added a second actor in order to obtain the contrast of two +acting persons on the stage; even Sophocles did not venture beyond the +introduction of a third. But the ancients laid more stress upon the +precise number and mutual relations of these actors than can here be +explained. + +4. THE TRAGIC POETS.--Aeschylus (525-477 B.C.), like almost all the great +masters of poetry in ancient Greece, was a poet by profession, and from +the great improvements which he introduced into tragedy he was regarded by +the Athenians as its founder. Of the seventy tragedies which he is said to +have written, only seven are extant. Of these, the "Prometheus" is beyond +all question his greatest work. The genius of Aeschylus inclined rather to +the awful and sublime, than to the tender and pathetic. He excels in +representing the superhuman, in depicting demigods and heroes, and in +tracing the irresistible march of fate. The depth of poetical feeling in +him is accompanied with intense and philosophical thought; he does not +merely represent individual tragical events, but he recurs to the greater +elements of tragedy--the subjection of the gods and Titans, and the +original dignity and greatness of nature and of man. He delights to +portray this gigantic strength, as in his Prometheus chained and tortured, +but invincible; and these representations have a moral sublimity far above +mere poetic beauty. His tragedies were at once political, patriotic, and +religious. + +Sophocles (495-406 B.C.), as a poet, is universally allowed to have +brought the drama to the highest degree of perfection of which it was +susceptible. Indeed, the Greek mind may be said to have culminated in him; +his writings overflow with that indescribable charm which only flashes +through those of other poets. His plots are worked up with more skill and +care than those of either of his great rivals, Aeschylus or Euripides, and +he added the last improvement to the form of the drama by the introduction +of a third actor,--a change which greatly enlarged the scope of the +action. Of the many tragedies which he is said to have written, only seven +are extant. Of these, the "Oedipus Tyrannus" is particularly remarkable +for its skillful development, and for the manner in which the interest of +the piece increases through each succeeding act. Of all the poets of +antiquity, Sophocles has penetrated most deeply into the recesses of the +human heart. His tragedies appear to us as pictures of the mind, as +poetical developments of the secrets of our souls, and of the laws to +which their nature makes them amenable. + +In Euripides (480-407 B.C.) we discover the first traces of decline in the +Greek tragedy. He diminished its dignity by depriving it of its ideal +character, and by bringing it down to the level of every-day life. All the +characters of Euripides have that loquacity and dexterity in the use of +words which distinguished the Athenians of his day; yet in spite of all +these faults he has many beauties, and is particularly remarkable for +pathos, so that Aristotle calls him the most tragic of poets. Eighteen of +his tragedies are still extant. + +The contemporaries of the three great tragic poets, Aeschylus, Sophocles, +and Euripides, must be regarded for the most part as far from +insignificant, since they maintained their place on the stage beside them, +and not unfrequently gained the tragic prize in competition with them; yet +the general character of these poets must have been deficient in that +depth and peculiar force of genius by which these great tragedians were +distinguished. If this had not been the case, their works would assuredly +have attracted greater attention, and would have been read mere frequently +in later times. + +5. COMEDY.--Greek comedy was distinguished as the Old, the Middle, and the +New. As tragedy arose from the winter feast of Bacchus, which fostered an +enthusiastic sympathy with the apparent sorrows of the god of nature, +comedy arose from the concluding feast of the vintage, at which an +exulting joy over the inexhaustible riches of nature manifested itself in +wantonness of every kind. In such a feast, the Comus, or Bacchanalian +procession, was a principal ingredient. This was a tumultuous mixture of +the wild carouse, the noisy song, and the drunken dance; and the meaning +of the word comedy is a comus _song_. It was from this lyric comedy that +the dramatic comedy was gradually produced. It received its full +development from Cratinus, who lived in the age of Pericles. Cratinus and +his younger contemporaries, Eupolis (431 B.C.) and Aristophanes (452-380 +B.C.), were the great poets of the old Attic comedy. Of their works, only +eleven dramas of Aristophanes are extant. The chief object of these +comedies was to excite laughter by the boldest and most ludicrous +caricature, and, provided that end was obtained, the poet seems to have +cared little about the justice of the picture. It is scarcely possible to +imagine the unmeasured and unsparing license of attack assumed by these +comedies upon the gods, the institutions, the politicians, philosophers, +poets, private citizens, and women of Athens. With this universal liberty +of subject there is combined a poignancy of derision and satire, a +fecundity of imagination, and a richness of poetical expression such as +cannot be surpassed. Towards the end of the career of Aristophanes, +however, this unrestricted license of the comedy began gradually to +disappear. + +The Old comedy was succeeded by the Middle Attic comedy, in which the +satire was no longer directed against the influential men or rulers of the +people, but was rich in ridicule of the Platonic Academy, of the newly +revived sect of the Pythagoreans, and of the orators, rhetoricians, and +poets of the day. In this transition from the Old to the Middle comedy, we +may discern at once the great revolution that had taken place in the +domestic history of Athens, when the Athenians, from a nation of +politicians, became a nation of literary men; when it was no longer the +opposition of political ideas, but the contest of opposing schools of +philosophers and rhetoricians, which set all heads in motion. The poets of +this comedy were very numerous. + +The last poets of the Middle comedy were contemporaries of the writers of +the New, who rose up as their rivals, and who were only distinguished from +them by following the new tendency more decidedly and exclusively. +Menander (342-293 B.C.) was one of the first of these poets, and he is +also the most perfect of them. The Athens of his day differed from that of +the time of Pericles, in the same way that an old man, weak in body but +fond of life, good-humored and self-indulgent, differs from the vigorous, +middle-aged man at the summit of his mental strength and bodily energy. +Since there was so little in politics to interest or to employ the mind, +the Athenians found an object in the occurrences of social life and the +charm of dissolute enjoyment. Dramatic poetry now, for the first time, +centred in love, as it has since done among all nations to whom the Greek +cultivation has descended. But it certainly was not love in those nobler +forms to which it has since elevated itself. Menander painted truly the +degenerate world in which he lived, actuated by no mighty impulses, no +noble aspirations. He was contemporary with Epicurus, and their characters +had much in common; both were deficient in the inspiration of high moral +ideas. + +The comedy of Menander and his contemporaries completed what Euripides had +begun on the tragic stage a hundred years before their time. They deprived +their characters of that ideal grandeur which had been most conspicuous in +the creations of Aeschylus and the earlier poets, and thus tragedy and +comedy, which had started from such different beginnings, here met as at +the same point. The comedies of Menander may be considered as almost the +conclusion of Attic literature; he was the last original poet of Athens; +those who arose at a later period were but gleaners after the rich harvest +of Greek poetry had been gathered. + +6. ORATORY, RHETORIC, AND HISTORY.--We may distinguish three epochs in the +history of Attic prose from Pericles to Alexander the Great: first, that +of Pericles and Thucydides; second, that of Lysias, Socrates, and Plato; +and, third, that of Demosthenes and Aeschines. Public speaking had been +common in Greece from the earliest times, but as the works of Athenian +orators alone have come down to us, we may conclude that oratory was +cultivated in a much higher degree at Athens than elsewhere. No speech of +Pericles has been preserved in writing; only a few of his emphatic and +nervous expressions were kept in remembrance; but a general impression of +the grandeur of his oratory long prevailed among the Greeks, from which we +may form a clear conception of his style. The sole object of the oratory +of Pericles was to produce conviction; he did not aim to excite any sudden +or transient burst of passion by working on the emotions of the heart; nor +did he use any of those means employed by the orators of a later age to +set in motion the unruly impulses of the multitude. His manner was +tranquil, with hardly any change of feature; his garments were undisturbed +by any oratorical gesticulations, and his voice was equable and sustained. +He never condescended to flatter the people, and his dignity never stooped +to merriment. Although there was more of reasoning than imagination in his +speeches, he gave a vivid and impressive coloring to his language by the +use of striking metaphors and comparisons, as when, at the funeral of a +number of young persons who had fallen in battle, he used the beautiful +figure, that "the year had lost its spring." + +The cultivation of the art of oratory among the Athenians was due to a +combination of the natural eloquence displayed by the Athenian statesmen, +and especially by Pericles, with the rhetorical studies of the sophists, +who exercised a greater influence on the culture of the Greek mind than +any other class of men, the poets excepted. The sophists, as their name +indicates, were persons who made knowledge their profession, and undertook +to impart it to every one who was willing to place himself under their +guidance; they were reproached with being the first to sell knowledge for +money, for they not only demanded pay from those who came to hear their +lectures, but they undertook, for a certain sum, to give young men a +complete sophistical education. Pupils flocked to them in crowds, and they +acquired such riches as neither art nor science had ever before earned +among the Greeks. If we consider their doctrines philosophically, they +amounted to a denial or renunciation of all true science. They were able +to speak with equal plausibility for and against the same position; not in +order to discover the truth, but to show the nothingness of truth. In the +improvement of written composition, however, a high value must be set on +their services. They made language the object of their study; they aimed +at correctness and beauty of style, and they laid the foundation for the +polished diction of Plato and Demosthenes. They taught that the sole aim +of the orator is to turn the minds of his hearers into such a train as may +best suit his own interest; that, consequently, rhetoric is the agent of +persuasion, the art of all arts, because the rhetorician is able to speak +well and convincingly on every subject, though he may have no accurate +knowledge respecting it. + +The Peloponnesian war, which terminated in the downfall of Athens, was +succeeded by a period of exhaustion and repose. The fine arts were checked +in their progress, and poetry degenerated into empty bombast. Yet at this +very time prose literature began a new career, which led to its fairest +development. + +Lysias and Isocrates gave an entirely new form to oratory by the happy +alterations which they in different ways introduced into the old prose +style. Lysias (fl. 359 B.C.), in the fiftieth year of his age, began to +follow the trade of writing speeches for such private individuals as could +not trust their own skill in addressing a court; for this object, a plain, +unartificial style was best suited, because citizens who called in the aid +of the speech-writer had no knowledge of rhetoric, and thus Lysias was +obliged to originate a style, which became more and more confirmed by +habit. The consequence was, that for his contemporaries and for all ages +he stands forth as the first and in many respects the perfect pattern of a +plain style. The narrative part of the speech, for which he was +particularly famous, is always natural, interesting, and lively, and often +relieved by mimic touches which give it a wonderful air of reality. The +proofs and confutations are distinguished by a clearness of reasoning and +a boldness of argument which leave no room for doubt; in a word, the +speeches are just what they ought to be in order to obtain a favorable +decision, an object in which, it seems, he often succeeded. Of his many +orations, thirty-five have come down to us. + +Isocrates (fl. 338 B.C.) established a school for political oratory, which +became the first and most flourishing in Greece. His orations were mostly +destined for this school. Though neither a great statesman nor philosopher +in himself, Isocrates constitutes an epoch as a rhetorician or artist of +language. His influence extended far beyond the limits of his own school, +and without his reconstruction of the style of Attic oratory we could have +had no Demosthenes and no Cicero; through these, the school of Isocrates +has extended its influence even to the oratory of our own day. + +The verdict of his contemporaries, ratified by posterity, has pronounced +Demosthenes (380-322 B.C.) the greatest orator that has ever lived, yet he +had no natural advantages for oratory. A feeble frame and a weak voice, a +shy and awkward manner, the ungraceful gesticulations of one whose limbs +had never been duly exercised, and a defective articulation, would have +deterred most men from even attempting to address an Athenian assembly; +but the ambition and perseverance of Demosthenes enabled him to triumph +over every disadvantage. He improved his bodily powers by running, his +voice by speaking aloud as he walked up hill, or declaimed against the +roar of the sea; he practiced graceful delivery before a looking-glass, +and controlled his unruly articulation by speaking with pebbles in his +mouth. His want of fluency he remedied by diligent composition, and by +copying and committing to memory the works of the best authors. By these +means he came forth as the acknowledged leader of the assembly, and, even +by the confession of his deadliest enemies, the first orator of Greece. +His harangues to the people, and his speeches on public and private +causes, which have been preserved, form a collection of sixty-one +orations. The most important efforts of Demosthenes, however, were the +series of public speeches referring to Philip of Macedon, and known as the +twelve Philippics, a name which has become a general designation for +spirited invectives. The main characteristic of his eloquence consisted in +the use of the common language of his age and country. He took great pains +in the choice and arrangement of his words, and aimed at the utmost +conciseness, making epithets, even common adjectives, do the work of a +whole sentence, and thus, by his perfect delivery and action, a sentence +composed of ordinary terms sometimes smote with the weight of a sledge- +hammer. In his orations there is not any long or close train of reasoning, +still less any profound observations or remote and ingenious allusions, +but a constant succession of remarks, bearing immediately on the matter in +hand, perfectly plain, and as readily admitted as easily understood. These +are intermingled with the most striking appeals either to feelings which +all were conscious of, and deeply agitated by, though ashamed to own, or +to sentiments which every man was panting to utter and delighted to hear +thundered forth,--bursts of oratory, which either overwhelmed or relieved +the audience. Such characteristics constituted the principal glory of the +great orator. + +The most eminent of the contemporaries of Demosthenes were Isaeus (420-348 +B.C.), an artificial and elaborate orator; Lycurgus (393-328 B.C.), a +celebrated civil reformer of Athens; Hypereides, contemporary of Lycurgus; +and, above all, Aeschines (389-314 B.C.), the great rival of Demosthenes, +of whose numerous speeches only three have been preserved. At a later +period we find two schools of rhetoric, the Attic, founded by Aeschines, +and the Asiatic, established by Hegesias of Magnesia. The former proposed +as models of oratory the great Athenian orators, the latter depended on +artificial manners, and produced speeches distinguished rather by +rhetorical ornaments and a rapid flow of diction than by weight and force +of style. + +In the historical department, Thucydides (471-391 B.C.) began an entirely +new class of historical writing. While Herodotus aimed at giving a vivid +picture of all that fell under the cognizance of the senses, and +endeavored to represent a superior power ruling over the destinies of +princes and people, the attention of Thucydides was directed to human +action, as it is developed from the character and situation of the +individual. His history, from its unity of action, may be considered as a +historical drama, the subject being the Athenian domination over Greece, +and the parties the belligerent republics. Clearness in the narrative, +harmony and consistency of the details with the general history, are the +characteristics of his work; and in his style he combines the concise and +pregnant oratory of Pericles with the vigorous but artificial style of the +rhetoricians. Demosthenes was so diligent a student of Thucydides that he +copied out his history eight times. + +Xenophon (445-391 B.C.) may also be classed among the great historians, +his name being most favorably known from the "Anabasis," in which he +describes the retreat of the ten thousand Greek mercenaries in the service +of Cyrus, the Persian king, among whom he himself played a prominent part. +The minuteness of detail, the picturesque simplicity of the style, and the +air of reality which pervades it, have made it a favorite with every age. +In his memorials of Socrates, he records the conversations of a man whom +he had admired and listened to, but whom he did not understand. In the +language of Xenophon we find the first approximation to the common +dialect, which became afterwards the universal language of Greece. He +wrote several other works, in which, however, no development of one great +and pervading idea can be found; but in all of them there is a singular +clearness and beauty of description. + +7. SOCRATES AND THE SOCRATIC SCHOOLS.--Although Socrates (468-399 B.C.) +left no writings behind him, yet the intellect of Greece was powerfully +affected by the principles of his philosophy, and the greatest literary +genius that ever appeared in Hellas owed most of his mental training to +his early intercourse with him. It was by means of conversation, by a +searching process of question and answer, that Socrates endeavored to lead +his pupils to a consciousness of their own ignorance, and thus to awaken +in their minds an anxiety to obtain more exact views. This method of +questioning he reduced to a scientific process, and "dialectics" became a +name for the art of reasoning and the science of logic. The subject-matter +of this method was moral science considered with special reference to +politics. To him may be justly attributed induction and general +definitions, and he applied this practical logic to a common-sense +estimate of the duties of man both as a moral being and as a member of a +community, and thus he first treated moral philosophy according to +scientific principles. No less than ten schools of philosophers claimed +him as their head, though the majority of them imperfectly represented his +doctrines. By his influence on Plato, and through him on Aristotle, he +constituted himself the founder of the philosophy which is still +recognized in the civilized world. + +From the doctrine held by Socrates, that virtue was dependent on +knowledge, Eucleides of Megara (fl. 398 B.C.), the founder of the Megaric +school, submitted moral philosophy to dialectical reasoning and logical +refinements; and from the Socratic principle of the union between virtue +and happiness, Aristippus of Cyrene (fl. 396 B.C.) deduced the doctrine +which became the characteristic of the Cyrenian school, affirming that +pleasure was the ultimate end of life and the higher good; while +Antisthenes (fl. 396 B.C.) constructed the Cynic philosophy, which placed +the ideal of virtue in the absence of every need, and hence in the +disregarding of every interest, wealth, honor, and enjoyment, and in the +independence of any restraints of life and society. Diogenes of Sinope +(fl. 300 B.C.) was one of the most prominent followers of this school. He, +like his master, Antisthenes, always appeared in the most beggarly +clothing, with the staff and wallet of mendicancy; and this ostentation of +self-denial drew from Socrates the exclamation, that he saw the vanity of +Antisthenes through the holes in his garments. + +Plato (429-348 B.C.) was the only--one of the disciples of Socrates who +represented the whole doctrines of his teacher. We owe to him that the +ideas which Socrates awakened have been made the germ of one of the +grandest systems of speculation that the world has ever seen, and that it +has been conveyed to us in literary compositions which are unequaled in +refinement of conception, or in vigor and gracefulness of style. At the +age of nineteen he became one of the pupils and associates of Socrates, +and did not leave him until that martyr of intellectual freedom drank the +fatal cup of hemlock. He afterwards traveled in Asia Minor, in Egypt, in +Italy, and Sicily, and made himself acquainted with all contemporary +philosophy. During the latter part of his life he was engaged as a public +lecturer on philosophy. His lectures were delivered in the gardens of the +Academia, and they have left proof of their celebrity in the structure of +language, which has derived from them a term now common to all places of +instruction. Of the importance of the Socratic and Pythagorean elements in +Plato's philosophy there can be no doubt; but he transmuted all he touched +into his own forms of thought and language, and there was no branch of +speculative literature which he had not mastered. By adopting the form of +dialogue, in which all his extant works have come down to us, he was +enabled to criticise the various systems of philosophy then current in +Greece, and also to gratify his own dramatic genius, and his almost +unrivaled power of keeping up an assumed character. The works of Plato +have been divided into three classes: first, the elementary dialogues, or +those which contain the germs of all that follows, of logic as the +instrument of philosophy, and of ideas as its proper object; second, +progressive dialogues, which treat of the distinction between +philosophical and common knowledge, in their united application to the +proposed and real sciences, ethics, and physics; third, the constructive +dialogues, in which the practical is completely united with the +speculative, with an appendix containing laws, epistles, etc. + +The fundamental principle of Plato's philosophy is the belief in an +eternal and self-existent cause, the origin of all things. From this +divine Being emanate not only the souls of men, which are immortal, but +that of the universe itself, which is supposed to be animated by a divine +spirit. The material objects of our sight, and other senses, are mere +fleeting emanations of the divine idea; it is only this idea itself that +is really existent; the objects of sensuous perception are mere +appearances, taking their forms by participation in the idea; hence it +follows, that in Plato's philosophy all knowledge is innate, and acquired +by the soul before birth, when it was able to contemplate real existences, +and all our ideas of this world are mere reminiscences of their true and +eternal patterns. The belief of Plato in the immortality of the soul +naturally led him to establish a high standard of moral excellence, and, +like his great teacher, he constantly inculcates temperance, justice, and +purity of life. His political views are developed in the "Republic" and in +the "Laws," in which the main feature of his system is the subordination, +or rather the entire sacrifice of the individual to the state. + +The style of Plato is in every way worthy of his position in universal +literature, and modern scholars have confirmed the encomium of Aristotle, +that all his dialogues exhibit extraordinary acuteness, elaborate +elegance, bold originality, and curious speculation. In Plato, the powers +of imagination were just as conspicuous as those of reasoning and +reflection; he had all the chief characteristics of a poet, especially of +a dramatic poet, and if his rank as a philosopher had been lower than it +is, he would still have ranked high among dramatic writers for his life- +like representations of the personages whose opinions he wished to combat +or to defend. + +Aristotle (384-322 B.C.) occupies a position among the leaders of human +thought not inferior to that of his teacher, Plato. He was a native of +Stagyra, in Macedonia, and is hence often called the Stagyrite. He early +repaired to Athens, and became a pupil of Plato, who called him the soul +of his school. He was afterwards invited by Philip of Macedon to undertake +the literary education of Alexander, at that time thirteen years old. This +charge continued about three years. He afterwards returned to Athens, +where he opened his school in a gymnasium called the Lyceum, delivering +his lessons as he walked to and fro, and from these saunters his scholars +were called Peripatetics, or saunterers. During this period he composed +most of his extant works. Alexander placed at his disposal a large sum for +his collections in natural history, and employed some thousands of men in +procuring specimens for his museum. After the death of Alexander, he was +accused of blasphemy to the gods, and, warned by the fate of Socrates, he +withdrew from Athens to Chalcis, where he afterwards died. + +In looking at the mere catalogue of the works of Aristotle, we are struck +with his vast range of knowledge. He aimed at nothing less than the +completion of a general encyclopedia of philosophy. He was the author of +the first scientific cultivation of each science, and there was hardly any +quality distinguishing a philosopher as such, which he did not possess in +an eminent degree. Of all the philosophical systems of antiquity, that of +Aristotle was the best adapted to the physical wants of mankind. His works +consisted of treatises on natural, moral, and political philosophy, +history, rhetoric, criticism,--indeed, there was scarcely a branch of +knowledge which his vast and comprehensive genius did not embrace. His +greatest claim to our admiration is as a logician. He perfected and +brought into form those elements of the dialectic art which had been +struck out by Socrates and Plato, and wrought them, by his additions, into +so complete a system, that he may be regarded as, at once, the founder and +perfecter of logic as an art, which has since, even down to our own days, +been but very little improved. The style of Aristotle has nothing to +attract those who prefer the embellishments of a work to its subject- +matter and the scientific results which it presents. + + +PERIOD THIRD. + +EPOCH OF THE DECLINE OF GREEK LITERATURE, 322 B.C.-1453 A.D. + +1. ORIGIN OF THE ALEXANDRIAN LITERATURE.--As the literary predominance of +Athens was due mainly to the political importance of Attica, the downfall +of Athenian independence brought with it a deterioration, and ultimately +an extinction of that intellectual centralization which for more than a +century had fostered and developed the highest efforts of the genius and +culture of the Greeks. While the living literature of Greece was thus +dying away, the conquests of Alexander prepared a new home for the muses +on the coast of that wonderful country, to which all the nations of +antiquity had owed a part of their science and religious belief. In Egypt, +as in other regions, Alexander gave directions for the foundation of a +city to be called after his own name, which became the magnificent +metropolis of the Hellenic world. This capital was the residence of a +family who attracted to their court all the living representatives of the +literature of Greece, and stored up in their enormous library all the best +works of the classical period. It was chiefly during the reigns of the +first three Ptolemies that Alexandria was made the new home of Greek +literature. Ptolemy Soter (306-285 B.C.) laid the foundations of the +library, and instituted the museum, or temple of the muses, where the +literary men of the age were maintained by endowments. This encouragement +of literature was continued by Ptolemy Philadelphus (285-247 B.C.). He had +the celebrated Callimachus for his librarian, who bought up not only the +whole of Aristotle's great collection of works, but transferred the native +annals of Egypt and Judea to the domain of Greek literature by employing +the priest Manetho to translate the hieroglyphics of his own temple- +archives into the language of the court, and by procuring from the +Sanhedrim of Jerusalem the first part of that celebrated version of the +Hebrew sacred books, which was afterwards completed and known as the +Septuagint, or version of the Seventy. Ptolemy Euergetes (247-222 B.C.) +increased the library by depriving the Athenians of their authentic +editions of the great dramatists. In the course of time the library +founded at Pergamos was transferred to Egypt, and thus we are indebted to +the Ptolemies for preserving to our times all the best specimens of Greek +literature which have come down to us. This encouragement of letters, +however, called forth no great original genius; but a few eminent men of +science, many second-rate and artificial poets, and a host of grammarians +and literary pedants. + +2. THE ALEXANDRIAN POETS.--Among the poets of the period, Philetas, +Callimachus, Lycophron, Apollonius, and the writers of idyls, Theocritus, +Bion, and Moschus are the most eminent. The founder of a school of poetry +at Alexandria, and the model for imitation with the Roman writers of +elegiac poetry, was Philetas of Cos (fl. 260 B. C), whose extreme +emaciation of person exposed him to the imputation of wearing lead in the +soles of his shoes, lest he should be blown away. He was chiefly +celebrated as an elegiac poet, in whom ingenious, elegant, and harmonious +versification took the place of higher poetry. Callimachus (fl. 260 B.C.) +was the type of an Alexandrian man of letters, distinguished by skill +rather than genius, the most finished specimen of what might be effected +by talent, learning, and ambition, backed by the patronage of a court. He +was a living representative of the great library over which he presided; +he was not only a writer of all kinds of poetry, but a critic, grammarian, +historian, and geographer. Of his writings, a few poems only are extant. +Next to Callimachus, as a representative of the learned poetry of +Alexandria, stands the dramatist Lycophron (fl. 250 B.C.). All his works +are lost, with the exception of the oracular poem called the "Alexandra," +or "'Cassandra," on the merits of which very opposite opinions are +entertained. Apollonius, known as the Rhodian (fl. 240 B.C.), was a native +of Alexandria, and a pupil of Callimachus, through whose influence he was +driven from his native city, when he established himself in the island of +Rhodes, where he was so honored and distinguished that he took the name of +the Rhodian. On the death of Callimachus, he was appointed to succeed him +as librarian at Alexandria. His reputation depends on his epic poem, the +"Argonautic Expedition." + +Of all the writers of the Alexandrian period, the bucolic poets have +enjoyed the most popularity. Their pastoral poems were called Idyls, from +their pictorial and descriptive character, that is, little pictures of +common life, a name for which the later writers have sometimes substituted +the term Eclogues, that is, _selections_, which is applicable to any short +poem, whether complete and original, or appearing as an extract. The name +of Idyls, however, was afterwards applicable to pastoral poems. Theocritus +(fl. 272 B.C.) gives his name to the most important of these extant +bucolics. He had an original genius for poetry of the highest kind; the +absence of the usual affectation of the Alexandrian school, constant +appeals to nature, a fine perception of character, and a keen sense of +both the beautiful and the ludicrous, indicate the high order of his +literary talent, and account for his universal and undiminished +popularity. The two other bucolic poets of the Alexandrian school were +Bion (fl. 275 B.C.), born near Smyrna, and his pupil Moschus of Syracuse +(fl. 273 B.C.). It appears, from an elegy by Moschus, that Bion migrated +from Asia Minor to Sicily, where he was poisoned. He wrote harmonious +verses with a good deal of pathos and tenderness, but he is as inferior to +Theocritus as he is superior to Moschus, whose artificial style +characterizes him rather as a learned versifier than a true poet. + +3. PROSE WRITERS OF ALEXANDRIA.--Many of the most eminent poets were also +prose writers, and they exhibited their versatility by writing on almost +every subject of literary interest. The progress of prose writing +manifested itself from grammar and criticism to the more elaborate and +learned treatment of history and chronology, and to observations and +speculations in pure and mixed mathematics. Demetrius the Phalerian (fl. +295 B.C.), Zenodotus (fl. 279 B.C.), Aristophanes (fl. 200 B.C.), and +Aristarchus (fl. 156 B.C.), the three last of whom were successively +intrusted with the management of the Library, were the representatives of +the Alexandrian school of grammar and criticism. They devoted themselves +chiefly to the revision of the text of Homer, which was finally +established by Aristarchus. + +In the historical department may be mentioned Ptolemy Soter, who wrote the +history of the wars of Alexander the Great; Apollodorus (fl. 200 B.C.), +whose "Bibliotheca" contains a general sketch of the mystic legends of the +Greeks; Eratosthenes (fl. 235 B.C.), the founder of scientific chronology +in Greek history; Manetho (fl. 280 B.C.), who introduced the Greeks to a +knowledge of the Egyptian religion and annals; and Berosus of Babylon, his +contemporary, whose work, fragments of which were preserved by Josephus, +was known as the "Babylonian Annals." While the Greeks of Alexandria thus +gained a knowledge of the religious books of the nations conquered by +Alexander, the same curiosity, combined with the necessities of the Jews +of Alexandria, gave birth to the translation of the Bible into Greek, +known under the name of Septuagint, which has exercised a more lasting +influence on the civilized world than that of any book that has ever +appeared in a new tongue. The beginning of that translation was probably +made in the reigns of the first Ptolemies (320-249 B.C.), while the +remainder was completed at a later period. + +The wonderful advance, which took place in pure and applied mathematics, +is chiefly due to the learned men who settled in Alexandria; the greatest +mathematicians and the most eminent founders of scientific geography were +all either immediately or indirectly connected with the school of +Alexandria. Euclid (fl. 300 B.C.) founded a famous school of geometry in +that city, in the reign of the first Ptolemy. Almost the only incident of +his life which is known to us is a conversation between him and that king, +who, having asked if there was no easier method of learning the science, +is said to have been told by Euclid, that "there was no royal path to +geometry." His most famous work is his "Elements of Pure Mathematics," at +the present time a manual of instruction and the foundation of all +geometrical treatises. Archimedes (287-212 B.C.) was a native of Syracuse, +in Sicily, but he traveled to Egypt at an early age, and studied +mathematics there in the school of Euclid. He not only distinguished +himself as a pure mathematician and astronomer, and as the founder of the +theory of statics, but he discovered the law of specific gravity, and +constructed some of the most useful machines in the mechanic arts, such as +the pulley and the hydraulic screw. His works are written in the Doric +dialect. Apollonius of Perga (221-204 B.C.) distinguished himself in the +mathematical department by his work on "Conic Elements." Eratosthenes was +not only prominent in the science of chronology, but was also the founder +of astronomical geography, and the author of many valuable works in +various branches of philosophy. Hipparchus (fl. 150 B.C.) is considered +the founder of the science of exact astronomy, from his great work, the +"Catalogue of the Fixed Stars," his discovery of the precession of the +equinoxes, and many other valuable astronomical observations and +calculations. + +4. ALEXANDRIAN PHILOSOPHY.--Athens, which had been the centre of Greek +literature during the second or classical period of its development, had +now, in all respects but one, resigned the intellectual leadership to the +city of the Ptolemies. While Alexandria was producing a series of learned +poets, scholars, and discoverers in science, Athenian literature was +mainly represented by the establishment of certain forms of mental and +moral philosophy founded on the various Socratic schools. Two schools of +philosophy were established at Athens at the time of the death of +Aristotle: that of the Academy, in which he himself had studied, and that +of the Lyceum, which he had founded, as the seat of his peripatetic +system. But the older schools soon reappeared under new names: the +Megarics, with an infusion of the doctrines of Democritus, revived in the +skeptic philosophy of Pyrrhon (375-285 B.C.). Epicurus (342-370 B.C.) +founded the school to which he gave his name, by a similar combination of +Democritean philosophy with the doctrines of the Cyrenaics; the Cynics +were developed into Stoics by Zeno (341-260 B.C.), who borrowed much from +the Megaric school and from the Old Academy; and, finally, the Middle and +New Academy arose from a combination of doctrines which were peculiar to +many of these sects. + +Though these different schools, which flourished at Athens, had early +representatives in Alexandria, their different doctrines, coming in +contact with the ancient religious systems of the Persians, Jews, and +Hindus, underwent essential modifications, and gave birth to a kind of +electicism, which became later an important element in the development of +Christian history. The rationalism of the Platonic school and the +supernaturalism of the Jewish Scriptures were chiefly mingled together, +and from this amalgamation sprang the system of Neo-Platonism. When the +early teachers of Christianity at Alexandria strove to show the harmony of +the Gospel with the great principles of the Greco-Jewish philosophy, it +underwent new modifications, and the Neo-Platonic school, which sprang up +in Alexandria three centuries B.C., was completed in the first and second +centuries of the Christian era. The common characteristic of the Neo- +Platonists was a tendency to mysticism. Some of them believed that they +were the subjects of divine inspiration and illumination; able to look +into the future and to work miracles. Philo-Judaeus (fl. 20 B.C.), +Numenius (fl. 150 A.D.), Ammonius Saccas (fl. 200 A.D.), Plotinus (fl, 260 +A.D.), Porphyry (fl. 260 A.D.), and several fathers of the Greek Church +are among the principal disciples of this school. + +5. ANTI-NEO-PLATONIC TENDENCIES.--While the Neo-Platonism of Alexandria +introduced into Greek philosophy Oriental ideas and tendencies, other +positive and practical doctrines also prevailed, founded on common sense +and conscience. First among these were the tenets of the Stoics, who owed +their system mainly and immediately to the teaching of Epictetus (fl. 60 +A.D.), who opposed the Oriental enthusiasm of the Neo-Platonists. He was +originally a slave, and became a prominent teacher of philosophy in Rome, +in the reign of Domitian. He left nothing in writing, and we are indebted +for a knowledge of his doctrines to Arrian, who compiled his lectures or +philosophical dissertations in eight books, of which only four are +preserved, and the "Manual of Epictetus," a valuable compendium of the +doctrines of the Stoics. The Emperor Marcus Aurelius not only lectured at +Rome on the principles of Epictetus, but he left us his private +meditations, composed in the midst of a camp, and exhibiting the serenity +of a mind which had made itself independent of outward actions and warring +passions within. Lucian (fl. 150 A.D.) may be compared to Voltaire, whom +he equaled in his powers both of rhetoric and ridicule, and surpassed in +his more conscientious and courageous love of truth. Though the results of +his efforts against heathenism were merely negative, he prepared the way +for Christianity by giving the death-blow to declining idolatry. Lucian, +as a man of letters, is on many accounts interesting, and in reference to +his own age and to the literature of Greece he is entitled to an important +position both with regard to the religious and philosophical results of +his works, and to the introduction of a purer Greek style, which he taught +and exemplified. Longinus (fl. 230 A.D.), both as an opponent of Neo- +Platonism and as a sound and sensible critic, occupies a position similar +to that of Lucian, in the declining period of Greek literary history. +During a visit to the East, he became known to Zenobia, queen of Palmyra, +who adopted the celebrated scholar as her instructor in the language and +literature of Greece, her adviser and chief minister; and when Palmyra +fell before the Roman power he was put to death by the Roman emperor. To +his treatise on "The Sublime" he is chiefly indebted for his fame. When +France, in the reign of Louis XIV., gave a tone to the literary judgments +of Europe, this work was translated by Boileau, and received by the wits +of Paris as an established manual in all that related to the sublime and +beautiful. + +6. GREEK LITERATURE IN ROME.--After the subjugation of Greece by the +Romans, Greek authors wrote in their own language and published their +works in Rome; illustrious Romans chose the idiom of Plato as the best +medium for the expression of their own thoughts; dramatic poets gained a +reputation by imitating the tragedies and comedies of Athens, and every +versifier felt compelled by fashion to revive the metres of ancient +Greece. This naturalization of Greek literature at Rome was due to the +rudeness and poverty of the national literature of Italy, to the influence +exerted by the Greek colonies, and to the political subjugation of Greece. +In Rome, Greek libraries were established by the Emperor Augustus and his +successors; and the knowledge of the Greek language was considered a +necessary accomplishment. Cicero made his countrymen acquainted with the +philosophical schools of Athens, and Rome became more and more the rival +of Alexandria, both as a receptacle for the best Greek writings and as a +seat of learning, where Greek authors found appreciation and patronage. +The Greek poets, who were fostered and encouraged at Rome, were chiefly +writers of epigrams, and their poems are preserved in the collections +called "Anthologies." The growing demand for forensic eloquence naturally +led the Roman orators to find their examples in those of Athens, and to +the study of rhetoric in the Grecian writers. + +Among the writers on rhetoric whose works seem to have produced the, +greatest effect at the beginning of the Roman period, we mention Dionysius +of Halicarnassus (fl. 7 B.C.). As a critic, he occupies the first rank +among the ancients. Besides his rhetorical treatises, he wrote a work on +"Roman Archaeology," the object of which was to show that the Romans were +not, after all, barbarians, as was generally supposed, but a pure Greek +race, whose institutions, religion, and manners were traceable to an +identity with those of the noblest Hellenes. + +What Dionysius endeavored to do for the gratification of his own +countrymen, by giving them a Greek version of Roman history, an +accomplished Jew, who lived about a century later, attempted, from the +opposite point of view, for his own fallen race, in a work which was a +direct imitation of that just described. Flavius Josephus (fl. 60 A.D.) +wrote the "Jewish Archaeology" in order to show the Roman conquerors of +Jerusalem that the Jews did not deserve the contempt with which they were +universally regarded. His "History of the Jewish Wars" is an able and +valuable work. + +At an earlier period, Polybius (204-122 B.C.) wrote to explain to the +Greeks how the power of the Romans had established itself in Greece. His +great work was a universal history, but of the forty books of which it +consisted only five have been preserved; perhaps no historical work has +ever been written with such definiteness of purpose or unity of plan, or +with such self-consciousness on the part of the writer. The object to +which he directs attention is the manner in which fortune or providence +uses the ability and energy of man as instruments in carrying out what is +predetermined, and specially the exemplification of these principles in +the wonderful growth of the Roman power during the fifty-three years of +which he treats. Taking his history as a whole, it is hardly possible to +speak in too high terms of it, though the style has many blemishes, such +as endless digressions, wearisome repetition of his own principles and +colloquial vulgarisms. + +Diodorus, a native of Sicily, generally known as the Sicilian (Siculus), +flourished in the time of the first two Caesars. In his great work, the +"Historical Library," it was his object to write a history of the world +down to the commencement of Caesar's Gallic wars. He is content to give a +bare recital of the facts, which crowded upon him and left him no time to +be diffuse or ornamental. + +The geography of Strabo (fl. 10 A.D.), which has made his name familiar to +modern scholars, has come down to us very nearly complete. Its merits are +literary rather than scientific. His object was to give an instructive and +readable account of the known world, from the point of view taken by a +Greek man of letters. His style is simple, unadorned, and unaffected. + +Plutarch (40-120 A.D.) may be classed among the philosophers as well as +among the historians. Though he has left many essays and works on +different subjects, he is best known as a biographer. His lives of +celebrated Greeks and Romans have made his name familiar to the readers of +every country. The universal popularity of his biographies is due to the +fact that they are dramatic pictures, in which each personage is +represented as acting according to his leading characteristics. + +Pausanias (fl. 184 A.D.), a professed describer of countries and of their +antiquities and works of art, in his "Gazetteer of Hellas" has left the +best repertory of information for the topography, local history, religious +observances, architecture, and sculpture of the different states of +Greece. + +Among the scientific men of this period we find Ptolemy, whose name for +more than a thousand years was coextensive with the sciences of astronomy +and geography. He was a native of Alexandria, and flourished about the +latter part of the second century. The best known of his works is his +"Great Construction of Astronomy." He was the first to indicate the true +shape of Spain, Gaul, and Ireland; as a writer, he deserves to be held in +high estimation. Galen (fl. 130 A.D.) was a writer on philosophy and +medicine, with whom few could vie in productiveness. It was his object to +combine philosophy with medical science, and his works for fifteen +centuries were received as oracular authorities throughout the civilized +world. + +7. CONTINUED DECLINE OF GREEK LITERATURE.--The adoption of the Christian +religion by Constantine, and his establishment of the seat of government +in his new city of Constantinople, concurred in causing the rapid decline +of Greek literature in the fourth and following centuries. Christianity, +no longer the object of persecution, became the dominant religion of the +state, and the profession of its tenets was the shortest road to influence +and honor. The old literature, with its mythological allusions, became +less and less fashionable, and the Greek poets, philosophers, and orators +of the better periods gradually lost their attractions. Greek, the +official language of Constantinople, was spoken there, with different +degrees of corruption, by Syrians, Bulgarians, and Goths; and thus, as +Christianity undermined the old classical literature, the political +condition of the capital deteriorated the language itself. Other causes +accelerated the decadence of Greek learning: the great library at +Alexandria, and the school which had been established in connection with +it, were destroyed at the end of the fourth century by the edict of +Theodosius, and the conquest of Egypt by the Saracens in the seventh +century only completed the work of destruction. Justinian closed the +schools of Athens, and prohibited the teaching of philosophy; the Arabs +overthrew those established elsewhere, and there remained only the +institutions of Constantinople. But long before the establishment of the +Turks on the ruins of the Byzantine empire, Greek literature had ceased to +claim any original or independent existence. The opposition between the +literary spirit of heathen Greece and the Christian scholarship of the +time of Constantine and his immediate successors, which grew up very +gradually, was the result of the Oriental superstitions which distorted +Christianity and disturbed the old philosophy. The abortive attempt of the +Emperor Julian to create a reaction in favor of heathenism was the cause +of the open antagonism between the classical and Christian forms of +literature. The church, however, was soon enabled not only to dictate its +own rules of literary criticism, but to destroy the writings of its most +formidable antagonists. The last rays of heathen cultivation in Italy were +extinguished in the gloomy dungeon of Boethius, and the period so justly +designated as the Dark Ages began both in eastern and western Europe. + +8. LAST ECHOES OF THE OLD LITERATURE--From the time when Christianity +placed itself in opposition to the old culture of heathen Greece and Rome, +down to the period of the revival of classical literature in the fifteenth +and sixteenth centuries, the classical spirit was nearly extinct both in +eastern and western Europe. In Italy, the triumph of barbarism was more +sudden and complete. In the eastern empire there was a certain literary +activity, and in the department of history, Byzantine literature was +conspicuously prolific. + +The imperial family of the Comneni, in the eleventh and twelfth centuries, +and the Palaeologi, who reigned from the thirteenth century to the end of +the eastern empire, endeavored to revive the taste for literature and +learning. But the echoes of the past became fainter and fainter, and when +Constantinople fell into the hands of the Turks, 1453 A.D., the wandering +Greeks who found their way into Italy could only serve as language-masters +to a race of scholars, who thus recovered the learning that had ceased to +exist among the Greeks themselves. + +The last manifestations of the old classical learning by the Alexandrian +school, which had done so much in the second and first centuries before +our era, may he divided into three classes. In the first are placed the +mathematical and geographical studies, which had been brought to such +perfection by Euclid, his successors, and after them by Ptolemy. In the +second class we have the substitution of prose romances for the bucolic +and erotic poetry of the Alexandrian and Sicilian writers. In the third +class the revival, by Nonnus and his followers, of a learned epos, of much +the same kind as the poems of Callimachus. Among the representatives of +the mathematical school of Alexandria was Theon, whose celebrity is +obscured by that of his daughter Hypatia (fl. 415 A.D.), whose sex, youth, +beauty, and cruel fate have made her a most interesting martyr of +philosophy. She presided in the public school at Alexandria, where she +taught mathematics and the philosophy of Ammonius and Plotinus. Her +influence over the educated classes of that city excited the jealousy of +the archbishop. She was given up to the violence of a superstitious and +brutal mob, attacked as she was passing through the streets in her +chariot, torn in pieces, and her mutilated body thrown to the flames. + +When rhetorical prose superseded composition in verse, the greater +facility of style naturally led to more detailed narratives, and the +sophist who would have been a poet in the time of Callimachus, became a +writer of prose romances in the final period of Greek literature. The +first ascertained beginning of this style of light reading, which occupies +so large a space in the catalogues of modern libraries, was in the time of +the Emperor Trajan, when a Syrian or Babylonian freedman, named +Iamblichus, published a love story called the "Babylonian Adventures." +Among his successors is Longus, of whose work, "The Lesbian Adventure," it +is sufficient to say, that it was the model of the "Diana" of Montemayor, +the "Aminta" of Tasso, the "Pastor Fido" of Guarini, and the "Gentle +Shepherd" of Allan Ramsay. + +While the sophists were amusing themselves by clothing erotic and bucolic +subjects in rhetorical prose, an Egyptian boldly revived the epos which +had been cultivated at Alexandria in the earliest days of the Museum. +Nonnus probably flourished at the commencement of the fifth century A.D. +His epic poem, which, in accordance with the terminology of the age, is +called "Dionysian Adventures," is an enormous farrago of learning on the +well-worked subject of Bacchus. The most interesting of the epic +productions of the school of Nonnus is the story of "Hero and Leander," in +340 verses, which bears the name of Musaeus. For grace of diction, +metrical elegance, and simple pathos, this little canto stands far before +the other poems of the same age. The Hero and Leander of Musaeus is the +dying swan-note of Greek poetry, the last distinct note of the old music +of Hellas. + +In the Byzantine literature, there are works which claim no originality, +but have a higher value than their contemporaries, because they give +extracts or fragments of the lost writings of the best days of Greece. +Next in value follow the lexicographers, the grammarians, and +commentators. The most voluminous department, however, of Byzantine +literature, was that of the historians, annalists, chroniclers, +biographers, and antiquarians, whose works form a continuous series of +Byzantine annals from the time of Constantine the Great to the taking of +the capital by the Turks. This literature was also enlivened by several +poets, and enriched by some writers on natural history and medicine. + +9. THE NEW TESTAMENT AND THE GREEK FATHERS.--The history of Greek +literature would be imperfect without some allusion to a class of writings +not usually included in the range of classical studies. The first of these +works, the Septuagint version of the Old Testament, before mentioned, and +the Greek Apocrypha, may properly be termed Hebrew-Grecian. Their spirit +is wholly at variance with that of pagan literature, and it cannot be +doubted that they exerted great influence when made known to the pagans of +Alexandria. Many of the books termed the Apocrypha were originally written +in Greek, and mostly before the Christian era. Many of them contain +authentic narratives, and are valuable as illustrating the circumstances +of the age to which they refer. The other class of writings alluded to +comprehends the works of the Christian authors. As the influence of +Christianity became more diffused during the first and second centuries, +its regenerating power became visible. After the time of Christ, there +appeared, in both the Greek and Latin tongues, works wholly different in +their spirit and character from all that is found in pagan literature. The +collection of sacred writings contained in the New Testament and the works +of the early fathers constitute a distinct and interesting feature in the +literature of the age in which they appeared. The writings of the New +Testament, considered simply in their literary aspect, are distinguished +by a simplicity, earnestness, naturalness, and beauty that find no +parallel in the literature of the world. But the consideration must not be +overlooked, that they were the work of those men who wrote as they were +moved of the Holy Ghost, that they contain the life and the teachings of +the great Founder of our faith, and that they come to us invested with +divine authority. Their influence upon the ages which have succeeded them +is incalculable, and it is still widening as the knowledge of Christianity +increases. The composition of the New Testament is historical, epistolary, +and prophetic. The first five books, or the historical division, contain +an account of the life and death of our Saviour, and some account of the +first movements of the Apostles. The epistolary division consists of +letters addressed by the Apostles to the different churches or to +individuals. The last, the book of Revelation, the only part that is +considered prophetic, differs from the others in its use of that +symbolical language which had been common to the Hebrew prophets, in the +sublimity and majesty of its imagery, and in its prediction of the final +and universal triumph of Christianity. + +The writings of the Apostolic Fathers, or the immediate successors of the +Apostles, were held in high estimation by the primitive Christians. Of +those who wrote under this denomination, the venerable Polycarp and +Ignatius, after they had both attained the age of eighty years, sealed +their faith in the blood of martyrdom. The former was burned at the stake +in Smyrna, and the latter devoured by lions in the amphitheatre of Rome, +In the second and third centuries, Christianity numbered among its +advocates many distinguished scholars and philosophers, particularly among +the Greeks. Their productions may be classed under the heads of biblical, +controversial, doctrinal, historical, and homiletical. Among the most +distinguished of the Greek fathers were Justin Martyr (fl. 89 A.D.), an +eminent Christian philosopher and speculative thinker; Clement of +Alexandria (fl. 190 A.D.), who has left us a collection of works, which, +for learning and literary talent, stand unrivaled among the writings of +the early Christian fathers; Origen (184-253 A.D.), who, in his numerous +works, attempted to reconcile philosophy with Christianity; Eusebius (fl. +325 A.D.), whose ecclesiastical history is ranked among the most valuable +remains of Christian antiquity; Athanasius, famous for his controversy +with Arius; Gregory Nazianzen (329-390 A.D.), distinguished for his rare +union of eloquence and piety, a great orator and theologian; Basil (329- +379 A.D.) whose works, mostly of a purely theological character, exhibit +occasionally decided proofs of his strong feeling for the beauties of +nature; and John Chrysostom (347-407 A.D.), the founder of the art of +preaching, whose extant homilies breathe a spirit of sincere earnestness +and of true genius. To these may be added Nemesius (fl. 400 A.D.), whose +work on the "Nature of Man" is distinguished by the purity of its style +and by the traces of a careful study of classical authors, and Synesius +(378-430 A.D.), who maintained the parallel importance of pagan and +Christian literature, and who has always been held in high estimation for +his epistles, hymns, and dramas. + + +MODERN LITERATURE. + +At the time of the fall of Constantinople, ancient Greek was still the +vehicle of literature, and as such it has been preserved to our day. After +the political changes of the present century, however, it was felt by the +best Greek writers that the old forms were no longer fitted to express +modern ideas, and hence it has become transfused with those better adapted +to the clear and rapid expression of modern literature, though at the same +time the body and substance, as well as the grammar, of the language have +been retained. + +From an early age, along with the literary language of Greece, there +existed a conversational language, which varied in different localities, +and out of this grew the Modern Greek or Neo-Hellenic. + +After the fall of Constantinople, the Greeks were prominent in spreading a +knowledge of their language through Europe, and but few works of +importance were produced. During the eighteenth century a revival of +enthusiasm for education and literature took place, and a period of great +literary activity has since followed. Perhaps no nation now produces so +much literature in proportion to its numbers, although the number of +readers is small and there are great difficulties in publishing. In these +circumstances, the Ralli and other distinguished Greeks have nobly come +forward and published books at their own expense, and great activity +prevails in every department of letters. + +Since the establishment of Greek independence, three writers have secured +for themselves a permanent place in literature as men of true genius: the +two brothers Panagiotis and Alexander Santsos, and Alexander Rangabé. The +brothers Santsos threw all their energies into the war for independence +and sang of its glories. Panagiotis (d. 1868) was always lyrical, and +Alexander (d. 1863) always satirical. Both were highly ideal in their +conceptions, and both had a rich command of musical language. The other +great poet of regenerated Greece is Alexander Rangabé, whose works range +through almost every department of literature, though it is on his poems +that his claim to remembrance will specially rest. They are distinguished +by fine poetic feeling, rare command of exquisite and harmonious language, +and singular beauty and purity of thought. His poetical works consist of +hymns, odes, songs, narrative poems, ballads, tragedies, comedies, and +translations. There is no department in prose literature which is not well +represented in modern Greek, and many women have particularly +distinguished themselves. + + + + +ROMAN LITERATURE. + +INTRODUCTION.--1. Roman Literature and its Divisions.--2. The Language; +Ethnographical Elements of the Latin Language; the Umbrian; Oscan; +Etruscan; the Old Roman Tongue; Saturnian Verse; Peculiarities of the +Latin Language.--3. The Roman Religion. + +PERIOD FIRST.--1. Early Literature of the Romans; the Fescennine Songs; +the Fabulae Atellanae.--2. Early Latin Poets; Livius Andronicus, Naevius, +and Ennius.--3. Roman Comedy.--4. Comic Poets; Plautus, Terence, and +Statius.--5. Roman Tragedy.--6. Tragic Poets; Pacuvius and Attius.--7. +Satire; Lucilius.--8. History and Oratory; Fabius Pictor; Cencius +Alimentus; Cato; Varro; M. Antonius; Crassus; Hortensius.--9. Roman +Jurisprudence.--10. Grammarians. + +PERIOD SECOND.--1. Development of the Roman Literature.--2. Mimes, +Mimographers, Pantomime; Laberius and P. Lyrus.--3. Epic Poetry; Virgil; +The Aeneid.--4. Didactic Poetry; the Bucolics; the Georgics; Lucretius.-- +5. Lyric Poetry; Catullus; Horace.--6. Elegy; Tibullus; Propertius; Ovid. +--7. Oratory and Philosophy; Cicero.--8. History; J. Caesar; Sallust; +Livy.--9. Other Prose Writers. + +PERIOD THIRD.--1. Decline of Roman Literature.--2. Fable; Phaedrus.--3. +Satire and Epigram; Persius, Juvenal, Martial.--4. Dramatic Literature; +the Tragedies of Seneca.--5. Epic Poetry; Lucan; Silius Italicus; Valerius +Flaccus; P. Statius.--6. History; Paterculus; Tacitus; Suetonius; Q. +Curtius; Valerius Maximus.--7. Rhetoric and Eloquence; Quintilian; Pliny +the Younger.--8. Philosophy and Science; Seneca; Pliny the Elder; Celsus; +P. Mela; Columella; Frontinus.--9. Roman Literature from Hadrian to +Theodoric; Claudian; Eutropius; A. Marcellinus; S. Sulpicius; Gellius; +Macrobius; L. Apuleius; Boethius; the Latin Fathers.--10. Roman +Jurisprudence. + + +INTRODUCTION. + +1. ROMAN LITERATURE AND ITS DIVISIONS.--Inferior to Greece in the genius +of its inhabitants, and, perhaps, in the intrinsic greatness of the events +of which it was the theatre, unquestionably inferior in the fruits of +intellectual activity, Italy holds the second place in the classic +literature of antiquity. Etruria could boast of arts, legislation, +scientific knowledge, a fanciful mythology, and a form of dramatic +spectacle, before the foundations of Rome were laid. But, like the ancient +Egyptians, the Etrurians made no progress in composition. Verses of an +irregular structure and rude in sense and harmony appear to have formed +the highest limit of their literary achievements. Nor did even the opulent +and luxurious Greeks of Southern Italy, while they retained their +independence, contribute much to the glory of letters in the West. It was +only in their fall that they did good service to the cause, when they +redeemed the disgrace of their political humiliation by the honor of +communicating the first impulse towards intellectual refinement to the +bosoms of their conquerors. When, in the process of time, Sicily, +Macedonia, and Achaia had become Roman provinces, some acquaintance with +the language of their new subjects proved to be a matter almost of +necessity to the victorious people; but the first impression made at Rome +by the productions of the Grecian Muse, and the first efforts to create a +similar literature, must be traced to the conquest of Tarentum (272 B.C.). +From that memorable period, the versatile talents which distinguished the +Greeks in every stage of national decline began to exercise a powerful +influence on the Roman mind, which was particularly felt in the +departments of education and amusement. The instruction of the Roman youth +was committed to the skill and learning of Greek slaves; the spirit of the +Greek drama was transferred into the Latin tongue, and, somewhat later, +Roman genius and ambition devoted their united energies to the study of +Greek rhetoric, which long continued to be the guide and model of those +schools, in whose exercises the abilities of Cicero himself were trained. +Prejudice and patriotism were powerless to resist this flood of foreign +innovation; and for more than a century after the Tarentine war, +legislative influence strove in vain to counteract the predominance of +Greek philosophy and eloquence. But this imitative tendency was tempered +by the pride of Roman citizenship. That sentiment breaks out, not merely +in the works of great statesmen and warriors, but quite as strikingly in +the productions of those in whom the literary character was all in all. It +is as prominent in Virgil and Horace as in Cicero and Caesar; and if the +language of Rome, in other respects so inferior to that of Greece, has any +advantage over the sister tongue, it lies in that accent of dignity and +command which seems inherent in its tones. The austerity of power is not +shaded down by those graceful softenings so agreeable to the disposition +of the most polished Grecian communities. In the Latin forms and syntax we +are everywhere conscious of a certain energetic majesty and forcible +compression. We hear, as it were, the voice of one who claims to be +respected, and resolves to be obeyed. + +The Roman classical literature may be divided into three periods. The +first embraces its rise and progress, oral and traditional compositions, +the rude elements of the drama, the introduction of Greek literature, and +the construction and perfection of comedy. To this period the first five +centuries of the republic may be considered as introductory, for Rome had, +properly speaking, no literature until the conclusion of the first Punic +war (241 B.C.), and the first period, commencing at that time, extends +through 160 years--that is, to the first appearance of Cicero in public +life, 74 B.C. + +The second period ends with the death of Augustus, 14 A.D. It comprehends +the age of which Cicero is the representative as the most accomplished +orator, philosopher, and prose-writer of his time, as well as that of +Augustus, which is commonly called the Golden Age of Latin poetry. + +The third and last period terminates with the death of Theodoric, 526 A.D. +Notwithstanding the numerous excellences which distinguished the +literature of this time, its decline had evidently commenced, and, as the +age of Augustus has been distinguished by the epithet "golden," the +succeeding period, to the death of Hadrian, 138 A.D., on account of its +comparative inferiority, has been designated "the Silver Age." From this +time to the close of the reign of Theodoric, only a few distinguished +names are to be found. + +2. THE LANGUAGE.--The origin of the Latin language is necessarily +connected with that of the Romans themselves. In the most distant ages to +which tradition extends, Italy appears to have been inhabited by three +stocks or tribes of the great Indo-European family. One of these is +commonly known by the name of Oscans; another consisted of two branches, +the Sabelians or Sabines, and the Umbrians; the third was called Sikeli, +sometimes Vituli or Itali. + +The original settlements of the Umbrians extended over the district +bounded on one side by the Tiber, and on the other by the Po. All the +country to the south was in possession of the Oscans, with the exception +of Latium, which was inhabited by the Sikeli. But, in process of time, the +Oscans, pressed upon by the Sabines, invaded the abodes of this peaceful +and rural people, some of whom submitted, and amalgamated with their +conquerors; the rest were driven across the narrow sea into Sicily, and +gave their name to the island. + +These tribes were not left in undisturbed possession of their rich +inheritance. More than 1000 B.C. there arrived in the northern part of +Italy the Pelasgians (or dark Asiatics), an enterprising race, famed for +their warlike spirit and their skill in the arts of peace, who became the +civilizers of Italy. They were far advanced in the arts of civilization +and refinement, and in the science of politics and social life. They +enriched their newly acquired country with commerce, and filled it with +strongly fortified and populous cities, and their dominion rapidly spread +over the whole peninsula. Entering the territory of the Umbrians, they +drove them into the mountainous districts, or compelled them to live among +them as a subject people, while they possessed themselves of the rich and +fertile plains. The headquarters of the invaders was Etruria, and that +portion of them who settled there were known as Etrurians. Marching +southward, they vanquished the Oscans and occupied the plains of Latium. +They did not, however, remain long at peace in the districts which they +had conquered. The old inhabitants returned from the neighboring highlands +to which they had been driven, and subjugated the northern part of Latium, +and established a federal anion between the towns of the north, of which +Alba was the capital, while of the southern confederacy the chief city was +Lavinium. + +At a later period, a Latin tribe, belonging to the Alban federation, +established itself on the Mount Palatine, and founded Rome, while a Sabine +community occupied the neighboring heights of the Quirinal. Mutual +jealousy of race kept them, for some time, separate from each other; but +at length the two communities became one people, called the Romans. These +were, at an early period, subjected to Etruscan rule, and when the +Etruscan dynasty passed away, its influence still remained, and +permanently affected the Roman language. + +The Etruscan tongue being a compound of Pelasgian and Umbrian, the +language of Latium may be considered as the result of those two elements +combined with the Oscan, and brought together by the mingling of those +different tribes. These elements, which entered into the formation of the +Latin, may be classified under two heads: the one which has, the other +which has not a resemblance to the Greek. All Latin words which resemble +the Greek are Pelasgian, and all which do not are Etruscan, Oscan, or +Umbrian. From the first of these classes must be excepted those words +which are directly derived from the Greek, the origin of which dates +partly from the time when Rome began to have intercourse with the Greek +colonies of Magna Graecia, partly after the Greeks exercised a direct +influence on Roman literature. + +Of the ancient languages of Italy, which concurred in the formation of the +Latin, little is known. The Eugubine Tables are the only extant fragments +of the Umbrian language. These were found in the neighborhood of Ugubio, +in the year 1414 A.D.; they date as early as 354 B.C., and contain prayers +and rules for religious ceremonies. Some of these tables were engraved in +Etruscan or Umbrian characters, others in Latin letters. The remains which +have come down to us of the Oscan language belong to a composite idiom +made up of the Sabine and Oscan, and consist chiefly of an inscription +engraved on a brass plate, discovered in 1793 A.D. As the word Bansae +occurs in this inscription, it has been supposed to refer to the town of +Bantia, which was situated not far from the spot where the tablet was +found, and it is, therefore, called the Bantine Table. The similarity +between some of the words found in the Eugubine Tables and in Etruscan +inscriptions, shows that the Etruscan language was composed of the +Pelasgian and Umbrian, and from the examples given by ethnographers, it is +evident that the Etruscan element was most influential in the formation of +the Latin language. + +The old Roman tongue, or _lingua prisca_, as it was composed of these +materials, and as it existed previous to coming in contact with the Greek, +has almost entirely perished; it did not grow into the new, like the +Greek, by a process of intrinsic development, but it was remoulded by +external and foreign influences. So different was the old Roman from the +classical Latin, that some of those ancient fragments were with difficulty +intelligible to the cleverest and best educated scholars of the Augustan +age. + +An example of the oldest Latin extant is contained in the sacred chant of +the Fratres Arvales. These were a college of priests, whose function was +to offer prayers for plenteous harvests, in solemn dances and processions +at the opening of spring. Their song was chanted in the temple with closed +doors, accompanied by that peculiar dance which was termed the tripudium, +from its containing three beats. The inscription which embodied this +litany was discovered in Rome in 1778 A.D. The monument belongs to the +reign of Heliogabalus, 218 A.D., but although the date is so recent, the +permanence of religious formulas renders it probable that the inscription +contains the exact words sung by this priesthood in the earliest times. +The "Carmen Saliare," or the Salian hymn, the _leges regiae_, the +Tiburtine inscription, the inscription on the sarcophagus of L. Cornelius +Scipio Barbatus, the great-grandfather of the conqueror of Hannibal, the +epitaph of Lucius Scipio, his son, and, above all, the Twelve Tables, are +the other principal extant monuments of ancient Latin. The laws of the +Twelve Tables were engraven on tablets of brass, and publicly set up in +the comitium; they were first made public 449 B.C. + +Most of these literary monuments were written in Saturnian verse, the +oldest measure used by the Latin poets. It was probably derived from the +Etruscans, and until Ennius introduced the heroic hexameter, the strains +of the Italian bards flowed in this metre. The structure of the Saturnian +is very simple, and its rhythmical arrangement is found in the poetry of +every age and country. Macaulay adduces, as an example of this measure, +the following line from the well-known nursery song,---- + + "The queén was ín her párlor, | eáting breád and hóney." + +From this species of verse, which probably prevailed among the natives of +Provence (the Roman Provincia), and into which, at a later period, rhyme +was introduced as an embellishment, the Troubadours derived the metre of +their ballad poetry, and thence introduced it into the rest of Europe. + +A wide gap separates this old Latin from the Latin of Ennius, whose style +was formed by Greek taste; another not so wide is interposed between the +age of Ennius and that of Plautus and Terence, and lastly, Cicero and the +Augustan poets mark another age. But in all its periods of development, +the Latin bears a most intimate relation with the Greek. This similarity +is the result both of their common origin from the primitive Pelasgian and +of the intercourse which the Romans at a later period held with the +Greeks. Latin, however, had not the plastic property of the Greek, the +faculty of transforming itself into every variety of form and shape +conceived by the fancy and imagination; it partook of the spirit of Roman +nationality, of the conscious dignity of the Roman citizen, of the +indomitable will that led that people to the conquest of the world. In its +construction, instead of conforming to the thought, it bends the thought +to its own genius. It is a fit language for expressing the thoughts of an +active and practical, but not of an imaginative and speculative people. It +was propagated, like the dominion of Rome, by conquest. It either took the +place of the language of the conquered nation, or became ingrafted upon +it, and gradually pervaded its composition; hence its presence is +discernible in all European languages. + +3. THE RELIGION.--The religion and mythology of Etruria left an indelible +stamp on the rites and ceremonies of the Roman people. At first they +worshiped heaven and earth, personified in Saturn and Ops, by whom Juno, +Vesta, and Ceres were generated, symbolizing marriage, family, and +fertility; soon after, other Etruscan divinities were introduced, such as +Jupiter, Minerva, and Janus; and Sylvanus and Faunus, who delighted in the +simple occupations of rural and pastoral life. From the Etrurians the +Romans borrowed, also, the institution of the Vestals, whose duty was to +watch and keep alive the sacred fire of Vesta; the Lares and Penates, the +domestic gods, which presided over the dwelling and family; Terminus, the +god of property and the rites connected with possession; and the orders of +Augurs and Aruspices, whose office was to consult the flight of birds or +to inspect the entrails of animals offered in sacrifice, in order to +ascertain future events. The family of the Roman gods continued to +increase by adopting the divinities of the conquered nations, and more +particularly by the introduction of those of Greece. The general division +of the gods was twofold,--the superior and inferior deities. The first +class contained the Consentes and the Selecti; the second, the Indigetes +and Semones. The Consentes, so called because they were supposed to form +the great council of heaven, consisted of twelve: Jupiter, Neptune, +Apollo, Mars, Mercury, Vulcan, Juno, Minerva, Ceres, Diana, Venus, and +Vesta. The Selecti were nearly equal to them in rank, and consisted of +eight: Saturn, Pluto, Bacchus, Janus, Sol, Genius, Rhea, and Luna. The +Indigites were heroes who were ranked among the gods, and included +particularly Hercules, Castor and Pollux, and Quirinus or Romulus. The +Semones comprehended those deities that presided over particular objects, +as Pan, the god of shepherds; Flora, the goddess of flowers, etc. Besides +these, there were among the inferior gods a numerous class of deities, +including the virtues and vices and other objects personified. + +The religion of the Romans was essentially political, and employed as a +means of promoting the designs of the state. It was prosaic in its +character, and in this respect differed essentially from the artistic and +poetical religion of the Greeks. The Greeks conceived religion as a free +and joyous worship of nature, a centre of individuality, beauty, and +grace, as well as a source of poetry, art, and independence. With the +Romans, on the contrary, religion conveyed a mysterious and hidden idea, +which gave to this sentiment a gloomy and unattractive character, without +either moral or artistic influence. + + +PERIOD FIRST. + +FROM THE CONCLUSION OF THE FIRST PUNIC WAR TO THE AGE OF CICERO +(241-74 B.C.) + +1. EARLY LITERATURE OF THE ROMANS.--The Romans, like all other nations, +had oral poetical compositions before they possessed any written +literature. Cicero speaks of the banquet being enlivened by the songs of +bards, in which the exploits of heroes were recited and celebrated. By +these lays national pride and family vanity were gratified, and the +anecdotes, thus preserved, furnished sources of early legendary history. +But these legends must not be compared to those of Greece, in which the +religious sentiment gave a supernatural glory to the effusions of the +bard, painted men as heroes and heroes as deities, and, while it was the +natural growth of the Greek intellect, twined itself around the affections +of the people. The Roman religion was a ceremonial for the priests, and +not for the people, and in Roman tradition there are no traces of elevated +genius or poetical inspiration. The Romans possessed the germs of those +faculties which admit of cultivation and improvement, such as taste and +genius, and the appreciation of the beautiful; but they did not possess +those natural gifts of fancy and imagination which formed part of the +Greek mind, and which made that nation in a state of infancy, almost of +barbarism, a poetical people. With them literature was not of spontaneous +growth; it was chiefly the result of the influence exerted by the +Etruscans, who were their teachers in everything mental and spiritual. + +The tendency of the Roman mind was essentially utilitarian. Even Cicero, +with all his varied accomplishments, will recognize but one end and object +of all study, namely, those sciences which will render man useful to his +country, and the law of literary development is modified according to this +ruling principle. From the very beginning, the first cause of Roman +literature will be found to have been a view to utility and not to the +satisfaction of an impulsive feeling. + +In other nations, poetry has been the first spontaneous production. With +the Romans, the first written literary effort was history; but even their +early history was a simple record of facts, not of ideas or sentiments, +and valuable only for its truth and accuracy. Their original documents, +mere records of memorable events anterior to the capture of Rome by the +Gauls, perished in the conflagration of the city. + +The earliest attempt at versification made by the rude inhabitants of +Latium was satire in a somewhat dramatic form. The Fescennine songs were +metrical, for the accompaniments of music and dancing necessarily +restricted them to measure, and, like the dramatic exhibitions of the +Greeks, they had their origin among the rural population, not like them in +any religious ceremonial, but in the pastimes of the village festival. At +first they were innocent and gay, but liberty at length degenerated into +license, and gave birth to malicious and libelous attacks upon persons of +irreproachable character. This infancy of song illustrates the character +of the Romans in its rudest and coarsest form. They loved strife, both +bodily and mental, and they thus early displayed that taste which, in more +polished ages, and in the hands of cultivated poets, was developed in the +sharp, cutting wit, and the lively but piercing points of Roman satire. + +In the Fescennine songs the Etruscans probably furnished the spectacle, +all that which addresses itself to the eye, while the habits of Italian +rural life supplied the sarcastic humor and ready extemporaneous gibe, +which are the essence of the true comic. The next advance in point of art +must be attributed to the Oscans, whose entertainments were most popular +among the Italian nations. They represented in broad caricature national +peculiarities. Their language was, originally, Oscan, as well as the +characters represented. The principal one resembled the clown of modern +pantomime; another was a kind of pantaloon or charlatan, and much of the +rest consisted of practical jokes, like that of the Italian Polincinella. +After their introduction at Rome, they received many improvements; they +lost their native rusticity; their satire was good-natured; their jests +were seemly, and kept in check by the laws of good taste. They were not +acted by common professional performers, and even a Roman citizen might +take part in them without disgrace. They were known by the name of +"Fabulae Atellanae," from Attela, a town in Campania, where they were +first performed. They remained in favor with the Roman people for +centuries. Sylla amused his leisure hours in writing them, and Suetonius +bears testimony to their having been a popular amusement under the empire. + +Towards the close of the fourth century, the Etruscan _histriones_ were +introduced, whose entertainments consisted of graceful national dances, +accompanied with the music of the flute, but without either songs or +dramatic action. With these dances the Romans combined the old Fescennine +songs, and the varied metres, which their verse permitted to the vocal +parts, gave to this mixed entertainment the name of Satura (a hodge-podge +or potpourri), from which, in after times, the word satire was derived. + +2. EARLY LATIN POETS.--At the conclusion, of the first Punic war, when the +influence of Greek intellect, which had already long been felt in Italy, +had extended to the capital, the Romans were prepared for the reception of +a more regular drama. But not only did they owe to Greece the principles +of literary taste; their earliest poet was one of that nation. Livius +Andronicus (fl. 240 B.C.), though born in Italy, and educated at Rome, is +supposed to have been a native of the Greek colony of Tarentum. He was at +first a slave, probably a captive taken in war, but was finally +emancipated by his master, in whose family he occupied the position of +instructor to his children. He wrote a translation, or perhaps an +imitation of the Odyssey, in the old Saturnian metre, and also a few +hymns. His principal works, however, were tragedies; but, from the few +fragments of his writings extant, it is impossible to form an estimate of +his ability as a poet. According to Livy, Andronicus was the first who +substituted, for the rude extemporaneous effusions of the Fescennine +verse, plays with a regular plot and fable. In consequence of losing his +voice, from being frequently encored, he obtained permission to introduce +a boy to sing the ode or air to the accompaniment of the flute, while he +himself represented the action of the song by his gestures and dancing. + +Naevius (fl. 235 B.C.) was the first poet who really deserves the name of +Roman. He was not a servile imitator, but applied Greek taste and +cultivation to the development of Roman sentiments, and was a true Roman +in heart, unsparing in his censure of immorality and his admiration for +heroic self-devotion. His honest principles cemented the strong friendship +between him and the upright and unbending Cato, a friendship which +probably contributed to form the political and literary character of that +stern old Roman. The comedies of Naevius had undoubted pretensions to +originality; he held up to public scorn the vices and follies of his day, +and, being a warm supporter of the people against the encroachments of the +nobility, and unable to resist indulgence in his satiric vein, he was +exiled to Utica, where he died. He was the author of an epic poem on the +Punic war. Ennius and Virgil unscrupulously copied and imitated him, and +Horace writes that in his day the poems of Naevius were in the hands and +hearts of everybody. The fragments of his writings extant are not more +numerous than those of Livius. + +Naevius, the last of the older school of writers, by introducing new +principles of taste to his countrymen, altered their standards; and Greek +literature having now driven out its predecessor, a new school of poetry +arose, of which Ennius (239-169 B.C.) was the founder. He earned a +subsistence as a teacher of Greek, was the friend of Scipio, and, at his +death, was buried in the family tomb of the Scipio, at the request of the +great conqueror of Hannibal, whose fame he contributed to hand down to +posterity. Cicero always uses the appellation, "our own Ennius," when he +quotes his poetry. Horace calls him "Father Ennius," a term which implies +reverence and regard, and that he was the founder of Latin poetry. He was, +like his friends Cato the censor, and Scipio Africanus the elder, a man of +action as well as philosophical thought, and not only a poet, but a brave +soldier, with all the singleness of heart and simplicity of manners which +marked the old times of Roman virtue. Ennius possessed great power over +words, and wielded that power skillfully. He improved the language in its +harmony and its grammatical forms, and increased its copiousness and +power. What he did was improved upon, but was never undone; and upon the +foundations he laid, the taste of succeeding ages erected an elegant and +beautiful superstructure. His great epic poem, the "Annals," gained him +the attachment and admiration of his countrymen. In this he first +introduced the hexameter to the notice of the Romans, and detailed the +rise and progress of their national glory, from the earliest legendary +period down to his own times. The fragments of this work which remain are +amply sufficient to show that he possessed picturesque power, both in +sketching his narratives and in portraying his characters, which seem to +live and breathe; his language, dignified, chaste, and severe, rises as +high as the most majestic eloquence, but it does not soar to the sublimity +of poetry. As a dramatic poet, Ennius does not deserve a high reputation. +In comedy, as in tragedy, he never emancipated himself from the Greek +originals. + +3. ROMAN COMEDY.--The rude comedy of the early Romans made little progress +beyond personal satire, burlesque extravagance and licentious jesting, but +upon this was ingrafted the new Greek comedy, and hence arose that phase +of the drama, of which the representatives were Plautus, Statius, and +Terence. The Roman comedy was calculated to produce a moral result, +although the morality it inculcated was extremely low. Its standard was +worldly prudence, its lessons utilitarian, and its philosophy Epicurean. +There is a want of variety in the plots, but this defect is owing to the +social and political condition of ancient Greece, which was represented in +the Greek comedies and copied by the Romans. There is also a sameness in +the _dramatis personae_, the principal characters being always a morose or +a gentle father, who is sometimes also the henpecked husband of a rich +wife, an affectionate or domineering wife, a good-natured profligate, a +roguish servant, a calculating slave-dealer and some others. + +The actors wore appropriate masks, the features of which were not only +grotesque, but much exaggerated and magnified. This was rendered necessary +by the immense size of the theatre and stage, and the mouth of the mask +answered the purpose of a speaking trumpet, to assist in conveying the +voice to every part of the vast building. The characters were known by a +conventional costume; old men wore robes of white, young men were attired +in gay clothes, rich men in purple, soldiers in scarlet, poor men and +slaves in dark and scanty dresses. The comedy had always a musical +accompaniment of flutes of different kinds. + +In order to understand the principles which regulated the Roman comic +metres, it is necessary to observe the manner in which the language itself +was affected by the common conversational pronunciation. Latin, as it was +pronounced, was very different from Latin as it is written; this +difference consisted in abbreviation, either by the omission of sounds +altogether, or by the contraction of two sounds into one, and in this +respect the conversational language of the Romans resembled that of modern +nations; with them, as with us, the mark of good taste was ease and the +absence of pedantry and affectation. In the comic writers we have a +complete representation of Latin as it was commonly pronounced and spoken, +and but little trammeled or confined by a rigid adhesion to Greek metrical +laws. + +4. COMIC POETS.--Plautus (227-184 B.C.) was a contemporary of Ennius; he +was a native of Umbria, and of humble origin. Education did not overcome +his vulgarity, although it produced a great effect upon his language and +style. He must have lived and associated with the people whose manners he +describes, hence his pictures are correct and truthful. The class from +which his representations are taken consisted of clients, the sons of +freedmen and the half-enfranchised natives of Italian towns. He had no +aristocratic friends, like Ennius and Terence; the Roman public were his +patrons, and notwithstanding their faults, his comedies retained their +popularity even in the Augustan age, and were acted as late as the reign +of Diocletian. Life, bustle, surprise, unexpected situations, sharp, +sparkling raillery that knew no restraint nor bound, left his audience no +time for dullness or weariness. Although Greek was the fountain from which +he drew his stores, his wit, thought, and language were entirely Roman, +and his style was Latin of the purest and most elegant kind--not, indeed, +controlled by much deference to the laws of metrical harmony, but full of +pith and sprightliness, bearing the stamp of colloquial vivacity, and +suitable to the general briskness of his scenes. Yet in the tone of his +dialogue we miss all symptoms of deference to the taste of the more +polished classes of society. Almost all his comedies were adopted from the +new comedy of the Greeks, and though he had studied both the old and the +middle comedy, Menander and others of the same school furnished him the +originals of his plots. The popularity of Plautus was not confined to +Rome, either republican or imperial. Dramatic writers of modern times, as +Shakspeare, Dryden, and Molière, have recognized the effectiveness of his +plots, and have adopted or imitated them. About twenty of his plays are +extant, among which the Captivi, the Epidicus, the Cistellaria, the +Aulularia, and the Rudens are considered the best. + +Terence (193-158 B.C.) was a slave in the family of a Roman senator, and +was probably a native of Carthage. His genius presented the rare +combination of all the fine and delicate qualities which characterized +Attic sentiment, without corrupting the native purity of the Latin +language. The elegance and gracefulness of his style show that the +conversation of the accomplished society, in which he was a welcome guest, +was not lost upon his correct ear and quick intuition. So far as it can be +so, comedy was, in the hands of Terence, an instrument of moral teaching. +Six of his comedies only remain, of which the Andrian and the Adelphi are +the most interesting. If Terence was inferior to Plautus in life, bustle, +and intrigue, and in the delineation of national character, he is superior +in elegance of language and refinement of taste. The justness of his +reflections more than compensates for the absence of his predecessor's +humor; he touches the heart as well as gratifies the intellect. + +Of the few other writers of comedy among the Romans, Statius may be +mentioned, who flourished between Plautus and Terence. He was an +emancipated slave, born in Milan. Cicero and Varro have pronounced +judgment upon his merits, the substance of which appears to be, that his +excellences consisted in the conduct of the plot, in dignity, and in +pathos, while his fault was too little care in preserving the purity of +the Latin style. The fragments, however, of his works, which remain are +not sufficient to test the opinion of the ancient critics. + +5. ROMAN TRAGEDY.--While Roman comedy was brought to perfection under the +influence of Greek literature, Roman tragedy, on the other hand, was +transplanted from Athens, and, with few exceptions, was never anything +more than translation or imitation. In the century during which, together +with comedy, it flourished and decayed, it boasted of five distinguished +writers, Livius, Naevius, Ennius (already spoken of), Pacuvius, and +Attius. In after ages, Rome did not produce one tragic poet, unless Varius +be considered an exception. The tragedies attributed to Seneca were never +acted, and were only composed for reading and recitation. + +Among the causes which prevented tragedy from flourishing at Rome was the +little influence the national legends exerted over the people. These +legends were more often private than public property, and ministered more +to the glory of private families than to that of the nation at large. They +were embalmed by their poets as curious records of antiquity, but they did +not, like the venerable traditions of Greece, twine themselves around the +heart of the nation. Another reason why Roman legends had not the power to +move the affections of the Roman populace is to be found in the changes +the masses had undergone. The Roman people were no longer the descendants +of those who had maintained the national glory in the early period; the +patrician families were almost extinct; war and poverty had extinguished +the middle classes and miserably thinned the lower orders. Into the +vacancy thus caused, poured thousands of slaves, captives in the bloody +wars of Gaul, Spain, Greece, and Africa. These and their descendants +replaced the ancient people, and while many of them by their talents and +energy arrived at wealth and station, they could not possibly be Romans at +heart, or consider the past glories of their adopted country as their own. +It was to the rise of this new element of population, and the displacement +or absorption of the old race, that the decline of patriotism was owing, +and the disregard of everything except daily sustenance and daily +amusement, which paved the way for the empire and marked the downfall of +liberty. With the people of Athens, tragedy formed a part of the national +religion. By it the people were taught to sympathize with their heroic +ancestors; the poet was held to be inspired, and poetry the tongue in +which the natural held communion with the supernatural. With the Romans, +the theatre was merely a place for secular amusement, and poetry only an +exercise of the fancy. Again, the religion of the Romans was not ideal, +like that of the Greeks. The old national faith of Italy, not being rooted +in the heart, soon became obsolete, and readily admitted the ingrafting of +foreign superstitions, which had no hold on the belief or love of the +people. Nor was the genius of the Roman people such as to sympathize with +the legends of the past; they lived only in the present and the future; +they did not look back on their national heroes as demigods; they were +pressing forward to extend the frontiers of their empire, to bring under +their yoke nations which their forefathers had not known. If they regarded +their ancestors at all, it was not in the light of men of heroic stature +as compared with themselves, but as those whom they could equal or even +surpass. + +The scenes of real life, the bloody combats of the gladiators, the +captives, and malefactors stretched on crosses, expiring in excruciating +agonies or mangled by wild beasts, were the tragedies which most deeply +interested a Roman audience. + +The Romans were a rough people, full of physical rather than of +intellectual energy, courting peril and setting no value on human life or +suffering. Their very virtues were stern and severe; they were strangers +to both the passions which it was the object of tragedy to excite--pity +and terror. In the public games of Greece, the refinements of poetry +mingled with those exercises which were calculated to invigorate the +physical powers, and develop manly beauty. Those of Rome were sanguinary +and brutalizing, the amusements of a nation to whom war was a pleasure and +a pastime. + +It cannot be asserted, however, that tragedy was never to a certain extent +an acceptable entertainment at Rome, but only that it never flourished +there as it did at Athens, and that no Roman tragedies can be compared +with those of Greece. + +6. TRAGIC POETS.--Three separate eras produced tragic poets. In the first +flourished Livius Andronicus, Naevius, and Ennius; in the second, Pacuvius +and Attius; in the third, Asinius Pollio wrote tragedies, the plots of +which seem to have been taken from Roman history. Ovid attempted a +"Medea," and even the Emperor Augustus, with other men of genius, tried +his hand, though unsuccessfully, at tragedy. + +In the second of the eras mentioned, Roman tragedy reached its highest +degree of perfection simultaneously with that of comedy. While Terence was +successfully reproducing the wit and manners of the new Attic comedy, +Pacuvius (220-130 B.C.) was enriching the Roman drama with free +translations of the Greek tragedians. He was a native of Brundusium and a +grandson of the poet Ennius. At Rome he distinguished himself as a painter +as well as a dramatic poet. His tragedies were not mere translations, but +adaptations of Greek tragedies to the Roman stage. The fragments which are +extant are full of new and original thoughts, and the very roughness of +his style and audacity of his expressions have somewhat of the solemn +grandeur and picturesque boldness which distinguish the father of Attic +tragedy. + +Attius (fl. 138 B.C.), though born later than Pacuvius, was almost his +contemporary, and a competitor for popular applause. He is said to have +written more than fifty tragedies, of which fragments only remain. His +taste is chastened, his sentiments noble, and his versification elegant. +With him, Latin tragedy disappeared. The tragedies of the third period +were written expressly for reading and recitation, and not for the stage: +they were dramatic poems, not dramas. Amidst the scenes of horror and +violence which followed, the voice of the tragic muse was hushed. Massacre +and rapine raged through the streets of Rome, itself a theatre where the +most terrible scenes were daily enacted. + +7. SATIRE.--The invention of satire is universally attributed to the +Romans, and this is true as far as the external form is concerned, but the +spirit is found in many parts of the literature of Greece. Ennius was the +inventor of the name, but Lucilius (148-102 B.C.) was the father of +satire, in the proper sense. His satires mark an era in Roman literature, +and prove that a love for this species of poetry had already made great +progress. Hitherto, literature, science, and art had been considered the +province of slaves and freedmen. The stern old Roman virtue despised such +sedentary employment as intellectual cultivation, and thought it unworthy +of the warrior and statesman. Some of the higher classes loved literature +and patronized it, but did not make it their pursuit. Lucilius was a Roman +knight, as well as a poet. His satires were comprised in thirty books, +numerous fragments of which are still extant. He was a man of high moral +principle, though stern and stoical; a relentless enemy of vice and +profligacy, and a gallant and fearless defender of truth and honesty. +After the death of Lucilius satire languished, until half a century later, +when it assumed a new garb in the descriptive scenes of Horace, and put +forth its original vigor in the burning thoughts of Persius and Juvenal. + +8. HISTORY AND ORATORY.--Prose was far more in accordance with the genius +of the Romans than poetry. As a nation, they had little or no imaginative +power, no enthusiastic love of natural beauty, and no acute perception of +the sympathy between man and the external world. The favorite civil +pursuit of an enlightened Roman was statesmanship, and the subjects akin +to it, history, jurisprudence, and oratory, the natural language of which +was prose, not poetry. And their practical statesmanship gave an early +encouragement to oratory, which is peculiarly the literature of active +life. As matter was more valued than manner by this utilitarian people, it +was long before it was thought necessary to embellish prose composition +with the graces of rhetoric. The fact that Roman literature was imitative +rather than inventive, gave a historical bias to the Roman intellect, and +a tendency to study subjects from an historical point of view. But even in +history, they never attained that comprehensive and philosophical spirit +which distinguished the Greek historians. + +The most ancient writer of Roman history was Fabius Pictor (fl. 219 B.C.). +His principal work, written in Greek, was a history of the first and +second Punic war, to which subsequent writers were much indebted. +Contemporary with Fabius was Cincius Alimentus, also an annalist of the +Punic war, in which he was personally engaged. He was a prisoner of +Hannibal, who delighted in the society of literary men, and treated him +with great kindness and consideration, and himself communicated to him the +details of his passage across the Alps. Like Fabius, he wrote his work in +Greek, and prefixed to it a brief abstract of Roman history. Though the +works of these annalists are valuable as furnishing materials for more +philosophical minds, they are such as could have existed only in the +infancy of a national literature. They were a bare compilation of facts-- +the mere framework of history--diversified by no critical remarks or +political reflections, and meagre and insipid in style. + +The versatility of talent displayed by Cato the censor (224-144 B.C.) +entitles him to a place among orators, jurists, economists, and +historians. His life extends over a wide and important period of literary +history, when everything was in a state of change,--morals, social habits, +and literary taste. Cato was born in Tusculum, and passed his boyhood in +the pursuits of rural life at a small Sabine farm belonging to his father. +The skill with which he pleaded the causes of his clients before the rural +magistracy made his abilities known, and he rose rapidly to eminence as a +pleader. He filled many high offices of state. His energies were not +weakened by advancing age, and he was always ready as the advocate of +virtue, the champion of the oppressed, and the punisher of vice. With many +defects, Cato was morally and intellectually one of the greatest men Rome +ever produced. He had the ability and the determination to excel in +everything which he undertook. His style is rude, unpolished, ungraceful, +because to him polish was superficial, and, therefore, unreal. His +statements, however, were clear, his illustrations striking; the words +with which he enriched his native tongue were full of meaning; his wit was +keen and lively, and his arguments went straight to the intellect, and +carried conviction with them. + +Cato's great historical and antiquarian work, "The Origins," was a history +of Italy and Rome from the earliest times to the latest events which +occurred in his own lifetime. It was a work of great research and +originality, but only brief fragments of it remain. In the "De Re +Rustica," which has come down to us in form and substance as it was +written, Cato maintains, in the introduction, the superiority of +agriculture over other modes of gaining a livelihood. The work itself is a +commonplace book of agriculture and domestic economy; its object is +utility, not science: it serves the purpose of a farmer's and gardener's +manual, a domestic medicine, herbal, and cookery book. Cato teaches his +readers, for example, how to plant osier beds, to cultivate vegetables, to +preserve the health of cattle, to pickle pork, and to make savory dishes. + +Of the "Orations" of Cato, ninety titles are extant, together with +numerous fragments. In style he despised art. He was too fearless and +upright, too confident in the justness of his cause to be a rhetorician; +he imitated no one, and no one was ever able to imitate him. Niebuhr +pronounces him to be the only great man in his generation, and one of the +greatest and most honorable characters in Roman history. + +Varro (116-28 B.C.) was an agriculturist, a grammarian, a critic, a +theologian, a historian, a philosopher, a satirist. Of his miscellaneous +works considerable portions are extant, sufficient to display his +erudition and acuteness, yet, in themselves, more curious than attractive. + +Eloquence, though of a rude, unpolished kind, must have been, in the very +earliest times, a characteristic of the Roman people. It is a plant +indigenous to a free soil. As in modern times it has flourished especially +in England and America, fostered by the unfettered freedom of debate, so +it found a congenial home in free Greece and republican Rome. Oratory was, +in Rome, the unwritten literature of active life, and recommended itself +to a warlike and utilitarian people by its utility and its antagonistic +spirit. Long before the art of the historian was sufficiently advanced to +record a speech, the forum, the senate, the battlefield, and the threshold +of the jurisconsult had been nurseries of Roman eloquence, or schools in +which oratory attained a vigorous youth, and prepared for its subsequent +maturity. + +While the legal and political constitution of the Roman people gave direct +encouragement to deliberative and judicial oratory, respect for the +illustrious dead furnished opportunities for panegyric. The song of the +bard in honor of the departed warrior gave place to the funeral oration. +Among the orators of this time were the two Scipios, and Galba, whom +Cicero praises as having been the first Roman who understood how to apply +the theoretical principles of Greek rhetoric. + +All periods of political disquiet are necessarily favorable to eloquence, +and the era of the Gracchi was especially so. After a struggle of nearly +four centuries the old distinction of plebeian and patrician no longer +existed. Plebeians held high offices, and patricians, like the Gracchi, +stood forward as champions of popular rights. These stirring times +produced many celebrated orators. The Gracchi themselves were both +eloquent and possessed of those qualities and endowments which would +recommend their eloquence to their countrymen. Oratory began now to be +studied more as an art, and the interval between the Gracchi and Cicero +boasted of many distinguished names; the most illustrious among them are +M. Antonius, Crassus, and Cicero's contemporary and most formidable rival, +Hortensius. + +M. Antonius (fl. 119 B.C.) entered public life as a pleader, and thus laid +the foundation of his brilliant career; but he was through life greater as +a judicial than as a deliberative orator. He was indefatigable in +preparing his case, and made every point tell. He was a great master of +the pathetic, and knew the way to the heart. Although he did not himself +give his speeches to posterity, some of his most pointed expressions and +favorite passages left an indelible impression on the memories of his +hearers, and many of them were preserved by Cicero. In the prime of life +he fell a victim to political fury, and his bleeding head was placed upon +the rostrum, which was so frequently the scene of his eloquent triumphs. + +L. Licinius Crassus was four years younger than Antonius, and acquired +great reputation for his knowledge of jurisprudence, for his eminence as a +pleader, and, above all, for his powerful and triumphant orations in +support of the restoration of the judicial office to the senators. From +among the crowd of orators, who were then flourishing in the last days of +expiring Roman liberty, Cicero selected Crassus to be the representative +of his sentiments in his imaginary conversation in "The Orator." Like Lord +Chatham, Crassus almost died on the floor of the Senate house, and his +last effort was in support of the aristocratic party. + +Q. Hortensius was born 114 B.C. He was only eight years senior to the +greatest of all Roman orators. He early commenced his career as a pleader, +and he was the acknowledged leader of the Roman bar, until the star of +Cicero arose. His political connection with the faction of Sylla, and his +unscrupulous support of the profligate corruption which characterized that +administration, both at home and abroad, enlisted his legal talents in +defense of the infamous Verres; but the eloquence of Cicero, together with +the justice of the cause which he espoused, prevailed; and from that time +forward his superiority over Hortensius was established and complete. The +style of Hortensius was Asiatic--more florid and ornate than polished and +refined. + +9. ROMAN JURISPRUDENCE.--The framework of their jurisprudence the Romans +derived from Athens, but the complete structure was built up by their own +hands. They were the authors of a system possessing such stability that +they bequeathed it, as an inheritance, to modern Europe, and traces of +Roman law are visible in the legal systems of the whole civilized world. + +The complicated principles of jurisprudence of the Roman constitution +became, in Rome, a necessary part of a liberal education. When a Roman +youth had completed his studies, under his teacher of rhetoric, he not +only frequented the forum, in order to learn the application of the +rhetorical principles he had acquired, and frequently took some celebrated +orator as a model, but also studied the principles of jurisprudence under +eminent jurists, and attended the consultations in which they gave to +their clients their expositions of law. + +The earliest systematic works on Roman law were the "Manual" of Pomponius, +and the "Institutes" of Gaius, who flourished in the time of Hadrian and +the Antonines. Both of these works were, for a long time, lost, though +fragments were preserved in the pandects of Justinian. In 1816, however, +Niebuhr discovered a palimpsest MS., in which the epistles of St. Jerome +were written over the erased "Institutes" of Gaius. From the numerous +misunderstandings of the Roman historians respecting the laws and +constitutional history of their country, the subject continued long in a +state of confusion, until Vico, in his "Scienza nuova," dispelled the +clouds of error, and reduced it to a system; and he was followed so +successfully by Niebuhr, that modern students can have a more +comprehensive and antiquarian knowledge of the subject than the writers of +the Augustan age. + +The earliest Roman laws were the "Leges Regiae," which were collected and +codified by Sextus Papirius, and were hence called the Papirian code; but +these were rude and unconnected--simply a collection of isolated +enactments. The laws of the "Twelve Tables" stand next in point of +antiquity. They exhibited the first attempt at regular system, and +embodied not only legislative enactments, but legal principles. So popular +were they that when Cicero was a child every Roman boy committed them to +memory, as our children do their catechism, and the great orator laments +that in the course of his lifetime this practice had become obsolete. + +The oral traditional expositions of these laws formed the groundwork of +the Roman civil law. To these were added, from time to time, the decrees +of the people, the acts of the senate, and praetorian edicts, and from +these various elements the whole body of Roman law was composed. So early +was the subject diligently studied, that the age preceding the first two +centuries of our era was rich in jurists whose powers are celebrated in +history. + +The most eminent jurists who adorned this period were the Scaevolae, a +family in whom the profession seems to have been hereditary. After them +flourished Aelius Gallus (123-67 B.C.), eminent as a law reformer, C. +Juventius, Sextus Papirius, and L. Lucilius Balbus, three distinguished +jurists, who were a few years senior to Cicero. + +10. GRAMMARIANS.--Towards the conclusion of this literary period a great +increase took place in the numbers of those learned men whom the Romans at +first termed _literati_, but afterwards, following the custom of the +Greeks, grammarians. To them literature was under great obligations. +Although few of them were authors, and all of them possessed acquired +learning rather than original genius, they exercised a powerful influence +over the public mind as professors, lecturers, critics, and schoolmasters. +By them the youths of the best families not only were imbued with a taste +for Greek philosophy and poetry, but were also taught to appreciate the +literature of their own country. Livius Andronicus and Ennius may be +placed at the head of this class, followed by Crates Mallotes, C. Octavius +Lampadio, Laelius, Archelaus, and others, most of whom were emancipated +slaves, either from Greece or from other foreign countries. + + +PERIOD SECOND. + +FROM THE AGE OF CICERO TO THE DEATH OF AUGUSTUS (74 B.C.-14 A.D.) + +1. DEVELOPMENT OF THE ROMAN LITERATURE.--Latin literature, at first rude, +and, for five centuries, unable to reach any high excellence, was, as we +have seen, gradually developed by the example and tendency of the Greek +mind, which moulded Roman civilization anew. The earliest Latin poets, +historians, and grammarians were Greeks. The metre which was brought to +such perfection by the Latin poets was formed from the Greek, and the +Latin language more and more assimilated to the Hellenic tongue. + +As civilization advanced, the rude literature of Rome was compared with +the great monuments of Greek genius, their superiority was acknowledged, +and the study of them encouraged. The Roman youth not only attended the +schools of the Greeks, in Rome, but their education was considered +incomplete, unless they repaired to those of Athens, Rhodes, and Mytilene. +Thus, whatever of national character existed in the literature was +gradually obliterated, and what it gained in harmony and finish it lost in +originality. The Roman writers imitated more particularly the writers of +the Alexandrian school, who, being more artificial, were more congenial +than the great writers of the age of Pericles. + +Roman genius, serious, majestic, and perhaps more original than at a later +period, was manifest even at the time of the Punic wars, but it had not +yet taken form; and while thought was vigorous and powerful, expression +remained weak and uncertain. But, under the Greek influence, and aided by +the vigor imparted by free institutions, the union of thought and form was +at length consummated, and the literature reached its culminating point in +the great Roman orator. The fruits which had grown and matured in the +centuries preceding were gathered by Augustus; but the influences that +contributed to the splendor of his age belong rather to the republic than +the empire, and with the fall of the liberties of Rome, Roman literature +declined. + +2. MIMES, MIMOGRAPHERS, AND PANTOMIME.--Amidst all the splendor of the +Latin literature of this period, dramatic poetry never recovered from the +trance into which it had fallen, though the stage had not altogether lost +its popularity. Aesopus and Roscius, the former the great tragic actor, +and the latter the favorite comedian, in the time of Cicero, enjoyed his +friendship and that of other great men, and both amassed large fortunes. +But although the standard Roman plays were constantly represented, +dramatic literature had become extinct. The entertainments, which had now +taken the place of comedy and tragedy, were termed _mimes_. These were +laughable imitations of manners and persons, combining the features of +comedy and farce, for comedy represents the characters of a class, farce +those of individuals. Their essence was that of the modern pantomime, and +their coarseness, and even indecency, gratified the love of broad humor +which characterized the Roman people. After a time, when they became +established as popular favorites, the dialogue occupied a more prominent +position, and was written in verse, like that of tragedy and comedy. +During the dictatorship of Caesar, a Roman knight named Laberius (107-45 +B.C.) became famous for his mimes. The profession of an actor of mimes was +infamous, but Laberius was a writer, not an actor. On one occasion, Caesar +offered him a large sum of money to enter the lists in a trial of his +improvisatorial skill. Laberius did not submit to the degradation for the +sake of the money, but he was afraid to refuse. The only method of +retaliation in his power was sarcasm. His part was that of a slave; and +when his master scourged him, he exclaimed: "Porro, Quirites, libertatem +perdimus!" His words were received with a round of applause, and all eyes +were fixed on Caesar. The dictator restored him to the rank of which his +act had deprived him, but he could never recover the respect of his +countrymen. As he passed the orchestra, on his way to the stalls of the +knights, Cicero cried out: "If we were not so crowded, I would make room +for you here." Laberius replied, alluding to Cicero's lukewarmness as a +political partisan: "I am astonished that you should be crowded, as you +generally sit on two stools." + +Another writer and actor of mimes was Publius Syrus, originally a Syrian +slave. Tradition has recorded a _bon mot_ of his which is as witty as it +is severe. Seeing an ill-tempered man named Mucius in low spirits, he +exclaimed: "Either some ill fortune has happened to Mucius, or some good +fortune to one of his friends!" + +The Roman pantomime differed somewhat from the mime. It was a ballet of +action, performed by a single dancer, who not only exhibited the human +figure in its most graceful attitudes, but represented every passion and +emotion with such truth that the spectators could, without difficulty, +understand the story. The pantomime was licentious in its character, and +the actors were forbidden by Tiberius to hold any intercourse with Romans +of equestrian or senatorial dignity. + +These were the exhibitions which threw such discredit on the stage, which +called forth the well-deserved attacks of the early Christian fathers, and +caused them to declare that whoever attended them was unworthy of the name +of Christian. Had the drama not been so abused, had it retained its +original purity, and carried out the object attributed to it by Aristotle, +they would have seen it, not a nursery of vice, but a school of virtue; +not only an innocent amusement, but a powerful engine to form the taste, +to improve the morals, and to purify the feelings of a people. + +3. EPIC POETRY.--The epic poets of this period selected their subjects +either from the heroic age and the mythology of Greece, or from their own +national history. The Augustan age abounds in representatives of these two +poetical schools, though possessing little merit. But the Romans, +essentially practical and positive in their character, felt little +interest in the descriptions of manners and events remote from their +associations, and poetry, restrained within the limits of their history, +could not rise to that height of imagination demanded by the epic muse. +Virgil united the two forms by selecting his subject from the national +history, and adorning the ancient traditions of Rome with the splendor of +Greek imagination. + +Virgil (70-19 B.C.) was born at Andes, near Mantua; he was educated at +Cremona and at Naples, where he studied Greek literature and philosophy. +After this he came to Rome, where, through Maecenas, he became known to +Octavius, and basked in the sunshine of court favor. His favorite +residence was Naples. On his return from Athens, in company with Augustus, +he was seized with an illness of which he died. He was buried about a mile +from Naples, on the road to Pozzuoli; and a tomb is still pointed out to +the traveler which is said to be that of the poet. Virgil was deservedly +popular both as a poet and as a man. The emperor esteemed him and people +respected him; he was constitutionally pensive and melancholy, temperate, +and pure-minded in a profligate age, and his popularity never spoiled his +simplicity and modesty. In his last moments he was anxious to burn the +whole manuscript of the Aeneid, and directed his executors either to +improve it or commit it to the flames. + +The idea and plan of the Aeneid are derived from Homer. As the wrath of +Achilles is the mainspring of the Iliad, so the unity of the Aeneid +results from the anger of Juno. The arrival of Aeneas in Italy after the +destruction of Troy, the obstacles that opposed him through the +intervention of Juno, and the adventures and the victories of the hero +form the subject of the poem. Leaving Sicily for Latium, Aeneas is driven +on the coast of Africa by a tempest raised against him by Juno; at +Carthage he is welcomed by the queen, Dido, to whom he relates his past +adventures and sufferings. By his narrative he wins her love, but at the +command of Jupiter abandons her. Unable to retain him, Dido, in the +despair of her passion, destroys herself. After passing through many +dangers, under the guidance of the Sibyl of Cumae, he descends into the +kingdom of the dead to consult the shade of his father. There appear to +him the souls of the future heroes of Rome. On his return, he becomes a +friend of the king of Latium, who promises to him the hand of his +daughter, which is eagerly sought by King Turnus. A fearful war ensues +between the rival lovers, which ends in the victory of Aeneas. + +Though the poem of Virgil is in many passages an imitation from the Iliad +and the Odyssey, the Roman element predominates in it, and the Aeneid is +the true national poem of Rome. There was no subject more adapted to +flatter the vanity of the Romans, than the splendor and antiquity of their +origin. Augustus is evidently typified under the character of Aeneas; +Cleopatra is boldly sketched as Dido; and Turnus as the popular Antony. +The love and death of Dido, the passionate victim of an unrequited love, +give occasion to the poet to sing the victories of his countrymen over +their Carthaginian rivals; the Pythagorean metempsychosis, which he adopts +in the description of Elysium, affords an opportunity to exalt the heroes +of Rome; and the wars of Aeneas allow him to describe the localities and +the manners of ancient Latium with such truthfulness as to give to his +verses the authority of historical quotations. In style, the Aeneid is a +model of purity and elegance, and for the variety and the harmony of its +incidents, for the power of its descriptions, and for the interest of its +plot and episodes, second only to the Iliad. It has been observed that +Virgil's descriptions are more like landscape painting than those of any +of his predecessors, whether Greek or Roman, and it is a remarkable fact, +that landscape painting was first introduced in his time. + +4. DIDACTIC POETRY.--The poems, which first established the reputation of +Virgil as a poet, belong to didactic poetry. They are his Bucolics and +Georgics. The Bucolics are pastoral idyls; the characters are Italian in +all their sentiments and feelings, acting, however, the unreal and assumed +part of Greek shepherds. The Italians never possessed the elements of +pastoral life, and could not furnish the poet with originals and models +from which to draw his portraits. When represented as Virgil represents +them in his Bucolics, they are in masquerade, and the drama in which they +form the characters is of an allegorical kind. Even the scenery is +Sicilian, and does not truthfully describe the tame neighborhood of +Mantua. In fact, these poems are imitations of Theocritus; but, divesting +ourselves of the idea of the outward form which the poet has chosen to +adopt, we are touched by the simple narrative of disappointed loves and +childlike woes; we appreciate the delicately-veiled compliments paid by +the poet to his patron; we enjoy the inventive genius and poetical power +which they display, and we are elevated by the exalted sentiments which +they sometimes breathe. + +The Georgics are poems on the labors and enjoyments of rural life, a +subject for which Rome offered a favorable field. Though in this style +Hesiod was the model of Virgil, his system is perfectly Italian, so much +so, that many of his rules may be traced in modern Italian husbandry, just +as the descriptions of implements in the Greek poet are frequently found +to agree with those in use in modern Greece. The great merit of the +Georgics consists in their varied digressions, interesting episodes, and +in the sublime bursts of descriptive vigor which are interspersed +throughout them. They have frequently been taken as models for imitation +by the didactic poets of all nations, and more particularly of England. +The "Seasons," for instance, is a thoroughly Virgilian poem. + +Lucretius (95-51 B.C.) belongs to the class of didactic poets. He might +claim a place among philosophers as well as poets, for his poem marks an +epoch both in poetry and philosophy. But his philosophy is a mere +reflection from that of Greece, while his poetry is bright with the rays +of original genius. His poem on "The Nature of Things" is in imitation of +that of Empedocles. Its subject is philosophical and its purpose didactic; +but its unity of design gives to it almost the rank of an epic. Its +structure prevents it from being a complete and systematic survey of the +whole Epicurean philosophy, but as far as the form of the poem permitted, +it presents an accurate view of the philosophy which then enjoyed the +highest popularity. + +The object of the poem of Lucretius is to emancipate mankind from the +debasing effects of superstition by an exposition of philosophy, and +though a follower of Epicurus, he is not entirely destitute of the +religious sentiment, for he deifies nature and has a veneration for her +laws. His infidelity must be viewed rather in the light of a philosophical +protest against the results of heathen superstition, than a total +rejection of the principles of religious faith. + +Lucretius valued the capabilities of the Latin language. He wielded at +will its power of embodying the noblest thoughts, and showed how its +copious and flexible properties could overcome the hard technicalities of +science. The great beauty of his poetry is its variety; his fancy is +always lively, his imagination has always free scope. He is sublime, as a +philosopher who penetrates the secrets of the natural world, and discloses +to the eyes of man the hidden causes of its wonderful phenomena. His +object was a lofty one; for although the absurdities of the national creed +drove him into skepticism, his aim was to set the intellect free from the +trammels of superstition. But besides grandeur and sublimity, we find the +totally different qualities of softness and tenderness. Rome had long +known nothing but war, and was now rent by civil dissension. Lucretius +yearned for peace; and his prayer, that the fabled goddess of all that is +beautiful in nature would heal the wounds which discord had made, is +distinguished by tenderness and pathos even more than by sublimity. He is +superior to Ovid in force, though inferior in facility; not so smooth or +harmonious as Virgil, his poetry always falls upon the ear with a swelling +and sonorous melody. Virgil appreciated his excellence, and imitated not +only single expressions, but almost entire verses and passages; and Ovid +exclaims, that the sublime strains of Lucretius shall never perish until +the world shall be given up to destruction. + +5. LYRIC POETRY.--The Romans had not the ideality and the enthusiasm which +are the elements of lyric poetry, and in all the range of their literature +there are only two poets who, greatly inferior to the lyric poets of +Greece, have a positive claim to a place in this department, Catullus and +Horace. Catullus (86-46 B.C.) was born near Verona. At an early age he +went to Rome, where he plunged into all the excesses of the capital, and +where his sole occupation was the cultivation of his literary tastes and +talents. A career of extravagance and debauchery terminated in the ruin of +his fortune, and he died at the age of forty. The works of Catullus +consist of numerous short pieces of a lyrical character, elegies and other +poems. He was one of the most popular of the Roman poets, because he +possessed those qualities which the literary society at Rome most valued, +polish and learning, and because, although an imitator, there was a truly +Roman nationality in all that he wrote. His satire was the bitter +resentment of a vindictive spirit; his love and his hate were both purely +selfish, but his excellences were of the most alluring and captivating +kind. He has never been surpassed in gracefulness, melody, and tenderness. + +Horace (65-8 B.C.), like Virgil and other poets of his time, enjoyed the +friendship and intimacy of Maecenas, who procured for him the public grant +of his Sabine farm, situated about fifteen miles from Tivoli. At Rome he +occupied a house on the beautiful heights of the Esquiline. The rapid +alternation of town and country life, which the fickle poet indulged in, +gives a peculiar charm to his poetry. His "Satires" were followed by the +publication of the "Odes" and the "Epistles." The satires of Horace +occupied the position of the fashionable novel of our day. In them is +sketched boldly, but good-humoredly, a picture of Roman social life, with +its vices and follies. They have nothing of the bitterness of Lucilius, +the love of purity and honor that adorns Persius, or the burning +indignation of Juvenal at the loathsome corruption of morals. Vice, in his +day, had not reached that appalling height which it attained in the time +of the emperors who succeeded Augustus. Deficient in moral purity, nothing +would strike him as deserving censure, except such excess as would +actually defeat the object which he proposed to himself, namely, the +utmost enjoyment of life. In the "Epistles," he lays aside the character +of a moral teacher or censor, and writes with the freedom with which he +would converse with an intimate friend. But it is in his inimitable "Odes" +that the genius of Horace as a poet is especially displayed; they have +never been equaled in beauty of sentiment, gracefulness of language, and +melody of versification; they comprehend every variety of subject suitable +to the lyric muse; they rise without effort to the most elevated topics; +and they descend to the simplest joys and sorrows of every-day life. + +The life of Horace is especially instructive, as a mirror in which is +reflected a faithful image of the manners of his day. He is the +representative of Roman refined society, as Virgil is of the national +mind. His morals were lax, but not worse than those of his contemporaries. +He looked at virtue and vice from a worldly, not from a moral point of +view, and with him the one was prudence and the other folly. + +In connection with Horace, we may mention Maecenas, who, by his good taste +and munificence, exercised a great influence upon literature, and literary +men of Rome were much indebted to him for the use he made of his +friendship with Augustus, to whom, probably, his love of literature and of +pleasure and his imperturbable temper recommended him as an agreeable +companion. He had wealth enough to gratify his utmost wishes, and his mind +was so full of the delights of refined society, of palaces, gardens, wit, +poetry, and art, that there was no room in it for ambition. All the most +brilliant men of Rome were found at his table,--Virgil, Horace, +Propertius, and Varius were among his friends and constant associates. He +was a fair specimen of the man of pleasure and society,--liberal, kind- +hearted, clever, refined, but luxurious, self-indulgent, indolent, and +volatile, with good impulses, but without principle. + +6. ELEGY.--Tibullus (b. 54 B.C.) was the father of the Roman elegy. He was +a contemporary of Virgil and Horace. The style of his poems and their tone +of thought are like his character, deficient in vigor and manliness, but +sweet, smooth, polished, tender, and never disfigured by bad taste. He +passed his short life in peaceful retirement, and died soon after Virgil. +The poems ascribed to Tibullus consist of four books, of which only two +are genuine. + +Propertius (b. 150 B.C.), although a contemporary and friend of the +Augustan poets, may be considered as belonging to a somewhat different +school of poetry. While Horace, Virgil, and Tibullus imitated the noblest +poets of the Greek age, Propertius, like the minor Roman poets, aspired to +nothing more than the imitation of the graceful, but feeble strains of the +Alexandrian poets. If he excels Tibullus in vigor of fancy, expression, +and coloring, he is inferior to him in grace, spontaneity, and delicacy; +he cannot, also, be compared with Catullus, who greatly surpasses him in +his easy and effective style. + +Ovid (43 B.C.-6 A.D.), the most fertile of the Latin poets, not only in +elegy, but also in other kinds of poetry, was enabled by his rank, +fortune, and talents to cultivate the society of men of congenial tastes. +A skeptic and an epicurean, he lived a life of continual indulgence and +intrigue. He was a universal admirer of the female sex, and a favorite +among women. He was popular as a poet, successful in society, and +possessed all the enjoyments that wealth could bestow; but later in life +he incurred the anger of Augustus, and was banished to the very frontier +of the Roman empire, where he lingered for a few years and died in great +misery. The "Epistles to and from Women of the Heroic Age" are a series of +love-letters; with the exception of the "Metamorphoses," they have been +greater favorites than any other of his works. Love, in the days of Ovid, +had in it nothing pure or chivalrous. The age in which he lived was +morally polluted, and he was neither better nor worse than his +contemporaries; hence grossness is the characteristic of his "Art of +Love." His "Metamorphoses" contain a series of mythological narratives +from the earliest times to the translation of the soul of Julius Caesar +from earth to heaven, and his metamorphosis into a star. In this poem +especially may be traced that study and learning by which the Roman poets +made all the treasures of Greek literature their own. "The Fasti," a poem +on the Roman calendar, is a beautiful specimen of simple narrative in +verse, and displays, more than any of his works, his power of telling a +story without the slightest effort, in poetry as well as prose. The five +books of the "Tristia," and the "Epistles from Pontus," were the +outpourings of his sorrowful heart during the gloomy evening of his days. + +7. ORATORY AND PHILOSOPHY.--As oratory gave to Latin prose-writing its +elegance and dignity, Cicero (106-43 B.C.) is not only the representative +of the flourishing period of the language, but also the instrumental cause +of its arriving at perfection. He gave a fixed character to the Latin +tongue; showed his countrymen what vigor it possessed, and of what +elegance and polish it was susceptible. The influence of Cicero on the +language and literature of his day was not only extensive, but permanent, +and it survived almost until the language was corrupted by barbarism. +After traveling in Greece and Asia, and holding a high office in Sicily, +he returned to Rome, resumed his forensic practice, and was made consul. +The conspiracy of Catiline was the great event of his consulship. The +prudence and tact with which he crushed this gained him the applause and +gratitude of his fellow-citizens, who hailed him as the father of his +country; but he was obliged, by the intrigues of his enemies, to fly from +Rome; his exile was decreed, and his town and country houses given up to +plunder. He was, however, recalled, and appointed to a seat in the college +of Augurs. In the struggle between Pompey and Caesar, he followed the +fortunes of the former; but Caesar, after his triumph, granted him a full +and free pardon. After the assassination of Caesar, Cicero delivered that +torrent of indignant and eloquent invective, his twelve Philippic +orations, and became again the popular idol; but when the second +triumvirate was formed, and each member gave up his friends to the +vengeance of his colleagues, Octavius did not hesitate to sacrifice +Cicero. Betrayed by a treacherous freedman, he would not permit his +attendants to make any resistance, but courageously submitted to the sword +of the assassins, who cut off his head and hands, and carried them to +Antony, whose wife, Julia, gloated with inhuman delight upon the pallid +features, and in petty spite pierced with a needle the once eloquent +tongue. Cicero had numerous faults; he was vain, vacillating, inconstant, +timid, and the victim of morbid sensibility; but he was candid, truthful, +just, generous, pure-minded, and warm-hearted. Gentle, sympathizing, and +affectionate, he lived as a patriot and died as a philosopher. + +The place which Cicero occupies in the history of Roman literature is that +of an orator and philosopher. The effectiveness of his oratory was mainly +owing to his knowledge of the human heart, and of the national +peculiarities of his countrymen. Its charm was owing to his extensive +acquaintance with the stores of literature and philosophy, which his +sprightly wit moulded at will; to the varied learning, which his +unpedantic mind made so pleasant and popular; and to his fund of +illustration, at once interesting and convincing. He carried his hearers +with him; senate, judges, and people understood his arguments, and felt +his passionate appeals. Compared with the dignified energy and majestic +vigor of Demosthenes, the Asiatic exuberance of some of his orations may +be fatiguing to the more sober and chaste taste of modern scholars; but in +order to form a just appreciation, we must transport ourselves mentally to +the excitements of the thronged forum, to the senate, composed of +statesmen and warriors in the prime of life, maddened with the party- +spirit of revolutionary times. Viewed in this light, his most florid +passages will appear free from affectation--the natural flow of a speaker +carried away with the torrent of his enthusiasm. Among his numerous +orations, in which, according to the criticisms of Quintilian, he combined +the force of Demosthenes, the copiousness of Plato, and the elegance of +Isocrates, we mention the six celebrated Verrian harangues, which are +considered masterpieces of Tullian eloquence. In the speech for the poet +Archias, he had evidently expended all his resources of art, taste, and +skill; and his oration in defense of Milo, for force, pathos, and the +externals of eloquence, deserves to be reckoned among his most wonderful +efforts. The oratory of Cicero was essentially judicial; even his +political orations are rather judicial than deliberative. He was not born +for a politician; he did not possess that analytical character of mind +which penetrates into the remote causes of human action, nor the +synthetical power which enables a man to follow them out to their farthest +consequences. Of the three qualities necessary for a statesman, he +possessed only two,--honesty and patriotism; he had not political wisdom. +Hence, in the finest specimens of his political orations, his +Catilinarians and Philippics, we look in vain for the calm, practical +weighing of the subject which is necessary in addressing a deliberative +assembly. Nevertheless, so irresistible was the influence which he +exercised upon the minds of his hearers, that all his political speeches +were triumphs. His panegyric on Pompey carried his appointment as +commander-in-chief of the armies of the East; he crushed in Catiline one +of the most formidable traitors that had ever menaced the safety of the +republic, and Antony's fall followed the complete exposure of his +debauchery in private life, and the factiousness of his public career. + +In his rhetorical works, Cicero left a legacy of practical instruction to +posterity. The treatise "On Invention" is merely interesting as the +juvenile production of a future great man. "The Orator," "Brutus, or the +illustrious Orators," and "The Orator to Marius Brutus," are the results +of his matured experience. They form together one series, in which the +principles are laid down, and their development carried out and +illustrated; and in the "Orator" he places before the eyes of Brutus the +model of ideal perfection. In his treatment of that subject, he shows a +mind imbued with the spirit of Plato; he invests it with dramatic +interest, and transports the reader into the scene which he so graphically +describes. + +Roman philosophy was neither the result of original investigation, nor the +gradual development of the Greek system. It arose rather from a study of +ancient philosophical literature, than from an emanation of philosophical +principles. It consisted in a kind of eclecticism with an ethical +tendency, bringing together doctrines and opinions scattered over a wide +field in reference to the political and social relations of man. Greek +philosophy was probably first introduced into Rome 166 B.C. But although +the Romans could appreciate the majestic dignity and poetical beauty of +the style of Plato, they were not equal to the task of penetrating his +hidden meaning; neither did the peripatetic doctrines meet with much +favor. The philosophical system which first arrested the attention of the +Romans, and gained an influence over their minds, was the Epicurean. That +of the Stoics also, the severe principles of which were in harmony with +the stern old Roman virtues, had distinguished disciples. The part which +Cicero's character qualified him to perform in the philosophical +instruction of his countrymen was scarcely that of a guide; he could give +them a lively interest in the subject, but he could not mould and form +their belief, and train them in the work of original investigation. Not +being devoutly attached to any system of philosophical belief, he would be +cautious of offending the philosophical prejudices of others. He was +essentially an eclectic in accumulating stores of Greek erudition, while +his mind had a tendency, in the midst of a variety of inconsistent +doctrines, to leave the conclusion undetermined. He brought everything to +a practical standard; he admired the exalted purity of stoical morality, +but he feared that it was impractical. He believed in the existence of one +supreme creator, in his spiritual nature, and the immortality of the soul; +but his belief was rather the result of instinctive conviction, than of +proof derived from philosophy. + +The study of Cicero's philosophical works is invaluable, in order to +understand the minds of those who came after him. Not only all Roman +philosophy after his time, but a great part of that of the Middle Ages, +was Greek philosophy filtered through Latin, and mainly founded on that of +Cicero. Among his works on speculative philosophy are "The Academics, or a +history and defense of the belief of the new Academy;" "Dialogues on the +Supreme Good, the end of all moral action;" "The Tusculan Disputations," +containing five treatises on the fear of death, the endurance of pain, +power of wisdom over sorrow, the morbid passions, and the relation of +virtue to happiness. His moral philosophy comprehends the "Duties," a +stoical treatise on moral obligations, and the unequaled little essays on +"Friendship and Old Age." His political works are "The Republic" and "The +Law;" but these remains are fragmentary. + +The extent of Cicero's correspondence is almost incredible. Even those +epistles which remain number more than eight hundred. In them we find the +eloquence of the heart, not of the rhetorical school. They are models of +pure Latinity, elegant without stiffness, the natural outpourings of a +mind which could not give birth to an ungraceful idea. In his letters to +Atticus he lays bare the secret of his heart; he trusts his life in his +hands; he is not only his friend but his confidant, his second self. In +the letters of Cicero we have the description of the period of Roman +history, and the portrait of the inner life of Roman society in his day. + +8. HISTORY.--In their historical literature the Romans exhibited a +faithful transcript of their mind and character. History at once gratified +their patriotism, and its investigations were in accordance with their +love of the real and the practical. In this department, they were enabled +to emulate the Greeks and to be their rivals, and sometimes their +superiors. The elegant simplicity of Caesar is as attractive as that of +Herodotus; none of the Greek historians surpasses Livy in talent for the +picturesque and in the charm with which he invests his spirited and living +stories; while for condensation of thought, terseness of expression, and +political and philosophical acumen, Tacitus is not inferior to Thucydides. +The catalogue of Roman historians contains many writers whose works are +lost; such as L. Lucretius, the friend and correspondent of Cicero, L. +Lucullus, the illustrious conqueror of Mithridates, and Cornelius Nepos, +of whom only one work was preserved, the "Lives of Eminent Generals." The +authenticity of this work is, however, disputed. But at the head of this +department, as the great representatives of Roman history, stand Julius +Caesar, Sallust, Livy, and Tacitus, all of whom, except the last, belong +to the Augustan age. + +Julius Caesar (100-44 B.C.) was descended from one of the oldest among the +patrician families of Rome. He attached himself to the popular party, and +his good taste, great tact, and pleasing manners contributed, together +with his talents, to insure his popularity. He became a soldier in the +nineteenth year of his age, and hence his works display all the best +qualities which are fostered by a military education--frankness, +simplicity, and brevity. His earliest literary triumph was as an orator, +and, according to Quintilian, he was a worthy rival of Cicero. When he +obtained the office of Pontifex Maximus, he diligently examined the +history and nature of the Roman belief in augury, and published his +investigations. When his career as a military commander began, whatever +leisure his duties permitted him to enjoy he devoted to the composition of +his memoirs, or commentaries of the Gallic and civil wars. He wrote, also, +some minor works on different subjects, and he left behind him various +letters, some of which are extant. + +But by far the most important of the works of Caesar is his +"Commentaries," which have come down to us in a tolerably perfect state. +They are sketches taken on the spot, in the midst of action, while the +mind was full, and they have all the graphic power of a master-mind and +the vigorous touches of a master-hand. The Commentaries are the materials +for history, notes jotted down for future historians. The very faults +which may justly be found with the style of Caesar are such as reflect the +man himself. The majesty of his character consists chiefly in the +imperturbable calmness and equanimity of his temper; he had no sudden +bursts of energy and alternations of passion and inactivity. The elevation +of his character was a high one, but it was a level table-land. This +calmness and equability pervades his writings, and for this reason they +have been thought to want life and energy. The beauty of his language is, +as Cicero says, statuesque rather than picturesque. Simple and severe, it +conveys the idea of perfect and well-proportioned beauty, while it +banishes all thoughts of human passion. In relating his own deeds, he does +not strive to add to his own reputation by detracting from the merits of +those who served under him. He is honest, generous, and candid, not only +towards them, but also towards his brave enemies. He recounts his +successes without pretension or arrogance, though he has evidently no +objection to be the hero of his own tale. His Commentaries are not +confessions, although he is the subject of them; not a record of a +weakness appears, nor even a defect, except that which the Romans would +readily forgive, cruelty. His savage waste of human life he recounts with +perfect self-complacency. Vanity, the crowning error in his career as a +statesman, though hidden by the reserve with which he speaks of himself, +sometimes discovers itself in the historian. + +The Commentaries of Caesar have been compared with the work of the great +soldier-historian of Greece, Xenophon. Both are eminently simple and +unaffected, but there the parallel ends. The severe contempt of ornament, +which characterizes the stern Roman, is totally unlike the mellifluous +sweetness of the Attic writer. + +Sallust (85-35 B.C.) was born of a plebeian family, but, having filled the +offices of tribune and quaestor, attained senatorial rank. He was expelled +from the Senate for his profligacy, but restored again to his rank through +the influence of Caesar, whose party he espoused. He accompanied his +patron in the African war, and was made governor of Numidia. While in that +capacity, he accumulated by rapacity and extortion enormous wealth, which +he lavished in expensive but tasteful luxury. The gardens on the Quirinal +which bore his name were celebrated for their beauty; and there, +surrounded by the choicest works of art, he devoted his retirement to +composing the historical records which survived him. As a politician, he +was a mere partisan of Caesar, and therefore a strenuous opponent of the +higher classes and of the supporters of Pompey. The object of his hatred +was not the old patrician blood of Rome, but the new aristocracy, which +had of late years been rapidly rising up and displacing it. That new +nobility was utterly corrupt, and its corruption was encouraged by the +venality of the masses, whose poverty and destitution tempted them to be +the tools of unscrupulous ambition. Sallust strove to place that party in +the unfavorable light which it deserved; but, notwithstanding the +truthfulness of the picture which he draws, selfishness and not patriotism +was the mainspring of his politics; he was not an honest champion of +popular rights, but a vain and conceited man, who lived in an immoral and +corrupt age, and had not the strength of principle to resist the force of +example and temptation. If, however, we make some allowance for the +political bias of Sallust, his histories have not only the charms of the +historical romance, but are also valuable political studies. His +characters are vigorously and naturally drawn, and the more his histories +are read, the more obvious it is that he always writes with an object, and +uses his facts as the means of enforcing a great political lesson. + +His first work is on the "Jugurthine War;" the next related to the period +from the consulship of Lepidus to the praetorship of Cicero, and is +unfortunately lost. This was followed by a history of the conspiracy of +Catiline, "The War of Catiline," in which he paints in vivid colors the +depravity of that order of society which, bankrupt in fortune and honor, +still plumes itself on its rank and exclusiveness. To Sallust must be +conceded the praise of having first conceived the notion of a history, in +the true sense of the term. He was the first Roman historian, and the +guide of future historians. He had always an object to which he wished all +his facts to converge, and he brought them forward as illustrations and +developments of principles. He analyzed and exposed the motives of +parties, and laid bare the inner life of those great actors on the public +stage, in the interesting historical scenes which he describes. His style, +although ostentatiously elaborate and artificial, is, upon the whole, +pleasing, and almost always transparently clear. Following Thucydides, +whom he evidently took as his model, he strives to imitate his brevity; +but while this quality with the Greek historian is natural and +involuntary, with the Roman it is intentional and studied. The brevity of +Thucydides is the result of condensation, that of Salust is elliptical +expression. + +Livy (59-18 B.C.) was born in Padua, and came to Rome during the reign of +Augustus, where he resided in the enjoyment of the imperial favor and +patronage. He was a warm and open admirer of the ancient institutions of +the country, and esteemed Pompey as one of its greatest heroes; but +Augustus did not allow political opinions to interfere with the regard +which he entertained for the historian. His great work is a history of +Rome, which he modestly terms "Annals," in one hundred and forty-two +books, of which thirty-five are extant. Besides his history, Livy is said +to have written treatises and dialogues, which were partly philosophical +and partly historical. + +The great object of Livy's history was to celebrate the glories of his +native country, to which he was devotedly attached. He was a patriot: his +sympathy was with Pompey, called forth by the disinterestedness of that +great man, and perhaps by his sad end. He delights to put forth his powers +in those passages which relate to the affections. He is a biographer quite +as much as a historian; he anatomizes the moral nature of his heroes, and +shows the motive springs of their noble exploits. His characters stand +before us like epic heroes, and he tells his story like a bard singing his +lay at a joyous festive meeting, checkered by alternate successes and +reverses, though all tending to a happy result at last. But while these +features constitute his charm as a narrator, they render him less valuable +as a historian. Although he would not be willfully inaccurate, if the +legend he was about to tell was interesting, he would not stop to inquire +whether or not it was true. Taking upon trust the traditions which had +been handed down from generation to generation, the more flattering and +popular they were, the more suitable would he deem them for his purposes. +He loved his country, and he would scarcely believe anything derogatory to +the national glory. Whenever Rome was false to treaties, unmerciful in +victory, or unsuccessful in arms, he either ignores the facts or is +anxious to find excuses. He does not appear to have made researches into +the many original documents which were extant at his time, but he trusted +to the annalists, and took advantage of the investigations of preceding +historians. His descriptions of military affairs are often vague and +indistinct, and he often shows himself ignorant of the localities which he +describes. Such are the principal defects of Livy, who otherwise charms +his readers with his romantic narratives, and his lively, fresh, and +fascinating style. + +9. OTHER PROSE WRITERS.--Though the grammarians of this period were +numerous, they added little or nothing to its literary reputation. The +most conspicuous among them were Atteius, a friend of Sallust; Epirota, +the correspondent of Cicero; Julius Hyginus, a friend of Ovid; and +Nigidius Figulus, an orator as well as grammarian. M. Vitruvius Pollio, +the celebrated architect, deserves to be mentioned for his treatise on +architecture. He was probably native of Verona, and served under Julius +Caesar in Africa, as a military engineer. Notwithstanding the defects of +his style, the language of Vitruvius is vigorous, and his descriptions +bold; his work is valuable as exhibiting the principles of Greek +architectural taste and beauty, of which he was a devoted admirer. + + +PERIOD THIRD. + +FROM THE DEATH OF AUGUSTUS TO THE CLOSE OF THE REIGN OF THEODORIC +(14-526 A.D.). + +1. DECLINE OF ROMAN LITERATURE.--With the death of Augustus began the +decline of Roman literature, and a few names only rescue the first years +of this period from the charge of a corrupt and vitiated taste. After a +while, indeed, political circumstances again became more favorable; the +dangers, which paralyzed genius and talent, and prevented their free +exercise under Tiberius and his tyrannical successors, diminished, and a +more liberal system of administration ensued under Vespasian and Titus. +Juvenal and Tacitus then stood forth, as the representatives of the old +Roman independence. Vigor of thought communicated itself to the language; +a taste for the sublime and beautiful, to a certain extent, revived, +although it did not attain to the perfection which shed a lustre over the +Augustan age. Between the ages of Horace and Juvenal, Cicero and Tacitus, +there was a gap of half a century, in which Roman genius was slumbering. +The gradual growth of a spirit of adulation deterred all who were +qualified for the task of the historian from attempting it. Fear, during +the lifetime of Tiberius and Caligula, Claudius and Nero, and hatred, +still fresh after their deaths, rendered all accounts of their reigns +false. And the same causes which silenced the voice of history +extinguished the genius of poetry and oratory. As liberty declined, +natural eloquence decayed; the orator sought only to please the corrupt +taste of his audiences with strange and exaggerated statements; the poet +aimed to win public admiration through a style over-laden with ornament, +and florid and diffuse descriptions. Literature, in order to flourish, +requires the genial sunshine of human sympathy; it needs either the +patronage of the great, or the favor of the people. Immediately after the +death of Augustus, patronage was withdrawn, and there was no public +sympathy to supply its place. In the reign of Nero, literature partially +revived; for, though the bloodiest of tyrants, he had a taste for art and +poetry, and an ambition to excel in refinement. + +2. FABLE.--In fable, as in other fields of literature, Rome was an +imitator of Greece, but nevertheless Phaedrus struck out a new line for +himself, and, through his fables, became not only a moral instructor, but +a political satirist. Phaedrus (fl. 16 A.D.), the originator and only +author of Roman fable, though born in the reign of Augustus, wrote when +the Augustan age had passed away. His works are, as it were, isolated; he +had no contemporaries. Nevertheless, his solitary voice was lifted up when +those of the poet, the historian, and the philosopher were silenced. The +moral and political lessons conveyed in his fables were suggested by the +evils of the times in which he lived. Some of them illustrate the danger +of riches and the comparative safety of obscurity and poverty, in an age +when the rich were marked for destruction, in order that the confiscation +of their property might glut the avarice of the emperor and of his +servants; others were suggested by historical events, being nevertheless +satirical strictures on individuals. The style of Phaedrus is pure and +classical, and combines the simple neatness and graceful elegance of the +golden age with the vigor and terseness of the silver one. He has the +facility of Ovid and the brevity of Tacitus. In the construction of his +fables, he displays observation and ingenuity; but he is deficient in +imagination. He makes his animals the vehicles of his wisdom, but he does +not throw himself into them, or identify himself with them; while they +look and act like animals, they talk like human beings. In this consists +the great superiority of Aesop to his Roman imitator; his brutes are a +superior race, but they are still brutes, and it would seem that the +fabulist had lived among them as one of themselves, had adopted their mode +of life, and conversed with them in their own language. In Phaedrus we +have human sentiments translated into the language of beasts, while in +Aesop we have beasts giving utterance to such sentiments as would be +naturally theirs if they were placed in the position of men. + +3. SATIRE AND EPIGRAM.--Roman satire, subsequently to Horace, is +represented by Persius and Juvenal. Persius (34-62 A.D.) early attached +himself to the Stoic philosophy. He was pure in mind, and free from the +corrupt taint of an immoral age. Although Lucilius was, to a certain +extent, his model, he does not attack vice with the biting severity of the +old satirist, nor do we find in his writings the enthusiastic indignation +which burns in the verses of Juvenal. His purity of mind and kindliness of +heart disinclined him to portray vice in its hideous and loathsome forms, +and to indulge in that bitterness of invective which the prevalent +enormities of his times deserved. His uprightness and love of virtue are +shown by the uncompromising severity with which he rebukes sins of not so +deep a dye; and the heart which was capable of being moulded by his +example, and influenced by his purity, would have shrunk from the fearful +crimes which deform the pages of Juvenal. The greatest defect in Persius, +as a satirist, is that the Stoic philosophy in which he was educated +rendered him indifferent to the affairs of the world. His contemplative +habits led him to criticise, as his favorite subjects, false taste in +poetry and empty pretensions to philosophy. Horace mingled in the society +of the profligate and considering them as fools, laughed their folly to +scorn. Juvenal looked down upon the corruption of the age from the +eminence of his virtue, and punished it like an avenging deity. Persius, +pure in heart and passionless by education, while he lashes wickedness in +the abstract, almost ignores its existence, and shrinks from probing to +the bottom the vileness of the human heart. His works comprise six +satires, all of which breathe the natural amiability and placid +cheerfulness of his temper. + +Juvenal flourished in the reign of Domitian, towards the close of the +first century A.D., a dark period, which saw the utter moral degradation +of the people, and the bloodiest tyranny and oppression on the part of +their rulers. The picture of Roman manners, as painted by his glowing +pencil, is truly appalling. The fabric of society was in ruins, the +popular religion was rejected with scorn, and the creed of natural +religion had not occupied its place. The emperors took part in public +scenes of folly and profligacy, and exposed themselves as charioteers, as +dancers, and as actors. Nothing was respected but wealth, nothing provoked +contempt but poverty. Players and dancers had all honors and offices at +their disposal; the city swarmed with informers, who made the rich their +prey; every man feared his most intimate friend, and the only bond of +friendship was to be an accomplice in crime. The teacher would corrupt his +pupil, and the guardian defraud his ward. Crimes which cannot be named +were common, and the streets of Rome were the constant scene of robbery, +assault, and assassination. The morals of women were as depraved as those +of men, and there was no public amusement so immoral or so cruel as not to +be countenanced by their presence. In this period of moral dearth, the +fountains of genius and literature were dried up. There was criticism, +declamation, panegyric, and verse writing, but no oratory, history, or +poetry. Juvenal, though himself not free from the declamatory affectation +of the day, attacked the false literary taste of his contemporaries as +unsparingly as he did their depraved morality. His sixteen satires exhibit +an enlightened, truthful, and comprehensive view of Roman manners, and of +the inevitable result of such depravity. The two finest of them are those +which Dr. Johnson has thought worthy of imitation. + +The historical value of these satires must not be forgotten. Tacitus lived +in the same perilous times as Juvenal, and when they had come to an end +and it was not unsafe to speak, he wrote their public history, which the +poet illustrates by displaying the social and inner life of the Romans. +Their works are parallel, and each forms a commentary upon the other. The +style of Juvenal is vigorous and lucid; his morals were pure in the midst +of a debased age, and his language shines forth in classic elegance, in +the midst of specimens of declining and degenerate taste. + +Juvenal closes the list of Roman satirists, properly speaking. The +satirical spirit animates the piquant epigrams of his friend Martial, but +their purpose is not moral or didactic. They sting the individual, and +render him an object of scorn and disgust, but they do not hold up vice +itself to ridicule and detestation. + +Martial (43-104 A.D.) was born in Spain. He early emigrated to Rome, where +he became a favorite of Titus and Domitian, and in the reign of the latter +he was appointed to the office of court-poet. During thirty-five years, he +lived at Rome the life of a flatterer and a dependent, and then he +returned to his native town, where his death was hastened by his distaste +for provincial life. Measured by the corrupt standard of morals which +disgraced the age in which he lived, Martial was probably not worse than +most of his contemporaries; for the fearful profligacy, which his powerful +pen describes in such hideous terms, had spread through Rome its loathsome +infection. Had he lived in better times, his talents might have been +devoted to a purer object; as it was, no language is strong enough to +denounce the impurities of his page, and his moral taste must have been +thoroughly depraved not to have turned with disgust from the contemplation +of such subjects. But not all his poems are of this character. Amidst some +obscurity of style and want of finish, many are redolent of Greek +sweetness and elegance. Here and there are pleasing descriptions of the +beauties of nature, and many are kind-hearted and full of varied wit, +poetical imagination, and graceful expression. To the original +characteristics of the Greek epigram, Martial, more than any other poet, +added that which constitutes an epigram in the modern sense of the term: +pointedness either in jest or earnest, and the bitterness of personal +satire. + +4. DRAMATIC LITERATURE.--Dramatic literature never flourished in Rome, and +still less under the empire. During this period there were not wanting +some imitators of Greece in this noble branch of poetry, but their +productions were rather literary than dramatic; they were poems composed +in a dramatic form, intended to be read, not acted. They contain noble +philosophical sentiments, lively descriptions, and passages full of +tenderness and pathos, but they are deficient in dramatic effect, and +positively offend against those laws of good taste which regulated the +Athenian stage. In the Augustan age, a few writers attained some +excellence in tragedy, at least in the opinion of ancient critics. + +Under the tyrant Nero, dramatic literature reappeared, specimens of which +are extant in the ten tragedies attributed to Seneca. But the genius of +the author never grasps, in their wholeness, the characters which he +attempts to copy; they are distorted images of the Greek originals, and +the shadowy grandeur of the godlike heroes of Aeschylus stands forth in +corporeal vastness, and appears childish and unnatural, like the giants of +a story-book. The Greeks believed in the gods and heroes whose agency and +exploits constituted the machinery of tragedy, but the Romans did not, and +we cannot sympathize with them, because we see that they are insincere. + +An awful belief in destiny, and the hopeless yet patient struggle of a +great and good man against this all-ruling power, are the mainspring of +Greek tragedy. This belief the Romans did not transfer into their +imitations, but they supplied its place with the stern fatalism of the +Stoics. The principle of destiny entertained by the Greek poets is a +mythological, even a religious one. It is the irresistible will of God. +God is at the commencement of the chain of causes and effects, by which +the event is brought about which God has ordained; his inspired prophets +have power to foretell, and mortals cannot resist or avoid. It is rather +predestination than destiny. The fatalism of the Stoics, on the other +hand, is the doctrine of practical necessity. It ignores the almighty +power of the Supreme Being, and although it does not deny his existence, +it strips him of his attributes as the moral governor of the universe. +These doctrines, expressed equally in the writings of Seneca the +philosopher, and in the tragedies attributed to him, lead to the +probability, amounting almost to certainty, that he was their author. But +whatever be the case in regard to their authorship, it is certain that, +notwithstanding their false rhetorical taste and the absence of all ideal +and creative genius, they have found many admirers and imitators in modern +times. The French school of tragic poets took them for their model; +Corneille evidently considered them the ideal of tragedy, and Racine +servilely imitated them. + +5. EPIC POETRY.--At the head of the epic poets who flourished during the +Silver Age, stands Lucan (39-66 A.D.). He was born at Cordova, in Spain, +and probably came to Rome when very young, where his literary reputation +was soon established. But Nero, who could not bear the idea of a rival, +forbade him to recite his poems, then the common mode of publication. +Neither would he allow him to plead as an advocate. Smarting under this +provocation, he joined in a conspiracy against the emperor's life. The +plot failed, but Lucan was pardoned on condition of pointing out his +confederates, and in the vain hope of saving himself from the monster's +vengeance, he actually impeached his mother. This noble woman was +incapable of treason. Tacitus says, "the scourge, the flames, the rage of +the executioners who tortured her the more savagely, lest they should be +scorned by a woman, were powerless to extort a false confession." Lucan +never received the reward which he purchased by treachery. When the +warrant for his death was issued, he caused his veins to be cut asunder, +and expired in the twenty-seventh year of his age. + +The only one of his works which survives is the "Pharsalia," an epic poem +on the subject of the civil war between Caesar and Pompey. It bears +evident marks of having been left unfinished; it has great faults and at +the same time great beauties. The sentiments contained in this poem +breathe a love of freedom and an attachment to the old Roman +republicanism. Its subject is a noble one, full of historic interest, and +it is treated with spirit, brilliancy, and animation. The characters of +Caesar and Pompey are masterpieces; but while some passages are scarcely +inferior to any written by the best Latin poets, others have neither the +dignity of prose, nor the melody of poetry. Description forms the +principal feature in the poetry of Lucan; in fact, it constitutes one of +the characteristic features of Roman literature in its decline, because +poetry had become more than ever an art, and the epoch one of erudition. + +Silius Italicus (fl. 54 A.D.) was the favorite and intimate of two +emperors, Nero and Vitellius. He left a poem, the "Punica," which contains +the history in heroic verse of the second Punic war. The Aeneid of Virgil +was his model, and the narrative of Livy furnished his materials. It is +considered the dullest and most tedious poem in the Latin language though +its versification is harmonious, and will often, in point of smoothness, +bear comparison with that of Virgil. + +Valerius Flaccus flourished in the reign of Vespasian. He is author of the +"Argonautica," an imitation and in some parts a translation of the Greek +poem of Apollonius Rhodius on the same subject. He evidently did not live +to complete his original design. In the Argonautica there are no glaring +faults or blemishes, but there is also no genius, no inspiration. He has +some talents as a descriptive poet; his versification is harmonious and +his style graceful. + +P. Statius (61-95 A.D.) was the author of the Silviae, Thebaid, and +Achilleid. The "Silviae" are the rude materials of thought springing up +spontaneously in all their wild luxuriance, from the rich, natural soil of +the imagination of the poet. The subject of the "Thebaid" is the ancient +Greek legend respecting the war of the Seven against Thebes, and the +"Achilleid" was intended to embrace all the exploits of Achilles, but only +two books were completed. The poems of Statius contain many poetical +incidents, which might stand by themselves as perfect fugitive pieces. In +these we see his natural and unaffected elegance, his harmonious ear, and +the truthfulness of his perceptions. But, as an epic poet, he has neither +grasp of mind nor vigor of conception; his imaginary heroes do not inspire +and warm his imagination; and his genius was unable to rise to the highest +departments of art. + +6. HISTORY.--For the reasons already stated, Rome for a long period could +boast of no historian; the perilous nature of the times, and the personal +obligations under which learned men frequently were to the emperors, +rendered contemporary history a means of adulation and servility. To this +class of historians belongs Paterculus (fl. 30 A.D.), who wrote a history +of Rome which is partial, prejudiced, and adulatory. He was a man of +lively talents, and his taste was formed after the model of Sallust, of +whom he was an imitator. His style is often overstrained and unnatural. + +Under the genial and fostering influence of the Emperor Trajan, the fine +arts, especially architecture, flourished, and literature revived. The +same taste and execution which are visible in the bas-reliefs on the +column of Trajan adorn the literature of his age as illustrated by its two +great lights, Tacitus and the younger Pliny. There is not the rich, +graceful manner which invests with such a charm the writers of the Golden +Age, but the absence of these qualities is amply compensated by dignity, +gravity, and honesty. Truthfulness beams throughout the writings of these +two great contemporaries, and incorruptible virtue is as visible in the +pages of Tacitus as benevolence and tenderness are in the letters of +Pliny. They mutually influenced each other's characters and principles; +their tastes and pursuits were similar; they loved each other dearly, +corresponded regularly, corrected each other's works, and accepted +patiently and gratefully each other's criticism. + +Tacitus (60-135 A.D.) was of equestrian rank, and served in several +important offices of the empire. His works now extant are a life of his +father-in-law, Agricola, a tract on the manners and nations of the +Germans, a small portion of a voluminous work entitled "Histories," about +two thirds of another historical work, entitled "Annals," and a dialogue +on the decline of eloquence. The life of Agricola, though a panegyric +rather than a biography, is a beautiful specimen of the vigor and force of +expression with which this greatest painter of antiquity could throw off +any portrait which he attempted. Even if the likeness be somewhat +flattered, the qualities which the writer possessed, his insight into +character, his pathetic power, and his affectionate heart, render this +short piece one of the most attractive biographies extant. The treatise on +the "Geography, Manners, and Nations of Germany," though containing +geographical descriptions often vague and inaccurate, and accounts +evidently founded on mere tales of travelers, bears the impress of truth +in the salient points and characteristic features of the national manners +and institutions of Teutonic nations. The "Histories," his earliest +historical work, of which only four books and a portion of the fifth are +extant, extended from the year 69 to 96 A.D., and it was his intention to +include the reigns of Nero and Trajan. In this work he proposed to +investigate the political state of the commonwealth, the feeling of its +armies, the sentiments of its provinces, the elements of its strength and +weakness, and the causes and reasons for each historical phenomenon. The +principal fault which diminishes the value of his history as a record of +events is his too great readiness to accept evidence unhesitatingly, and +to record popular rumors without taking sufficient pains to examine into +their truth. His incorrect account of the history, constitution, and +manners of the Jewish people is one among the few instances of this fault, +scattered over a vast field of faithful history. The "Annals" consist of +sixteen books; they begin with the death of Augustus, and conclude with +that of Nero (14-68 A.D.). The object of Tacitus was to describe the +influence which the establishment of tyranny on the ruins of liberty +exercised for good or for evil in bringing out the character of the +individual. In the extinction of freedom there still existed in Rome +bright examples of heroism and courage, and instances not less prominent +of corruption and degradation. In the annals of Tacitus these individuals +stand out in bold relief, either singly or in groups upon the stage, while +the emperor forms the principal figure, and the moral sense of the reader +is awakened to admire instances of patient suffering and determined +bravery, or to witness abject slavery and remorseless despotism. + +Full of sagacious observation and descriptive power, Tacitus engages the +most serious attention of the reader by the gravity of his condensed and +comprehensive style, as he does by the wisdom and dignity of his +reflections. Living amidst the influences of a corrupt age, he was +uncontaminated. By his virtue and integrity, and his chastened political +liberality, he commands our admiration as a man, while his love of truth +is reflected in his character as a historian. In his style, the form is +always subordinate to the matter; his sentences are suggestive of far more +than they express, and his brevity is enlivened by copiousness, variety, +and poetry; his language is highly figurative; his descriptions of scenery +and incidents are eminently picturesque, his characters dramatic, and the +expression of his own sentiments almost lyrical. + +Suetonius was born about 69 A.D. His principal extant works are the "Lives +of the Twelve Caesars," "Notices of Illustrious Grammarians and +Rhetoricians," and the Lives of the Poets Terence, Horace, Persius, Lucan, +and Juvenal. The use which he makes of historical documents proves that he +was a man of diligent research, and, as a biographer, industrious and +careful. He indulges neither in ornament of style nor in romantic +exaggeration. The pictures which he draws of some of the Caesars are +indeed terrible, but they are fully supported by the contemporary +authority of Juvenal and Tacitus. As a historian, Suetonius had not that +comprehensive and philosophical mind which would qualify him for taking an +enlarged view of his subject; he has no definite plan or method, and +wanders at will from one subject to another just as the idea seizes him. + +Curtius is considered by some writers as belonging to the Silver Age, and +by others to a later period. His biography of Alexander the Great is +deeply interesting. It is a romance rather than a history. He never loses +an opportunity, by the coloring which he gives to historical facts, of +elevating the Macedonian conqueror to a super-human standard. His florid +and ornamented style is suitable to the imaginary orations which are +introduced in the narrative, and which constitute the most striking +portions of the work. + +Valerius Maximus flourished during the reign of Tiberius. His work is a +collection of anecdotes entitled "Memorable Sayings and Deeds," the object +of which was to illustrate by examples the beauty of virtue and the +deformity of vice. The style is prolix and declamatory, and characterized +by awkward affectation and involved obscurity. + +7. RHETORIC AND ELOQUENCE.--Under the empire, schools of rhetoric were +multiplied, as harmless as tyranny could desire. In these the Roman youth +learned the means by which the absence of natural endowments could be +compensated. The students composed their speeches according to the rules +of rhetoric; they were then corrected, committed to memory, and recited, +partly with a view to practice, partly in order to amuse an admiring +audience. Nor were these declamations confined to mere students. Public +recitations had, since the days of Juvenal, been one of the crying +nuisances of the times. Seneca, the father of the philosopher of the same +name, a famous rhetorician himself, left two works containing a series of +exercises in oratory, which show the hollow and artificial system of those +schools. He was born in Cordova in Spain (61 A.D.), and as a professional +rhetorician amassed a considerable fortune. + +Quintilian (40-118 A.D.) was the most distinguished teacher of rhetoric of +this age. He attempted to restore a purer and more classical taste, but, +although to a certain extent he was successful, the effect which he +produced was only temporary. For the instruction of his elder son he wrote +his great work, "Institutes of Oratory," a complete system of instruction +in the art of oratory; and in it he shows himself far superior to Cicero +as a teacher, though he was inferior to him as an orator. + +His work is divided into twelve books, in which he traces the progress of +the orator from the very cradle until he arrives at perfection. In this +monument of his taste and genius he fully and completely exhausted the +subject, and left a text-book of the science and art of nations, as well +as a masterly sketch of the eloquence of antiquity. + +The disposition of Quintilian was as affectionate and tender as his genius +was brilliant and his taste pure; few passages throughout the whole range +of Latin literature can be compared to that in which he mourns the loss of +his wife and children. It is the touching eloquence of one who could not +write otherwise than gracefully. + +Among the pupils of Quintilian, Pliny the younger took the highest place +in the literature of his age. He was born in Como, 61 A.D., and adopted +and educated by his maternal uncle, the elder Pliny. He attained great +celebrity as a pleader, and stood high in favor with the emperor. His +works consist of a panegyric on Trajan, and a collection of letters in ten +books. The panegyric is a piece of courtly flattery in accordance with the +cringing and fawning manners of the times. The letters are very valuable, +not only for the insight which they give into his own character, but also +into the manners and modes of thought of his illustrious contemporaries, +as well as the politics of the day. For liveliness, descriptive power, +elegance, and simplicity of style, they are scarcely inferior to those of +Cicero, whom he evidently took for his model. These letters show how +accurate and judicious was the mind of Pliny, how prudent his +administration in the high offices which he filled under the reign of +Trajan, and how refined his taste for the beautiful. The tenth book, which +consists of the letters to Trajan, together with the emperor's rescripts, +will be read with the greatest interest. The following passages from his +dispatch respecting the Christians, written while he was procurator of the +province of Bithynia, and the emperor's answer, are worthy of being +transcribed, both because reference is so often made to them, and because +they throw light upon the marvelous and rapid propagation of the gospel, +the manners of the early Christians, the treatment to which their +constancy exposed them, and the severe jealousy with which they were +regarded:-- + +"It is my constant practice, sire, to refer to you all subjects on which I +entertain doubt. For who is better able to direct my hesitation, or to +instruct my ignorance? I have never been present at the trials of +Christians, and, therefore, I do not know in what way, or to what extent +it is usual to question or to punish them. I have also felt no small +difficulty in deciding whether age should make any difference, or whether +those of the tenderest and those of mature years should be treated alike; +whether pardon should be accorded to repentance, or whether, where a man +has once been a Christian, recantation should profit him; whether, if the +name of Christian does not imply criminality, still the crimes peculiarly +belonging to the name should be punished. Meanwhile, in the case of those +against whom informations have been laid before me, I have pursued the +following line of conduct: I have put to them, personally, the question +whether they were Christians. If they confessed, I interrogated them a +second and third time, and threatened them with punishment. If they still +persevered, I ordered their commitment; for I had no doubt whatever, that +whatever they confessed, at any rate, dogged and inflexible obstinacy +deserved to be punished. There were others who displayed similar madness; +but, as they were Roman citizens, I ordered them to be sent back to the +city. Soon, persecution itself, as is generally the case, caused the crime +to spread, and it appeared in new forms. An anonymous information was laid +against a large number of persons, but they deny that they are, or ever +have been, Christians. As they invoked the gods, repeating the form after +me, and offered prayer with incense and wine, to your image, which I had +ordered to be brought together with those of the deities, and besides, +cursed Christ, while those who are true Christians, it is said, cannot be +compelled to do any one of these things, I thought it right to set them at +liberty. Others, when accused by an informer, confessed that they were +Christians, and soon after denied the fact. They said they had been, but +had ceased to be, some three, some more, not a few even twenty years +previously. All these worshiped your image and those of the gods, and +cursed Christ. But they affirmed that the sum-total of their fault, or +their error, was that they were accustomed to assemble on a fixed day, +before dawn, and sing an antiphonal hymn to Christ as God; that they bound +themselves by an oath, not to the commission of any wickedness, but to +abstain from theft, robbery, and adultery; never to break a promise, or to +deny a deposit, when it was demanded back. When these ceremonies were +concluded, it was their custom to depart, and again assemble together to +take food harmlessly and in common. That after my proclamation, in which, +in obedience to your command, I had forbidden associations, they had +desisted from this practice. For these reasons, I the more thought it +necessary to investigate the real truth, by putting to the torture two +maidens who were called deaconesses; but I discovered nothing, but a +perverse and excessive superstition. I have, therefore, deferred taking +cognizance of the matter until I had consulted you; for it seemed to me a +case requiring advice, especially on account of the number of those in +peril. For many of every age, sex, and rank are, and will continue to be +called in question. The infection, in fact, has spread not only through +the cities, but also through the villages and open country; but it seems +that its progress can be arrested. At any rate, it is clear that the +temples, which were almost deserted, begin to be frequented; and solemn +sacrifices, which had been long intermitted, are again performed, and +victims are being sold everywhere, for which, up to this time, a purchaser +could rarely be found. It is, therefore, easy to conceive that crowds +might be reclaimed, if an opportunity for repentance were given." + +Trajan to Pliny: "In sifting the cases of those who have been indicted on +the charge of Christianity, you have adopted, my dear Secundus, the right +course of proceeding; for no certain rule can be laid down which will meet +all cases. They must not be sought after, but if they are informed +against, and convicted, they must be punished; with this proviso, however, +that if any deny that he is a Christian, and proves the point by offering +prayers to our deities, notwithstanding the suspicions under which he has +labored, he shall be pardoned on his repentance. On no account should any +anonymous charges be attended to, for it would be the worst possible +precedent, and is inconsistent with the habits of our time." + +8. PHILOSOPHY AND SCIENCE.--Philosophy, and particularly moral philosophy, +became a necessary study at this time, when the popular religion had lost +its influence. In the general ruin of public and private morals, virtuous +men found in this science a guide in the dangers by which they were +continually threatened, and a consolation in all their sorrows. The Stoic +among the other schools met with most favor from this class of men, for it +offered better security against the evils of life, and taught men how to +take shelter from baseness and profligacy under the influence of virtue +and courage. The doctrines of the Stoics suited the rigid sternness of the +Roman character. They embodied that spirit of self-devotion and self- +denial with which the Roman patriot, in the old times of simple republican +virtue, threw himself into his public duties, and they enabled him to meet +death with a courageous spirit in this degenerate age, in which many of +the best and noblest willingly died by their own hands, at the imperial +mandate, in order to save their name from infamy, and their inheritance +from confiscation. + +Seneca, (12-69 A.D.), a native of Cordova in Spain, was the greatest +philosopher of this age. He early displayed great talent as a pleader, but +in the reign of Claudius he was banished to Corsica, where he solaced his +exile with the study of the Stoic philosophy; and though its severe +precepts exercised no moral influence on his conduct, he not only +professed himself a Stoic, but imagined that he was one. A few years +after, he was recalled by Agrippina, to become tutor to her son Nero. He +was too unscrupulous a man of the world to attempt the correction of the +vicious propensities of his pupil, or to instill into him high principles. +After the accession of Nero, he endeavored to arrest his depraved career, +but it was too late. Seneca had, by usury and legacy-hunting, amassed one +of those large fortunes of which so many instances are met with in Roman +history; feeling the dangers of wealth, he offered his property to Nero, +who refused it, but resolved to rid himself of his former tutor, and +easily found a pretext for his destruction. In adversity the character of +Seneca shone with brighter lustre. Though he had lived ill, he could die +well. He met the messengers of death without trembling. His noble wife, +Paulina, determined to die with him. The veins of both were opened at the +same time, but the little blood which remained in his emaciated frame +refused to flow. He suffered excruciating agony. A warm bath was tried, +but in vain; and a draught of poison was equally ineffectual. At last he +was suffocated by the vapor of a stove. + +Seneca lived in a perilous atmosphere. He had not firmness to act up to +the high moral standard which he proposed to himself. He was avaricious, +but avarice was the great sin of his times. The education of one who was a +brute rather than a man was a task to which no one would have been equal; +he therefore retained the influence which he had not the uprightness to +command, by miserable and sinful expedients. He had great abilities, and +some of the noble qualities of the old Romans; and had he lived in the +days of the republic, he would have been a great man. + +Seneca was the author of twelve ethical treatises, the best of which are +entitled, "On Providence," "On Consolation," and "On the Perseverance of +Wise Men." He cared little for abstract speculation, and delighted to +inculcate precepts rather than to investigate principles. He was always a +favorite with Christian writers, and some of his sentiments are truly +Christian. There is even a tradition that he was acquainted with St. Paul. +He may unconsciously have imbibed some of the principles of Christianity. +The gospel had already made great and rapid strides over the civilized +world, and thoughtful minds may have been enlightened by some of the rays +of divine truth dispersed by the moral atmosphere, just as we are +benefited by the light of the sun, even when its disk is obscured by +clouds. His epistles, of which there are one hundred and twenty-four, are +moral essays, and are the most delightful of his works. They are evidently +written for the public eye; they are rich in varied thought, and their +reflections flow naturally, and without effort. They contain a free and +unconstrained picture of his mind, and we see in them how he despised +verbal subtleties, the external badges of a sect or creed, and insisted +that the great end of science is to learn how to live and how to die. The +style of Seneca is too elaborate to please. It is affected, often florid, +and bombastic; there is too much sparkle and glitter, too little repose +and simplicity. + +Pliny the elder (A.D. 23-79) was born probably at Como, the family +residence. He was educated at Rome, where he practiced at the bar, and +filled different civil offices. He perished a martyr to the cause of +science, in the eruption of Vesuvius, which took place in the reign of +Titus, the first of which there is any record in history. The +circumstances of his death are described by his nephew, Pliny the younger, +in two letters to Tacitus. He was at Misenum, in command of the fleet, +when, observing the first indications of the eruption, and wishing to +investigate it more closely, he fitted out a light galley, and sailed +towards the villa of a friend at Stabiae. He found his friend in great +alarm, but Pliny remained tranquil and retired to rest. Meanwhile, broad +flames burst forth from the volcano, the blaze was reflected from the sky, +and the brightness was enhanced by the darkness of the night. Repeated +shocks of an earthquake made the houses rock to and fro, while in the air +the fall of half burnt pumice-stones menaced danger. He was awakened, and +he and his friend, with their attendants, tied cushions over their heads +to protect them from the falling stones, and walked out to see if they +might venture on the water. It was now day, but the darkness was denser +than the darkest night, the sea was a waste of stormy waters, and when at +last the flames and the sulphureous smell could no longer be endured, +Pliny fell dead, suffocated by the dense vapor. + +The natural history of Pliny is an unequaled monument of studious +diligence and persevering industry. It consists of thirty-seven books, and +contains 20,000 facts (as he believed them to be) connected with nature +and art, the result not of original research, but, as he honestly +confessed, culled from the labors of other men. + +Owing to the extent of his reading, his love of the marvelous, and his +want of judgment in comparing and selecting, he does not present us with a +correct view of the science of his own age. He reproduces errors evidently +obsolete and inconsistent with facts and theories which had afterwards +replaced them. With him, mythological traditions appeared to have almost +the same authority as modern discoveries; the earth teems with monsters, +not exceptions to the regular order of nature, but specimens of her +ingenuity. His peculiar pantheistic belief prepared him to consider +nothing incredible, and his temper inclined him to admit all that was +credible as true. + +He tells us of men whose feet were turned backwards, of others whose feet +were so large as to shade them when they lay in the sun; others without +mouths, who fed on the fragrance of fruits and flowers. Among the lower +animals, he enumerates horned horses furnished with wings; the mantichora, +with the face of a man, three rows of teeth, a lion's body, and a +scorpion's tail; the basilisk, whose very glance is fatal; and an insect +which cannot live except in the midst of the flames. But notwithstanding +his credulity and his want of judgment, this elaborate work contains many +valuable truths and much entertaining information. The prevailing +character of his philosophical belief, though tinctured with the stoicism +of the day, is querulous and melancholy. Believing that nature is an all- +powerful principle, and the universe instinct with deity, he saw more of +evil than of good in the divine dispensation, and the result was a gloomy +and discontented pantheism. + +Celsus probably lived in the reign of Tiberius. He was the author of many +works, on various subjects, of which one, in eight books, on medicine, is +now extant. The independence of his views, the practical, as well as the +scientific nature of his instructions, and above all, his knowledge of +surgery, and his clear exposition of surgical operations, have given his +work great authority; the highest testimony is borne to its merits by the +fact of its being used as a text-book, even in the present advanced state +of medical science. The taste of the age in which he lived turned his +attention also to polite literature, and to that may be ascribed the +Augustan purity of his style. + +Pomponius Mela lived in the reign of Claudius. He is considered as the +representative of the Roman geographers. Though his book, "The Place of +the World," is but an epitome of former treatises, it is interesting for +the simplicity of its style and the purity of its language. + +Columella flourished in the reigns of Claudius and Nero. He is author of +an agricultural work, "De Re Rustica," in which he gives, in smooth and +fluent, though somewhat too diffuse a style, the fullest and completest +information on practical agriculture among the Romans in the first century +of the Christian era. + +Frontinus (fl. 78 A.D.) left two valuable works, one on military tactics, +the other a descriptive architectural treatise on those wonderful +monuments of Roman art, the aqueducts. Besides these, there are extant +fragments of other works on surveying, and on the laws and customs +relating to landed property, which assign Frontinus an important place in +the estimation of the students of Roman history. + +9. ROMAN LITERATURE FROM HADRIAN TO THEODORIC (138-526 A.D.).--From the +death of Augustus, Roman literature had gradually declined, and though it +shone forth for a time with classic radiance in the writings of Persius, +Juvenal, Quintilian, Tacitus, and the Plinies, with the death of freedom, +the extinction of patriotism, and the decay of the national spirit, +nothing could avert its fall. Poetry had become declamation; history had +degenerated either into fulsome panegyric or the fleshless skeletons of +epitomes; and at length the Romans seemed to disdain the use of their +native tongue, and wrote again in Greek, as they had in the infancy of the +national literature. The Emperor Hadrian resided long at Athens, and +became imbued with a taste and admiration for Greek; and thus the +literature of Rome became Hellenized. From this epoch the term classical +can no longer be applied to it, for it no longer retained its purity. To +Greek influence succeeded the still more corrupting one of foreign +nations. With the death of Nerva, the uninterrupted succession of emperors +of Roman or Italian birth ceased. Trajan himself was a Spaniard, and after +him not only foreigners of every European race, but even Orientals and +Africans were invested with the imperial purple, and the huge empire over +which they ruled was one unwieldy mass of heterogeneous materials. The +literary influence of the capital was not felt in the interior portions of +the Roman dominions. Schools were established in the very heart of nations +just emerging from barbarism; and though the blessings of civilization and +intellectual culture were thus distributed far and wide, still literary +taste, as it flowed through the minds of foreigners, became corrupted, and +the language of the imperial city, exposed to the infecting contact of +barbarous idioms, lost its purity. + +The Latin authors of this age were numerous, but few had taste to +appreciate and imitate the literature of the Augustan age. They may be +classified according to their departments of poetry, history, grammar and +oratory, philosophy and science. + +The brightest star of the poetry of this period was Claudian (365-404 +A.D.), in whom the graceful imagination of classical antiquity seems to +have revived. He enjoyed the patronage of Stilicho, the guardian and +minister of Honorius, and in the praise and honor of him and of his pupil, +he wrote "The Rape of Proserpine," the "War of the Giants," and several +other poems. + +His descriptions indicate a rich and powerful imagination, but, neglecting +substance for form, his style is often declamatory and affected. Among the +earliest authors of Christian hymns were Hilarius and Prudentius, Those of +the former were expressly designed to be sung, and are said to have been +set to music by the author himself. Prudentius (fl. 348 A.D.) wrote many +hymns and poems in defense of the Christian faith, more distinguished for +their pious and devotional character than for their lyric sublimity or +parity of language. To this age belong also the hymns of Damasus and of +Ambrose. + +Among the historians are Flavius Eutropius, who lived in the fourth +century, and by the direction of the Emperor Valens composed an "Epitome +of Roman History," which was a favorite book in the Middle Ages. Ammianus +Marcellinus, his contemporary, wrote a Roman history in continuation of +Tacitus and Suetonius. Though his style is affected and often rough and +inaccurate, his work is interesting for its digressions and observations. +Severus Sulpicius wrote the history of the Hebrews, and of the four +centuries of the church. His "Sacred History," for its language and style, +is one of the best works of that age. + +In the department of oratory may be mentioned Cornelius Fronto, who +flourished under Domitian and Nerva, and was endowed with a rich +imagination and a mind stored with vast erudition in Greek and Latin +literature, Symmachus, distinguished for his opposition to Christianity, +and Cassiodorus, minister and secretary of the Emperor Theodoric. + +In the decline of Roman, as of Greek literature, grammarians took the +place of poets and of historians; they commented on and interpreted the +ancient classics, and transmitted to us valuable information concerning +the Augustan writers. Among the most important works of this kind are the +"Attic Nights" of Gellius, who was born in Rome, and lived under Hadrian +and the Antonines. In this work are preserved many valuable passages of +the classics which would otherwise have been lost. Macrobius, who +flourished in the middle of the fifth century, was the author of different +works in which the doctrines of the Neo-Platonic school are expounded. His +style, however, is very defective. + +A striking characteristic of the writings, both in Greek and Latin, of the +last ages of the empire, is the prevalence of principles and opinions +imported from the East. The Neo-Platonic school, imbued with Oriental +mysticism, had diffused the belief in spirits and magic, and the +philosophy of this age was a mixture of ancient wisdom with new +superstitions belonging to the ages of transition between the decadence of +the ancient faith and the development of a new religion. The best +representative of the philosophy of this age is Apuleius, born in Africa +in the reign of Hadrian. After having received his education in Carthage +and Athens, he came to Rome, where he acquired great reputation as a +literary man, and as the possessor of extraordinary supernatural powers. +To this extensive philosophical knowledge and immense erudition he united +great polish of manner and remarkable beauty of person. He wrote much on +philosophy; but his most important work is a romance known as +"Metamorphoses, or the Golden Ass," containing his philosophical and +mystic doctrines. In this book, the object of which is to encourage the +belief in mysticism, the writer describes the transformation of a young +man into an ass, who is allowed to take his primitive human form only +through a knowledge of the mysteries of Isis. The story is well told, and +the romance is full of interest and sprightliness; but its style is +incorrect, florid, and bombastic. + +Boethius (470-524), the last of the Roman philosophers, was the descendant +of an illustrious family. He made Greek philosophy the principal object of +his meditations. He was raised to the highest honors and offices in the +empire by Theodoric, but finally, through the artifices of enemies who +envied his reputation, he lost the favor of his patron, was imprisoned, +and at length beheaded. Of his numerous works, founded on the peripatetic +philosophy, that which has gained him the greatest celebrity is entitled +"On the Consolations of Philosophy," composed while he was in prison. It +is in the form of a dialogue, in which philosophy appears to console him +with the idea of Divine Providence. The poetical part of the book is +written with elegance and grace, and his prose, though not pure, is fluent +and full of tranquil dignity. The work of Boethius, which is known in all +modern languages, was translated into Anglo-Saxon by King Alfred, 900 A.D. + +The fathers of the church followed more particularly the philosophy of +Plato, which was united and adapted to Christianity. St. Augustine is the +most illustrious among the Christian Platonists. + +The most eloquent orators and writers of this period were found among the +advocates of Christianity; and among the most celebrated of these Latin +fathers of the Christian church we may mention the following names. +Tertullian (160-285), in his apology for the Christians, gives much +information on the manners and conduct of the early Christians; his style +is concise and figurative, but harsh, unpolished, and obscure. St. Cyprian +(200-258), beheaded at Carthage for preaching the gospel contrary to the +orders of the government, wrote an explanation of the Lord's Prayer, which +affords a valuable illustration of the ecclesiastical history of the time. +Arnobius (fl. 300) refuted the objections of the heathen against +Christianity with spirit and learning, in his "Disputes with the +Gentiles," a work rich in materials for the understanding of Greek and +Roman mythology. Lactantius (d. 335), on account of his fine and eloquent +language, is frequently called the Christian Cicero; his "Divine +Institutes" are particularly celebrated. St. Ambrose (340-397) obtained +great honor by his conduct as Bishop of Milan, and his writings bear the +stamp of his high Christian character. St. Augustine (360-430) was one of +the most renowned of all the Latin fathers. Though others may have been +more learned or masters of a purer style, none more powerfully touched and +warmed the heart towards religion. His "City of God" is one of the great +monuments of human genius. St. Jerome (330-420) wrote many epistles full +of energy and affection, as well as of religious zeal. He made a Latin +version of the Old Testament, which was the foundation of the Vulgate, and +which gave a new impulse to the study of the Holy Scriptures. Leo the +Great (fl. 440) is the first pope whose writings have been preserved. They +consist of sermons and letters. His style is finished and rhetorical. + +10. ROMAN JURISPRUDENCE.--In the period which followed, from the death of +Augustus to the time of the Antonines, Roman civilians and legal writers +continued to be numerous, and as a professional body they seem to have +enjoyed high consideration until the close of the reign of Alexander +Severus, 385* A.D. After that time they were held in much less estimation, +as the science fell into the hands of freedmen and plebeians, who +practiced it as a sordid and pernicious trade. With the reign of +Constantine, the credit of the profession revived, and the youth of the +empire were stimulated to pursue the study of the law by the hope of being +ultimately rewarded by honorable and lucrative offices, the magistrates +being almost wholly taken from the class of lawyers. Two jurists of this +reign, Gregorianus and Hermogenianus, are particularly distinguished as +authors of codes which are known by their names, and which were recognized +as standard authorities in courts of justice. The "Code of Theodosius" was +a collection of laws reduced by that emperor, and promulgated in both +empires 438 A.D. It retained its authority in the western empire until its +final overthrow, 476 A.D., and even after this, though modified by the +institutions of the conquerors. In the eastern empire, it was only +superseded by the code of Justinian. This emperor undertook the task of +reducing to order and system the great confusion and perplexity in which +the whole subject of Roman jurisprudence was involved. For this purpose he +employed the most eminent lawyers, with the celebrated Tribonian at their +head, to whom he intrusted the work of forming and publishing a complete +collection of the preceding laws and edicts, and who devoted several years +of unwearied labor and research to this object. They first collected and +reduced the imperial constitutions from the time of Hadrian downwards, +which was promulgated as the "Justinian Code." Their next labor was to +reduce the writings of the jurisconsults of the preceding ages, especially +those who had lived under the empire, and whose works are said to have +amounted to two thousand volumes. This work was published 533 A.D., under +the title of "Pandects," or "Digest," the former title referring to their +completeness as comprehending the whole of Roman jurisprudence, and the +latter to their methodical arrangement. At the same time, a work prepared +by Tribonian was published by the order of the emperor, on the elements or +first principles of Roman law, entitled "Institutes," and another +collection consisting of constitutions and edicts, under the title of +"Novels," chiefly written in Greek, but known to the moderns by a Latin +translation. These four works, the Code, the Pandects, the Institutes, and +the Novels, constituted what is now called the Body of Roman Law. + +The system of jurisprudence established by Justinian remained in force in +the eastern empire until the taking of Constantinople, 1453 A.D. After the +fall of the western empire, these laws had little sway until the twelfth +century, when Irnerius, a German lawyer who had studied at Constantinople, +opened a school at Bologna, and thus revived and propagated in the West a +knowledge of Roman civil law. Students flocked to this school from all +parts, and by them Roman jurisprudence, as embodied in the system of +Justinian, was transmitted to most of the countries of Europe. + +During the fourth and fifth centuries, the process of the debasement of +the Roman tongue went on with great rapidity. The influence of the +provincials began what the irruptions of the northern tribes consummated. +In many scattered parts of the empire it is probable that separate Latin +dialects arose, and the strain upon the whole structure of the tongue was +prodigious, when the Goths poured into Italy, established themselves in +the capital, and began to speak and write in a language previously foreign +to them. With the close of the reign of Theodoric the curtain falls upon +ancient literature. + + + + +ARABIAN LITERATURE. + +1. European Literature in the Dark Ages.--2. The Arabian language.--3. +Arabian Mythology and the Koran.--4. Historical Development of Arabian +Literature.--5. Grammar and Rhetoric.--6. Poetry.--7. The Arabian Tales.-- +8. History and Science.--9. Education. + + +1. EUROPEAN LITERATURE IN THE DARK AGES.--The literature, arts, and +sciences of the Arabs formed the connecting link between the civilizations +of ancient and modern times. To them we owe the revival of learning in +Western Europe, and many of the inventions and useful arts perfected by +later nations. + +From the middle of the sixth century A.D. to the beginning of the +eleventh, the interval between the decline of ancient and the development +of modern literature is known in history as the Dark Ages. The sudden rise +of the Arabian Empire and the rapid development of its literature were the +great events which characterize the period. + +At the beginning of this epoch classical genius was already extinct, and +the purity of the classical tongues was yielding rapidly to the +corruptions of the provinces and of the new dialects. Many other causes +conspired to work great changes in the fabric of society, and in the +manifestations of human intellect. Throughout this period the treasures of +Greek and Latin literature, exposed to the danger of perishing and +impaired by much actual loss, exerted no influence on the minds of those +who still used the tongues to which they belong. Greek letters, as we have +seen, decayed with the Byzantine power, and the vital principle in both +became extinct long before the sword of the Turkish conqueror inflicted +the final blow. The fate of Latin literature was not less deplorable. When +province after province of the Roman dominions was overrun by the northern +hordes, when the imperial schools were suppressed and the monuments of +ancient genius destroyed, an enfeebled people and a debased language could +not withstand such adverse circumstances. During the seventh and eighth +centuries Latin composition degenerated into the rudeness of the monkish +style. The care bestowed by Charlemagne upon education in the ninth +century produced some purifying effect upon the writings of the cloister; +the tenth was distinguished by an increased zeal in the task of +transcribing the classical authors, and in the eleventh the Latin works of +the Normans display some masculine force and freedom. Latin was the +repository of such knowledge as the times could boast; it was used in the +service of the church, and in the chronicles that supplied the place of +history, but it was not the vehicle of any great production stamped with +true genius and impressing the minds of posterity. Still, genius was not +altogether extinguished in every part of Europe. The north, which sent out +its daring tribes to change the aspect of civil life, furnished a fresh +source of mental inspiration, which was destined, with the recovered +influence of the classic spirit and other prolific causes, to give birth +to some of the best portions of modern literature. + +At the memorable epoch of the overthrow of the Roman dominion in the West +(476 A.D.), the seats of the Teutonic race extended from the banks of the +Rhine and the Danube to the rock-bound coasts of Norway. The victorious +invaders who occupied the southern provinces of Europe speedily lost their +own forms of speech, which were broken down, together with those of the +vanquished, into a jargon unfit for composition. But in Germany and +Scandinavia, where the old language retained its purity, song continued to +flourish. There, from the most distant eras described by Tacitus and other +Latin writers, the favorite attendants of kings and chiefs were those +celebrated bards who preserved in their traditionary strains the memory of +great events, the praises of the gods, the glory of warriors, and the laws +and customs of their countrymen. Intrusted, like the Grecian heroic +minstrelsy, to oral recitation, it was not until the propitious reign of +Charlemagne that these verses were collected. But, through the bigotry of +his successor or the ravages of time, not a fragment of this collection +remains. We are enabled, however, to form an idea of the general tone and +tenor of this early Teutonic poetry from other interesting remains. The +"Nibelungen-Lied" (_Lay of the Nibelungen_) and "Heldenbuch" (_Book of +Heroes_) may be regarded as the Homeric poems of Germany. After an +examination of their monuments, the ability of the ancient bards, the +honor in which they were held, and the enthusiasm which they produced, +will not be surprising. + +Equally distinguished were the Scalds of Scandinavia. Ever in the train of +princes and gallant adventurers, they chanted their rhymeless verse for +the encouragement and solace of heroes. Their oldest songs, or sagas, are +mostly of a historical import. In the Icelandic Edda, however, the richest +monument of this species of composition, the theological element of their +poetry is shadowed out in the most picturesque and fanciful legends. + +Such was the intellectual state of Europe down to the age of Charlemagne. +While in the once famous seats of arts and arms scarcely a ray of native +genius or courage was visible, the light of human intellect still burned +in lands whose barbarism had furnished matter for the sarcasm of classical +writers. + +Charlemagne encouraged learning, established schools, and filled his court +with men of letters; while in England, the illustrious Alfred, himself a +scholar and an author, improved and enriched the Anglo-Saxon dialect, and +exerted the most beneficial influence on his contemporaries. + +The confusion and debasement of language in the south of Europe has +already been alluded to. But the force and activity of mind, that formed +an essential characteristic of the conquering race, were destined +ultimately to evolve regularity and harmony out of the concussion of +discordant elements. The Latin and Teutonic tongues were blended together, +and hence proceeded all the chief dialects of modern Europe. Over the +south, from Portugal to Italy, the Latin element prevailed; but even where +the Teutonic was the chief ingredient, as in the English and German, there +has also been a large infusion of the Latin. To these two languages, and +to the Provençal, French, Italian, Spanish, and Portuguese, called, from +their Roman origin, the Romance or Romanic languages, all that is +prominent and precious in modern letters belongs. But it is not until the +eleventh century that their progress becomes identified with the history +of literature. Up to this period there had been little repose, freedom, or +peaceful enjoyment of property. The independence and industry of the +middle classes were almost unknown, and the chieftain, the vassal, and the +slave were the characters which stood out in the highest relief. +Throughout the whole of the eleventh century, the social chaos seemed +resolving itself into some approach to order and tranquillity. The gradual +abolition of personal servitude, hardly accomplished in three successive +centuries, now began. A third estate arose. The rights of cities, and the +corporation-spirit, the result of the necessity that drove men to combine +for mutual defense, led to intercourse among them and to consequent +improvement in language. Chivalry, also, served to mitigate the +oppressions of the nobles, and to soften and refine their manners. From +the date of the first crusade (1093 A.D.) down to the close of the twelfth +century, was the golden age of chivalry. The principal thrones of Europe +were occupied by her foremost knights. The East formed a point of union +for the ardent and adventurous of different countries, whose courteous +rivalry stimulated the growth of generous sentiments and the passion for +brave deeds. The genius of Europe was roused by the passage of thousands +of her sons through Greece into Asia and Egypt, amidst the ancient seats +of art, science, and refinement; and the minds of men received a fresh and +powerful impulse. It was during the eleventh century that the brilliancy +of the Arabian literature reached its culminating point, and, through the +intercourse of the Troubadours with the Moors of the peninsula, and of the +Crusaders with the Arabs in the East, began to influence the progress of +letters in Europe. + +2. THE ARABIAN LANGUAGE.--The Arabian language belongs to the Semitic +family; it has two principal dialects--the northern, which has, for +centuries, been the general tongue of the empire, and is best represented +in literature, and the southern, a branch of which is supposed to be the +mother of the Ethiopian language. The former, in degenerated dialects, is +still spoken in Arabia, in parts of western Asia, and throughout northern +Africa, and forms an important part of the Turkish, Persian, and other +Oriental languages. The Arabic is characterized by its guttural sounds, by +the richness and pliability of its vowels, by its dignity, volume of +sound, and vigor of accentuation and pronunciation. Like all Semitic +languages, it is written from right to left; the characters are of Syrian +origin, and were introduced into Arabia before the time of Mohammed. They +are of two kinds, the Cufic, which were first used, and the Neskhi, which +superseded them, and which continue in use at the present day. The Arabic +alphabet was, with a few modifications, early adopted by the Persians and +Turks. + +3. ARABIAN MYTHOLOGY AND THE KORAN.--Before the time of Mohammed, the +Arabians were gross idolaters. They had some traditionary idea of the +unity and perfections of the Deity, but their creed embraced an immense +number of subordinate divinities, represented by images of men and women, +beasts and birds. The essential basis of their religion was Sabeism, or +star-worship. The number and beauty of the heavenly luminaries, and the +silent regularity of their motions, could not fail deeply to impress the +minds of this imaginative people, living in the open air, under the clear +and serene sky, and wandering among the deserts, oases, and picturesque +mountains of Arabia. They had seven celebrated temples dedicated to the +seven planets. Some tribes exclusively reverenced the moon; others the +dog-star. Some had received the religion of the Magi, or fire-worshipers, +while others had become converts to Judaism. + +Ishmael is one of the most venerated progenitors of the nation; and it is +the common faith that Mecca, then an arid wilderness, was the spot where +his life was providentially saved, and where Hagar, his mother, was +buried. The well pointed out by the angel, they believe to be the famous +Zemzem, of which all pious Mohammedans drink to this day. To commemorate +the miraculous preservation of Ishmael, God commanded Abraham to build a +temple, and he erected and consecrated the Caaba, or sacred house, which +is still venerated in Mecca; and the black stone incased within its walls +is the same on which Abraham stood. + +Mohammed (569-632 A.D.) did not pretend to introduce a new religion; his +professed object was merely to restore the primitive and only true faith, +such as it had been in the days of the patriarchs; the fundamental idea of +which was the unity of God. He made the revelations of the Old and New +Testaments the basis of his preaching. He maintained the authority of the +books of Moses, admitted the divine mission of Jesus, and he enrolled +himself in the catalogue of inspired teachers. This doctrine was +proclaimed in the memorable words, which for so many centuries constituted +the war-cry of the Saracens,--_There is no God but God, and Mohammed is +his prophet_. Mohammed preached no dogmas substantially new, but he +adorned, amplified, and adapted to the ideas, prejudices, and inclinations +of the Orientals, doctrines which were as old as the race. He enjoined the +ablutions suited to the manners and necessities of hot climates. He +ordained five daily prayers, that man might learn habitually to elevate +his thoughts above the outward world. He instituted the festival of the +Ramadan, and the pilgrimage to Mecca, and commanded that every man should +bestow in alms the hundredth part of his possessions; observances which, +for the most part, already existed in the established customs of the +country. + +The Koran (Reading), the sacred book of the Mohammedans, is, according to +their belief, the revelation of God to their prophet Mohammed. It contains +not only their religious belief, but their civil, military, and political +code. It is divided into 114 chapters, and 1,666 verses. It is written in +rhythmical prose, and its materials are borrowed from the Jewish and +Christian scriptures, the legends of the Talmud, and the traditions and +fables of the Arabian and Persian mythologies. Confusion of ideas, +obscurity, and contradictions destroy the unity and even the interest of +this work. The chapters are preposterously distributed, not according to +their date or connection, but according to their length, beginning with +the longest, and ending with the shortest; and thus the work becomes often +the more unintelligible by its singular arrangement. But notwithstanding +this, there is scarcely a volume in the Arabic language which contains +passages breathing more sublime poetry, or more enchanting eloquence; and +the Koran is so far important in the history of Arabian letters, that when +the scattered leaves were collected by Abubeker, the successor of Mohammed +(635 A.D.) and afterwards revised, in the thirtieth year of the Hegira, +they fixed at once the classic language of the Arabs, and became their +standard in style as well as in religion. + +This work and its commentaries are held in the highest reverence by the +Mohammedans. It is the principal book taught in their schools; they never +touch it without kissing it, and carrying it to the forehead, in token of +their reverence; oaths before the courts are taken upon it; it is learned +by heart, and repeated every forty days; many believers copy it several +times in their lives, and often possess one or more copies ornamented with +gold and precious stones. + +The Koran treats of death, resurrection, the judgment, paradise, and the +place of torment, in a style calculated powerfully to affect the +imagination of the believer. The joys of paradise, promised to all who +fall in the cause of religion, are those most captivating to an Arabian +fancy. When Al Sirat, or the Bridge of Judgment, which is as slender as +the thread of a famished spider, and as sharp as the edge of a sword, +shall be passed by the believer, he will be welcomed into the gardens of +delight by black-eyed Houris, beautiful nymphs, not made of common clay, +but of pure essence and odors, free from all blemish, and subject to no +decay of virtue or of beauty, and who await their destined lovers in rosy +bowers, or in pavilions formed of a single hollow pearl. The soil of +paradise is composed of musk and saffron, sprinkled with pearls and +hyacinths. The walls of its mansions are of gold and silver; the fruits, +which bend spontaneously to him who would gather them, are of a flavor and +delicacy unknown to mortals. Numerous rivers flow through this blissful +abode; some of wine, others of milk, honey, and water, the pebbly beds of +which are rubies and emeralds, and their banks of musk, camphor, and +saffron. In paradise the enjoyment of the believers, which is subject +neither to satiety nor diminution, will be greater than the human +understanding can compass. The meanest among them will have eighty +thousand servants, and seventy-two wives. Wine, though forbidden on earth, +will there be freely allowed, and will not hurt or inebriate. The +ravishing songs of the angels and of the Houris will render all the groves +vocal with harmony, such as mortal ear never heard. At whatever age they +may have died, at their resurrection all will be in the prime of manly and +eternal vigor. It would be a journey of a thousand years for a true +Mohammedan to travel through paradise, and behold all the wives, servants, +gardens, robes, jewels, horses, camels, and other things, which belong +exclusively to him. + +The hell of Mohammed is as full of terror as his heaven is of delight. The +wicked, who fall into the gulf of torture from the bridge of Al Sirat, +will suffer alternately from cold and heat; when they are thirsty, boiling +water will be given them to drink; and they will be shod with shoes of +fire. The dark mansions of the Christians, Jews, Sabeans, Magians, and +idolaters are sunk below each other with increasing horrors, in the order +of their names. The seventh or lowest hell is reserved for the faithless +hypocrites of every religion. Into this dismal receptacle the unhappy +sufferer will be dragged by seventy thousand halters, each pulled by +seventy thousand angels, and exposed to the scourge of demons, whose +pastime is cruelty and pain. + +It is a portion of the faith inculcated in the Koran, that both angels and +demons exist, having pure and subtle bodies, created of fire, and free +from human appetites and desires. The four principal angels are Gabriel, +the angel of revelation; Michael, the friend and protector of the Jews; +Azrael, the angel of death; and Izrafel, whose office it will be to sound +the trumpet at the last day. Every man has two guardian angels to attend +him and record his actions, good and evil. The doctrine of the angels, +demons, and jins or genii, the Arabians probably derived from the Hebrews. +The demons are fallen angels, the prince of whom is _Eblis_; he was at +first one of the angels nearest to God's presence, and was called +_Azazel_. He was cast out of heaven, according to the Koran, for refusing +to pay homage to Adam at the time of the creation. The genii are +intermediate creatures, neither wholly spiritual nor wholly earthly, some +of whom are good and entitled to salvation, and others infidels and +devoted to eternal torture. Among them are several ranks and degrees, as +the _Peris_, or fairies, beautiful female spirits, who seek to do good +upon the earth, and the _Deev_, or giants, who frequently make war upon +the Peris, take them captive, and shut them up in cages. The genii, both +good and bad, have the power of making themselves invisible at pleasure. +Besides the mountain o£ Kaf, which is their chief place of resort, they +dwell in ruined cities, uninhabited houses, at the bottom of wells, in +woods, pools of water, and among the rocks and sandhills of the desert. +Shooting stars are still believed by the people of the East to be arrows +shot by the angels against the genii, who transgress these limits and +approach too near the forbidden regions of bliss. Many of the genii +delight in mischief; they surprise and mislead travelers, raise +whirlwinds, and dry up springs in the desert. The _Ghoul_ lives on the +flesh of men and women, whom he decoys to his haunts in wild and barren +places, in order to kill and devour them, and when he cannot thus obtain +food, he enters the graveyards and feeds upon the bodies of the dead. + +The fairy mythology of the Arabians was introduced into Europe in the +eleventh century by the Troubadours and writers of the romances of +chivalry, and through them it became an important element in the +literature of Europe. It constituted the machinery of the _Fabliaux_ of +the Trouvères, and of the romantic epics of Boccaccio, Ariosto, Tasso, +Spenser, Shakspeare, and others. + +The three leading Mohammedan sects are the Sunnees, the Sheahs, and the +Wahabees. The Sunnees acknowledge the authority of the first Caliphs, from +whom most of the traditions were derived. The Sheahs assert the divine +right of Ali to succeed to the prophet; consequently they consider the +first Caliphs, and all their successors, as usurpers. The Wahabees are a +sect of religious reformers, who took their name from Abd al Wahab (1700- +1750), the Luther of the Mohammedans. They became a formidable power in +Arabia, but they were finally overcome by Ibrahim Pacha in 1816. + +4. HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENT OF THE ARABIAN LITERATURE.--The literature of +the Arabians has, properly speaking, but one period; although from remote +antiquity poetry was with them a favorite occupation, and long before the +time of Mohammed the roving tribes of the desert had their annual +conventions, where they defended their honor and celebrated their heroic +deeds. As early as the fifth century A.D., at the fair of Ochadh, thirty +days every year were employed not only in the exchange of merchandise, but +in the nobler display of rival talents. A place was set apart for the +competitions of the bards, whose highest ambition was to conquer in this +literary arena, and the victorious compositions were inscribed in golden +letters upon Egyptian paper, and suspended upon the doors of the Caaba, +the ancient national sanctuary of Mecca. Seven of the most famous of these +ancient poets have been celebrated by Oriental writers under the title of +the Arabian Pleiades, and their songs, still preserved, are full of +passion, manly pride, and intensity of imagination and feeling. These and +similar effusions constituted the entire literature of Arabia, and were +the only archives of the nation previous to the age of Mohammed. + +The peninsula of Arabia, hitherto restricted to its natural boundaries, +and peopled by wandering tribes, had occupied but a subordinate place in +the history of the world. But the success of Mohammed and the preaching of +the Koran were followed by the union of the tribes who, inspired by the +feelings of national pride and religious fervor, in less than a century +made the Arabian power, tongue, and religion predominant over a third part +of Asia, almost one half of Africa, and a part of Spain; and, from the +ninth to the sixteenth century, the literature of the Arabians far +surpassed that of any contemporary nation. + +After the fall of the Roman empire in the fifth century A.D., when the +western world sank into barbarism, and the inhabitants, ever menaced by +famine or the sword, found full occupation in struggling against civil +wars, feudal tyranny, and the invasion of barbarians; when poetry was +unknown, philosophy was proscribed as rebellion against religion, and +barbarous dialects had usurped the place of that beautiful Latin language +which had so long connected the nations of the West, and preserved to them +so many treasures of thought and taste, the Arabians, who by their +conquests and fanaticism had contributed more than any other nation to +abolish the cultivation of science and literature, having at length +established their empire, in turn devoted themselves to letters. Masters +of the country of the magi and the Chaldeans, of Egypt, the first +storehouse of human science, of Asia Minor, where poetry and the fine arts +had their birth, and of Africa, the country of impetuous eloquence and +subtle intellect--they seemed to unite in themselves the advantages of all +the nations which they had thus subjugated. Innumerable treasures had been +the fruit of their conquests, and this hitherto rude and uncultivated +nation now began to indulge in the most unbounded luxury. Possessed of all +the delights that human industry, quickened by boundless riches, could +procure, with all that could flatter the senses and attach the heart to +life, they now attempted to mingle with these the pleasures of the +intellect, the cultivation of the arts and sciences, and all that is most +excellent in human knowledge. In this new career, their conquests were not +less rapid than they had been in the field; nor was the empire which they +founded less extended. With a celerity equally surprising, it rose to a +gigantic height, but it rested on a foundation no less insecure, and it +was quite as transitory in its duration. + +The Hegira, or flight of Mohammed from Mecca to Medina, corresponds with +the year 622 of our era, and the supposed burning of the Alexandrian +library by Amrou, the general of the Caliph Omar, with the year 641. This +is the period of the deepest barbarism among the Saracens, and this event, +doubtful as it is, has left a melancholy proof of their contempt for +letters. A century had scarcely elapsed from the period to which this +barbarian outrage is referred, when the family of the Abassides, who +mounted the throne of the Caliphs in 750, introduced a passionate love of +art, of science, and of poetry. In the literature of Greece, nearly eight +centuries of progressive cultivation succeeding the Trojan war had +prepared the way for the age of Pericles. In that of Rome, the age of +Augustus was also in the eighth century after the foundation of the city. +In French literature, the age of Louis XIV. was twelve centuries +subsequent to Clovis, and eight after the development of the first +rudiments of the language. But, in the rapid progress of the Arabian +empire, the age of Al Mamoun, the Augustus of Bagdad, was not removed more +than one hundred and fifty years from the foundation of the monarchy. All +the literature of the Arabians bears the marks of this rapid development. + +Ali, the fourth Caliph from Mohammed, was the first who extended any +protection to letters. His rival and successor, Moawyiah, the first of the +Ommyiades (661-680), assembled at his court all who were most +distinguished by scientific acquirements; he surrounded himself with +poets; and as he had subjected to his dominion many of the Grecian islands +and provinces, the sciences of Greece under him first began to obtain any +influence over the Arabians. + +After the extinction of the dynasty of the Ommyiades, that of the +Abassides bestowed a still more powerful patronage on letters. The +celebrated Haroun al Raschid (786-809) acquired a glorious reputation by +the protection he afforded to letters. He never undertook a journey +without carrying with him at least a hundred men of science in his train, +and he never built a mosque without attaching to it a school. + +But the true protector and father of Arabic literature was Al Mamoun, the +son of Haroun al Raschid (813-833), who rendered Bagdad the centre of +literature. He invited to his court from every part of the world all the +learned men with whose existence he was acquainted, and he retained them +by rewards, honors, and distinctions of every kind. He exacted, as the +most precious tribute from the conquered provinces, all the important +books and literary relics that could be discovered. Hundreds of camels +might be seen entering Bagdad, loaded with nothing but manuscripts and +papers, and those most proper for instruction were translated into Arabic. +Instructors, translators, and commentators formed the court of Al Mamoun, +which appeared to be rather a learned academy, than the seat of government +in a warlike empire. The Caliph himself was much attached to the study of +mathematics, which he pursued with brilliant success. He conceived the +grand design of measuring the earth, which was accomplished by his +mathematicians, at his own expense. Not less generous than enlightened, Al +Mamoun, when he pardoned one of his relatives who had revolted against +him, exclaimed, "If it were known what pleasure I experience in granting +pardon, all who have offended against me would come and confess their +crimes." + +The progress of the Arabians in science was proportioned to the zeal of +the sovereign. In every town of the empire schools, colleges, and +academies were established. Bagdad was the capital of letters as well as +of the Caliphs, but Bassora and Cufa almost equaled that city in +reputation, and in the number of celebrated poems and treatises that they +produced. Balkh, Ispahan, and Samarcand were equally the homes of science. +Cairo contained a great number of colleges; in the towns of Fez and +Morocco the most magnificent buildings were appropriated to the purposes +of instruction, and in their rich libraries were preserved those precious +volumes which had been lost in other places. + +What Bagdad was to Asia, Cordova was to Europe, where, particularly in the +tenth and eleventh centuries, the Arabs were the pillars of literature. At +this period, when learning found scarcely anywhere either rest or +encouragement, the Arabians were employed in collecting and diffusing it +in the three great divisions of the world. Students traveled from France +and other European countries to the Arabian schools in Spain, particularly +to learn medicine and mathematics. Besides the academy at Cordova, there +were established fourteen others in different parts of Spain, exclusive of +the higher schools. The Arabians made the most rapid advancement in all +the departments of learning, especially in arithmetic, geometry, and +astronomy. In the various cities of Spain, seventy libraries were opened +for public instruction at the period when all the rest of Europe, without +books, without learning, without cultivation, was plunged in the most +disgraceful ignorance. The number of Arabic authors which Spain produced +was so prodigious, that many Arabian bibliographers wrote learned +treatises on the authors born in particular towns, or on those among the +Spaniards who devoted themselves to a single branch of study, as +philosophy, medicine, mathematics, or poetry. Thus, throughout the vast +extent of the Arabian empire, the progress of letters had followed that of +arms, and for five centuries this literature preserved all its brilliancy. + +5. GRAMMAR AND RHETORIC.--The perfection of the language was one of the +first objects of the Arabian scholars, and from the rival schools of Cufa +and Bassora a number of distinguished men proceeded, who analyzed with the +greatest subtlety all its rules and aided in perfecting it. As early as in +the age of Ali, the fourth Caliph, Arabian literature boasted of a number +of scientific grammarians. Prosody and the metric art were reduced to +systems. Dictionaries of the language were composed, some of which are +highly esteemed at the present day. Among these may be mentioned the "Al +Sehah," or Purity, and "El Kamus," or the Ocean, which is considered the +best dictionary of the Arabian language. The study of rhetoric was united +to that of grammar, and the most celebrated works of the Greeks on this +art were translated and adapted to the Arabic. After the age of Mohammed +and his immediate successors, popular eloquence was no longer cultivated. +Eastern despotism having supplanted the liberty of the desert, the heads +of the state or army regarded it beneath them to harangue the people or +the soldiers; they called upon them only for obedience. But though +political eloquence was of short duration among the Arabians, on the other +hand they were the inventors of that species of rhetoric most cultivated +at the present day, that of the academy and the pulpit. Their philosophers +in these learned assemblies displayed all the measured harmony of which +their language was susceptible. Mohammed had ordained that his faith +should be preached in the mosques;--many of the harangues of these sacred +orators are still preserved in the Escurial, and the style of them is very +similar to that of the Christian orators. + +6. POETRY.--Poetry still more than eloquence was the favorite occupation +of the Arabians from their origin as a nation. It is said that this people +alone have produced more poets than all others united. Mohammed himself, +as well as some of his first companions, cultivated this art, but it was +under Haroun al Raschid and his successor, Al Mamoun, and more especially +under the Ommyïades of Spain that Arabic poetry attained its highest +splendor. But the ancient impetuosity of expression, the passionate +feeling, and the spirit of individual independence no longer characterized +the productions of this period, nor is there among the numerous +constellations of Arabic poets any star of distinguished magnitude. With +the exception of Mohammed and a few of the Saracen conquerors and +sovereigns, there is scarcely an individual of this nation whose name is +familiar to the nations of Christendom. + +The Arabians possess many heroic poems composed for the purpose of +celebrating the praises of distinguished men, and of animating the courage +of their soldiers. They do not, however, boast of any epics; their poetry +is entirely lyric and didactic. They have been inexhaustible in their love +poems, their elegies, their moral verses,--among which their fables may be +reckoned,--their eulogistic, satirical, descriptive, and above all, their +didactic poems, which have graced even the most abstruse science, as +grammar, rhetoric, and arithmetic. But among all their poems, the +catalogue alone of which, in the Escurial, consists of twenty-four +volumes, there is not a single epic, comedy, or tragedy. + +In those branches of poetry which they cultivated they displayed +surprising subtlety and great refinement of thought, but the fame of their +compositions rests, in some degree, on their bold metaphors, their +extravagant allegories, and their excessive hyperboles. The Arabs despised +the poetry of the Greeks, which appeared to them timid, cold, and +constrained, and among all the books, which, with almost superstitious +veneration, they borrowed from them, there is scarcely a single poem which +they judged worthy of translation. The object of the Arabian poets was to +make a brilliant use of the boldest and most gigantic images, and to +astonish the reader by the abruptness of their expressions. They burdened +their compositions with riches, under the idea that nothing which was +beautiful could be superfluous. They neglected natural sentiment, and the +more they could multiply the ornaments of art, the more admirable in their +eyes did the work appear. + +The nations who possessed a classical poetry, in imitating nature, had +discovered the use of the epic and the drama, in which the poet endeavors +to express the true language of the human heart. The people of the East, +with the exception of the Hindus, never made this attempt--their poetry is +entirely lyric; but under whatever name it may be known, it is always +found to be the language of the passions. The poetry of the Arabians is +rhymed like our own, and the rhyming is often carried still farther in the +construction of the verse, while the uniformity of sound is frequently +echoed throughout the whole expression. The collection made by Aboul Teman +(fl. 845 A.D.) containing the Arabian poems of the age anterior to +Mohammed, and that of Taoleti, which embraces the poems of the subsequent +periods, are considered the richest and most complete anthologies of +Arabian poetry. Montanebbi, a poet who lived about 1050, has been compared +to the Persian Hafiz. + +7. THE ARABIAN TALES.--If the Arabs have neither the epic nor the drama, +they have been, on the other hand, the inventors of a style of composition +which is related to the epic, and which supplies among them the place of +the drama. We owe to them those tales, the conception of which is so +brilliant and the imagination so rich and varied: tales which have been +the delight of our infancy, and which at a more advanced age we can never +read without feeling their enchantment anew. Every one is acquainted with +the "Arabian Nights Entertainments;" but in our translation we possess but +a very small part of the Arabian collection, which is not confined merely +to books, but forms the treasure of a numerous class of men and women, +who, throughout the East, find a livelihood in reciting these tales to +crowds, who delight to forget the present, in the pleasing dreams of +imagination. In the coffee-houses of the Levant, one of these men will +gather a silent crowd around him, and picture to his audience those +brilliant and fantastic visions which are the patrimony of Eastern +imaginations. The public squares abound with men of this class, and their +recitations supply the place of our dramatic representations. The +physicians frequently recommend them to their patients in order to soothe +pain, to calm agitation, or to produce sleep; and these story-tellers, +accustomed to sickness, modulate their voices, soften their tones, and +gently suspend them as sleep steals over the sufferer. + +The imagination of the Arabs in these tales is easily distinguished from +that of the chivalric nations. The supernatural world is the same in both, +but the moral world is different. The Arabian tales, like the romances of +chivalry, convey us to the fairy realms, but the human personages which +they introduce are very dissimilar. They had their birth after the +Arabians had devoted themselves to commerce, literature, and the arts, and +we recognize in them the style of a mercantile people, as we do that of a +warlike nation in the romances of chivalry. Valor and military +achievements here inspire terror but no enthusiasm, and on this account +the Arabian tales are often less noble and heroic than we usually expect +in compositions of this nature. But, on the other hand, the Arabians are +our masters in the art of producing and sustaining this kind of fiction. +They are the creators of that brilliant mythology of fairies and genii +which extends the bounds of the world, and carries us into the realms of +marvels and prodigies. It is from them that European nations have derived +that intoxication of love, that tenderness and delicacy of sentiment, and +that reverential awe of women, by turns slaves and divinities, which have +operated so powerfully on their chivalrous feelings. We trace their +effects in all the literature of the south, which owes to this cause its +mental character. Many of these tales had separately found their way into +the poetic literature of Europe, long before the translation of the +Arabian Nights. Some are to be met with in the old _fabliaux_, in +Boccaccio, and in Ariosto, and these very tales which have charmed our +infancy, passing from nation to nation through channels frequently +unknown, are now familiar to the memory and form the delight of the +imagination of half the inhabitants of the globe. + +The author of the original Arabic work is unknown, as is also the period +at which it was composed. It was first introduced into Europe from Syria, +where it was obtained, in the latter part of the seventeenth century, by +Galland, a French traveler, who was sent to the East by the celebrated +Colbert, to collect manuscripts, and by him first translated and +published. + +8. HISTORY AND SCIENCE.--As early as the eighth century A.D., history +became an important department in Arabian literature. At later periods, +historians who wrote on all subjects were numerous. Several authors wrote +universal history from the beginning of the world to their own time; every +state, province, and city possessed its individual chronicle, Many, in +imitation of Plutarch, wrote the lives of distinguished men; and there was +such a passion for every species of composition, and such a desire to +leave no subject untouched, that there was a serious history written of +celebrated horses, and another of camels that had risen to distinction. +They possessed historical dictionaries, and made use of all those +inventions which curtail labor and dispense with the necessity of +research. Every art and science had its history, and of these this nation +possessed a more complete collection than any other, either ancient or +modern. The style of the Arabian historians is simple and unadorned. + +Philosophy was passionately cultivated by the Arabians, and upon it was +founded the fame of many ingenious and sagacious men, whose names are +still revered in Europe. Among them were Averrhoes of Cordova (d. 1198), +the great commentator on the works of Aristotle, and Avicenna (d. 1037), a +profound philosopher as well as a celebrated writer on medicine. Arabian +philosophy penetrated rapidly into the West, and had greater influence on +the schools of Europe than any branch of Arabic literature; and yet it was +the one in which the progress was, in fact, the least real. The Arabians, +more ingenious than profound, attached themselves rather to the subtleties +than to the connection of ideas; their object was more to dazzle than to +instruct, and they exhausted their imaginations in search of mysteries. +Aristotle was worshiped by them, as a sort of divinity. In their opinion +all philosophy was to be found in his writings, and they explained every +metaphysical question according to the scholastic standard. + +The interpretation of the Koran formed another important part of their +speculative studies, and their literature abounds with exegetic works on +their sacred book, as well as with commentaries on Mohammedan law. The +learned Arabians did not confine themselves to the studies which they +could only prosecute in their closets; they undertook, for the advancement +of science, the most perilous journeys, and we owe to Aboul Feda (1273- +1331) and other Arabian travelers the best works on geography written in +the Middle Ages. + +The natural sciences were cultivated by them with great ardor, and many +naturalists among them merit the gratitude of posterity. Botany and +chemistry, of which they were in some sort the inventors, gave them a +better acquaintance with nature than the Greeks or Romans ever possessed, +and the latter science was applied by them to all the necessary arts of +life. Above all, agriculture was studied by them with a perfect knowledge +of the climate, soil, and growth of plants. From the eighth to the +eleventh century, they established medical schools in the principal cities +of their dominions, and published valuable works on medical science. They +introduced more simple principles into mathematics, and extended the use +and application of that science. They added to arithmetic the decimal +system, and the Arabic numerals, which, however, are of Hindu origin; they +simplified the trigonometry of the Greeks, and gave algebra more useful +and general applications. Bagdad and Cordova had celebrated schools of +astronomy, and observatories, and their astronomers made important +discoveries; a great number of scientific words are evidently Arabic, such +as algebra, alcohol, zenith, nadir, etc., and many of the inventions, +which at the present day add to the comforts of life, are due to the +Arabians. Paper, now so necessary to the progress of intellect, was +brought by them from Asia. In China, from all antiquity, it had been +manufactured from silk, but about the year 30 of the Hegira (649 A.D.) the +manufacture of it was introduced at Samarcand, and when that city was +conquered by the Arabians, they first employed cotton in the place of +silk, and the invention spread with rapidity throughout their dominions. +The Spaniards, in fabricating paper, substituted flax for cotton, which +was more scarce and dear; but it was not till the end of the thirteenth +century that paper mills were established in the Christian states of +Spain, from whence the invention passed, in the fourteenth century only, +to Treviso and Padua. Tournaments were first instituted among the +Arabians, from whom they were introduced into Italy and France. Gunpowder, +the discovery of which is generally attributed to a German chemist, was +known to the Arabians at least a century before any trace of it appeared +in European history. The compass, also, the invention of which has been +given alternately to the Italians and French in the thirteenth century, +was known to the Arabians in the eleventh. The number of Arabic +inventions, of which we enjoy the benefit without suspecting it, is +prodigious. + +Such, then, was the brilliant light which literature and science displayed +from the ninth to the fourteenth century of our era in those vast +countries which had submitted to the yoke of Islamism. In this immense +extent of territory, twice or thrice as large as Europe, nothing is now +found but ignorance, slavery, terror, and death. Few men are there capable +of reading the works of their illustrious ancestors, and few who could +comprehend them are able to procure them. The prodigious literary riches +of the Arabians no longer exist in any of the countries where the Arabians +or Mussulmans rule. It is not there that we must seek for the fame of +their great men or for their writings. What has been preserved is in the +hands of their enemies, in the convents of the monks, or in the royal +libraries of Europe. + +9. EDUCATION.--At present there is little education, in our sense of the +word, in Arabia. In the few instances where public schools exist, writing, +grammar, and rhetoric sum up the teaching. The Bedouin children learn from +their parents much more than is common in other countries. Great attention +is paid to accuracy of grammar and purity of diction throughout the +country, and of late literary institutions have been established at +Beyrout, Damascus, Bagdad, and Hefar. + +Such is the extent of Arabic literature, that, notwithstanding the labors +of European scholars and the productions of native presses, in Boulak and +Cairo, in India, and recently in England, where Hassam, an Arabian poet, +has devoted himself to the production of standard works, the greater part +of what has been preserved is still in manuscript and still more has +perished. + + + + +ITALIAN LITERATURE. + +INTRODUCTION.--1. Italian Literature and its Divisions.--2. The Dialects. +--3. The Italian Language. + +PERIOD FIRST.--1. Latin Influence.--2. Early Italian Poetry and Prose.--3. +Dante.--4. Petrarch.--5. Boccaccio and other Prose Writers.--6. First +Decline of Italian Literature. + +PERIOD SECOND.--1. The Close of the Fifteenth Century; Lorenzo de' +Medici.--2. The Origin of the Drama and Romantic Epic; Poliziano, Pulci, +Boiardo.--3. Romantic Epic Poetry; Ariosto.--4. Heroic Epic Poetry; +Tasso.--5. Lyric Poetry; Bembo, Molza, Tarsia, V. Colonna.--6. Dramatic +Poetry; Trissino, Rucellai; the Writers of Comedy.--7. Pastoral Drama and +Didactic Poetry; Beccari, Sannazzaro, Tasso, Guarini, Rucellai, Alamanni. +--8. Satirical Poetry, Novels, and Tales; Berni, Grazzini, Firenzuola, +Bandello, and others.--9. History; Machiavelli, Guicciardini, Nardi, and +others.--10. Grammar and Rhetoric; the Academy della Crusca, Della Casa, +Speroni, and others.--11. Science, Philosophy, and Politics; the Academy +del Cimento, Galileo, Torricelli, Borelli, Patrizi, Telesio, Campanella, +Bruno, Castiglione, Machiavelli, and others.--12. Decline of the +Literature in the Seventeenth Century.--13. Epic and Lyric Poetry; Marini, +Filicaja.--14. Mock Heroic Poetry, the Drama, and Satire; Tassoni, +Bracciolini, Andreini, and others.--15. History and Epistolary Writings; +Davila, Bentivoglio, Sarpi, Redi. + +PERIOD THIRD.--1. Historical Development of the Third Period.--2. The +Melodrama; Rinuccini, Zeno, Metastasio.--3. Comedy; Goldoni, C. Gozzi, and +others.--4. Tragedy; Maffei, Alfieri, Monti, Manzoni, Nicolini, and +others.--5. Lyric, Epic, and Didactic Poetry; Parini, Monti, Ugo Foscolo, +Leopardi, Grossi, Lorenzi, and others.--6. Heroic-Comic Poetry, Satire, +and Fable; Fortiguerri, Passeroni, G. Gozzi, Parini, Giusti, and others. +--7. Romances; Verri, Manzoni, D'Azeglio, Cantù, Guerrazzi, and others. +--8. History; Muratori, Vico, Giannone, Botta, Colletta, Tiraboschi, and +others.--9. Aesthetics, Criticism, Philology, and Philosophy; Baretti, +Parini, Giordani, Gioja, Romagnosi, Gallupi, Rosmini, Gioberti.--From 1860 +to 1885. + + +INTRODUCTION. + +1. ITALIAN LITERATURE AND ITS DIVISIONS.--The fall of the Western Empire, +the invasions of the northern tribes, and the subsequent wars and +calamities, did not entirely extinguish the fire of genius in Italy. As we +have seen, the Crusades had opened the East and revealed to Europe its +literary and artistic treasures; the Arabs had established a celebrated +school of medicine in Salerno, and had made known the ancient classics; a +school of jurisprudence was opened in Bologna, where Roman law was +expounded by eminent lecturers; and the spirit of chivalry, while it +softened and refined human character, awoke the desire of distinction in +arms and poetry. The origin of the Italian republics, giving scope to +individual agency, marked another era in civilization; while the +appearance of the Italian language quickened the national mind and led to +a new literature. The spirit of freedom, awakened as early as the eleventh +century, received new life in the twelfth, when the Lombard cities, +becoming independent, formed a powerful league against Frederick +Barbarossa. The instinct of self-defense thus developed increased the +necessity of education. In the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, +Italian literature acquired its national character and rose to its highest +splendor, through the writings of Dante, Petrarch, and Boccaccio, whose +influence has been more or less felt in succeeding centuries. + +The literary history of Italy may be divided into three periods, each of +which presents two distinct phases, one of progress and one of decline. +The first period, extending from 1100 to 1475, embraces the origin of the +literature, its development through the works of Dante, Petrarch, and +Boccaccio, in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, and its first +decline in the fifteenth, when it was supplanted by the absorbing study of +the Greek and Latin classics. + +The second period, commencing 1475, embraces the age of Lorenzo de' Medici +and Leo X., when literature began to revive; the age of Ariosto, Tasso, +Machiavelli, and Galileo, when it reached its meridian splendor; its +subsequent decline, through the school of Marini; and its last revival +towards the close of the seventeenth century. + +The third period, extending from the close of the seventeenth century to +the present time, includes the development of Italian literature, its +decline under French influence, and its subsequent national tendency, +through the writings of Metastasio, Goldoni, Alfieri, Parini, Monti, +Manzoni, and Leopardi. + +2. THE DIALECTS.--The dialects of the ancient tribes inhabiting the +peninsula early came in contact with the rustic Latin, and were moulded +into new tongues, which, at a later period, were again modified by the +influence of the barbarians who successively invaded the country. These +tongues, elaborated by the action of centuries, are still in use, +especially with the lower classes, and many of them have a literature of +their own, with grammars and dictionaries. The more important of these +dialects are divided into three groups: 1st. The Northern, including the +Ligurian, Piedmontese, Lombard, Venetian, and Emilian. 2d. The Central, +containing the Tuscan, Umbrian, the dialects of the Marches and of the +Roman Provinces. 3d. The Southern, embracing those of the Neapolitan +provinces and of Sicily. Each is distinguished from the other and from the +true Italian, although they all rest on a common basis, the rustic Latin, +the plebeian tongue of the Romans, as distinct from the official and +literary tongue. + +3. THE ITALIAN LANGUAGE.--The Tuscan or Florentine dialect, which early +became the literary language of Italy, was the result of the natural +development of the popular Latin and a native dialect probably akin to the +rustic Roman idiom. Tuscany suffering comparatively little from foreign +invasion, the language lost none of its purity, and remained free from +heterogeneous elements. The great writers, Dante, Petrarch, and Boccaccio, +who appeared so early, promoted its perfection, secured its prevailing +influence, and gave it a national character. Hence, in the literature +there is no old Italian as distinct from the modern; the language of Dante +continues to be that of modern writers, and becomes more perfect the more +it approaches the standard fixed by the great masters of the fourteenth +century. Of this language it may he said that for flexibility, +copiousness, freedom of construction, and harmony and beauty of sound, it +is the most perfect of all the idioms of the Neo-Latin or Romanic tongues. + + + +PERIOD FIRST. + +FROM THE ORIGIN OF ITALIAN LITERATURE TO ITS FIRST DECLINE (1100-1475). + +1. LATIN INFLUENCE.--During the early part of the Middle Ages Latin was +the literary language of Italy, and the aim of the best writers of the +time was to restore Roman culture. The Gothic kingdom of Ravenna, +established by Theodoric, was the centre of this movement, under the +influence of Cassiodorus, Boethius, and Symmachus. It was due to the +prevailing affection for the memories of Rome, that through all the Dark +Ages the Italian mind kept alive a spirit of freedom unknown in other +countries of Europe, a spirit active, later, in the establishment of the +Italian republics, and showing itself in the heroic resistance of the +communes of Lombardy to the empire of the Hohenstaufens. While the +literatures of other countries were drawn almost exclusively from sacred +and chivalric legends, the Italians devoted themselves to the study of +Roman law and history, to translations from the philosophers of Greece, +and, above all, to the establishment of those great universities which +were so powerful in extending science and culture throughout the +Peninsula. + +While the Latin language was used in prose, the poets wrote in Provençal +and in French, and many Italian troubadours appeared at the courts of +Europe. + +2. EARLY ITALIAN POETRY AND PROSE.--The French element became gradually +lessened, and towards the close of the thirteenth century there arose the +Tuscan school of lyric poetry, the true beginning of Italian art, of which +Lapo Gianni, Guido Cavalcanti, Cino da Pistoia, and Dante Alighieri were +the masters. It is mainly inspired by love, and takes a popular courtly or +scholastic form. The style of Gianni had many of the faults of his +predecessors. That of Cavalcanti, the friend and precursor of Dante, +showed a tendency to stifle poetic imagery under the dead weight of +philosophy. But the love poems of Cino are so mellow, so sweet, so +musical, that they are only surpassed by those of Dante, who, as the +author of the "Vita Nuova," belongs to this lyric school. In this book he +tells the story of his love for Beatrice, which was from the first a high +idealization in which there was apparently nothing human or earthly. +Everything is super-sensual, aerial, heavenly, and the real Beatrice melts +more and more into the symbolic, passing out of her human nature into the +divine. + +Italian prose writing is of a later date, and also succeeded a period when +Italian authors wrote in Latin and French. It consists chiefly of +chronicles, tales, and translations. + +3. DANTE (1265-1331).--No poet had yet arisen gifted with absolute power +over the empire of the soul; no philosopher had pierced into the depths of +feeling and of thought, when Dante, the greatest name of Italy and the +father of Italian literature, appeared in the might of his genius, and +availing himself of the rude and imperfect materials within his reach, +constructed his magnificent work. Dante was born in Florence, of the noble +family of Alighieri, which was attached to the papal, or Guelph party, in +opposition to the imperial, or Ghibelline. He was but a child when death +deprived him of his father; but his mother took the greatest pains with +his education, placing him under the tuition of Brunetto Latini, and other +masters of eminence. He early made great progress, not only in an +acquaintance with classical literature and politics, but in music, +drawing, horsemanship, and other accomplishments suitable to his station. +As he grew up, he pursued his studies in the universities of Padua, +Bologna, and Paris. He became an accomplished scholar, and at the same +time appeared in public as a gallant and high-bred man of the world. At +the age of twenty-five, he took arms on the side of the Florentine +Guelphs, and distinguished himself in two battles against the Ghibellines +of Arezzo and Pisa. But before Dante was either a student or a soldier, he +had become a lover; and this character, above all others, was impressed +upon him for life. At a May-day festival, when only nine years of age, he +had singled out a girl of his own age, by the name of Bice, or Beatrice, +who thenceforward became the object of his constant and passionate +affection, or the symbol of all human wisdom and perfection. Before his +twenty-fifth year she was separated from him by death, but his passion was +refined, not extinguished by this event; not buried with her body but +translated with her soul, which was its object. On the other hand, the +affection of Beatrice for the poet troubled her spirit amid the bliss of +Paradise, and the visions of the eternal world with which he was favored +were a device of hers for reclaiming him from sin, and preparing him for +everlasting companionship with herself. + +At the age of thirty-five he was elected prior, or supreme magistrate of +Florence, an honor from which he dates all his subsequent misfortunes. +During his priorship, the citizens were divided into two factions called +the Neri and Bianchi, as bitterly opposed to each other as both had been +to the Ghibellines. In the absence of Dante on an embassy to Rome, a +pretext was found by the Neri, his opponents, for exciting the populace +against him. His dwelling was demolished, his property confiscated, +himself and his friends condemned to perpetual exile, with the provision +that, if taken, they should be burned alive. After a fruitless attempt, by +himself and his party, to surprise Florence, he quitted his companions in +disgust, and passed the remainder of his life in wandering from one court +of Italy to another, eating the bitter bread of dependence, which was +granted him often as an alms. The greater part of his poem was composed +during this period; but it appears that till the end of his life he +continued to retouch the work. + +The last and most generous patron of Dante was Guido di Polenta, lord of +Ravenna, and father of Francesca da Rimini, whose fatal love forms one of +the most beautiful episodes of this poem. Polenta treated him, not as a +dependent but as an honored guest, and in a dispute with the Republic of +Venice he employed the poet as his ambassador, to effect a reconciliation; +but he was refused even an audience, and, returning disappointed and +broken-hearted to Ravenna, he died soon after at the age of fifty-six, +having been in exile nineteen years. + +His fellow-citizens, who had closed their hearts and their gates against +him while living, now deeply bewailed his death; and, during the two +succeeding centuries, embassy after embassy was vainly sent from Florence +to recover his honored remains. Not long after his death, those who had +exiled him and confiscated his property provided that his poem should be +read and expounded to the people in a church. Boccaccio was appointed to +this professorship. Before the end of the sixteenth century, the "Divine +Comedy" had gone through sixty editions. + +The Divine Comedy is one of the greatest monuments of human genius. It is +an allegory conceived in the form of a vision, which was the most popular +style of poetry at that age. At the close of the year 1300 Dante +represents himself as lost in a forest at the foot of a hill, near +Jerusalem. He wishes to ascend it, but is prevented by a panther, a lion, +and a she-wolf which beset the way. He is met by Virgil, who tells him +that he is sent by Beatrice as a guide through the realm of shadows, hell, +and purgatory, and that she will afterwards lead him up to heaven. They +pass the gates of hell, and penetrate into the dismal region beyond. This, +as represented by Dante, consists of nine circles, forming an inverted +cone, of the size of the earth, each succeeding circle being lower and +narrower than the former, while Lucifer is chained in the centre and at +the bottom of the dreadful crater. Each circle contains various cavities, +where the punishments vary in proportion to the guilt, and the suffering +increases in intensity as the circles descend and contract. In the first +circle were neither cries nor tears, but the eternal sighs of those who, +having never received Christian baptism, were, according to the poet's +creed, forever excluded from the abodes of bliss. In the next circle, +appropriated to those whose souls had been lost by the indulgence of +guilty love, the poet recognizes the unhappy Francesca da Rimini, whose +history forms one of the most beautiful episodes of the poem. The third +circle includes gluttons; the fourth misers and spendthrifts; each +succeeding circle embracing what the poet deems a deeper shade of guilt, +and inflicting appropriate punishment. The Christian and heathen systems +of theology are here freely interwoven. We have Minos visiting the Stygian +Lake, where heretics are burning; we meet Cerberus and the harpies, and we +accompany the poet across several of the fabulous rivers of Erebus. A +fearful scene appears in the deepest circle of the infernal abodes. Here, +among those who have betrayed their country, and are entombed in eternal +ice, is Count Ugolino, who, by a series of treasons, had made himself +master of Pisa. He is gnawing with savage ferocity the skull of the +archbishop of that state, who had condemned him and his children to die by +starvation. The arch-traitor, Satan, stands fixed in the centre of hell +and of the earth. All the streams of guilt keep flowing back to him as +their source, and from beneath his threefold visage issue six gigantic +wings with which he vainly struggles to raise himself, and thus produces +winds which freeze him more firmly in the marsh. + +After leaving the infernal regions, and entering purgatory, they find an +immense cone divided into seven circles, each of which is devoted to the +expiation of one of the seven mortal sins. The proud are overwhelmed with +enormous weights; the envious are clothed in garments of horse-hair, their +eye-lids closed; the choleric are suffocated with smoke; the indolent are +compelled to run about continually; the avaricious are prostrated upon the +earth; epicures are afflicted with hunger and thirst; and the incontinent +expiate their crimes in fire. In this portion of the work, however, while +there is much to admire, there is less to excite and sustain the interest. +On the summit of the purgatorial mountain is the terrestrial paradise, +whence is the only assent to the celestial. Beatrice, the object of his +early and constant affection, descends hither to meet the poet. Virgil +disappears, and she becomes his only guide. She conducts him through the +nine heavens, and makes him acquainted with the great men who, by their +virtuous lives, have deserved the highest enjoyments of eternity. In the +ninth celestial sphere, Dante is favored with a manifestation of divinity, +veiled, however, by three hierarchies of attending angels. He sees the +Virgin Mary, and the saints of the Old and New Testament, and by these +personages, and by Beatrice, all his doubts and difficulties are finally +solved, and the conclusion leaves him absorbed in the beatific vision. + +The allegorical meaning of the poem is hidden under the literal one. +Dante, traveling through the invisible world, is a symbol of mankind +aiming at the double object of temporal and eternal happiness. The forest +typifies the civil and religious confusion of society deprived of its two +judges, the pope and the emperor. The three beasts are the powers which +offered the greatest obstacles to Dante's designs, Florence, France, and +the papal court. Virgil represents reason and the empire, and Beatrice +symbolizes the supernatural aid, without which man cannot attain the +supreme end, which is God. + +But the merit of the poem is that for the first time classic art is +transferred into a Romance form. Dante is, above all, a great artist. +Whether he describes nature, analyzes passions, curses the vices, or sings +hymns to the virtues, he is always wonderful for the grandeur and delicacy +of his art. He took his materials from mythology, history, and philosophy, +but more especially from his own passions of hatred and love, breathed +into them the breath of genius and produced the greatest work of modern +times. + +The personal interest that he brings to bear on the historical +representation of the three worlds is that which most interests and stirs +us. The Divine Comedy is not only the most lifelike drama of the thoughts +and feelings that moved men at that time, but it is also the most +spontaneous and clear reflection of the individual feelings of the poet, +who remakes history after his own passions, and who is the real chastiser +of the sins and rewarder of the virtues. He defined the destiny of Italian +literature in the Middle Ages, and began the great era of the Renaissance. + +4. PETRARCH.--Petrarch (1304-1374) belonged to a respected Florentine +family. His father was the personal friend of Dante, and a partaker of the +same exile. While at Avignon, then the seat of the papal court, on one +occasion he made an excursion to the fountain of Vaucluse, taking with him +his son, the future poet, then in the tenth year of his age. The wild and +solitary aspect of the place inspired the boy with an enthusiasm beyond +his years, leaving an impression which was never afterwards effaced, and +which affected his future life and writings. As Petrarch grew up, unlike +the haughty, taciturn, and sarcastic Dante, he seems to have made friends +wherever he went. With splendid talents, engaging manners, a handsome +person, and an affectionate and generous disposition, he became the +darling of his age, a man whom princes delighted to honor. At the age of +twenty-three, he first met Laura de Sade in a church at Avignon. She was +only twenty years of age, and had been for three years the wife of a +patrician of that city. Laura was not more distinguished for her beauty +and fortune than for the unsullied purity of her manners in a licentious +court, where she was one of the chief ornaments. The sight of her beauty +inspired the young poet with an affection which was as pure and virtuous +as it was tender and passionate. He poured forth in song the fervor of his +love and the bitterness of his grief. Upwards of three hundred sonnets, +written at various times, commemorate all the little circumstances of this +attachment, and describe the favors which, during an acquaintance of +fifteen or twenty years, never exceeded a kind word, a look less severe +than usual, or a passing expression of regret at parting. He was not +permitted to visit at Laura's house; he had no opportunity of seeing her +except at mass, at the brilliant levees of the pope, or in private +assemblies of beauty and fashion: but she forever remained the dominant +object of his existence. He purchased a house at Vaucluse, and there, shut +in by lofty and craggy heights, the river Sorgue traversing the valley on +one side, amidst hills clothed with umbrageous trees, cheered only by the +song of birds, the poet passed his lonely days. Again and again he made +tours through Italy, Spain, and Flanders, during one of which he was +crowned with the poet's laurel at Rome, but he always returned to +Vaucluse, to Avignon, to Laura. Thus years passed away. Laura became the +mother of a numerous family, and time and care made havoc of her youthful +beauty. Meanwhile, the sonnets of Petrarch had spread her fame throughout +France and Italy, and attracted many to the court of Avignon, who were +surprised and disappointed at the sight of her whom they had believed to +be the loveliest of mortals. In 1347, during the absence of the poet from +Avignon, Laura fell a victim to the plague, just twenty-one years from the +day that Petrarch first met her. Now all his love was deepened and +consecrated, and the effusions of his poetic genius became more +melancholy, more passionate, and more beautiful than ever. He declined the +offices and honors that his countrymen offered him, and passed his life in +retirement. He was found one morning by his attendants dead in his +library, his head resting on a book. + +The celebrity of Petrarch at the present day depends chiefly on his +lyrical poems, which served as models to all the distinguished poets of +southern Europe. They are restricted to two forms: the sonnet, borrowed +from the Sicilians, and the canzone, from the Provençals. The subject of +almost all these poems is the same--the hopeless affection of the poet for +the high-minded Laura. This love was a kind of religious and enthusiastic +passion, such as mystics imagine they feel towards the Deity, or such as +Plato believes to be the bond of union between elevated minds. There is no +poet in any language more perfectly pure than Petrarch--more completely +above all reproach of laxity or immorality. This merit, which is equally +due to the poet and to his Laura, is the more remarkable, considering the +models which he followed and the court at which Laura lived. The labor of +Petrarch in polishing his poems did much towards perfecting the language, +which through him became more elegant and more melodious. He introduced +into the lyric poetry of Italy the pathos and the touching sweetness of +Ovid and Tibullus, as well as the simplicity of Anacreon. + +Petrarch attached little value to his Italian poems; it was on his Latin +works that he founded his hopes of renown. But his highest title to +immortal fame is his prodigious labor to promote the study of ancient +authors. Wherever he traveled, he sought with the utmost avidity for +classic manuscripts, and it is difficult to estimate the effect produced +by his enthusiasm. He corresponded with all the eminent literati of his +day, and inspired them with his own tastes. Now for the first time there +appeared a kind of literary republic in Europe united by the magic bond of +Petrarch's influence, and he was better known and exercised a more +extensive and powerful influence than many of the sovereigns of the day. +He treated with various princes rather in the character of an arbitrator +than an ambassador, and he not only directed the tastes of his own age, +but he determined those of succeeding generations. + +5. BOCCACCIO AND OTHER PROSE WRITERS.--The fourteenth century forms a +brilliant era in Italian literature, distinguished beyond any other period +for the creative powers of genius which it exhibited. In this century, +Dante gave to Europe his great epic poem, the lyric muse awoke at the call +of Petrarch, while Boccaccio created a style of prose, harmonious, +flexible, and engaging, and alike suitable to the most elevated and to the +most playful subjects. + +Boccaccio (1313-1875) was the son of a Florentine merchant; he early gave +evidence of superior talents, and his father vainly attempted to educate +him to follow his own profession. He resided at Naples, where he became +acquainted with a lady celebrated in his writings under the name of +Fiammetta. It was at her desire that most of his early pieces were +written, and the very exceptionable moral character which attaches to them +must be attributed, in part, to her depraved tastes. The source of +Boccaccio's highest reputation, and that which entitles him to rank as the +third founder of the national literature, is his "Decameron," a collection +of tales written during the period when the plague desolated the south of +Europe, with a view to amuse the ladies of the court during that dreadful +visitation. The tales are united under the supposition of a party of ten +who had retired to one of the villas in the environs of Naples to strive, +in the enjoyment of innocent amusement, to escape the danger of contagion. +It was agreed that each person should tell a new story during the space of +ten days, whence the title Decameron. The description of the plague, in +the introduction, is considered not only the finest piece of writing from +Boccaccio's pen, but one of the best historical descriptions that have +descended to us. The stories, a hundred in number, are varied with +considerable art, both in subject and in style, from the most pathetic and +sportive to the most licentious. The great merit of Boccaccio's +composition consists in his easy elegance, his _naïveté_, and, above all, +in the correctness of his language. + +The groundwork of the Decameron has been traced to an old Hindu romance, +which, after passing through all the languages of the East, was translated +into Latin as early as the twelfth century; the originals of several of +these tales have been found in the ancient French _Fabliaux_, while others +are believed to have been borrowed from popular recitation or from real +occurrences. But if Boccaccio cannot boast of being the inventor of all, +or even any of these tales, he is still the father of this class of modern +Italian literature, since he was the first to transplant into the world of +letters what had hitherto been only the subject of social mirth. These +tales have in their turn been repeated anew in almost every language of +Europe, and have afforded reputations to numerous imitators. One of the +most beautiful and unexceptionable tales in the Decameron is that of +"Griselda," the last in the collection. It is to be regretted that the +author did not prescribe to himself the same purity in his images that he +did in his phraseology. Many of these tales are not only immoral but +grossly indecent, though but too faithful a representation of the manners +of the age in which they were written. The Decameron was published towards +the middle of the fourteenth century; and, from the first invention of +printing, it was freely circulated in Italy, until the Council of Trent +proscribed it in the middle of the sixteenth century. It was, however, +again published in 1570, purified and abridged. + +Boccaccio is the author of two romances, one called "Fiammetta," the other +the "Filocopo;" the former distinguished for the fervor of its expression, +the latter for the variety of its adventures and incidents. He wrote also +two romantic poems, in which he first introduced the _ottava rima_, or the +stanza composed of six lines, which rhyme interchangeably with each other, +and are followed by a couplet. In these he strove to revive ancient +mythology, and to identify it with modern literature. His Latin +compositions are voluminous, and materially contributed to the advancement +of letters. + +While Boccaccio labored so successfully to reduce the language to elegant +and harmonious forms, he strove like Petrarch to excite his contemporaries +to the study of the ancient classics. He induced the senate of Florence to +establish a professorship of Greek, entered his name among the first of +the students, and procured manuscripts at his own expense. Thus Hellenic +literature was introduced into Tuscany, and thence into the rest of +Europe. + +Boccaccio, late in life, assumed the ecclesiastical habit, and entered on +the study of theology. When the Florentines founded a professorship for +the reading and exposition of the Divine Comedy, Boccaccio was made the +first incumbent. The result of his labors was a life of Dante, and a +commentary on the first seventeen cantos of the Inferno. With the death of +Petrarch, who had been his most intimate friend, his last tie to earth was +loosed; he died at Certaldo a few months later, in the sixty-third year of +his age. His dwelling is still to be seen, situated on a hill, and looking +down on the fertile and beautiful valley watered by the river Elsa. + +Of the other prose writers of the fourteenth century the most remarkable +are the three Florentine historians named Villani, the eldest of whom +(1310-1348) wrote a history of Florence, which was continued afterwards by +his brother and by his nephew; a work highly esteemed for its historical +interest, and for its purity of language and style; and Franco Sacchetti +(1335-1400), who approaches nearest to Boccaccio. His "Novels and Tales" +are valuable for the purity and eloquence of their style, and for the +picture they afford of the manners of his age. + +Among the ascetic writers of this age St. Catherine of Siena occupies an +important place, as one who aided in preparing the way for the great +religious movement of the sixteenth century. The writings of this +extraordinary woman, who strove to bring back the Church of Rome to +evangelical virtue, are the strongest, clearest, most exalted religious +utterance that made itself heard in Italy in the fourteenth century. + +6. THE FIRST DECLINE OF ITALIAN LITERATURE.--The passionate study of the +ancients, of which Petrarch and Boccaccio had given an example, suspended +the progress of Italian literature in the latter part of the fourteenth +century, and through almost all the fifteenth. The attention of the +literary men of this time was wholly engrossed by the study of the dead +languages, and of manners, customs, and religious systems equally extinct. +They present to our observation boundless erudition, a just spirit of +criticism, and nice sensibility to the beauties and defects of the great +authors of antiquity; but we look in vain for that true eloquence which is +more the fruit of an intercourse with the world than of a knowledge of +books. They were still more unsuccessful in poetry, in which their +attempts, all in Latin, are few in number, and their verses harsh and +heavy, without originality or vigor. It was not until the period when +Italian poetry began to be again cultivated, that Latin verse acquired any +of the characteristics of genuine inspiration. + +But towards the close of the fifteenth century the dawn of a new literary +era appeared, which soon shone with meridian light. At this time, the +universities had become more and more the subjects of attention to the +governments; the appointment of eminent professors, and the privileges +connected with these institutions, attracted to them large numbers of +students, and the concourse was often so great that the lectures were +delivered in the churches and in public squares. Those republics which +still existed, and the princes who had risen on the ruins of the more +ephemeral ones, rivaled each other in their patronage of literary men; the +popes, who in the preceding ages had denounced all secular learning, now +became its munificent patrons; and two of them, Nicholas V. and Pius II., +were themselves scholars of high distinction. The Dukes of Milan, and the +Marquises of Mantua and Ferrara, surrounded themselves in their capitals +with men illustrious in science and letters, and seemed to vie with each +other in the favors which they lavished upon them. In the hitherto free +republic of Florence, which had given birth to Dante, Petrarch, and +Boccaccio, literature found support in a family which, at no distant +period, employed it to augment their power, and to rule the city with an +almost despotic sway. The Medici had been long distinguished for the +wealth they had acquired by commercial enterprise, and for the high +offices which they held in the republic. Cosmo de' Medici had acquired a +degree of power which shook the very foundations of the state. He was +master of the moneyed credit of Europe, and almost the equal of the kings +with whom he negotiated; but in the midst of the projects of his ambition +he opened his palace as an asylum to the scholars and artists of the age, +turned its gardens into an academy, and effected a revolution in +philosophy by setting up the authority of Plato against that of Aristotle. +His banks, which were scattered over Europe, were placed at the service of +literature as well as commerce. His agents abroad sold spices and bought +manuscripts; the vessels which returned to him from Constantinople, +Alexandria, and Smyrna were often laden with volumes in the Greek, Syriac, +and Chaldaic languages. Being banished to Venice, he continued his +protection of letters, and on his return to Florence he devoted himself +more than ever to the cause of literature. In the south of Italy, Alphonso +V., and, indeed, all the sovereigns of that age, pursued the same course, +and chose for their chancellors and ambassadors the same scholars who +educated their sons and expounded the classics in their literary circles. + +This patronage, however, was confined to the progress of ancient letters, +while the native literature, instead of redeeming the promise of its +infancy, remained at this time mute and inglorious. Yet the resources of +poets and orators were multiplying a thousand fold. The exalted +characters, the austere laws, the energetic virtues, the graceful +mythology, the thrilling eloquence of antiquity, were annihilating the +puerilities of the old Italian rhymes, and creating purer and nobler +tastes. The clay which was destined for the formation of great men was +undergoing a new process; a fresh mould was cast, the forms at first +appeared lifeless, but ere the end of the fifteenth century the breath of +genius entered into them, and a new era of life began. + + +PERIOD SECOND. + +REVIVAL OF ITALIAN LITERATURE AND ITS SECOND DECLINE (1476-1675). + +1. THE CLOSE OF THE FIFTEENTH CENTURY.--The first man who contributed to +the restoration of Italian poetry was Lorenzo de' Medici (1448-1492), the +grandson of Cosmo. In the brilliant society that he gathered around him, a +new era was opened in Italian literature. Himself a poet, he attempted to +restore poetry to the condition in which Petrarch had left it; although +superior in some respects to that poet, he had less power of +versification, less sweetness, and harmony, but his ideas were more +natural, and his style was more simple. He attempted all kinds of poetical +composition, and in all he displayed the versatility of his talents and +the exuberance of his imagination. But to Lorenzo poetry was but an +amusement, scarcely regarded in his brilliant political career. He +concentrated in himself all the power of the republic--he was the arbiter +of the whole political state of Italy, and from the splendor with which he +surrounded himself, and his celebrity, he received the title of Lorenzo +the Magnificent. He continued to collect manuscripts, and to employ +learned men to prepare them for printing. His Platonic Academy extended +its researches into new paths of study. The collection of antique +sculpture, the germ of the gallery of Florence, which had been established +by Cosmo, he enriched, and gave to it a new destination, which was the +occasion of imparting fresh life and vigor to the liberal arts. He +appropriated a part of his gardens to serve as a school for the study of +the antique, and placed his statues, busts, and other models of art in the +shrubberies, terraces, and buildings. Young men were liberally paid for +the copies which they made while pursuing their studies. It was this +institution that kindled the flame of genius in the breast of Michael +Angelo, and to it must be attributed the splendor which was shed by the +fine arts over the close of the fifteenth century, and which extended +rapidly from Florence throughout Italy, and over a great part of Europe. +Among the friends of Lorenzo may be mentioned Pico della Mirandola (1463- +1494), one of the most prominent men of his age, who left in his Latin and +Italian works monuments of his vast erudition and exuberant talent. + +The fifteenth century closed brightly on Florence, but it was otherwise +throughout Italy. Some of its princes still patronized the sciences, but +most of them were engaged in the intrigues of ambition; and the storms +which were gathering soon burst on Florence itself. Shortly after the +death of Lorenzo, nearly the whole of Italy fell under the rule of Charles +VIII., and the voice of science and literature was drowned in the clash of +arms; military violence dispersed the learned men, and pillage destroyed +or scattered the literary treasures. Literature and the arts, banished +from their long-loved home, sought another asylum. We find them again at +Rome, cherished by a more powerful and fortunate protector, Pope Leo X., +the son of Lorenzo (1475-1521). Though his patronage was confined to the +fine arts and to the lighter kinds of composition, yet owing to the +influence of the newly-invented art of printing, the discovery of +Columbus, and the Reformation, new energies were imparted to the age, the +Italian mind was awakened from its slumber, and prepared for a new era in +literature. + +2. THE ORIGIN OF THE DRAMA AND ROMANTIC EPIC.--Among the gifted +individuals in the circle of Lorenzo, the highest rank may be assigned to +Poliziano (1454-1494). He revived on the modern stage the tragedies of the +ancients, or rather created a new kind of pastoral tragedy, on which Tasso +did not disdain to employ his genius. His "Orpheus," composed within ten +days, was performed at the Mantuan court in 1483, and may be considered as +the first dramatic composition in Italian. The universal homage paid to +Virgil had a decided influence on this kind of poetry. His Bucolics were +looked upon as dramas more poetical than those of Terence and Seneca. The +comedies of Plautus were represented, and the taste for theatrical +performances was eagerly renewed. In these representations, however, the +object in view was the restoration of the classics rather than the +amusement of the public; and the new dramatists confined themselves to a +faithful copy of the ancients. But the Orpheus of Poliziano caused a +revolution. The beauty of the verse, the charm of the music, and the +decorations which accompanied its recital, produced an excitement of +feeling and intellect that combined to open the way for the true dramatic +art. + +At the same time, several eminent poets devoted their attention to that +style of composition which was destined to form the glory of Ariosto. The +trouvères chose Charlemagne and his paladins as the heroes of their poems +and romances, and these, composed for the most part in French in the +twelfth and thirteenth centuries, were early circulated in Italy. Their +origin accorded with the vivacity of the prevailing religious sentiment, +the violence of the passions and the taste for adventures which +distinguished the first crusades; while from the general ignorance of the +times, their supernatural agency was readily admitted. But at the close of +the fifteenth century, when the poets possessed themselves of these old +romances, in order to give a variety to the adventures of their heroes, +the belief in the marvelous was much diminished, and they could not be +recounted without a mixture of mockery. The spirit of the age did not +admit in the Italian language a subject entirely serious. He who made +pretensions to fame was compelled to write in Latin, and the choice of the +vulgar tongue was the indication of a humorous subject. The language had +developed since the time of Boccaccio a character of _naïveté_ mingled +with satire, which still remains, and which is particularly remarkable in +Ariosto. + +The "Morgante Maggiore" of Pulci (1431-1470) is the first of these +romantic poems. It is alternately burlesque and serious, and it abounds +with passages of great pathos and beauty. The "Orlando Innamorato" of +Boiardo (1430-1494) is a poem somewhat similar to that of Pulci. It was, +however, remodeled by Berni, sixty years after the death of the author, +and from the variety and novelty of the adventures, the richness of its +descriptions, the interest excited by its hero, and the honor rendered to +the female sex, it excels the Morgante. + +3. ROMANTIC EPIC POETRY.--The romances of chivalry, which had been thus +versified by Pulci and Boiardo, were elevated to the rank of epic poetry +by the genius of Ariosto (1474-1533). He was born at Reggio, of which +place his father was governor. As the means of improving his resources, he +early attached himself to the service of Cardinal D'Este, and afterwards +to that of the Duke of Ferrara. At the age of thirty years he commenced +his "Orlando Furioso," and continued the composition for eleven years. +While the work was in progress, he was in the habit of reading the cantos, +as they were finished, at the courts of the cardinal and duke, which may +account for the manner in which this hundred-fold tale is told, as if +delivered spontaneously before scholars and princes, who assembled to +listen to the marvelous adventures of knights and ladies, giants and +magicians, from the lips of the story-teller. Ariosto excelled in the +practice of reading aloud with distinct utterance and animated elocution, +an accomplishment of peculiar value at a time when books were scarce, and +the emoluments of authors depended more on the gratuities of their patrons +than the sale of their works. In each of the four editions which he +published, he improved, corrected, and enlarged the original. No poet, +perhaps, ever evinced more fastidious taste in adjusting the nicer points +that affected the harmony, dignity, and fluency of his composition, yet +the whole seems as natural as if it had flowed extemporaneously from his +pen. Throughout life it was the lot of Ariosto to struggle against the +difficulties inseparable from narrow and precarious circumstances. His +patrons, among them Leo X., were often culpable in exciting expectations, +and afterwards disappointing them. The earliest and latest works of +Ariosto, though not his best, were dramatic. He wrote also some satires in +the form of epistles. He died in the fifty-eighth year of his age, and his +ashes now rest under the magnificent monument in the new church of the +Benedictines in Ferrara. The house in which the poet lived, the chair in +which he was wont to study, and the inkstand whence he filled his pen, are +still shown as interesting memorials of his life and labors. + +Ariosto, like Pulci and Boiardo, undertook to sing the paladins and their +amours at the court of Charlemagne, during the fabulous wars of this +emperor against the Moors. In his poem he seems to have designedly thrown +off the embarrassment of a unity of action. The Orlando Furioso is founded +on three principal narratives, distinct but often intermingled; the +history of the war between Charlemagne and the Saracens, Orlando's love +for Angelica, his madness on hearing of her infidelity, and Ruggiero's +attachment to Bradamante. These stories are interwoven with so many +incidents and episodes, and there is in the poem such a prodigious +quantity of action, that it is difficult to assign it a central point. +Indeed, Ariosto, playing with his readers, seems to delight in continually +misleading them, and allows them no opportunity of viewing the general +subject of the poem. This want of unity is essentially detrimental to the +general impression of the work, and the author has succeeded in throwing +around its individual parts an interest which does not attach to it as a +whole. The world to which the poet transports his readers is truly poetic; +all the factitious wants of common life, its cold calculations and its +imaginary distinctions, disappear; love and honor reign supreme, and the +prompting of the one and the laws of the other are alone permitted to +stimulate and regulate a life, of which war is the only business and +gallantry the only pastime. The magic and sorcery, borrowed from the East, +which pervade these chivalric fictions, lead us still farther from the +world of realities. Nor is it the least charm that all the wonders and +prodigies here related are made to appear quite probable from the +apparently artless, truthful style of the narration. The versification of +the Orlando is more distinguished for sweetness and elegance than for +strength; but, in point of harmony, and in the beauty, pathos, and grace +of his descriptions, no poet surpasses Ariosto. + +4. HEROIC EPIC POETRY.--While, in the romantic epic of the Middle Ages, +unity of design was considered unnecessary, and truthfulness of detail, +fertility of imagination, strength of coloring, and vivacity of narration +were alone required, heroic poetry was expected to exhibit, on the most +extensive scale, those laws of symmetry which adapt all the parts to one +object, which combine variety with unity, and, as it were, initiate us +into the secrets of creation, by disclosing the single idea which governs +the most dissimilar actions, and harmonizes the most opposite interests. +It was reserved to Torquato Tasso to raise the Italian language to this +kind of epic poetry. + +Tasso (1544-1595) was born in Sorrento, and many marvels are told by his +biographers of the precocity of his genius. Political convulsions early +drove his father into exile. He went to Rome and sent for his son, then +ten years of age. When the exiles were no longer safe at Rome, an asylum +was offered them at Pesaro by the Duke of Urbino. Here young Tasso pursued +his studies in all the learning and accomplishments of the age. In his +seventeenth year he had completed the composition of an epic poem on the +adventures of Rinaldo, which was received with passionate admiration +throughout Italy. The appearance of this poem proved not only the +beginning of the author's fame, but the dawn of a new day in Italian +literature. In 1565, Tasso was nominated by the Cardinal D'Este as +gentleman of his household, and his reception at the court was in every +respect most pleasing to his youthful ambition. He was honored by the +intimate acquaintance of the accomplished princesses Lucretia and Leonora, +and to this dangerous friendship must be attributed most of his subsequent +misfortunes, if it be true that he cherished a secret attachment for +Leonora. + +During this prosperous period of his life, Tasso prosecuted his great epic +poem, the "Jerusalem Delivered," and as canto after canto was completed +and recited to the princesses, he found in their applause repeated +stimulus to proceed. While steadily engaged in his great work, his fancy +gave birth to numerous fugitive poems, the most remarkable of which is the +"Aminta." After its representation at the court of Ferrara, all Italy +resounded with the poet's fame. It was translated into all the languages +of Europe, and the name of Tasso would have been immortal even though he +had never composed an epic. The various vexations he endured regarding the +publication of his work at its conclusion, the wrongs he suffered from +both patrons and rivals, together with disappointed ambition, rendered him +the subject of feverish anxiety and afterwards the prey of restless fear +and continual suspicion. His mental malady increased, and he wandered from +place to place without finding any permanent home. Assuming the disguise +of a shepherd, he traveled to Sorrento, to visit his sister; but soon, +tired of seclusion, he obtained permission to return to the court of +Ferrara. He was coldly received by the duke, and was refused an interview +with the princesses. He left the place in indignation, and wandered from +one city of Italy to another, reduced to the appearance of a wretched +itinerant, sometimes kindly received, sometimes driven away as a vagabond, +always restless, suspicious, and unhappy. In this mood he again returned +to Ferrara, at a moment when the duke was too much occupied with the +solemnities of his own marriage to attend to the complaints of the poet. +Tasso became infuriated, retracted all the praises he had bestowed on the +house of Este, and indulged in the bitterest invectives against the duke, +by whose orders he was afterwards committed to the hospital for lunatics, +where he was closely confined, and treated with extreme rigor. If he had +never been insane before, he certainly now became so. To add to his +misfortune, his poem was printed without his permission, from an imperfect +copy, and while editors and printers enriched themselves with the fruit of +his labors, the poet himself was languishing in a dungeon, despised, +neglected, sick, and destitute of the common conveniences of life, and +above all, deafened by the frantic cries with which the hospital +continually resounded. When the first rigors of his imprisonment were +relaxed, Tasso pursued his studies, and poured forth his emotions in every +form of verse. Some of his most beautiful minor poems were composed during +this period. After more than seven years' confinement, the poet was +liberated at the intercession of the Duke of Mantua. Prom this time he +wandered from city to city; the hallucinations of his mind never entirely +ceased. Towards the close of the year 1594 he took up his residence at +Rome, where he died at the age of fifty-two. + +Tasso was particularly happy in choosing the most engaging subject that +could inspire a modern poet--the struggle between the Christians and the +Saracens. The Saracens considered themselves called on to subjugate the +earth to the faith of Mohammed; the Christians to enfranchise the sacred +spot where their divine founder suffered death. The religion of the age +was wholly warlike. It was a profound, disinterested, enthusiastic, and +poetic sentiment, and no period has beheld such a brilliant display of +valor. The belief in the supernatural, which formed a striking +characteristic of the time, seemed to have usurped the laws of nature and +the common course of events. + +The faith against which the crusaders fought appeared to them the worship +of the powers of darkness. They believed that a contest might exist +between invisible beings as between different nations, and when Tasso +armed the dark powers of enchantment against the Christian knights, he +only developed and embellished a popular idea. + +The scene of the Jerusalem Delivered, so rich in recollections and +associations with all our religious feelings, is one in which nature +displays her riches and treasures, and where descriptions, in turn the +most lovely and the most austere, attract the pen of the poet. All the +nations of Christendom send forth their warriors to the army of the cross, +and the whole world thus becomes his patrimony. Whatever interest the +taking of Troy might possess for the Greeks, or the vanity of the Romans +might attach to the adventures of AEneas, whom they adopted as their +progenitor, it may be asserted that neither the Iliad nor the Aeneid +possesses the dignity of subject, the interest at the same time divine and +human, and the varied dramatic action which are peculiar to the Jerusalem +Delivered. + +The whole course of the poem is comprised in the campaign of 1093, when +the Christian army, assembled on the plain of Tortosa, marched towards +Jerusalem, which they besieged and captured. From the commencement of the +poem, the most tender sentiments are combined with the action, and love +has been assigned a nobler part than had been given to it in any other +epic poem. Love, enthusiastic, respectful, and full of homage, was an +essential characteristic of chivalry and the source of the noblest +actions. While with the heroes of the classic epic it was a weakness, with +the Christian knights it was a devotion. In this work are happily combined +the classic and romantic styles. It is classic in its plan, romantic in +its heroes; it is conceived in the spirit of antiquity, and executed in +the spirit of medieval romance. It has the beauty which results from unity +of design and from the harmony of all its parts, united with the romantic +form, which falls in with the feelings, the passions, and the +recollections of Europeans. Notwithstanding some defects, which must be +attributed rather to the taste of his age than to his genius, in the +history of literature Tasso may be placed by the side of Homer and Virgil. + +5. LYRIC POETRY.--Lyric poetry, which had been brought to such perfection +by Petrarch in the fourteenth century, but almost lost sight of in the +fifteenth, was cultivated by all the Italian poets of this period. +Petrarch became the model, which every aspirant endeavored to imitate. +Hence arose a host of poetasters, who wrote with considerable elegance, +but without the least power of imagination. We must not, however, confound +with the servile imitators of Petrarch those who took nothing from his +school but purity of language and elegance of style, and who consecrated +the lyre not to love alone, but to patriotism and religion. First of these +are Poliziano and Lorenzo de' Medici, in whose ballads and stanzas the +language of Petrarch reappeared with all its beauty and harmony. Later, +Cardinal Bembo (1470-1547), Molza (1489-1544), Tarsia (1476-1535), +Guidiccioni (1480-1541), Della Casa (1503-1556), Costanzo (1507-1585), and +later still, Chiabrera (1552-1637), attempted to restore Italian poetry to +its primitive elegance. Their sonnets and canzoni contributed much to the +revival of a purer style, although their elegance is often too elaborate +and their thoughts and feelings too artificial. Besides these, Ariosto, +Tasso, Machiavelli, and Michael Angelo, whose genius was practiced in more +ambitious tasks, did not disdain to shape and polish such diminutive gems +as the canzone, the madrigal, and the sonnet. + +This reform of taste in lyric composition was also promoted by several +women, among whom the most distinguished at once for beauty, virtue, and +talent was Vittoria Colonna (1490-1547). She was daughter of the high +constable of Naples, and married to the Marquis of Pescara. Early left a +widow, she abandoned herself to sorrow. That fidelity which made her +refuse the hand of princes in her youth, rendered her incapable of a +second attachment in her widowhood. The solace of her life was to mourn +the loss and cherish the memory of Pescara. After passing several years in +retirement, Vittoria took up her residence at Rome, and became the +intimate friend of the distinguished men of her time. Her verses, though +deficient in poetic fancy, are full of tenderness and absorbing passion. +Vittoria Colonna was reckoned by her contemporaries as a being almost more +than human, and the epithet divine was usually prefixed to her name. By +her death-bed stood Michael Angelo, who was considerably her junior, but +who enjoyed her friendship and regarded her with enthusiastic veneration. +He wrote several sonnets in her praise. Veronica Gambara, Tullia +d'Aragona, and Giulia Gonzaga may also be named as possessing superior +genius to many literary men of their time. + +6. DRAMATIC POETRY.--Tragedy, in the hands of the Romans, had exhibited no +national characteristics, and disappeared with the decline of their +literature. When Europe began to breathe again, the natural taste of the +multitude for games and spectacles revived; the church entertained the +people with its representations, which, however, were destitute of all +literary character. At the commencement of the fourteenth century we find +traces of Latin tragedies, and these, during the fifteenth century, were +frequently represented, as we have seen, more as a branch of ancient art +and learning than as matter of recreation. After the "Orpheus" of +Poliziano had appeared on the stage, the first drama in the Italian +tongue, Latin tragedies and comedies were translated into the Italian, but +as yet no one had ventured beyond mere translation. + +Leo X. shed over the dramatic art the same favor which he bestowed on the +other liberal arts, and the theatricals of the Vatican were of the most +splendid description. During his pontificate, Trissino (1478-1550) +dedicated to him the tragedy of "Sofonisba," formed on the Greek model, +the first regular tragedy which had appeared since the revival of letters. +Its subject is found entire in the work of Livy, and the invention of the +poet has added little to the records of the historian. The piece is not +divided into acts and scenes, and the only repose given to the action is +by the chorus, who sing odes and lyric stanzas. The story is well +conducted, the characters are all dramatic, and the incidents arise +spontaneously out of each other; but the style of the tragedy has neither +the sublimity nor the originality which becomes this kind of composition, +and which distinguished the genius of the dramatic poets of Athens. + +The example of Trissino was followed by Rucellai (1475-1525), who left two +dramas, "Rosamunda" and "Orestes," written in blank verse, with a chorus, +much resembling the Greek tragedies. This poet used much more license with +his subject than Trissino; his plot is less simple and pathetic, but +abounds in horror, and his style is florid and rhetorical. Tasso, Speroni +(1500-1588), Giraldi (1504-1573), and others, attempted also this species +of composition, and their dramas are considered the best of the age. + +As the tragic poets of this century servilely imitated Sophocles and +Euripides, the comic writers copied Plautus and Terence. The comedies of +Ariosto, of which there are five, display considerable ingenuity of +invention and an elegant vivacity of language. The dramatic works of +Machiavelli approach more nearly to the middle comedy of the Greeks. They +depict and satirize contemporaneous rather than obsolete manners, but the +characters and plots awaken little interest. + +Bentivoglio (1506-1573), Salviati (1540-1589), Firenzuola (1493-1547), +Caro (1507-1566), Cardinal Bibiena, (1470-1520), Aretino (1492-1556), and +others, are among the principal comic writers of the age, who displayed +more or less dramatic talent. Of all the Italian comedies composed in the +sixteenth century, however, scarcely one was the work of eminent genius. A +species of comic drama, known under the name of _Commedia dell' arte_, +took its rise in this century. The characteristic of these plays is that +the story only belongs to the poet, the dialogue being improvised by the +actors. The four principal characters, denominated masks, were +_Pantaloon_, a merchant of Venice, a doctor of laws from Bologna, and two +servants, known to us as _Harlequin_ and _Columbine_. When we add to these +a couple of sons, one virtuous and the other profligate; a couple of +daughters, and a pert, intriguing chambermaid, we have nearly the whole +_dramatis personae_ of these plays. The extempore dialogue by which the +plot was developed was replete with drollery and wit, and there was no end +to the novelty of the jests. + +7. PASTORAL DRAMA AND DIDACTIC POETRY.--The pastoral drama, which +describes characters and passions in their primitive simplicity, is thus +distinguished from tragedy and comedy. It is probable that the idyls of +the Greeks afforded the first germ of this species of composition, but +Beccari, a poet of Ferrara (1510-1590), is considered the father of the +genuine pastoral drama. Before him Sannazzaro (1458-1530) had written the +"Arcadia," which, however, bears the character of an eclogue rather than +that of a drama. It is written in the choicest Italian; its versification +is melodious, and it abounds with beautiful descriptions; as an imitation +of the ancients, it is entitled to the highest rank. The beauty of the +Italian landscape and the softness of the Italian climate seem naturally +fitted to dispose the poetic soul to the dreams of rural life, and the +language seems, by its graceful simplicity, peculiarly adapted to express +the feelings of a class of people whom we picture to ourselves as +ingenuous and infantine in their natures. The manners of the Italian +peasantry are more truly pastoral than those of any other people, and a +bucolic poet in that fair region need not wander to Arcadia. But +Sannazzaro, like all the early pastoral poets of Italy, proposed to +himself, as the highest excellence, a close imitation of Virgil; he took +his shepherds from the fabulous ages of antiquity, borrowed the mythology +of the Greeks, and completed the machinery with fauns, nymphs, and satyrs. +Like Sannazzaro, Beccari places his shepherds in Arcadia, and invests them +with ancient manners; but he goes beyond mere dialogue; he connects their +conversations by a series of dramatic actions. The representation of one +of these poems incited Tasso to the composition of his "Aminta," the +success of which was due less to the interest of the story than to the +sweetness of the poetry, and the soft voluptuousness which breathes in +every line. It is written in flowing verse of various measures, without +rhyme, and enriched with lyric choruses of uncommon beauty. + +The imitations of the Aminta were numerous, but, with one exception, which +has disputed the palm with its model, they had an ephemeral existence. +Guarini (1537-1612) was the author of the "Pastor Fido," which is the +principal monument of his genius; its chief merit lies in the poetry in +which the tale is embodied, the simplicity and clearness of the diction, +the tenderness of the sentiments, and the vehement passion which gives +life to the whole. This drama was first performed in 1585, at Turin, +during the nuptial festivities of the Prince of Savoy. Its success was +triumphant, and Guarini was justly considered as second only to Tasso +among the poets of the age. Theatrical music, which was now beginning to +be cultivated, found its way into the acts of the pastoral drama, and in +one scene of the Pastor Fido it is united with dancing; thus was opened +the way for the Italian opera. + +Among the didactic poets, Rucellai may be first mentioned. His poem of +"The Bees" is an imitation of the fourth book of the Georgics; he does +not, however, servilely follow his model, but gives an original coloring +to that which he borrowed. Alamanni (1495-1556) occupies a secondary rank +among epic, tragic, and comic poets, but merits a distinguished place in +didactic poetry. His poem entitled "Cultivation" is pure and elegant in +its style. + +8. SATIRICAL POETRY, NOVELS, AND TALES.--In an age when every kind of +poetry that had flourished among the Greeks and Romans appeared again with +new lustre, satire was not wanting. There is much that is satirical in the +"Divine Comedy" of Dante. Three of Petrarch's sonnets are satires on the +court of Rome; those of Ariosto are valuable not only for their flowing +style, but for the details they afford of his character, taste, and +circumstances. The satires of Alamanni are chiefly political, and in +general are characterized by purity of diction and by a high moral +tendency. + +There is a kind of jocose or burlesque satire peculiar to Italy, in which +the literature is extremely rich. If it serves the cause of wisdom, it is +always in the mask of folly. The poet who carried this kind of writing to +the highest perfection was Berni (1499-1536). Comic poetry, hitherto known +in Italy as burlesque, of which Burchiello was the representative in the +fifteenth century, received from Berni the name of Bernesque, in its more +refined and elegant character. His satirical poems are full of light and +elegant mockery, and his style possesses nature and comic truth. In his +hand, everything was transformed into ridicule; his satire is almost +always personal, and his laughter is not always restrained by respect for +morals or for decency. To burlesque poetry may be referred also the +Macaronic style, a ludicrous mixture of Latin and Italian, introduced by +Merlino Coccajo (1491-1544). His poems are as full of lively descriptions +and piquant satire as they are wanting in decorum and morality. + +The story-tellers of the sixteenth century are numerous. Sometimes they +appear as followers of Boccaccio; sometimes they attempt to open new paths +for themselves. The class of productions, of which the "Decameron" was the +earliest example in the fourteenth century, is called by the Italians +"Novelle." In general, the interest of the tale depends rather on a number +of incidents slightly touched, than on a few carefully delineated; from +the difficulty of developing character in a few isolated scenes, the +story-teller trusts for effect to the combination of incident and style, +and the delineation of character, which is the nobler part of fiction, is +neglected. Italian novelists, too, have often regarded the incidents +themselves but as a vehicle for fine writing. An interesting view of these +productions is, that they form a vast repository of incident, in which we +recognize the origin of much that has since appeared in our own and other +languages. + +Machiavelli was one of the first novelists of this age. His little tale, +"Belfagor," is pleasantly told, and has been translated into all +languages. The celebrated "Giulietta" of Luigi da Porta is the sole +production of the author, but it has served to give him a high place among +Italian novelists. This is Shakspeare's Romeo and Juliet in another shape, +though it is not probable that it was the immediate source from which the +great dramatist collected the materials for his tragedy. The "Hundred +Tales" of Cinzio Giraldi (1504-1573) are distinguished by great boldness +of conception, and by a wild and tragic horror which commands the +attention, while it is revolting to the feelings. He appears to have +ransacked every age and country, and to have exhausted the catalogue of +human crimes in procuring subjects for his novels. + +Grazzini, called Lasca (1503-1583), is perhaps the best of the Italian +novelists after Boccaccio. His manner is light and graceful. His stories +display much ingenuity, but are often improbable and cruel in their +nature. The Fairy Tales of Strapparola (b. 1500) are the earliest +specimens of the kind in the prose literature of Italy, and this work has +been a perfect storehouse from which succeeding writers have derived a +vast multitude of their tales. To this, also, we are indebted for the +legend of "Fair Star," "Puss in Boots," "Fortunio," and others which adorn +our nursery libraries. + +Firenzuola (1493-1547) occupies a high rank among the Italian novelists; +his "Golden Ass," from Apuleius, and his "Discourses of Animals" are +distinguished for their originality and purity of style. + +Bandello (1480-1562) is the novelist best known to foreigners after +Boccaccio. Shakspeare and other English dramatists have drawn largely from +his voluminous writings. His tales are founded upon history rather than +fancy. + +9. HISTORY.--Historical composition was cultivated with much success by +the Italians of the sixteenth century; yet such was the altered state of +things, that, except at Venice and Genoa, republics had been superseded by +princes, and republican authority by the pomp of regal courts. Home was a +nest of intrigue, luxury, and corruption; Tuscany had become the prey of a +powerful family; Lombardy was but a battle-field for the rival powers of +France and Germany, and the lot of the people was oppression and +humiliation. High independence of mind, one of the most valuable qualities +in connection with historical research, was impossible under these +circumstances, and yet, some of the Italian writers of this age exhibit +genius, strength of character, and a conscientious sense of the sacred +commission of the historian. + +Machiavelli (1469-1527) was born in Florence of a family which had enjoyed +the first offices in the republic. At the age of thirty, he was made +chancellor of the state, and from that time he was constantly employed in +public affairs, and particularly in embassies. Among those to the smaller +princes of Italy, the one of the longest duration was to Caesar Borgia, +whom he narrowly observed at the very important period when this +illustrious villain was elevating himself by his crimes, and whose +diabolical policy he had thus an opportunity of studying. He had a +considerable share in directing the counsels of the republic, and the +influence to which he owed his elevation was that of the free party, which +censured the power of the Medici, and at that time held them in exile. +When the latter were recalled, Machiavelli was deprived of all his offices +and banished. He then entered into a conspiracy against the usurpers, +which was discovered, and he was put to the torture, but without wresting +from him any confession which could impeach either himself or those who +had confided in his honor. Leo X., on his elevation to the pontificate, +restored him to liberty. At this time he wrote his "History of Florence," +in which he united eloquence of style with depth of reflection, and +although an elegant, animated, and picturesque composition, it is not the +fruit of much research or criticism. + +Besides this history, Machiavelli wrote his discourses on the first decade +of Livy, considered his best work, and "The Art of War," which is an +invaluable commentary on the history of the times. These works had the +desired effect of inducing the Medici family to use the political services +of the author, and at the request of Leo X. he wrote his essay "On the +Reform of the Florentine Government." + +Guicciardini (1483-1541), the friend of Machiavelli, is considered the +greatest historian of this age. He attached himself to the service of Leo +X., and was raised to high offices and honors by him and the two +succeeding popes. On the expulsion of the Medici from Florence, the +republican party having obtained the ascendency, he was obliged to fly +from the city. From this time he manifested an utter abhorrence of all +popular institutions, and threw himself heart and soul into the interests +of the Medici. He displayed his zeal at the expense of the lives and +liberties of the most virtuous among his fellow-citizens. Having aided in +the elevation of Cosmo, afterwards Grand Duke of Tuscany, and being +requited with ingratitude and neglect, he retired in disgust from public +life, and devoted himself wholly to the completion of his history of +Italy. This work, which is a monument of his genius and industry, +commences with the coming of Charles VIII. to Italy, and concludes with +the year 1534, embracing one of the most important periods of Italian +history. His powerfully-drawn pictures exhibit the men and the times so +vividly, that they seem to pass before our eyes. His delineations of +character, his masterly views of the course of events, the conduct of +leaders, and the changes of war, claim our highest admiration. His +language is pure and his style elegant, though sometimes too Latinized; +his letters are considered as a most valuable contribution to the history +of his times. + +Numberless historians, of more or less merit, stimulated by the renown of +Machiavelli and Guicciardini, composed annals of the states to which they +belonged, while others undertook to write the histories of foreign +nations. Nardi (1496-1556), one of the most ardent and pure patriots of +his age, takes the first place. He wrote the history of the Florentine +Revolution of 1527, a work which, though defective in style, is +distinguished for its truthfulness. The histories of Florence by Adriani, +Varchi, and Segni (1499-1559), are considered the best works of their +kind, for elegance of style and for interest of the narrative. Almost all +the other cities of Italy had their historians, but the palm must be +awarded to the Florentine writers, not only on account of their number, +but for the elegance and purity of their style, for their impartiality and +the sagacity of their research into matters of fact. Among the writers of +the second class may be mentioned Davanzati (1519), the translator of +Tacitus, who wrote, in the Florentine dialect, a history of the schism of +England; Giambullari (1495-1564), who wrote a history of Europe; +D'Anghiera (fl. 1536), who, after having examined the papers of +Christopher Columbus, and the official reports transmitted from America to +Spain, compiled an interesting work on "Ocean Navigation and the New +World." His style is incorrect; but this is compensated for by the +fidelity of his narration. Several of the German States, France, the +Netherlands, Poland, Hungary, and the East Indies, found Italian authors +in this age to digest and arrange their chronicles, and give them +historical form. + +To this period belong also the "Lives of the Most Celebrated Artists," +written by Vasari (1512-1574), himself a distinguished artist, a work +highly interesting for its subject and style, and the Autobiography of +Benvenuto Cellini (b. 1500), one of the most curious works which was ever +written in any language. + +10. GRAMMAR AND RHETORIC.--The Italian language was used both in writing +and conversation for three centuries before its rules and principles were +reduced to a scientific form. Bembo was the first scholar who established +the grammar. Grammatical writings and researches were soon multiplied and +extended. Salviati was one of the most prominent grammarians of the +sixteenth century, and Buonmattei and Cinonio of the seventeenth. But the +progress in this study was due less to the grammarians than to the +_Dictionary della Crusca_. Among the scholars who took part in the +exercises of the Florentine Academy, founded by Cosmo de' Medici, there +were some who, dissatisfied with the philosophical disputations which were +the object of this institution, organized another association for the +purpose of giving a new impulse to the study of the language. This +academy, inaugurated in 1587, was called _della Crusca_, literally, _of +the bran_. The object of this new association being to sift all impurities +from the language, a sieve, the emblem of the academy, was placed In the +hall; the members at their meetings sat on flour-barrels, and the chair of +the presiding officer stood on three mill-stones. The first work of the +academy was to compile a universal dictionary of the Italian language, +which was published in 1612. Though the Dictionary della Crusca was +conceived in an exclusive spirit, and admitted, as linguistic authorities, +only writers of the fourteenth century, belonging to Tuscany, it +contributed greatly to the progress of the Italian tongue. + +Every university of Italy boasted in the sixteenth century of some +celebrated rhetoricians, all of whom, however, were overshadowed by +Vettori (1499-1585), distinguished for the editions of the Greek and Latin +classics published under his superintendence, and for his commentaries on +the rhetorical books of Aristotle. B. Cavalcanti (1503-1562) was also +celebrated in this department, and his "Rhetoric" is the best work of the +age on that subject. + +The oratory of this period is very imperfect. Orations were written in the +style of Boccaccio, which, however suitable for the narration of merry +tales, is entirely unfit for oratorical compositions. Among those who most +distinguished themselves in this department are Della Casa (1503-1556), +whose harangues against the Emperor Charles V. are full of eloquence; +Speroni (1500-1588), whose style is more perfect than that of any other +writer of the sixteenth century; and Lollio (d. 1568), whose orations are +the most polished. At that time, in the forum of Venice, eloquent orators +pleaded the causes of the citizens, and at the close of the preceding +century, Savonarola (1452-1498), a preacher of Florence, thundered against +the abuses of the Roman church, and suffered death in consequence. Among +the models of letter-writing, Caro takes the first place. His familiar +letters are written with that graceful elegance which becomes this kind of +composition. The letters of Tasso are full of eloquence and philosophy, +and are written in the most select Italian. + +11. SCIENCE, PHILOSOPHY, AND POLITICS.--The sciences, during this period, +went hand in hand with poetry and history. Libraries and other aids to +learning were multiplied, and academies were organized with other objects +than those of enjoyment of mere poetical triumphs or dramatic amusements. +The Academy del Cimento was founded at Florence in 1657 by Leopold de' +Medici, for promoting the study of the natural sciences, and similar +institutions were established in Rome, Bologna, and Naples, and other +cities of Italy, besides the Royal Academy of London (1660), and the +Academy of Sciences in Paris (1666). From the period of the first +institution of universities, that of Bologna had maintained its +preëminence. Padua, Ferrara, Pavia, Turin, Florence, Siena, Pisa, and Rome +were also seats of learning. The men who directed the scientific studies +of their country and of Europe were almost universally attached as +professors to these institutions. Indeed, at this period, through the +genius of Galileo and his school, European science first dawned in Italy. +Galileo (1564-1641) was a native of Pisa, and professor of mathematics in +the university of that city. Being obliged to leave it on account of +scientific opinions, at that time at variance with universally received +principles, he removed to the university of Padua, where for eighteen +years he enjoyed the high consideration of his countrymen. He returned to +Pisa, and at the age of seventy was summoned to Rome by the Inquisition, +and required to renounce his doctrines relative to the Copernican system, +of which he was a zealous defender, and his life was spared only on +condition of his abjuring his opinions. It is said that on rising from his +knees, after making the abjuration of his belief that the earth moved +round the sun, he stamped his foot on the floor and said, "It does move, +though." To Galileo science is indebted for the discovery of the laws of +weight, the scientific construction of the system of Copernicus, the +pendulum, the improvement of many scientific instruments, the invention of +the hydrostatic balance, the thermometer, proportional compasses, and, +above all, the telescope. He discovered the satellites of Jupiter, the +phases of Venus, the mountains of the moon, the spots and the rotation of +the sun. Science, which had consisted for centuries only of scholastic +subtleties and barren dialectics, he established on an experimental basis. +In his works he unites delicacy and purity with vivacity of style. + +Among the scholars of Galileo, who most efficaciously contributed to the +progress of science, may be mentioned Torricelli (1608-1647), the inventor +of the barometer, an elegant and profound writer; Borelli (1608-1679), the +founder of animal mechanics, or the science of the movements of animals, +distinguished for his works on astronomy, mathematics, anatomy, and +natural philosophy; Cassini (1625-1712), a celebrated astronomer, to whom +France is indebted for its meridian; Cavalieri (1598-1648), distinguished +for his works on geometry, which paved the way to the discovery of the +infinitesimal calculus. + +In the scientific department of the earlier part of this period may also +be mentioned Tartaglia (d. 1657) and Cardano (1501-1576), celebrated for +their researches on algebra and geometry; Vignola (1507-1573) and Palladio +(1518-1580), whose works on architecture are still held in high +estimation, as well as the work of Marchi (fl. 1550) on military +construction. Later, Redi (1626-1697) distinguished himself as a natural +philosopher, a physician and elegant writer, both in prose and verse, and +Malpighi (1628-1694) and Bellini (1643-1704) were anatomists of high +repute. Scamozzi (1550-1616) emulated the glory formerly won by Palladio +in architecture, and Montecuccoli (1608-1681), a great general of the age, +ably illustrated the art of strategy. + +The sixteenth century abounds in philosophers who, abandoning the +doctrines of Plato, which had been in great favor in the fifteenth, +adopted those of Aristotle. Some, however, dared to throw off the yoke of +philosophical authority, and to walk in new paths of speculation. Patrizi +(1529-1597) was one of the first who undertook to examine for himself the +phenomena of nature, and to attack the authority of Aristotle. Telesio +(1509-1588), a friend of Patrizi, joined him in the work of overthrowing +the Peripatetic idols; but neither of them dared to renounce entirely the +authority of antiquity. The glory of having claimed absolute freedom in +philosophical speculation belongs to Cardano, already mentioned, to +Campanella (1568-1639), who for the boldness of his opinions was put to +the torture and spent thirty years in prison, and to Giordano Bruno (1550- +1600), a sublime thinker and a bold champion of freedom, who was burned at +the stake. + +Among the moral philosophers of this age may be mentioned Speroni, whose +writings are distinguished by harmony, freedom, and eloquence of style; +Tasso, whose dialogues unite loftiness of thought with elegance of style; +Castiglione (1468-1529), whose "Cortigiano" is in equal estimation as a +manual of elegance of manners and as a model of pure Italian; and Della +Casa, whose "Galateo" is a complete system of politeness, couched in +elegant language, and a work to which Lord Chesterfield was much indebted. + +Political science had its greatest representative in Machiavelli, who +wrote on it with that profound knowledge of the human heart which he had +acquired in public life, and with the habit of unweaving, in all its +intricacies, the political perfidy which then prevailed in Italy. The +"Prince" is the best known of his political works, and from the infamous +principles which he has here developed, though probably with good +intentions, his name is allied with everything false and perfidious in +politics. The object of the treatise is to show how a new prince may +establish and consolidate his power, and how the Medici might not only +confirm their authority in Florence, but extend it over the whole of the +Peninsula. At the time that Machiavelli wrote, Italy had been for +centuries a theatre where might was the only right. He was not a man given +to illusive fancies, and throughout a long political career nothing had +been permitted to escape his keen and penetrating eye. In all the affairs +in which he had taken part he had seen that success was the only thing +studied, and therefore to succeed in an enterprise, by whatever means, had +become the fundamental idea of his political theory. His Prince reduced to +a science the art, long before known and practiced by kings and tyrants, +of attaining absolute power by deception and cruelty, and of maintaining +it afterwards by the dissimulation of leniency and virtue. It does not +appear that any exception was at first taken to the doctrines which have +since called forth such severe reprehension, and from the moment of its +appearance the Prince became a favorite at every court. But soon after the +death of Machiavelli a violent outcry was raised against him, and although +it was first heard with amazement, it soon became general, The Prince was +laid under the ban of several successive popes, and the name of +Machiavelli passed into a proverb of infamy. His bones lay undistinguished +for nearly two centuries, when a monument was erected to his memory in the +church of Santa Croce, through the influence of an English nobleman. + +12. PERIOD OF DECADENCE.--The sixteenth century reaped the fruits that had +been sown in the fifteenth, but it scattered no seeds for a harvest in the +seventeenth, which was therefore doomed to general sterility. In the +reigns of Charles V. and Philip II. the chains of civil and religious +despotism were forged which subdued the intellect and arrested the genius +of the people. The Spanish viceroys ruled with an iron hand over Milan, +Naples, Sicily, and Sardinia. Poverty and superstition wasted and darkened +the minds of the people, and indolence and love of pleasure introduced +almost universal degeneracy. But the Spanish yoke, which weighed so +heavily at both extremities of the Peninsula, did not extend to the +republic of Venice, or to the duchy of Tuscany; and the heroic character +of the princes of Savoy alone would have served to throw a lustre over +this otherwise darkened period. In literature, too, there were a few who +resisted the torrent of bad taste, amidst many who opened the way for a +crowd of followers in the false route, and gave to the age that character +of extravagance for which it is so peculiarly distinguished. + +The literary works of the seventeenth century may be divided into three +classes, the first of which, under the guidance of Marini, attained the +lowest degree of corruption, and remain in the annals of literature as +monuments of bombastic style and bad taste. The second embraces those +writers who were aware of the faults of the school to which they belonged, +and who, aiming to bring about a reform in literature, while they +endeavored to follow a better style, partook more or less of the character +of the age. To this class may be referred Chiabrera already named, and +more particularly Filicaja and other poets of the same school. The third +class is composed of a few writers who preserved themselves faithful to +the principles of true taste, and among them are Menzini, Salvator Rosa, +Redi, and more particularly Tassoni. + +13. EPIC AND LYRIC POETRY.--Marini (1569-1625), the celebrated innovator +on classic Italian taste, is considered as the first who seduced the poets +of the seventeenth century into a labored and affected style. He was born +at Naples and educated for the legal profession, for which he had little +taste, and on publishing a volume of poems, his indignant father turned +him out of doors. But his popular qualities never left him without +friends. He was invited to the Court of France, obtained the favor of Mary +de' Medici, and the situation of gentleman to the king. He became +exceedingly popular among the French nobility, many of whom learned +Italian for the sole purpose of reading his works. It was here that he +published the most celebrated of his poems, entitled "Adonis." He +afterwards purchased a beautiful villa near Naples, to which he retired, +and where he soon after died. The Adonis of Marini is a mixture of the +epic and the romantic style, the subject being taken from the well-known +story of Venus and Adonis. He renounced all keeping and probability, both +in his incidents and descriptions; if he could present a series of +enchanted pictures, he was little solicitous as to the manner of their +arrangement. But the work has much beauty and imagination, and is often +animated by the true spirit of poetry. Its principal faults are that it is +sadly wire-drawn, and abounds in puns, endless antitheses, and inventions +for surprising or bewildering the reader; graces which were greatly +admired by the contemporaries of the poet. Marini was a voluminous writer, +and was not only extolled in his own country above its classic authors, +and in France, but the Spaniards held him in the highest esteem, and +imitated and even surpassed him in his own eccentric career. He had also +innumerable imitators in Italy, many of whom attained a high reputation +during their lives, and afterwards sank into complete oblivion. + +Filicaja (1642-1709) stands at the head of the lyric poets of the +seventeenth century. His inspiration seems first to have been awakened +when Vienna was besieged by the Turks in 1683, and gallantly defended by +the Christian powers. His verses on this occasion awoke the most +enthusiastic admiration, and called forth the eulogies of princes and +poets. The admiration which he excited in his day is scarcely to be +wondered at; for, though this judgment has not been ratified by posterity, +Filicaja has at least the merit of having raised the poetry of Italy from +the abject service of mere amorous imbecility to the noble office of +embodying the more manly and virtuous sentiments; and though his style is +infected with the bombastic spirit of the age, it is even in this respect +singularly moderate, compared with that of his contemporaries. + +14. MOCK-HEROIC POETRY, THE DRAMA, AND SATIRE.--The full maturity of the +style of mock-heroic poetry is due to Tassoni (1565-1635). He first +attracted public notice by disputing the authority of Aristotle, and the +poetical merits of Petrarch. In 1622 he published his "Rape of the +Bucket," a burlesque poem on the petty wars which were so common between +the towns of Italy in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. The heroes +of Modena had, in 1325, discomfited the Bolognese, and pursued them to the +very heart of their city, whence they carried off, as a trophy of their +victory, the bucket belonging to the public well. The expedition +undertaken by the Bolognese for its recovery forms the basis of the twelve +mock-heroic cantos of Tassoni. To understand this poem requires a +knowledge of the vulgarisms and idioms which are frequently introduced in +it. + +About the same period, Bracciolini (1566-1645) produced another comic- +heroic poem, entitled the "Ridicule of the Gods," in which the ancient +deities are introduced as mingling with the peasants, and declaiming in +the low, vulgar dialect, and making themselves most agreeably ridiculous. +Somewhat later appeared one more example of the same species of epic, "The +Malmantile," by Lippi (1606-1664). This poem is considered a pure model of +the dialect of the Florentines, which is so graceful and harmonious even +in its homeliness. + +The seventeenth century was remarkable for the prodigious number of its +dramatic authors, but few of them equaled and none excelled those of the +preceding age. The opera, or melodrama, which had arisen out of the +pastoral, seemed to monopolize whatever talent was at the disposal of the +stage, and branches formerly cultivated sank below mediocrity. Amid the +crowd of theatrical corrupters, the name of Andreini (1564-1652) deserves +peculiar mention, not from any claim to exemption from the general +censure, but because his comedy of "Adam" is believed to have been the +foundation of Milton's "Paradise Lost." Andreini was but one of the common +throng of dramatic writers, and it has been fiercely contended by some, +that it is impossible that the idea of so sublime a poem should have been +taken from so ordinary a composition as his Adam. His piece was +represented at Milan as early as 1613, and so has at least a claim of +priority, + +Menzini (1646-1708) and Salvator Rosa (1615-1675) were the representatives +of the satire of this century; the former distinguished for the purity of +his language and the harmony of his verse; the latter for his vivacity and +sprightliness. + +15. HISTORY AND EPISTOLARY WRITINGS.--The number of historical works in +this century is much greater than in that of the preceding, but they are +generally far from possessing the same merit or commanding the same +interest. The historians seem to have lost all feeling of national +dignity; they do not venture to unveil the causes of public events, or to +indicate their results. Even those that dared treat of Italy or its +provinces, confined themselves to the reigning dynasties, and overlooking +the causes which most deeply affected the happiness of the people, +described only the festivities, battles, and triumphs of their princes. A +large number of historians chose foreign subjects; the history of France +was remarkable for the number of Italians who endeavored to relate it in +this age. The work of Davila (1576-1630) on "The Civil Wars of France," +however, throws all the rest into the shade. What gives to it peculiar +value is the carefulness with which the materials were collected, in +connection with the opportunities its author enjoyed for gaining +information. This history is considered as superior to that of +Guicciardini in its matter, as the latter excels it in style. It is +wanting in that elegance which characterized the Florentine historians of +the sixteenth century. Bentivoglio (1579-1644) was an eminent rival of +Davila; he wrote the history of the civil wars of Flanders; a work +remarkable for the elegance and correctness of its style. Above all stand +the works of Sarpi, who lived between 1552 and 1623, and who defended with +great courage the authority of the Senate of Venice against the power of +the Popes, notwithstanding their excommunication and continued +persecution. His history of the Council of Trent contains a curious +account of the intrigues of the Court of Rome at the period of the +Reformation. + +It was chiefly in the more showy departments of literature that the +extravagance of the Marinists was most conspicuous, and the decay of +native genius was most apparent. But this genius had turned into other +paths, which it pursued with a steady, though less brilliant course. Of +all branches of prose composition, the epistolary was the most carefully +cultivated. The talent for letter-writing was often the means of +considerable emolument, as all the petty princes of Italy and the +cardinals of Rome were ambitious of having secretaries who would give them +_éclat_ in their correspondence, and these situations, which were steps to +higher preferment, were eagerly sought; hence the prodigious number of +collections of letters which have at all times inundated Italy--specimens +by which those who believed themselves elegant writers endeavored to make +known their talent. The letters of Bentivoglio have obtained European +celebrity. They are distinguished for elegance of style as well as for the +interest of those historical recollections which they transmit; they are +considered superior to his history. But of all the letters of this or of +the preceding age, none are more rich, more varied, or more pleasing than +those of Redi, who threw into this form his discoveries in natural +history. The driest subjects, even those of language and grammar, are here +treated in an interesting and agreeable manner. + + +PERIOD THIRD. + +THE SECOND REVIVAL OF ITALIAN LITERATURE, AND ITS PRESENT CONDITION +(1675-1885). + +1. HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENT OF THE THIRD PERIOD.--At the close of the +seventeenth century, a new dawn arose in the history of Italian letters, +and the general corruption which had extended to every branch of +literature and paralyzed the Italian mind began to be arrested by the +appearance of writers of better taste; the affectations of the Marinists +and of the so-called Arcadian poets were banished from literature; science +was elevated and its dominion extended, the melodrama, comedy, and tragedy +recreated, and a new spirit infused into every branch of composition. +Amidst the clash of arms and the vicissitudes of long and bloody wars, +Italy began to awake from her lethargy to the aspiration for greater and +better things, and her intellectual condition soon underwent important +changes and improvements. In the eighteenth century, in Naples, Vico +transformed history into a new science. Filangeri contended with +Montesquieu for the palm of legislative philosophy; and new light was +thrown on criminal science by Mario Pagano. In Rome, letters and science +flourished under the patronage of Benedict XIV., Clement XIV., and Pius +VI., under whose auspices Quirico Visconti undertook his "Pio Clementine +Museum" and his "Greek and Roman Iconography," the two greatest +archaeological works of all ages. Padua was immortalized by the works of +Cesarotti, Belzoni, and Stratico; Venice by Goldoni; Verona by Maffei, the +critic and the antiquarian, as well as the first reformer of Italian +tragedy. Tuscany took the lead of the intellectual movement of the country +under Leopold and his successor Ferdinand, when Florence, Pisa, and Siena +again became seats of learning and of poetry and the arts. Maria Theresa +and Joseph II. fostered the intellectual progress of Lombardy; Spallanzani +published his researches on natural philosophy; Volta discovered the pile +which bears his name; a new era in poetry was created by Parinl; another +in criminal jurisprudence by Beccaria; history was reconstructed by +Muratori; mathematics promoted by Lagrange, and astronomy by Oriani; and +Alfieri restored Italian letters to their primitive splendor. + +But at the close of the eighteenth century and the beginning of the +nineteenth, Italy became the theatre of political and military +revolutions, whose influence could not fail to arrest the development of +the literature of the country. The galleries, museums, and libraries of +Rome, Florence, and other cities suffered from the military occupation, +and many of their treasures, manuscripts, and masterpieces of art were +carried to Paris by command of Napoleon. The entire peninsula was subject +to French influence, which, though beneficial to its material progress, +could not fail to be detrimental to national literature. All new works +were composed in French, and indifferent or bad translations from the +French were widely circulated; the French language was substituted for the +Italian, and the national literature seemed about to disappear. But +Italian genius was not wholly extinguished; a few writers powerfully +opposed this new tendency, and preserved in its purity the language of +Dante and Petrarch. Gradually the national spirit revived, and literature +was again moulded in accordance with the national character. +Notwithstanding the political calamities of which, for some time after the +treaty of Vienna in 1815, Italy was continually the victim, the literature +of the country awakened and fostered a sentiment of nationality, and +Italian independence is at this present moment already achieved. + +2. THE MELODRAMA.--The first result of the revival of letters at the close +of the seventeenth century was the reform of the theatre. The melodrama, +or Italian opera, arose out of the pastoral drama, which it superseded. +The astonishing progress of musical science succeeded that of poetry and +sculpture, which fell into decline with the decay of literature. Music, +rising into excellence and importance at a time when poetry was on the +decline, acquired such superiority that verse, instead of being its +mistress, became its handmaid. The first occasion of this inversion was in +the year 1594, when Rinuccini, a Florentine poet, associated himself with +three musicians to compose a mythological drama. This and several other +pieces by the same author met with a brilliant reception. Poetry, written +only in order to be sung, thus assumed a different character; Rinuiccini +abandoned the form of the canzone which had hitherto been used in the +lyrical part of the drama, and adopted the Pindaric ode. Many poets +followed in the same path; more action was given to the dramatic parts, +and greater variety to the music, in which the airs were agreeably blended +with the recitative duets; other harmonized pieces were also added, and +after the lapse of a century Apostolo Zeno (1669-1750) still further +improved the melodrama. But it was the spirit of Metastasio that breathed +a soul of fire into this ingenious and happy form created by others. + +Metastasio (1698-1782) gave early indications of genius, and when only ten +years of age used to collect an audience in his father's shop, by his +talent for improvisation. He thus attracted the notice of Gravina, a +celebrated patron of letters, who adopted him as his son, changed his +somewhat ignoble name of Trepassi to Metastasio, and had him educated in +every branch necessary for a literary career. He still continued to +improvise verses on any given subject for the amusement of company. His +youth, his harmonious voice, and prepossessing appearance, added greatly +to the charm of his talent. It was one generally cultivated in Italy at +this time, and men of mature years often presented themselves as rivals of +the hoy. This occupation becoming injurious to the youth, Gravina forbade +him to compose extempore verses any more, and this rule, imposed on him at +sixteen, he never afterwards infringed. When Metastasio was in his +twentieth year Gravina died, leaving to him his fortune, most of which he +squandered in two years. He afterwards went to Naples, where, under a +severe master, he devoted himself to the closest study and for two years +resisted every solicitation to compose verses. At length, under promise of +secrecy, he wrote a drama. All Naples resounded with its praise, and the +author was soon discovered. Metastasio from this time followed the career +for which nature seemed to have formed him, and devoted himself to the +opera, which he considered to be the natural drama of Italy. An invitation +to become the court poet of Vienna made his future life both stable and +prosperous. On the death of Charles VI., in 1740, several other European +sovereigns made advantageous overtures to the poet, but as Maria Theresa +was disposed to retain him, he would not leave her in her adverse +circumstances. The remainder of his life he passed in Germany, and his +latter years were as monotonous as they were prosperous. + +Metastasio seized with a daring hand the true spirit of the melodrama, and +scorning to confine himself to unity of place, opened a wide field for the +display of theatrical variety, on which the charm of the opera so much +depends. The language in which he clothed the favorite passion of his +drama exhibits all that is delicate and yet ardent, and he develops the +most elevated sentiments of loyalty, patriotism, and filial love. The flow +of his verse in the recitative is the most pure and harmonious known in +any language, and the strophes at the close of each scene are scarcely +surpassed by the first masters in lyric poetry. Metastasio is one of the +most pleasing, at the same time one of the least difficult of the Italian +poets, and the tyro in the study of Italian classics may begin with his +works, and at once enjoy the pleasures of poetic harmony at their highest +source. + +3. COMEDY.--The revolution, so frequently attempted in Italian comedy by +men whose genius was unequal to the task, was reserved for Goldoni (1707- +1772) to accomplish. His life, written by himself, presents a picture of +Italian manners in their gayest colors. He was a native of Venice, and +from his early youth was constantly surrounded by theatrical people. At +eight years of age he composed a comedy, and at fourteen he ran away from +school with a company of strolling players. He afterwards prepared for the +medical, then for the legal profession, and finally, at the age of twenty- +seven, he was installed poet to a company of players. He now attempted to +introduce the reforms that he had long meditated; he attained a purer +style, and became a censor of the manners and a satirist of the follies of +his country. His dialogue is extremely animated, earnest, and full of +meaning; with a thorough knowledge of national manners, he possessed the +rare faculty of representing them in the most life-like manner on the +stage. The language used by the inferior characters of his comedies is the +Venetian dialect. + +In his latter days Goldoni was rivaled by Carlo Gozzi (1722-1806), who +parodied his pieces, and, it is thought, was the cause of his retirement, +in the decline of life, to Paris. Gozzi introduced a new style of comedy, +by reviving the familiar fictions of childhood; he selected and dramatized +the most brilliant fairy tales, such as "Blue Beard," "The King of the +Genii," etc., and gave them to the public with magnificent decorations and +surprising machinery. If his comedies display little resemblance to +nature, they at least preserve the kind of probability which is looked for +in a fairy tale. Many years elapsed after Goldoni and Gozzi disappeared +from the arena before there was any successor to rival their compositions. + +Among those who contributed to the perfection of Italian comedy may be +mentioned Albergati (fl. 1774), Gherardo de' Rossi (1754-1827), and above +all, Nota (d. 1847), who is preeminent among the new race of comic +authors; although somewhat cold and didactic, he at least fulfils the +important office of holding the mirror up to nature. He exhibits a +faithful picture of Italian society, and applies the scourge of satire to +its most prevalent faults and follies. + +4. TRAGEDY.--The reform of Italian tragedy was early attempted by Martelli +(d. 1727) and by Scipione Maffei (1675-1755). But Martelli was only a tame +imitator of French models, while Maffei, possessing real talent and +feeling, deserved the extended reputation he acquired. His "Merope" is +considered as the last and the best specimen of the elder school of +Italian tragedy. + +The honor of raising tragedy to its highest standard was reserved for +Alfieri (1749-1803), whose remarkable personal character exercised a +powerful influence over his works. He was possessed of an impetuosity +which continually urged him towards some indefinite object, a craving for +something more free in politics, more elevated in character, more ardent +in love, and more perfect in friendship; of desires for a better state of +things, which drove him from one extremity of Europe to another, but +without discovering it in the realities of this everyday world. Finally, +he turned to the contemplation of a new universe in his own poetical +creations, and calmed his agitations by the production of those master- +pieces which have secured his immortality. His aim in life, in the pursuit +of which he never deviated, was that of founding a new and classic school +of tragedy. He proposed to himself the severe simplicity of the Greeks +with respect to the plot, while he rejected the pomp of poetry which +compensates for interest among the classic writers of antiquity. Energy +and conciseness are the distinguishing features of his style; and this, in +his earlier dramas, is carried to the extreme. He brings the whole action +into one focus; the passion he would exhibit is introduced into the first +verse and kept in view to the last. No event, no character, no +conversation unconnected with the advancement of the plot is permitted to +appear; all confidants and secondary personages are, therefore, excluded, +and there seldom appear more than four interlocutors. These tragedies +breathe the spirit of patriotism and freedom, and for this, even +independently of their intrinsic merit, Alfieri is considered as the +reviver of the national character in modern times, as Dante was in the +fourteenth century. "Saul" is regarded as his masterpiece; it represents a +noble character suffering under those weaknesses which sometimes accompany +great virtues, and are governed by the fatality, not of destiny, but of +human nature. + +Among the earliest and most distinguished of those who followed in the +path of Alfieri was Monti (1754-1828). Though endowed with a sublime +imagination and exquisite taste, his character was weak and vain, and he, +in turn, celebrated every party as it became the successful one. Educated +in the school of Dante, he introduced into Italian poetry those bold and +severe beauties which adorned its infancy. His "Aristodemus" is one of the +most affecting tragedies in Italian literature. The story is founded on +the narrative of Pausanias. It is simple in its construction, and its +interest is confined almost entirely to the principal personage. In the +loftiness of the characters of his tragedies, and the energy of sentiment +and simplicity of action which characterize them, we recognize the school +of Alfieri, while in harmony and elegance of style and poetical language, +Monti is superior. + +Another follower of the school of Alfieri is Ugo Foscolo (1778-1827), one +of the greatest writers of this age, in whom inspiration was derived from +a lofty patriotism. At the time of the French revolution he joined the +Italian army, with the object of restoring independence to his country. +Disappointed in this hope, he left Italy for England, where he +distinguished himself by his writings. The best of his tragedies, +"Ricciarda," is founded on events supposed to have occurred in the Middle +Ages. While some of its scenes and situations are forced and unnatural, +some of the acts are wrought with consummate skill and effect, and the +conception of the characters is tragic and original. Foscolo adopts in his +tragedies a concise and pregnant style, and displays great mastery over +his native language. Marenco (d. 1846) is distinguished for the noble and +moral ideas, lofty images, and affections of his tragedies; but he lacks +unity of design and vigor of style. Silvio Pellico (1789-1854) was born in +Piedmont. As a writer he is best known as the author of "My Prisons," a +narrative full of simplicity and resignation, in which he relates his +sufferings during ten years in the fortress of Spielberg. His tragedies +are good specimens of modern art; they abound in fine thoughts and tender +affections, but they lack that liveliness of dialogue and rapidity of +action which give reality to the situations, and that knowledge of the +human heart and unity and grandeur of conception which are the +characteristics of true genius. + +Manzoni (1785-1873) and Nicolini (1782-1861) are the last of the modern +representatives of the tragic drama of Italy. The tragedies of Manzoni, +and especially his "Conte di Carmagnola," and "Adelchi," abound in +exquisite beauties. His style is simple and noble, his verse easy and +harmonious, and his object elevated. The merits of these tragedies, +however, belong rather to parts, and while the reading of them is always +interesting, on the stage they fail to awaken the interest of the +audience. After Manzoni, Nicolini was the most popular literary man of +Italy of his time. Lofty ideas, generous passions, splendor and harmony of +poetry, purity of language, variety of characters, and warmth of +patriotism, constitute the merit of his tragedies; while his faults +consist in a style somewhat too exuberant and lyrical, in ideas sometimes +too vague, and characters often too ideal. + +5. LYRIC, EPIC, AND DIDACTIC POETRY.--In the latter part of the eighteenth +century, a class of poets who called themselves "The Arcadians" attempted +to overthrow the artificial and bombastic school of Marini; but their +frivolous and insipid productions had little effect on the literature. The +first poets who gave a new impulse to letters were Parini and Monti. +Parini (1729-1799) was a man of great genius, integrity, and taste; he +contributed more than any other writer of his age to the progress of +literature and the arts. His lyrical poems abound in noble thoughts, and +breathe a pure patriotism and high morality. His style is forcible, +chaste, and harmonious. The poems of Monti have much of the fire and +elevation of Pindar. Whatever object employs his thoughts, his eyes +immediately behold; and, as it stands before him, a flexible and +harmonious language is ever at his command to paint it in the brightest +colors. His "Basvilliana" is the most celebrated of his lyric poems, and, +beyond every other, is remarkable for majesty, nobleness of expression, +and richness of coloring. + +The poetical writings of Pindemonte (1753-1828) are stamped with the +melancholy of his character. Their subjects are taken from contemporary +events, and his inspiration is drawn from nature and rural life. His +"Sepulchres" breathes the sweetest and most pathetic tenderness, and the +brightest hopes of immorality. The poems of Foscolo have the grace and +elegance of the Greek poets; but in his "Sepulchres" the gloom of his +melancholy imagination throws a funereal light over the nothingness of all +things, and the silence of death is unbroken by any voice of hope in a +future life. Torti (1774-1852), a pupil of Parini, rivaled his master in +the simplicity of style and purity of his images; while Leopardi (1798- +1837) impressed upon his lyric poems the peculiarities of his own +character. A sublime poet and a profound scholar, his muse was inspired by +a deep sorrow, and his poems pour out a melancholy that is terrible and +grand, the most agonizing cry in modern literature uttered with a solemn +quietness that elevates and terrifies. The poetry of despair has never had +a more powerful voice than his. He is not only the first poet since Dante, +but perhaps the most perfect prose writer. Berchet (1790-1851) is +considered as the Italian Béranger, and his songs glow with patriotic +fire. Those of Silvio Pellico, always sweet and truthful, bear the stamp +of a calm resignation, hope, and piety. The list of modern lyric poets +closes with Manzoni, whose hymns are models of this style of poetry. + +In the epic department the third period does not afford any poems of a +high order. But the translation of the Iliad by Monti, that of the Odyssey +by Pindemonte, for their purity of language and beauty of style, may be +considered as epic additions to Italian literature. "The Longobards of the +First Crusade," written by Grossi (1791-1853), excels in beauty and +splendor of poetry all the epic poems of this age, though it lacks unity +of design and comprehensiveness of thought. + +Among the didactic poems may be mentioned the "Invitation of Lesbia," by +Mascheroni (1750-1800), a distinguished poet as well as a celebrated +mathematician. This poem, which describes the beautiful productions of +nature in the Museum of Pavia, is considered a masterpiece of didactic +poetry. The "Riseide," or cultivation of rice, by Spolverini (1695-1762), +and the "Silkworm," by Betti (1732-1788), are characterized by poetical +beauties. The poem on the "Immortality of the Soul," by Filorentino (1742- +1815), though defective in style, is distinguished by its elevation of +ideas and sentiments. "The Cultivation of Mountains," by Lorenzi (1732- +1822), is rich in beautiful images and thoughts. "The Cultivation of Olive +Trees," by Arici (1782-1836), his "Corals," and other poems, especially in +their descriptions, are graceful and attractive. "The Seasons" of Barbieri +(1774-1852), though bearing marks of imitation from Pope, is written in a +pure and elegant style. + +6. HEROIC-COMIC POETRY, SATIRE, AND FABLE.--The period of heroic-comic +poetry closes in the eighteenth century. The "Ricciardetto" of Fortiguerri +(1674-1735) is the last of the poems of chivalry, and with it terminated +the long series of romances founded on the adventures of Charlemagne and +his paladins. The "Cicero" of Passeroni (1713-1803) is a rambling +composition in a style similar to Sterne's "Tristram Shandy," which, it +appears, was suggested by this work. + +Satiric poetry, which had flourished in the preceding period, was enriched +by new productions in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. G. Gozzi +(1713-1789) attacked in his satires the vices and prejudices of his +fellow-citizens, in a forcible and elegant style; and Parini, the great +satirist of the eighteenth century, founded a school of satire, which +proved most beneficial to the country. His poem, "The Day," is +distinguished by fine irony and by the severity with which he attacks the +effeminate habits of his age. He lashes the affectations and vices of the +Milanese aristocracy with a sarcasm worthy of Juvenal. The satires of +D'Elei, Guadagnali, and others are characterized by wit and beauty of +versification. Those of Leopardi are bitter and contemptuous, while Giusti +(1809-1850), the political satirist of his age, scourged the petty tyrants +of his country with biting severity and pungent wit; the circulation of +his satires throughout Italy, in defiance of its despotic governments, +greatly contributed to the revolution of 1848. + +In the department of fable may be mentioned Roberti (1719-1786), +Passeroni, Pignotti (1739-1812), and Clasio (1754-1825), distinguished for +invention, purity, and simplicity of style. + +7. ROMANCES.--Though the tales of Boccaccio and the story tellers of the +sixteenth century paved the way to the romances of the present time, it +was only at a late period that the Italians gave their attention to this +kind of composition. In the eighteenth century we find only two specimens +of romance, "The Congress of Citera," by Algarotti, of which Voltaire said +that it was written with a feather drawn from the wings of love; and the +"Roman Nights," by Alexander Verri (1741-1816). In his romance he +introduces the shades of celebrated Romans, particularly of Cicero, and an +ingenious comparison of ancient and modern institutions is made. The style +is picturesque and poetical, though somewhat florid. + +This kind of composition has found more favor in the nineteenth century. +First among the writers of this age is Manzoni, whose "Betrothed" is a +model of romantic literature. The variety, originality, and truthfulness +of the characters, the perfect knowledge of the human heart it displays, +the simplicity and vivacity of its style, form the principal merits of +this work. The "Marco Visconti" of Grossi is distinguished for its pathos +and for the purity and elegance of its style. + +The "Ettore Fieramosca" of Massimo d'Azeglio is distinguished from the +works already spoken of by its martial and national spirit. His "Nicolò de +Lapi," though full of beauties, partakes in some degree of the faults +common to the French school. After these, the "Margherita Pusterla" of +Cantil, the "Luisa Strozzi" of Rosini, the "Lamberto Malatesta" of Rovani, +the "Angiola Maria" of Carcano, are the best historical romances of +Italian literature. Both in an artistic and moral point of view, they far +excel those of Guerrazzi, which represent the French school of George Sand +in Italy, and whose "Battle of Benevento," "Isabella Orsini," "Siege of +Florence," and "Beatrice Cenci," while they are written in pure language +and abound in minor beauties, are exaggerated in their characters, +bombastic and declamatory in style, and overloaded in description. + +The "Last Letters of Jacopo Ortis," by Foscolo, belongs to that kind of +romance which is called sentimental. Overcome by the calamities of his +country, with his soul full of fiery passion and sad disappointment, +Foscolo wrote this romance, the protest of his heart against evils which +he could not heal. + +8. HISTORY.--Among the most prominent of the numerous historians of this +period, a few only can be named. Muratori (1672-1750), for his vast +erudition and profound criticism, has no rivals. He made the most accurate +and extensive researches and discoveries relating to the history of Italy +from the fifth to the sixteenth century, which he published in twenty- +seven folio volumes; the most valuable collection of historical documents +which ever appeared in Italy. He wrote, also, a work on "Italian +Antiquities," illustrating the history of the Middle Ages through ancient +monuments, and the "Annals of Italy," a history of the country from the +beginning of the Christian era to his own age. Though its style is +somewhat defective, the richness and abundance of its erudition, its +clearness, and arrangement, impart to this work great value and interest. + +Maffei, already spoken of as the first reformer of Italian tragedy, +surpassed Muratori in the purity of his style, and was only second to him +in the extent and variety of his erudition. He wrote several works on the +antiquities and monuments of Italy. + +Bianchini (1662-1729), a celebrated architect and scholar, wrote a +"Universal History," which, though not complete, is characterized as a +work of great genius. It is founded exclusively on the interpretations of +ancient monuments in marble and metal. + +Vico (1670-1744), the founder of the philosophy of history, embraced with +his comprehensive mind the history of all nations, and from the darkness +of centuries he created the science of humanity, which he called "Scienza +Nuova." Vico does not propose to illustrate any special historical epoch, +but follows the general movement of mankind in the most remote and obscure +times, and establishes the rules which must guide us in interpreting +ancient historians. By gathering from different epochs, remote from each +other, the songs, symbols, monuments, laws, etymologies, and religious and +philosophical doctrines,--in a word, the infinite elements which form the +life of mankind,--he establishes the unity of human history. The "Scienza +Nuova" is one of the great monuments of human genius, and it has inspired +many works on the philosophy of history, especially among the Germans, +such as those of Hegel, Niebuhr, and others. + +Giannone (1676-1748) is the author of a "Civil History of the Kingdom of +Naples," a work full of juridical science as well as of historical +interest. Having attacked with much violence the encroachments of the +Church of Rome on the rights of the state, he became the victim of a +persecution which ended in his death in the fortress of Turin. Giannone, +in his history, gave the first example in modern times of that intrepidity +and courage which belong to the true historian. + +Botta (1766-1837) is among the first historians of the present age. He was +a physician and a scholar, and devoted to the freedom of his country. He +filled important political offices in Piedmont, under the administration +of the French government. In 1809 he published, in Paris, his "History of +the American Revolution," a work held in high estimation both in this +country and in Italy. In the political changes which followed the fall of +Napoleon, Botta suffered many pecuniary trials, and was even obliged to +sell, by weight, to a druggist, the entire edition of his history, in +order to pay for medicines for his sick wife. Meanwhile, he wrote a +history of Italy, from 1789 to 1814, which was received with great +enthusiasm through Italy, and for which the Academy della Crusca, in 1830, +granted to him a pecuniary reward. This was followed by the "History of +Italy," in continuation of Guicciardini, from the fall of the Florentine +Republic to 1789, a gigantic work, with which he closed his historical +career. The histories of Botta are distinguished by clearness of +narrative, vividness and beauty of description, by the prominence he gives +to the moral aspect of events and characters, and by purity, richness, and +variety of style. + +Colletta (1775-1831) was born in Naples; under the government of Murat he +rose to the rank of general, and fell with his patron. His "History of the +Kingdom of Naples," from 1734 to 1825, is modeled after the annals of +Tacitus. The style is simple, clear, and concise, the subject is treated +without digressions or episodes; it is conceived in a partial spirit, and +is a eulogium of the administration of Joachim; but no writer can rival +Colletta in his descriptions of strategic movements, of sieges and +battles. + +Balbo (1789-1853) was born in Turin; during the administration of Napoleon +he filled many important political offices, and afterwards entered upon a +military career. Devoted to the freedom of his country, he strove to +promote the progress of Italian independence. In 1847 he published the +"Hopes of Italy," the first political work that had appeared in the +peninsula since the restoration of 1814; it was the spark which kindled +the movements of 1848. In the events of that and of the succeeding year, +he ranked among the most prominent leaders of the national party. His +historical works are a "Life of Dante," considered the best on the +subject; "Historical Contemplations," in which he developed the history of +mankind from a philosophical point of view; and "The Compendium of the +History of Italy," which embraces in a synthetic form all the history of +the country from the earliest times to 1814. His style is pure, clear, and +sometimes eloquent, though often concise and abrupt. + +Cantù, a living historian, has written a universal history, in which he +attempts the philosophical style. Though vivid in his narratives, +descriptions, and details, he is often incorrect in Ms statements, and +rash in his judgments; his work, though professing liberal views, is +essentially conservative in its tendency. The same faults may be +discovered in his more recent "History of the Italians." + +Tiraboschi (1731-1794) is the great historian of Italian literature; his +work is biographical and critical, and is the most extensive literary +history of Italy. His style is simple and elegant, and his criticism +profound; but he gives greater prominence to the biographies of writers +than to the consideration of their works. This history was continued by +Corniani (1742-1813), and afterwards by Ugoni (1784-1855). + +9. AESTHETICS, CRITICISM, PHILOLOGY, AND PHILOSOPHY.--Italian literature +is comparatively deficient in aesthetics, the science of the beautiful. +The treatise of Gioberti on the "Beautiful," the last work which has +appeared on this subject, is distinguished for its profound doctrines and +brilliant style. Philology and criticism first began to flourish at the +close of the seventeenth century, and are well represented at the present +time. The revival of letters was greatly promoted by the criticism of +Gravina (1664-1718), one of the most celebrated jurisconsults and scholars +of his age, who, through his work, "The Poetical Reason," greatly +contributed to the reform of taste. Zeno, Maffei, and Muratori also +distinguished themselves in the art of criticism, and by their works aided +in overthrowing the school of Marini. At a later date, Gaspar Gozzi, +through his "Observer," a periodical publication modeled after the +"Spectator" of Addison, undertook to correct the literary taste of the +country; for its invention, pungent wit, and satire, and the purity and +correctness of its style, it is considered one of the best compositions of +this kind. Baretti (1716-1789) propagated in England the taste for Italian +literature, and at the same time published his "Literary Scourge," a +criticism of the ancient and modern writers of Italy. His style, though +always pure, is often caustic. He wrote several books in the English +language, one of which is in defense of Shakspeare against Voltaire. +Cesarotti (1730-1808), though eminent as a critic, introduced into the +Italian language some innovations, which contributed to its corruption; +while the nice judgment, good taste, and pure style of Parini place him at +the head of this department. In the latter part of this period we find, in +the criticisms of Monti, vigorous logic and a splendid and attractive +style. Foscolo is distinguished for his acumen and pungent wit. The works +of Perticari (1779-1822) are written with extreme polish, erudition, +judgment, and dignity. In Leopardi, philosophical acumen equals the +elegance of his style. Giordani (d. 1848), as a critic and an epigraphist, +deserves notice for his fine judgment and pure taste, as do Tommaseo and +Cattaneo, who are both epigrammatic, witty, and pungent. + +The golden age of philology dates from the time of Lorenzo de' Medici to +the seventeenth century. It then declined until the eighteenth, but +revived in the works of Maffei, Muratori, Zeno, and others. In the same +century this study was greatly promoted by Foscolo, Monti, and Cesari +(1760-1828), who, among other philological works, published a new edition +of the Dictionary della Crusca, revised and augmented. Of the modern +writers on philology, Gherardini, Tommaseo, and Ascoli are the most +prominent. + +The revival of philosophy in Italy dates from the age of Galileo, when the +authority of the Peripatetics was overthrown, and a new method introduced +into scientific researches. From that time to the present, this science +has been represented by opposite schools, the one characterized by +sensualism and the other by rationalism. The experimental method of +Galileo paved the way to the first, which holds that experience is the +only source of knowledge, a doctrine which gained ground in the +seventeenth century, became universally accepted in the eighteenth, +through the influence of Locke and Condillac, and continued to prevail +during the first part of the nineteenth. Gioja (1767-1829), and Romagnosi +(1761-1835) are the greatest representatives of this system, in the last +part of this period. But while the former developed sensualism in +philosophy and economy, the latter applied it to political science and +jurisprudence. The numerous Works of Gioja are distinguished for their +practical value and clearness of style, though they lack eloquence and +purity; those of Romagnosi are more abstract, and couched in obscure arid +often incorrect language, but they are monuments of vast erudition, acute +and profound judgment, and powerful dialectics. + +Galluppi (1773-1846), though unable to extricate himself entirely from the +sensualistic school, attempted the reform of philosophy, which resulted in +a movement in Italy similar to that produced by Reid and Dugald Stewart in +Scotland. + +While sensualism was gaining ground in the seventeenth and eighteenth +centuries, rationalism, having its roots in the Platonic system which had +prevailed in the fifteenth and sixteenth, was remodeled under the +influence of Descartes, Leibnitz, and Wolf, and opposed to the invading +tendencies of its antagonist. From causes to be found in the spirit of the +age and the political condition of the country, this system was unable to +take the place to which it was entitled, though it succeeded in purifying +sensualism from its more dangerous consequences, and infusing into it some +of its own elements. But the overthrow of that system was completed only +by the works of Rosmini and Gioberti. Rosmini (1795-1855) gave a new +impulse to metaphysical researches, and created a new era in the history +of Italian philosophy. His numerous works embrace all philosophical +knowledge in its unity and universality, founded on a new basis, and +developed with deep, broad, and original views. His philosophy, both +inductive and deductive, rests on experimental method, reaches the highest +problems of ideology and ontology, and infuses new life into all +departments of science. This philosophical progress was greatly aided by +Gioberti (1801-1851), whose life, however, was more particularly devoted +to political pursuits. His work on "The Regeneration of Italy" contains +his latest and soundest views on Italian nationality. Another +distinguished philosophical and political writer is Mamiani, whose work on +"The Rights of Nations" deserves the attention of all students of history +and political science. As a statesman, he belongs to the National party, +of which Count Cavour (1810-1861), himself an eminent writer on political +economy, was the great representative, and to whose commanding influence +is to be attributed the rapid progress which the Italian nation was making +towards unity and independence at the time of his death. + +FROM 1860 TO 1885. + +During the last twenty-five years the rapid progress of political events +in Italy seems to have absorbed the energies of the people, who have made +little advance in literature. For the first time since the fall of the +Roman empire the country has become a united kingdom, and in the national +adjustment to the new conditions, and in the material and industrial +development which has followed, the new literature has not yet, to any +great extent, found voice. Yet this period of national formation and +consolidation, however, has not been without its poets, among whom a few +may be here named. Aleardo Aleardi (d. 1882) is one of the finest poetical +geniuses that Italy has produced within the last century, but his writings +show the ill effects of a poet sacrificing his art to a political cause, +and when the patriot has ceased to declaim the poet ceases to sing. Prati +(1815-1884), on the other hand, in his writings exemplifies the evil of a +poet refusing to take part in the grand movement of his nation. He severs +himself from all present interests and finds his subjects in sources which +have no interest for his contemporaries. He has great metrical facility +and his lyrics are highly praised. Carducci, like Aleardi, is a poet who +has written on political subjects; he belongs to the class of closet +democrats. His poems display a remarkable talent for the picturesque, +forcible, and epigrammatic. The poems of Zanella are nearly all on +scientific subjects connected with human feeling, and entitle him to a +distinguished place among the refined poets of his country. A poet of +greater promise than those already spoken of is Arnaboldi, who has the +endowment requisite to become the first Italian poet of a new school, but +who endangers his position by devoting his verse to utilitarian purposes. + +The tendency of the younger poets is to realism and to representing its +most materialistic features as beautiful. Against this current of the new +poetry Alessandro Rizzi, Guerzoni, and others have uttered a strong +protest in poetry and prose. + +Among historians, Capponi is the author of a history of Florence; Zini has +continued Farina's history of Italy; Bartoli, Settembrini, and De Sanctis +have written histories of Italian literature; Villari is the author of +able works on the life of Machiavelli and of Savonarola, and Berti has +written the life of Giordano Bruno. In criticism philosophic, historical, +and literary, Fiorentino, De Sanctis, Massarani, and Trezza are +distinguished. Barili, Farina, Bersezio, and Giovagnoli are writers of +fiction, and Cossa, Ferrari, and Giacosa are the authors of many dramatic +works. The charming books of travel by De Amicis are extensively +translated and very popular. + + + + +FRENCH LITERATURE. + +INTRODUCTION.--1. French Literature and its Divisions.--2. The Language. + +PERIOD FIRST.--1. The Troubadours.--2. The Trouvères French Literature in +the Fifteenth Century.--4. The Mysteries and Moralities: Charles of +Orleans, Villon, Ville-Hardouin, Joinville, Froissart, Philippe de +Commines. + +PERIOD SECOND.--1. The Renaissance and the Reformation: Marguerite de +Valois, Marot, Rabelais, Calvin, Montaigne, Charron and others.--2. Light +Literature: Ronsard Jodelle, Hardy, Malherbe, Scarron, Madame de +Rambouillet, and others.--3. The French Academy.--4. The Drama: +Corneille.--5. Philosophy: Descartes, Pascal; Port Royal.--6. The Rise of +the Golden Age of French Literature: Louis XIV.--7. Tragedy: Racine.--8. +Comedy: Molière.--9. Fables, Satires, Mock-Heroic, and other Poetry: La +Fontaine, Boileau.--10. Eloquence of the Pulpit and of the Bar: +Bourdaloue, Bossuet, Massillon, Fléchier, Le Maître, D'Aguesseau, and +others.--11. Moral Philosophy: Rochefoucault La Bruyère, Nicole.--12. +History and Memoirs: Mézeray, Fleury, Rollin, Brantôme the Duke of Sully, +Cardinal de Retz.--13. Romance and Letter Writing: Fénelon, Madame de +Sévigné. + +PERIOD THIRD.--1. The Dawn of Skepticism: Bayle, J. B. Rousseau, +Fontenelle, Lamotte.--2. Progress of Skepticism: Montesquieu, Voltaire. +--3. French Literature during the Revolution: D'Holbach, D'Alembert, +Diderot, J. J. Rousseau, Buffon, Beaumarchais, St. Pierre, and others.--4. +French Literature under the Empire: Madame de Staël, Châteaubriand, Royer- +Collard, Ronald, De Maistre.--5. French Literature from the Age of the +Restoration to the Present Time. History: Thierry, Sismondi, Thiers, +Mignet, Martin, Michelet, and others. Poetry and the Drama; Rise of the +Romantic School: Béranger, Lamartine, Victor Hugo, and others; Les +Parnassiens. Fiction: Hugo, Gautier, Dumas, Mérimée, Balzac, Sand, Sandeau +and others. Criticism: Sainte-Beuve, Taine, and others. Miscellaneous. + + +INTRODUCTION. + +1. FRENCH LITERATURE AND ITS DIVISIONS.--Towards the middle of the fifth +century the Franks commenced their invasions of Gaul, which ended in the +conquest of the country, and the establishment of the French monarchy +under Clovis. The period from Clovis to Charlemagne (487-768) is the most +obscure of the Dark Ages. The principal writers, whose names have been +preserved, are St. Rémy, the archbishop of Rheims (d. 535), distinguished +for his eloquence, and Gregory of Tours (d. 595), whose contemporary +history is valuable for the good faith in which it is written, in spite of +the ignorance and credulity which it displays. The genius of Charlemagne +(r. 768-814) gave a new impulse to learning. By his liberality he +attracted the most distinguished scholars to his court, among others +Alcuin, from England, whom he chose for his instructor; he established +schools of theology and science, and appointed the most learned professors +to preside over them. But in the century succeeding his death the country +relapsed into barbarism. + +In the south of France, Provence early became an independent kingdom, and +consolidating its language, laws, and manners, at the close of the +eleventh century it gave birth to the literature of the Troubadours; while +in the north, the language and literature of the Trouvères, which were the +germs of the national literature of France, were not developed until a +century later. + +In the schools established by Charlemagne for the education of the clergy, +the scholastic philosophy originated, which prevailed throughout Europe in +the Middle Ages. The most distinguished schoolmen or scholastics in France +during this period are Roscellinus (fl. 1092), the originator of the +controversy between the Nominalists and Realists, which occupied so +prominent a place in the philosophy of the time; Abelard (1079-1142), +equally celebrated for his learning, and for his unfortunate love for +Héloïse; St. Bernard (1091-1153), one of the most influential +ecclesiastics of the Middle Ages; and Thomas Aquinas (1227-1274) and +Bonaventure (1221-1274), Italians who taught theology and philosophy at +Paris, and who powerfully influenced the intellect of the age. + +Beginning with the Middle Ages, the literary history of France may be +divided into three periods. The first period extends from 1000 to 1500, +and includes the literature of the Troubadours, the Trouvères, and of the +fifteenth century. + +The second period extends from 1500 to 1700, and includes the revival of +the study of classical literature, or the Renaissance, and the golden age +of French literature under Louis XIV. + +The third period, extending from 1700 to 1885, comprises the age of +skepticism introduced into French literature by Voltaire, the +Encyclopaedists and others, the Revolutionary era, the literature of the +Empire and of the Restoration, of the Second Empire, and of the present +time. + +2. THE LANGUAGE.--After the conquest of Gaul by Julius Caesar, Latin +became the predominant language of the country; but on the overthrow of +the Western Empire it was corrupted by the intermixture of elements +derived from the northern invaders of the country, and from the general +ignorance and barbarism of the times. At length a distinction was drawn +between the language of the Gauls who called themselves Romans, and that +of the Latin writers; and the _Romance_ language arose from the former, +while the Latin was perpetuated by the latter. At the commencement of the +second race of monarchs, German was the language of Charlemagne and his +court, Latin was the written language, and the Romance, still in a state +of barbarism, was the dialect of the people. The subjects of Charlemagne +were composed of two different races, the Germans, inhabiting along and +beyond the Rhine, and the Wallons, who called themselves Romans. The name +of _Welsch_ or _Wallons_, given them by the Germans, was the same as +_Galli_, which they had received from the Latins, and as _Keltai_ or +Celts, which they themselves acknowledged. The language which they spoke +was called after them the _Romance-Wallon_, or rustic Romance, which was +at first very much the same throughout France, except that as it extended +southward the Latin prevailed, and in the north the German was more +perceptible. These differences increased, and the languages rapidly grew +more dissimilar. The people of the south called themselves _Romans- +provençaux_, while the northern tribes added to the name of Romans, which +they had assumed, that of _Wallons_, which they had received from the +neighboring people. The Provençal was called the _Langue d'oc_, and the +Wallon the _Langue d'oui_, from the affirmative word in each language, as +the Italian was then called the _Langue de sí_, and the German the _Langue +de ya_. + +The invasion of the Normans, in the tenth century, supplied new elements +to the Romance Wallon. They adopted it as their language, and stamped upon +it the impress of their own genius. It thus became Norman-French. In 1066, +William the Conqueror introduced it into England, and enforced its use +among his new subjects by rigorous laws; thus the popular French became +there the language of the court and of the educated classes, while it was +still the vulgar dialect in France. + +From the beginning of the twelfth century, the two dialects were known as +the _Provençal_ and the _French_. The former, though much changed, is +still the dialect of the common people in Provence, Languedoc, Catalonia, +Valencia, Majorca, and Minorca. In the thirteenth century, the northern +French dialect gained the ascendency, chiefly in consequence of Paris +becoming the centre of refinement and literature for all France. The +_Langue d'oui_ was, from its origin, deficient in that rhythm which exists +in the Italian and Spanish languages. It was formed rather by an +abbreviation than by a harmonious transformation of the Latin, and the +metrical character of the language was gradually lost. The French became +thus more accustomed to rhetorical measure than to poetical forms, and the +language led them rather to eloquence than poetry. Francis I. established +a professorship of the French language at Paris, and banished Latin from +the public documents and courts of justice. The Academy, established by +Cardinal Richelieu (1635), put an end to the arbitrary power of usage, and +fixed the standard of pure French, though at the same time it restricted +the power of genius over the language. Nothing was approved by the Academy +unless it was received at court, and nothing was tolerated by the public +that had not been sanctioned by the Academy. The language now acquired the +most admirable precision, and thus recommended itself not only as the +language of science and diplomacy, but of society, capable of conveying +the most discriminating observations on character and manners, and the +most delicate expressions of civility which involve no obligation. Hence +its adoption as the court language in so many European countries. Among +the dictionaries of the French language, that of the Academy holds the +first rank. + + +PERIOD FIRST. + +PROVENÇAL AND FRENCH LITERATURES IN THE MIDDLE AGES (1000-1500). + +1. THE TROUBADOURS.--When, in the tenth century, the nations of the south +of Europe attempted to give consistency to the rude dialects which had +been produced by the mixture of the Latin with the northern tongues, the +Provencal, or _Langue d'oc_, was the first to come to perfection. The +study of this language became the favorite recreation of the higher +classes during the tenth and eleventh centuries, and poetry the elegant +occupation of those whose time was not spent in the ruder pastimes of the +field. Thousands of poets, who were called troubadours (from _trobar_, to +find or invent), flourished in this new language almost contemporaneously, +and spread their reputation from the extremity of Spain to that of Italy. +All at once, however, this ephemeral reputation vanished. The voice of the +troubadours was silent, the Provençal was abandoned and sank into a mere +dialect, and after a brilliant existence of three centuries (950-1250), +its productions were ranked among those of the dead languages. The high +reputation of the Provençal poets, and the rapid decline of their +language, are two phenomena equally striking in the history of human +culture. This literature, which gave models to other nations, yet among +its crowds of agreeable poems did not produce a single masterpiece +destined to immortality, was entirely the offspring of the age, and not of +individuals. It reveals to us the sentiments and imagination of modern +nations in their infancy; it exhibits what was common to all and pervaded +all, and not what genius superior to the age enabled a single individual +to accomplish. + +Southern France, having been the inheritance of several of the successors +of Charlemagne, was elevated to the rank of an independent kingdom in 879, +by Bozon, and under his sovereignty, and that of his successors for 213 +years, it enjoyed a paternal government. The accession of the Count of +Barcelona to the crown, in 1092, introduced into Provence the spirit both +of liberty and chivalry, and a taste for elegance and the arts, with all +the sciences of the Arabians. The union of these noble sentiments added +brilliancy to that poetical spirit which shone out at once over Provence +and all the south of Europe, like an electric flash in the midst of +profound darkness, illuminating all things with the splendor of its flame. + +At the same time with Provençal poetry, chivalry had its rise; it was, in +a manner, the soul of the new literature, and gave to it a character +different from anything in antiquity. Love, in this age, while it was not +more tender and passionate than among the Greeks and Romans, was more +respectful, and women were regarded with something of that religious +veneration which the Germans evinced towards their prophetesses. To this +was added that passionate ardor of feeling peculiar to the people of the +South, the expression of which was borrowed from the Arabians. But +although among individuals love preserved this pure and religious +character, the license engendered by the feudal system, and the disorders +of the time, produced a universal corruption of manners which found +expression in the literature of the age. Neither the _sirventes_ nor the +_chanzos_ of the troubadours, nor the _fabliaux_ of the trouvères, nor the +romances of chivalry, can be read without a blush. On every page the +grossness of the language is only equaled by the shameful depravity of the +characters and the immorality of the incidents. In the south of France, +more particularly, an extreme laxity of manners prevailed among the +nobility. Gallantry seems to have been the sole object of existence. +Ladies were proud of the celebrity conferred upon their charms by the +songs of the troubadours, and they themselves often professed the "Gay +Science," as poetry was called. They instituted the Courts of Love where +questions of gallantry were gravely discussed and decided by their +suffrages; and they gave, in short, to the whole south of France the +character of a carnival. No sooner had the Gay Science been established in +Provence, than it became the fashion in surrounding countries. The +sovereigns of Europe adopted the Provençal language, and enlisted +themselves among the poets, and there was soon neither baron nor knight +who did not feel himself bound to add to his fame as a warrior the +reputation of a gentle troubadour. Monarchs were now the professors of the +art, and the only patrons were the ladies. Women, no longer beautiful +ciphers, acquired complete liberty of action, and the homage paid to them +amounted almost to worship. + +At the festivals of the haughty barons, the lady of the castle, attended +by youthful beauties, distributed crowns to the conquerors in the jousts +and tournaments. She then, in turn, surrounded by her ladies, opened her +Court of Love, and the candidates for poetical honors entered with their +harps and contended for the prize in extempore verses called _tensons_. +The Court of Love then entered upon a grave discussion of the merits of +the question, and a judgment or _arrêt d'amour_ was given, frequently in +verse, by which the dispute was supposed to be decided. These courts often +formally justified the abandonment of moral duty, and assuming the forms +and exercising the power of ordinary tribunals, they defined and +prescribed the duties of the sexes, and taught the arts of love and song +according to the most depraved moral principles, mingled, however, with an +affected display of refined sentimentality. Whatever may have been their +utility in the advancement of the language and the cultivation of literary +taste, these institutions extended a legal sanction to vice, and +inculcated maxims of shameful profligacy. + +The songs of the Provençals were divided into _chanzos_ and _sirventes_; +the object of the former was love, and of the latter war, politics, or +satire. The name of _tenson_ was given to those poetical contests in verse +which took place in the Courts of Love, or before illustrious princes. The +songs were sung from château to château, either by the troubadours +themselves, or by the _jongleur_ or instrument player by whom they were +attended; they often abounded in extravagant hyperboles, trivial conceits, +and grossness of expression. Ladies, whose attractions were estimated by +the number and desperation of their lovers, and the songs of their +troubadours, were not offended if licentiousness mingled with gallantry in +the songs composed in their praise. Authors addressed prayers to the +saints for aid in their amorous intrigues, and men, seemingly rational, +resigned themselves to the wildest transports of passion for individuals +whom, in some cases, they had never seen. Thus, religious enthusiasm, +martial bravery, and licentious love, so grotesquely mingled, formed the +very life of the Middle Ages, and impossible as it is to transfuse into a +translation the harmony of Provençal verse, or to find in it, when +stripped of this harmony, any poetical idea, these remains are valuable +since they present us with a picture of the life and manners of the times. + +The intercourse of the Provençals with the Moors of Spain, which, as we +have seen, was greatly increased by the union of Catalonia and Provence +(1092), introduced into the North an acquaintance with the arts and +learning of the Arabians. It was then that rhyme, the essential +characteristic of Arabian poetry, was adopted by the troubadours into the +Provençal language, and thence communicated to the nations of modern +Europe. + +The poetry of the troubadours borrowed nothing from history, mythology, or +from foreign manners, and no reference to the sciences or the learning of +the schools mingled with their simple effusions of sentiment. This fact +enables us to comprehend how it was possible for princes and knights, who +were often unable to read, to be yet ranked among the most ingenious +troubadours. Several public events, however, materially contributed to +enlarge the sphere of intellect of the knights of the _Langue d'oc_. The +first was the conquest of Toledo and Castile by Alphonso VI., in which he +was seconded by the Cid Rodriguez, the hero of Spain, and by a number of +French Provençal knights; the second was the preaching of the Crusades. Of +all the events recorded in the history of the world, there is, perhaps, +not one of a nature so highly poetical as these holy wars; not one which +presents a more powerful picture of the grand effects of enthusiasm, of +noble sacrifices of self-interest to faith, sentiment, and passion, which +are essentially poetical. Many of the troubadours assumed the cross; +others were detained in Europe by the bonds of love, and the conflict +between passion and religious enthusiasm lent its influence to the poems +they composed. The third event was the succession of the kings of England +to the sovereignty of a large part of the countries where the _Langue +d'oc_ prevailed, which influenced the manners and opinions of the +troubadours, and introduced them to the courts of the most powerful +monarchs; while the encouragement given to them by the kings of the house +of Plantagenet had a great influence on the formation of the English +language, and furnished Chaucer, the father of English literature, with +his first models for imitation. + +The troubadours numbered among their ranks the most illustrious sovereigns +and heroes of the age. Among others, Richard Coeur de Lion, who, as a poet +and knight, united in his own person all the brilliant qualities of the +time. A story is told of him, that when he was detained a prisoner in +Germany, the place of his imprisonment was discovered by Blondel, his +minstrel, who sang beneath the fortress a _tenson_ which he and Richard +had composed in common, and to which Richard responded. Bertrand de Born, +who was intimately connected with Richard, and who exercised a powerful +influence over the destinies of the royal family of England, has left a +number of original poems; Sordello of Mantua was the first to adopt the +ballad form of writing, and many of his love songs are expressed in a pure +and delicate style. Both of these poets are immortalized in the Divine +Comedy of Dante. The history of Geoffrey Rudel illustrates the wildness of +the imagination and manners of the troubadours. He was a gentleman of +Provence, and hearing the knights who had returned from the Holy Land +speak with enthusiasm of the Countess of Tripoli, who had extended to them +the most generous hospitality, and whose grace and beauty equaled her +virtues, he fell in love with her without ever having seen her, and, +leaving the Court of England, he embarked for the Holy Land, to offer to +her the homage of his heart. During the voyage he was attacked by a severe +illness, and lost the power of speech. On his arrival in the harbor, the +countess, being informed that a celebrated poet was dying of love for her, +visited him on shipboard, took him kindly by the hand, and attempted to +cheer his spirits. Rudel revived sufficiently to thank the lady for her +humanity and to declare his passion, when his voice was silenced by the +convulsions of death. He was buried at Tripoli, and, by the orders of the +countess, a tomb of porphyry was erected to his memory. It is unnecessary +to mention other names among the multitude of these poets, who all hold +nearly the same rank. An extreme monotony reigns throughout their works, +which offer little individuality of character. + +After the thirteenth century, the troubadours were heard no more, and the +efforts of the counts of Provence, the magistrates of Toulouse, and the +kings of Arragon to awaken, their genius by the Courts of Love and the +Floral Games were vain. They themselves attributed their decline to the +degradation into which the jongleurs, with whom at last they were +confounded, had fallen. But their art contained within itself a more +immediate principle of decay in the profound ignorance of its professors. +They had no other models than the songs of the Arabians, which perverted +their taste. They made no attempt at epic or dramatic poetry; they had no +classical allusions, no mythology, nor even a romantic imagination, and, +deprived of the riches of antiquity, they had few resources within +themselves. The poetry of Provence was a beautiful flower springing up on +a sterile soil, and no cultivation could avail in the absence of its +natural nourishment. From the close of the twelfth century the language +began to decline, and public events occurred which hastened its downfall, +and reduced it to the condition of a provincial dialect. + +Among the numerous sects which sprang up in Christendom during the Middle +Ages, there was one which, though bearing different names at different +times, more or less resembled what is now known as Protestantism; in the +twelfth and thirteenth centuries it was called the faith of the +Albigenses, as it prevailed most widely in the district of Albi. It easily +came to be identified with the Provençal language, as this was the chosen +vehicle of its religious services. This sect was tolerated and protected +by the Court of Toulouse. It augmented its numbers; it devoted itself to +commerce and the arts, and added much to the prosperity which had long +distinguished the south of France. The Albigenses had lived long and +peaceably side by side with the Catholics in the cities and villages; but +Innocent III. sent legates to Provence, who preached, discussed, and +threatened, and met a freedom of thought and resistance to authority which +Rome was not willing to brook. Bitter controversy was now substituted for +the amiable frivolity of the _tensons_, and theological disputes +superseded those on points of gallantry. The long struggle between the +poetry of the troubadours and the preaching of the monks came to a crisis; +the severe satires which the disorderly lives of the clergy called forth +became severer still, and the songs of the troubadours wounded the power +and pride of Rome more deeply than ever, while they stimulated the +Albigenses to a valiant resistance or a glorious death. A crusade +followed, and when the dreadful strife was over, Provençal poetry had +received its death-blow. The language of Provence was destined to share +the fate of its poetry; it became identified in the minds of the orthodox +with heresy and rebellion. When Charles of Anjou acquired the kingdom of +Naples, he drew thither the Provençal nobility, and thus drained the +kingdom of those who had formerly maintained its chivalrous manners. In +the beginning of the fourteenth century, when the Court of Rome was +removed to Avignon, the retinues of the three successive popes were +Italians, and the Tuscan language entirely superseded the Provençal among +the higher classes. + +2. THE TROUVÈRES.--While the Provençal was thus relapsing into a mere +dialect, the north of France was maturing a new language and literature of +an entirely different character. Normandy, a province of France, was +invaded in the tenth century by a new northern tribe, who, under the +command of Rollo or Raoul the Dane, incorporated themselves with the +ancient inhabitants. The victors adopted the language of the vanquished, +stamped upon it the impress of their own genius, and gave it a fixed form. +It was from Normandy that the first writers and poets in the French +language sprang. While the Romance Provençal spoken in the South was +sweet, and expressive of effeminate manners, the Romance-Wallon was +energetic and warlike, and represented the severer manners of the Germans. +Its poetry, too, was widely different from the Provençal. It was no longer +the idle baron sighing for his lady-love, but the songs of a nation of +hardy warriors, celebrating the prowess of their ancestors with all the +exaggerations that fancy could supply. The _Langue d'oui_ became the +vehicle of literature only in the twelfth century,--a hundred years +subsequent to the Romance Provençal. The poets and reciters of tales, +giving the name of Troubadour a French termination, called themselves +Trouvères. They originated the brilliant romances of chivalry, the +_fabliaux_ or tales of amusement, and the dramatic invention of the +Mysteries. The first literary work in this tongue is the versified romance +of a fabulous history of the early kings of England, beginning with +Brutus, the grandson of AEneas, who, after passing many enchanted isles, +at length establishes himself in England, where he finds King Arthur, the +chivalric institution of the Round Table, and the enchanter Merlin, one of +the most popular personages of the Middle Ages. Out of this legend arose +some of the boldest creations of the human fancy. The word "romance," now +synonymous with fictitious composition, originally meant only a work in +the modern dialect, as distinguished from the scholastic Latin. There is +little doubt that these tales were originally believed to be strictly +true. One of the first romances of chivalry was "Tristam de Léonois," +written in 1190. This was soon followed by that of the "San Graal" and +"Lancelot;" and previously to 1213 Ville-Hardouin had written in the +French language a "History of the Conquest of Constantinople." The poem of +"Alexander," however, which appeared about the same time, has enjoyed the +greatest reputation. It is a series of romances and marvelous histories, +said to be the result of the labors of nine celebrated poets of the time. +Alexander is introduced, surrounded not by the pomp of antiquity, but by +the splendors of chivalry. The high renown of this poem has given the name +of _Alexandrine verse_ to the measure in which it is written. + +The spirit of chivalry which burst forth in the romances of the trouvères, +the heroism of honor and love, the devotion of the powerful to the weak, +the supernatural fictions, so novel and so dissimilar to everything in +antiquity or in later times, the force and brilliancy of imagination which +they display, have been variously attributed to the Arabians and the +Germans, but they were undoubtedly the invention of the Normans. Of all +the people of ancient Europe, they were the most adventurous and intrepid. +They established a dynasty in Russia; they cut their way through a +perfidious and sanguinary nation to Constantinople; they landed on the +coasts of England and France, and surprised nations who were ignorant of +their existence; they conquered Sicily, and established a principality in +the heart of Syria. A people so active, so enterprising, and so intrepid, +found no greater delight in their leisure hours than listening to tales of +adventures, dangers, and battles. The romances of chivalry are divided +into three distinct classes. They relate to three different epochs in the +early part of the Middle Ages, and represent three bands of fabulous +heroes. In the romances of the first class, the exploits of Arthur, son of +Pendragon, the last British king who defended England against the invasion +of the Anglo-Saxons, are celebrated. In the second we find the Amadises, +but whether they belong to French literature has been reasonably disputed. +The scene is placed nearly in the same countries as in the romances of the +Round Table, but there is a want of locality about them, and the name and +the times are absolutely fabulous. "Amadis of Gaul," the first of these +romances, and the model of all the rest, is claimed as the work of Vasco +Lobeira, a Portuguese (1290-1325); but no doubt exists with regard to the +continuations and numerous imitations of this work, which are +incontestably of Spanish origin, and were in their highest repute when +Cervantes produced his inimitable "Don Quixote." The third class of +chivalric romances, relating to the court of Charlemagne and his Paladins, +is entirely French, although their celebrity is chiefly due to the +renowned Italian poet who availed himself of their fictions. The most +ancient monument of the marvelous history of Charlemagne is the chronicle +of Turpin, of uncertain date, and which, though fabulous, can scarcely be +considered as a romance. This and other similar narratives furnished +materials for the romances, which appeared at the conclusion of the +Crusades, when a knowledge of the East had enriched the French imagination +with all the treasures of the Arabian. The trouvères were not only the +inventors of the romances of chivalry, but they originated the allegories, +and the dramatic compositions of southern Europe. Although none of their +works have obtained a high reputation or deserve to be ranked among the +masterpieces of human intellect, they are still worthy of attention as +monuments of the progress of mind. + +The French possessed, above every other nation of modern times, an +inventive spirit, but they were, at the same time, the originators of +those tedious allegorical poems which have been imitated by all the +romantic nations. The most ancient and celebrated of these is the "Romance +of the Rose," though not a romance in the present sense of the word. At +the period of its composition, the French language was still called the +Romance, and all its more voluminous productions Romances. The "Romance of +the Rose" was the work of two authors, Guillaume de Lorris, who commenced +it in the early part of the thirteenth century, and Jean de Meun (b. +1280), by whom it was continued. Although it reached the appalling length +of twenty thousand verses, no book was ever more popular. It was admired +as a masterpiece of wit, invention, and philosophy; the highest mysteries +of theology were believed to be concealed in this poetical form, and +learned commentaries were written upon its veiled meaning by preachers, +who did not scruple to cite passages from it in the pulpit. But the +tedious poem and its numberless imitations are nothing but rhymed prose, +which it would be impossible to recognize as poetry, if the measure of the +verse were taken away. + +In considering the popularity of these long, didactic works, it must not +be forgotten that the people of that day were almost entirely without +books. A single volume was the treasure of a whole household. In +unfavorable weather it was read to a circle around the fire, and when it +was finished the perusal was again commenced. No comparison with other +books enabled men to form a judgment upon its merits. It was reverenced +like holy writ, and they accounted themselves happy in being able to +comprehend it. + +Another species of poetry peculiar to this period had at least the merit +of being exceedingly amusing. This was the _fabliaux_, tales written in +verse in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. They are treasures of +invention, simplicity, and gayety, of which other nations can furnish no +instances, except by borrowing from the French. A collection of Indian +tales, translated into Latin in the tenth or eleventh century, was the +first storehouse of the trouvères. The Arabian tales, transmitted by the +Moors to the Castilians, and by the latter to the French, were in turn +versified. But above all, the anecdotes collected in the towns and castles +of France, the adventures of lovers, the tricks of gallants, and the +numerous subjects gathered from the manners of the age, afforded +inexhaustible materials for ludicrous narratives to the writers of these +tales. They were treasures common to all. We seldom know the name of the +trouvère by whom these anecdotes were versified. As they were related, +each one varied them according to the impression he wished to produce. At +this period there were neither theatrical entertainments nor games at +cards to fill up the leisure hours of society, and the trouvères or +relators of the tales were welcomed at the courts, castles, and private +houses with an eagerness proportioned to the store of anecdotes which they +brought with them to enliven conversation. Whatever was the subject of +their verse, legends, miracles, or licentious anecdotes, they were equally +acceptable. These tales were the models of those of Boccaccio, La +Fontaine, and others. Some of them have had great fame, and have passed +from tongue to tongue, and from age to age, down to our own times. Several +of them have been introduced upon the stage, and others formed the +originals of Parnell's "Hermit," of the "Zaïre" of Voltaire, and of the +"Renard," which Goethe has converted into a long poem. But perhaps the +most interesting and celebrated of all the _fabliaux_ is that of "Aucassin +and Nicolette," which has furnished the subject for a well-known opera. + +It was at this period, when the ancient drama was entirely forgotten, that +a dramatic form was given to the great events which accompanied the +establishment of the Christian religion. The first to introduce this +grotesque species of composition, were the pilgrims who had returned from +the Holy Land. In the twelfth or thirteenth centuries, their dramatic +representations were first exhibited in the open streets; but it was only +at the conclusion of the fourteenth that a company of pilgrims undertook +to amuse the public by regular dramatic entertainments. They were called +the Fraternity of the Passion, from the passion of our Saviour being one +of their most celebrated representations. This mystery, the most ancient +dramatic work of modern Europe, comprehends the whole history of our Lord, +from his baptism to his death. The piece was too long for one +representation, and was therefore continued from day to day. Eighty-seven +characters successively appear in this mystery, among whom are the three +persons of the Trinity, angels, apostles, devils, and a host of other +personages, the invention of the poet's brain. To fill the comic parts, +the dialogues of the devils were introduced, and their eagerness to +maltreat one another always produced much laughter in the assembly. +Extravagant machinery was employed to give to the representation the pomp +which we find in the modern opera; and this drama, placing before the eyes +of a Christian assembly all those incidents for which they felt the +highest veneration, must have affected them much more powerfully than even +the finest tragedies can do at the present day. + +The mystery of the Passion was followed by a crowd of imitations. The +whole of the Old Testament, and the lives of all the saints, were brought +upon the stage. The theatre on which these mysteries were represented was +always composed of an elevated scaffold divided into three parts,--heaven, +hell, and the earth between them. The proceedings of the Deity and Lucifer +might be discerned in their respective abodes, and angels descended and +devils ascended, as their interference in mundane affairs was required. +The pomp of these representations went on increasing for two centuries, +and, as great value was set upon the length of the piece, some mysteries +could not be represented in less than forty days. + +The "Clerks of the Revels," an incorporated society at Paris, whose duty +it was to regulate the public festivities, resolved to amuse the people +with dramatic representations themselves, but as the Fraternity of the +Passion had obtained a royal license to represent the mysteries, they were +compelled to abstain from that kind of exhibition. They therefore invented +a new one, to which they gave the name of "Moralities," and which differed +little from the mysteries, except in name. They were borrowed from the +Parables, or the historical parts of the Bible, or they were purely +allegorical. To the Clerks of the Revels we also owe the invention of +modern comedy. They mingled their moralities with farces, the sole object +of which was to excite laughter, and in which all the gayety and vivacity +of the French character were displayed. Some of these plays still retain +their place upon the French stage. At the commencement of the fifteenth +century another comic company was established, who introduced personal and +even political satire upon the stage. Thus every species of dramatic +representation was revived by the French. This was the result of the +talent for imitation so peculiar to the French people, and of that pliancy +of thought and correctness of intellect which enables them to conceive new +characters. All these inventions, which led to the establishment of the +Romantic drama in other countries, were known in France more than a +century before the rise of the Spanish or Italian theatre, and even before +the classical authors were first studied and imitated. At the end of the +sixteenth century, these new pursuits acquired a more immediate influence +over the literature of France, and wrought a change in its spirit and +rules, without, however, altering the national character and taste which +had been manifested in the earliest productions of the trouvères. + +3. FRENCH LITERATURE IN THE FIFTEENTH CENTURY.--French had as yet been +merely a popular language; it varied from province to province, and from +author to author, because no masterpiece had inaugurated any one of its +numerous dialects. It was disdained by the more serious writers, who +continued to employ the Latin. In the fifteenth century literature assumed +a somewhat wider range, and the language began to take precision and +force. But with much general improvement and literary industry there was +still nothing great or original, nothing to mark an epoch in the history +of letters. The only poets worthy of notice were Charles, Duke of Orleans +(1391-1465), and Villon, a low ruffian of Paris (1431-1500). Charles was +taken prisoner at the battle of Agincourt, and carried to England, where +he was detained for twenty-five years, and where he wrote a volume of +poems in which he imitated the allegorical style of the Romance of the +Rose. The verses of Villon were inspired by the events of his not very +creditable life. Again and again he suffered imprisonment for petty +larcenies, and at the age of twenty-five was condemned to be hanged. His +language is not that of the court, but of the people; and his poetry marks +the first sensible progress after the Romance of the Rose. + +It has been well said that literature begins with poetry; but it is +established by prose, which fixes the language. The earliest work in +French prose is the chronicle of Ville-Hardouin (1150-1213), written in +the thirteenth century. It is a personal narrative and relates with +graphic particularity the conquest of Constantinople by the knights of +Christendom. This ancient chronicle traces out for us some of the +realities, of which the mediaeval romances were the ideal, and enables us +to judge in a measure how far these romances embody substantial truth. + +A great improvement in style is apparent in Joinville (1223-1317), the +amiable and light-hearted ecclesiastic who wrote the Life of St. Louis, +whom he had accompanied to the Holy Land, and whose pious adventures he +affectionately records. Notwithstanding the anarchy which prevailed in +France during the fourteenth century, some social progress was made; but +while public events were hostile to poetry, they gave inspiration to the +historic muse, and Froissart arose to impart vivacity of coloring to +historic narrative. + +Froissart (1337-1410) was an ecclesiastic of the day, but little in his +life or writings bespeaks the sacred calling. Having little taste for the +duties of his profession, he was employed by the Lord of Montfort to +compose a chronicle of the wars of the time; but there were no books to +tell him of the past, no regular communication between nations to inform +him of the present; so he followed the fashion of knights errant, and set +out on horseback, not to seek adventures, but, as an itinerant historian, +to find materials for his chronicle. He wandered from town to town, and +from castle to castle, to see the places of which he would write, and to +learn events on the spot where they occurred. His first journey was to +England; here he was employed by Queen Philippa of Hainault to accompany +the Duke of Clarence to Milan, where he met Boccaccio and Chaucer. He +afterwards passed into the service of several of the princes of Europe, to +whom he acted as secretary and poet, always gleaning material for historic +record. His book is an almost universal history of the different states of +Europe, from 1322 to the end of the fourteenth century. He troubles +himself with no explanations or theories of cause and effect, nor with the +philosophy of state policy; he is simply a graphic story-teller. Sir +Walter Scott called Froissart his master. + +Philippe de Commines (1445-1509) was a man of his age, but in advance of +it, combining the simplicity of the fifteenth century with the sagacity of +a later period. An annalist, like Froissart, he was also a statesman, and +a political philosopher; embracing, like Machiavelli and Montesquieu, the +remoter consequences which flowed from the events he narrated and the +principles he unfolded. He was an unscrupulous diplomat in the service of +Louis XI., and his description of the last years of that monarch is a +striking piece of history, whence poets and novelists have borrowed themes +in later times. But neither the romance of Sir Walter Scott nor the song +of Béranger does justice to the reality, as presented by the faithful +Commines. + + +PERIOD SECOND. + +THE RENAISSANCE AND THE GOLDEN AGE OF FRENCH LITERATURE (1500-1700). + +1. THE RENAISSANCE AND THE REFORMATION.--During the preceding ages, +erudition and civilization had not gone hand-in-hand. On the one side +there was the bold, chivalric mind of young Europe, speaking with the +tongues of yesterday, while on the other was the ecclesiastical mind, +expressing itself in degenerate Latin. The one was a life of gayety and +rude disorder--the life of court and castle as depicted in the literature +just scanned; the other, that of men separated from the world, who had +been studying the literary remains of antiquity, and transcribing and +treasuring them for future generations. Hitherto these two sections had +held their courses apart; now they were to meet and blend in harmony. The +vernacular poets, on the one hand, borrowing thought and expression from +the classics, and the clergy, on the other, becoming purveyors of light +literature to the court circles. + +The fifteenth century, though somewhat barren, had prepared for the +fecundity of succeeding ages. The revival of the study of ancient +literature, which was promoted by the downfall of Constantinople, the +invention of printing, the discovery of the new world, the decline of +feudalism, and the consequent elevation of the middle classes,--all +concurred to promote a rapid improvement of the human intellect. + +During the early part of the sixteenth century, all the ardor of the +French mind was turned to the study of the dead languages; men of genius +had no higher ambition than to excel in them, and many in their declining +years went in their gray hairs to the schools where the languages of Homer +and Cicero were taught. In civil and political society, the same +enthusiasm manifested itself in the imitation of antique manners; people +dressed in the Greek and Roman fashions, borrowed from them the usages of +life, and made a point of dying like the heroes of Plutarch. + +The religious reformation came soon after to restore the Christian, as the +revival of letters had brought back the pagan antiquity. Ignorance was +dissipated, and religion was disengaged from philosophy. The Renaissance, +as the revival of antique learning was called, and the Reformation, at +first made common cause. One of those who most eagerly imbibed the spirit +of both was the Princess Marguerite de Valois (1492-1549), elder sister of +Francis I., who obtained the credit of many generous actions which were +truly hers. The principal work of this lady was "L'Heptaméron," or the +History of the Fortunate Lovers, written on the plan and in the spirit of +the Decameron of Boccaccio, a work which a lady of our times would be +unwilling to own acquaintance with, much more to adopt as a model; but the +apology for Marguerite must be found in the manners of the times. +L'Heptaméron is the earliest French prose that can be read without a +glossary. + +In 1518, when Margaret was twenty-six years of age, she received from her +brother a gifted poet as valet-de-chambre; this was Marot (1495-1544), +between whom and the learned princess a poetical intercourse was +maintained. Marot had imbibed the principles of Calvin, and had also drank +deeply of the spirit of the Renaissance; but he displayed the poet more +truly before he was either a theologian or a classical scholar. He may be +considered the last type of the old French school, of that combination of +grace and archness, of elegance and simplicity, of familiarity and +propriety, which is a national characteristic of French poetic literature, +and in which they have never been imitated. + +Francis Rabelais (1483-1553) was one of the most remarkable persons that +figured in the Renaissance, a learned scholar, physician, and philosopher, +though known to posterity chiefly as an obscene humorist. He is called by +Lord Bacon "the great jester of France." He was at first a monk of the +Franciscan order, but he afterwards threw off the sacerdotal character, +and studied medicine. From about the year 1534, Rabelais was in the +service of the Cardinal Dubellay, and a favorite in the court circles of +Paris and Rome. It was probably during this period that he published, in +successive parts, the work on which his popular fame has rested, the +"Lives of Gargantua and Pantagruel." It consists of the lives and +adventures of these two gigantic heroes, father and son, with the +waggeries and practical jokes of Panurge, their jongleur, and the +blasphemies and obscenities of Friar John, a fighting, swaggering, +drinking monk. With these are mingled dissertations, sophistries, and +allegorical satires in abundance. The publication of the work created a +perfect uproar at the Sorbonne, and among the monks who were its principal +victims; but the cardinals enjoyed its humor, and protected its author, +while the king, Francis I., pronounced it innocent and delectable. It +became the book of the day, and passed through countless editions and +endless commentaries; and yet it is agreed on all hands that there exists +not another work, admitted as literature, that would bear a moment's +comparison with it, for indecency, profanity, and repulsive and disgusting +coarseness. His work is now a mere curiosity for the student of antique +literature. + +As Rabelais was the leading type of the Renaissance, so was Calvin (1509- +1564) of the Reformation. Having embraced the principles of Luther, he +went considerably farther in his views. In 1532 he established himself at +Geneva, where he organized a church according to his own ideas. In 1535 +he published his "Institutes of the Christian Religion," distinguished +for great severity of doctrine. His next most celebrated work is a +commentary on the Scriptures. + +Intellect continued to struggle with its fetters. Many, like Rabelais, +mistrusted the whole system of ecclesiastical polity established by law, +and yet did not pin their faith on the dictates of the austere Calvin. +The almost inevitable consequence was a wide and universal skepticism, +replacing the former implicit subjection to Romanism. + +The most eminent type of this school was Montaigne (1533-1592), who, in +his "Essays," shook the foundations of all the creeds of his day, without +offering anything to replace them. He is considered the earliest +philosophical writer in French prose, the first of those who contributed +to direct the minds of his countrymen to the study of human nature. In +doing so, he takes himself as his subject; he dissects his feelings, +emotions, and tendencies with the coolness of an operating surgeon. To a +singular power of self-investigation and an acute observation of the +actions of men, he added great affluence of thought and excursiveness of +fancy, which render him, in spite of his egotism, a most attractive +writer. As he would have considered it dishonest to conceal anything about +himself, he has told much that our modern ideas of decorum would deem +better untold. + +Charron (1541-1603), the friend and disciple of Montaigne, was as bold a +thinker, though inferior as a writer. In his book, "De la Sagesse," he +treats religion as a mere matter of speculation, a system of dogmas +without practical influence. Other writers followed in the same steps, +and affected, like him, to place skepticism at the service of good morals. +"License," says a French writer, "had to come before liberty, skepticism +before philosophical inquiry, the school of Montaigne before that of +Descartes." On the other hand, St. Francis de Sales (1567-1622), in his +"Introduction to a Devout Life," and other works, taught that the only +cure for the evils of human nature was to be found in the grace which was +revealed by Christianity. + +In these struggles of thought, in this conflict of creeds, the language +acquired vigor and precision. In the works of Calvin, it manifested a +seriousness of tone, and a severe purity of style which commanded general +respect. An easy, natural tone was imparted to it by Amyot (1513-1593), +professor of Greek and Latin at the University of Paris, who enriched the +literature with elegant translations, in which he blended Hellenic graces +with those strictly French. + +2. LIGHT LITERATURE.--Ronsard (1524-1585), the favorite poet of Mary Queen +of Scots, flourished at the time that the rage for ancient literature was +at its height. He traced the first outlines of modern French poetry, and +introduced a higher style of poetic thought and feeling than had hitherto +been known. To him France owes the first attempt at the ode and the heroic +epic; in the former, he is regarded as the precursor of Malherbe, who is +still looked on as a model in this style, But Ronsard, and the numerous +school which he formed, not only imitated the spirit and form of the +ancients, but aimed to subject his own language to combinations and +inversions like those of the Greek and Latin, and foreign roots and +phrases began to overpower the reviving flexibility of the French idiom. + +Under this influence, the drama was restored by Jodelle (1532-1573) and +others, in the shape of imitations and translations. Towards the end of +the century, however, there appeared a reaction against this learned +tragedy, led by Alexander Hardy (1560-1631), who, with little or no +original genius, produced about twelve hundred plays. He borrowed in every +direction, and imitated the styles of all nations. But the general taste, +however, soon returned to the Greek and Roman school. + +The glorious reign of Henry IV. had been succeeded by the stormy minority +of Louis XIII., when Malherbe (1556-1628), the tyrant of words and +syllables, appeared as the reformer of poetry. He attracted attention by +ridiculing the style of Ronsard. He became the laureate of the court, and +furnished for it that literature in which it was beginning to take +delight. In the place of Latin and Greek French, he inaugurated the +extreme of formality; the matter of his verse was made subordinate to the +manner; he substituted polish for native beauty, and effect for genuine +feeling. + +I. de Balzac (1594-1624), in his frivolous epistles, used prose as +Malherbe did verse, and a numerous school of the same character was soon +formed. The works of Voiture (1598-1648) abound in the pleasantries and +affected simplicity which best befit such compositions. The most trifling +adventure--the death of a cat or a dog--was transformed into a poem, in +which there was no poetry, but only a graceful facility, which was +considered perfectly charming. Then, as though native affectation were not +enough, the borrowed wit of Italian Marinism, which had been eagerly +adopted in Spain, made its way thence into France, with Spanish +exaggeration superadded. A disciple of this school declares that the eyes +of his mistress are as "large as his grief, and as black as his fate." +Malherbe and his school fell afterwards into neglect, for fashionable +caprice had turned its attention to burlesque, and every one believed +himself capable of writing in this style, from the lords and ladies of the +court down to the valets and maid-servants. It was men like Scarron (1610- +1660), familiar with literary study, and, from choice, with the lowest +society, who introduced this form, the pleasantry of which was increased +by contrast with the finical taste that had been in vogue. Fashion ruled +the light literature of France during the first half of the seventeenth +century, and through all its diversities, its great characteristic is the +absence of all true and serious feeling, and of that inspiration which is +drawn from realities. In the productions of half a century, we find not +one truly elevated, energetic, or pathetic work. + +It is during this time, that is, between the death of Henry IV (1610), and +that of Richelieu (1642), that we mark the beginning of literary societies +in France. The earliest in point of date was headed by Madame de +Rambouillet (1610-1642), whose hotel became a seminary of female authors +and factious politicians. This lady was of Italian origin, of fine taste +and education. She had turned away in disgust from the rude manners of the +court of Henry IV, and devoted herself to the study of the classics. After +the death of the king, she gathered a distinguished circle round herself, +combining the elegances of high life with the cultivation of literary +taste. While yet young, Madame de Rambouillet was attacked with a malady +which obliged her to keep her bed the greater part of every year. An +elegant alcove was formed in the great _salon_ of the house, where her bed +was placed, and here she received her friends. The choicest wits of Paris +flocked to her levées; the Hotel de Rambouillet became the fashionable +rendezvous of literature and taste, and _bas-bleu_-ism was the rage. Even +the infirmities of this accomplished lady were imitated. An alcove was +essential to every fashionable belle, who, attired in a coquettish +dishabille, and reclining on satin pillows, fringed with lace, gave +audience to whispered gossip in the _ruelle_, as the space around the bed +was called. + +Among the personages renowned in their day, who frequented the Hotel de +Rambouillet, were Mademoiselle de Scudery (1607-1701), then in the zenith +of her fame, Madame de Sévigné (1627-1696), Mademoiselle de la Vergne, +afterwards Madame de Lafayette (1655-1693), eminent as literary +characters; the Duchess de Longueville, the Duchess de Chevreuse, and +Madame Deshoulières, afterwards distinguished for their political ability. +At the feet of these noble ladies reclined a number of young seigneurs, +dangling their little hats surcharged with plumes, while their mantles of +silk and gold were spread loosely on the floor. And there, in more grave +attire, were the professional littérateurs, such as Balzac, Voiture, +Ménage, Scudery, Chaplain, Costart, Conrad, and the Abbé Bossuet. The +Cupid of the hotel was strictly Platonic. The romances of Mademoiselle de +Scudery were long-spun disquisitions on love; her characters were drawn +from the individuals around her, who in turn attempted to sustain the +characters and adopt the language suggested in her books. One folly led on +another, till at last the vocabulary of the _salon_ became so artificial, +that none but the initiated could understand it. As for Mademoiselle de +Scudery herself, applying, it would seem, the impracticable tests she had +invented for sounding the depths of the tender passion, though not without +suitors, she died an old maid, at the advanced age of ninety-four. + +The civil wars of the Fronde (1649-1654) were unfavorable to literary +meetings. The women who took the most distinguished part in these troubles +had graduated, so to say, from the Hotel de Rambouillet, which, perhaps +for this reason, declined with the ascendency of Louis XIV. The agitations +of the Fronde taught him to distrust clever women, and he always showed a +marked dislike for female authorship. + +3. THE FRENCH ACADEMY.--The taste for literature, which had become so +generally diffused, rendered the men whose province it was to define its +laws the chiefs of a brilliant empire. Scholars, therefore, frequently met +together for critical discussion. About the year 1629 a certain number of +men of letters agreed to assemble one day in each week. It was a union of +friendship, a companionship of men of kindred tastes and occupations; and +to prevent intrusion, the meetings were for some time kept secret. When +Richelieu came to hear of the existence of the society, desirous to make +literature subservient to his political glory, he proposed to these +gentlemen to form themselves into a corporation, established by letters +patent, at the same time hinting that he had the power to put a stop to +their secret meetings. The argument was irresistible, and the little +society consented to receive from his highness the title of the French +Academy, in 1635. The members of the Academy were to occupy themselves in +establishing rules for the French language, and to take cognizance of +whatever books were written by its members, and by others who desired its +opinions. + +4. THE DRAMA.--The endeavor to imitate the ancients in the tragic art +displayed itself at a very early period among the French, and they +considered that the surest method of succeeding in this endeavor was to +observe the strictest outward regularity of form, of which they derived +their ideas more from Aristotle, and especially from Seneca, than from any +intimate acquaintance with the Greek models themselves. Three of the most +celebrated of the French tragic poets, Corneille, Racine, and Voltaire, +have given, it would seem, an immutable shape to the tragic stage of +France by adopting this system, which has been considered by the French +critics universally as alone entitled to any authority, and who have +viewed every deviation from it as a sin against good taste. The treatise +of Aristotle, from which they have derived the idea of the far-famed three +unities, of action, time, and place, which have given rise to so many +critical wars, is a mere fragment, and some scholars have been of the +opinion that it is not even a fragment of the true original, but of an +extract which some person made for his own improvement. From this anxious +observance of the Greek rules, under totally different circumstances, it +is obvious that great inconveniences and incongruities must arise; and the +criticism of the Academy on a tragedy of Corneille, "that the poet, from +the fear of sinning against the rules of art, had chosen rather to sin +against the rules of nature," is often applicable to the dramatic writers +of France. + +Corneille (1606-1684) ushered in a new era in the French drama. It has +been said of him that he was a man greater in himself than in his works, +his genius being fettered by the rules of the French drama and the +conventional state of French verse. The day of mysteries and moralities +was past, and the comedies of Hardy, the court poet of Henry IV., had, in +their turn, been consigned to oblivion, yet there was an increasing taste +for the drama. The first comedy of Corneille, "Mélite," was followed by +many others, which, though now considered unreadable, were better than +anything then known. The appearance of the "Cid," in 1635, a drama +constructed on the foundation of the old Spanish romances, constituted an +era in the dramatic history of France. Although not without great faults, +resulting from strict adherence to the rules, it was the first time that +the depths of passion had been stirred on the stage, and its success was +unprecedented. For years after, his pieces followed each other in rapid +succession, and the history of the stage was that of Corneille's works. In +the "Cid," the triumph of love was exhibited; in "Les Horaces," love was +represented as punished for its rebellion against the laws of honor; in +"Cinna," all more tender considerations are sacrificed to the implacable +duty of avenging a father; while in "Polyeucte," duty triumphs alone. +Corneille did not boldly abandon himself to the guidance of his genius; he +feared criticism, although he defied it. His success proved the signal for +envy and detraction; he became angry at being obliged to fight his way, +and therefore withdrew from the path in which he was likely to meet +enemies. His decline was as rapid as his success had been brilliant. "The +fall of the great Corneille," says Fontenelle, "may be reckoned as among +the most remarkable examples of the vicissitudes of human affairs. Even +that of Belisarius asking alms is not more striking." As his years +increased, he became more anxious for popularity; having been so long in +possession of undisputed superiority, he could not behold without +dissatisfaction the rising glory of his successors; and, towards the close +of his life, this weakness was greatly increased by the decay of his +bodily organs. + +5. PHILOSOPHY.--During this period, in a region far above court favor, +Descartes (1596-1650) elaborated his system of philosophy, in creating a +new method of philosophizing. The leading peculiarity of his system was +the attempt to deduce all moral and religious truth from self- +consciousness. _I think, therefore I am_, was the famous axiom on which +the whole was built. From this he inferred the existence of two distinct +natures in man, the mental and the physical, and the existence of certain +ideas which he called innate in the mind, and serving to connect it with +the spiritual and invisible. Besides these new views in metaphysics, +Descartes made valuable contributions to mathematical and physical +science; and though his philosophy is now generally discarded, it is not +forgotten that he opened the way for Locke, Newton, and Leibnitz, and that +his system was in reality the base of all those that superseded it. There +is scarcely a name on record, the bearer of which has given a greater +impulse to mathematical and philosophical inquiry than Descartes, and he +embodied his thoughts in such masterly language, that it has been justly +said of him, that his fame as a writer would have been greater if his +celebrity as a thinker had been less. + +The age of Descartes was an interesting era in the annals of the human +mind. The darkness of scholastic philosophy was gradually clearing away +before the light which an improved method of study was shedding over the +natural sciences. A system of philosophy, founded on observation, was +preparing the downfall of those traditional errors which had long held the +mastery in the schools. Geometricians, physicians, and astronomers taught, +by their example, the severe process of reasoning which was to regenerate +all the sciences; and minds of the first order, scattered in various parts +of Europe, communicated to each other the results of their labors, and +stimulated each other to new exertions. + +One of the most eminent contemporaries of Descartes was Pascal (1628- +1662). At the age of sixteen he wrote a treatise on conic sections, which +was followed by several important discoveries in arithmetic and geometry. +His experiments in natural science added to his fame, and he was +recognized as one of the most eminent geometricians of modern times. But +he soon formed the design of abandoning science for pursuits exclusively +religious, and circumstances arose which became the occasion of those +"Provincial Letters," which, with the "Pensées de la Religion," are +considered among the finest specimens of French literature. + +The abbey of Port Royal occupied a lonely situation about six leagues from +Paris. Its internal discipline had recently undergone a thorough +reformation, and the abbey rose to such a high reputation, that men of +piety and learning took up their abode in its vicinity, to enjoy literary +leisure. The establishment received pupils, and its system of education +became celebrated in a religious and intellectual point of view. The great +rivals of the Port Royalists were the Jesuits. Pascal, though not a member +of the establishment, was a frequent visitor, and one of his friends +there, having been drawn into a controversy with the Sorbonne on the +doctrines of the Jansenists, had recourse to his aid in replying. Pascal +published a series of letters in a dramatic form, in which he brought his +adversaries on the stage with himself, and fairly cut them up for the +public amusement. These letters, combining the comic pleasantry of Molière +with the eloquence of Demosthenes, so elegant and attractive in style, and +so clear and popular that a child might understand them, gained immediate +attention; but the Jesuits, whose policy and doctrines they attacked, +finally induced the parliament of Provence to condemn them to be burned by +the common hangman; and the Port Royalists, refusing to renounce their +opinions, were driven from their retreat, and the establishment broken up. +Pascal's masterpiece is the "Pensées de la Religion;" it consists of +fragments of thought, without apparent connection or unity of design. +These thoughts are in some places obscure; they contain repetitions, and +even contradictions, and require that arrangement that could only have +been supplied by the hand of the writer. It has often been lamented that +the author never constructed the edifice which it is believed he had +designed, and of which these thoughts were the splendid materials. + +6. THE RISE OF THE GOLDEN AGE OF FRENCH LITERATURE.--When Louis XIV. came +to the throne (1638-1715), France was already subject to conditions +certain to produce a brilliant period in literature. She had been brought +into close relations with Spain and Italy, the countries then the most +advanced in intellectual culture; and she had received from the study of +the ancient masters the best correctives of whatever might have been +extravagant in the national genius. She had learned some useful lessons +from the polemical distractions of the sixteenth century. The religious +earnestness excited by controversy was gratified by preachers of high +endowments, and the political ascendency of France, among the kingdoms of +Europe, imparted a general freedom and buoyancy. But of all the influences +which contributed to perfect the literature of France in the latter half +of the seventeenth century, none was so powerful as that of the monarch +himself, who, by his personal power, rendered his court a centre of +knowledge, and, by his government, imparted a feeling of security to those +who lived under it. The predominance of the sovereign became the most +prominent feature in the social character of the age, and the whole circle +of the literature bears its impress. Louis elevated and improved, in no +small degree, the position of literary men, by granting pensions to some, +while he raised others to high offices of state; or they were recompensed +by the public, through the general taste, which the monarch so largely +contributed to diffuse. + +The age, unlike that which followed it, was one of order and specialty in +literature; and in classifying its literary riches, we shall find the +principal authors presenting themselves under the different subjects: +Racine with tragedy, Molière with comedy, Boileau with satirical and mock- +heroic, La Fontaine with narrative poetry, Bossuet, Bourdaloue, and +Massillon with pulpit eloquence; Patru, Pellisson, and some others with +that of the bar; Bossuet, de Retz, and St. Simon with history and memoirs; +Rochefoucauld and La Bruyère with moral philosophy; Fénelon and Madame de +Lafayette with romance; and Madame de Sévigné with letter-writing. + +The personal influence of the king was most marked on pulpit eloquence and +dramatic poetry. Other branches found less favor, from his dislike to +those who chiefly treated them. The recollections of the Fronde had left +in his mind a distrust of Rochefoucauld. A similar feeling of political +jealousy, with a thorough hatred of _bel esprit_, especially in a woman, +prevented him from appreciating Madame de Sévigné; and he seems not even +to have observed La Bruyère, in his modest functions as teacher of history +to the Duke of Burgundy. He had no taste for the pure mental speculations +of Malebranche or Fénelon; and in metaphysics, as in religion, had little +patience for what was beyond the good sense of ordinary individuals. The +same hatred of excess rendered him equally the enemy of refiners and free- +thinkers, so that the like exile fell to the lot of Arnauld and Bayle, the +one carrying to the extreme the doctrines of grace, and the other those of +skeptical inquiry. Nor did he relish the excessive simplicity of La +Fontaine, or deem that his talent was a sufficient compensation for his +slovenly manners and inaptitude for court life. Of all these writers it +may be said, that they flourished rather in spite of the personal +influence of the monarch than under his favor. + +7. TRAGEDY.--The first dramas of Racine (1639-1699) were but feeble +imitations of Corneille, who advised the young author to attempt no more +tragedy. He replied by producing "Andromaque," which had a most powerful +effect upon the stage. The poet had discovered that sympathy was a more +powerful source of tragic effect than admiration, and he accordingly +employed the powers of his genius in a truthful expression of feeling and +character, and a thrilling alternation of hope and fear, anger and pity. +"Andromaque" was followed almost every year by a work of similar +character. Henrietta of England induced Corneille and Racine, unknown to +each other, to produce a tragedy on Berenice, in order to contrast the +powers of these illustrious rivals. They were represented in the year +1670; that of Corneille proved a failure, but Racine's was honored; by the +tears of the court and the city. Soon after, partly disgusted at the +intrigues against him, and partly from religious principle, Racine +abandoned his career while yet in the full vigor of his life and genius. +He was appointed historiographer to the king, conjointly with Boileau, and +after twelve years of silence he was induced by Madame de Maintenon to +compose the drama of "Esther" for the pupils in the Maison de St. Cyr, +which met with prodigious success. "Athalie," considered the most perfect +of his works, was composed with similar views; theatricals having been +abandoned at the school, however, the play was published, but found no +readers. Discouraged by this second injustice, Racine finally abandoned +the drama. "Athalie" was but little known till the year 1716, since when +its reputation has considerably augmented. Voltaire pronounced it the most +perfect work of human genius. The subject of this drama is taken from the +twenty-second and twenty-third chapter of II. Chronicles, where it is +written that Athaliah, to avenge the death of her son, destroyed all the +seed royal of the house of Judah, but that the young Joash was stolen from +among the rest by his aunt Jehoshabeath, the wife of the high-priest, and +hidden with his nurse for six years in the temple. Besides numerous +tragedies, Racine composed odes, epigrams, and spiritual songs. By a rare +combination of talents he wrote as well in prose as in verse. His "History +of the Reign of Louis XIV." was destroyed by a conflagration, but there +remain the "History of Port Royal," some pleasing letters, and some +academic discourses. The tragedies of Racine are more elegant than those +of Corneille, though less bold and striking. Corneille's principal +characters are heroes and heroines thrown into situations of extremity, +and displaying strength of mind superior to their position. Racine's +characters are men, not heroes,--men such as they are, not such as they +might possibly be. + +France produced no other tragic dramatists of the first class in this age. +Somewhat later, Crébillon (1674-1762), in such wild tragedies as "Atrea," +"Electra," and "Rhadamiste," introduced a new element, that of terror, as +a source of tragic effect. + +Cardinal Mazarin had brought from Italy the opera or lyric tragedy, which +was cultivated with success by Quinault (1637-1688). He is said to have +taken the bones out of the French language by cultivating an art in which +thought, incident, and dialogue are made secondary to the development of +tender and voluptuous feeling. + +8. COMEDY.--The comic drama, which occupied the French stage till the +middle of the seventeenth century, was the comedy of intrigue, borrowed +from Spain, and turning on disguises, dark lanterns, and trap-doors to +help or hinder the design of personages who were types, not of individual +character, but of classes, as doctors, lawyers, lovers, and confidants. It +was reserved for Molière (1622-1673) to demolish all this childishness, +and enthrone the true Thalia on the French stage. Like Shakspeare, he was +both an author and an actor. The appearance of the "Précieuses Ridicules" +was the first of the comedies in which the gifted poet assailed the +follies of his age. The object of this satire was the system of solemn +sentimentality which at this time was considered the perfection of +elegance. It will be remembered that there existed at Paris a coterie of +fashionable women who pretended to the most exalted refinement both of +feeling and expression, and that these were waited upon and worshiped by a +set of nobles and littérateurs, who used towards them a peculiar strain of +high-flown, pedantic gallantry. These ladies adopted fictitious names for +themselves and gave enigmatical ones to the commonest things. They +lavished upon each other the most tender appellations, as though in +contrast to the frigid tone in which the Platonism of the Hotel required +them to address the gentlemen of their circle. _Ma chère, ma précieuse_, +were the terms most frequently used by the leaders of this world of folly, +and a _précieuse_ came to be synonymous with a lady of the clique; hence +the title of the comedy. The piece was received with unanimous applause; a +more signal victory could not have been gained by a comic poet, and from +the time of its first representation this bombastic nonsense was given up. +Molière, perceiving that he had struck the true vein, resolved to study +human nature more and Plautus and Terence less. Comedy after comedy +followed, which were true pictures of the follies of society; but whatever +was the theme of his satire, all proved that he had a falcon's eye for +detecting vice and folly in every shape, and talons for pouncing upon all +as the natural prey of the satirist. On the boards he always took the +principal character himself, and he was a comedian in every look and +gesture. The "Malade Imaginaire" was the last of his works. When it was +produced upon the stage, the poet himself was really ill, but repressing +the voice of natural suffering, to affect that of the hypochondriac for +public amusement, he was seized with a convulsive cough, and carried home +dying. Though he was denied the last offices of the church, and his +remains were with difficulty allowed Christian burial, in the following +century his bust was placed in the Academy, and a monument erected to his +memory in the cemetery of Père la Chaise. The best of Molière's works are, +"Le Misanthrope," "Les Femmes Savantes," and "Tartuffe;" these are +considered models of high comedy. Other comedians followed, but at a great +distance from him in point of merit. + +9. FABLE, SATIRE, MOCK-HEROIC, AND OTHER POETRY.--La Fontaine (1621-1695) +was the prince of fabulists; his fables appeared successively in three +collections, and although the subjects of some of these are borrowed, the +dress is entirely new. His versification constitutes one of the greatest +charms of his poetry, and seems to have been the result of an instinctive +sense of harmony, a delicate taste, and rapidity of invention. There are +few authors in France more popular, none so much the familiar genius of +every fireside. La Fontaine himself was a mere child of nature, indolent, +and led by the whim of the moment, rather than by any fixed principle. He +was desired by his father to take charge of the domain of which he was the +keeper, and to unite himself in marriage with a family relative. With +unthinking docility he consented to both, but neglected alike his official +duties and domestic obligations with an innocent unconsciousness of wrong. +He was taken to Paris by the Duchess of Bouillon and passed his days in +her coteries, and those of Racine and Boileau, utterly forgetful of his +home and family, except when his pecuniary necessities obliged him to +return to sell portions of his property to supply his wants. When this was +exhausted, he became dependent on the kindness of female discerners of +merit. Henrietta of England attached him to her suite; and after her +death, Madame de la Sablière gave him apartments at her house, supplied +his wants, and indulged his humors for twenty years. When she retired to a +convent, Madame d'Hervart, the wife of a rich financier, offered him a +similar retreat. While on her way to make the proposal, she met him in the +street, and said, "La Fontaine, will you come and live in my house?" "I +was just going, madame," he replied, as if his doing so had been the +simplest and most natural thing in the world. And here he remained the +rest of his days. France has produced numerous writers of fables since the +time of La Fontaine, but none worthy of comparison with him. + +The writings of Descartes and Pascal, with the precepts of the Academy and +Port Royal, had established the art of prose composition, but the destiny +of poetry continued doubtful. Corneille's masterpieces afforded models +only in one department; there was no specific doctrine on the idea of what +poetry ought to be. To supply this was the mission of Boileau (1636-1711); +and he fulfilled it, first by satirizing the existing style, and then by +composing an "Art of Poetry," after the manner of Horace. In the midst of +men who made verses for the sake of making them, and composed languishing +love-songs upon the perfections of mistresses who never existed except in +their own imaginations, Boileau determined to write nothing but what +interested his feelings, to break with this affected gallantry, and draw +poetry only from the depths of his own heart. His début was made in +unmerciful satires on the works of the poetasters, and he continued to +plead the cause of reason against rhyme, of true poetry against false. +Despite the anger of the poets and their friends, his satires enjoyed +immense favor, and he consolidated his victory by writing the "Art of +Poetry," in which he attempted to restore it to its true dignity. This +work obtained for him the title of Legislator of Parnassus. The mock- +heroic poem of the "Lutrin" is considered as the happiest effort of his +muse, though inferior to the "Rape of the Lock," a composition of a +similar kind. The occasion of this poem was a frivolous dispute between +the treasurer and the chapter of a cathedral concerning the placing of a +reading-desk (_lutrin_). A friend playfully challenged Boileau to write a +heroic poem on the subject, to verify his own theory that the excellence +of a heroic poem depended upon the power of the inventor to sustain and +enlarge upon a slender groundwork. Boileau was the last of the great poets +of the golden age. + +The horizon of the poets was at this time somewhat circumscribed. Confined +to the conventional life of the court and the city, they enjoyed little +opportunity for the contemplation of nature. The policy of Louis XIV. +proscribed national recollections, so that the social life of the day was +alone open to them. Poetry thus became abstract and ideal, or limited to +the delineation of those passions which belong to a highly artificial +state of society. Madame Deshoulières (1634-1694) indeed wrote some +graceful idyls, but she by no means entered into the spirit of rural life +and manners, like La Fontaine. + +10. ELOQUENCE OF THE PULPIT AND OF THE BAR.--Louis XIV. afforded to +religious eloquence the most efficacious kind of encouragement, that of +personal attendance. The court preachers had no more attentive auditor +than their royal master, who was singularly gifted with that tenderness of +conscience which leads a man to condemn himself for his sins, yet indulge +in their commission; to feel a certain pleasure in self-accusation, and to +enjoy that reaction of mind which consists in occasionally holding his +passions in abeyance. This attention on the part of a great monarch, the +liberty of saying everything, the refined taste of the audience, who could +on the same day attend a sermon of Bourdaloue and a tragedy of Racine, all +tended to lead pulpit eloquence to a high degree of perfection; and, +accordingly, we find the function of court preacher exercised successively +by Bossuet (1627-1704), Bourdaloue (1632-1704), and Massillon (1663-1742), +the greatest names that the Roman Catholic Church has boasted in any age +or country. Bossuet addressed the conscience through the imagination, +Bourdaloue through the judgment, and Massillon through the feelings. +Fléchier (1632-1710), another court preacher, renowned chiefly as a +rhetorician, was not free from the affectation of Les Précieuses; but +Bossuet was perhaps the most distinguished type of the age of Louis XIV., +in all save its vices. For the instruction of the Dauphin, to whom he had +been appointed preceptor, he wrote his "Discourse upon Universal History," +by which he is chiefly known to us. The Protestant controversy elicited +his famous "Exposition of the Catholic Doctrine." A still more celebrated +work is the "History of the Variations," the leading principle of which +is, that to forsake the authority of the church leads one knows not +whither, that there can be no new religious views except false ones, and +that there can be no escape from the faith transmitted from age to age, +save in the wastes of skepticism. In his controversy with Fénelon, in +relation to the mystical doctrines of Madame Guyon, Bossuet showed himself +irritated, and at last furious, at the moderate and submissive tone of his +opponent. He procured the banishment of Fénelon from court, and the +disgrace of his friends; and through his influence the pope condemned the +"Maxims of the Saints," in which Fénelon endeavored to show that the views +of Madame Guyon were those of others whom the church had canonized. The +sermons of Bossuet were paternal and familiar exhortations; he seldom +prepared them, but, abandoning himself to the inspiration of the moment, +was now simple and touching, now energetic and sublime, His familiarity +with the language of inspiration imparted to his discourses a tone of +almost prophetic authority; his eloquence appeared as a native instinct, a +gift direct from heaven, neither marred nor improved by the study of human +rules. France does not acknowledge the Protestant Saurin (1677-1730), as +the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes expatriated him in childhood; but +his sermons occupy a distinguished place in the theological literature of +the French language. + +Political or parliamentary oratory was as yet unknown, for the parliament +no sooner touched on matters of state and government, than Louis XIV +entered, booted and spurred, with whip in hand, and not figuratively, but +literally, lashed the refractory assembly into silence and obedience. But +the eloquence of the bar enjoyed a considerable degree of freedom in this +age. Law and reason, however, were too often overlaid by worthless +conceits and a fantastic abuse of classic and scriptural citations. Le +Maitre (1608-1658), Patru (1604-1681), Pellisson (1624-1693), Cochin +(1687-1749), and D'Aguesseau (1668-1751), successively purified and +elevated the language of the tribunals. + +11. MORAL PHILOSOPHY.--The most celebrated moralist of the age was the +Duke de Rochefoucauld (1613-1680). He was early drawn into those conflicts +known as the wars of the Fronde, though he seems to have had little motive +for fighting or intriguing, except his restlessness of spirit and his +attachment to the Duchess de Longueville. He soon quarreled with the +duchess, dissolved his alliance with Condé, and being afterwards included +in the amnesty, he took up his residence at Paris, where he was one of the +brightest ornaments of the court of Louis XIV. His chosen friends, in his +declining years, were Madame de Sévigné, one of the most accomplished +women of the age, and Madame de Lafayette, who said of him, "He gave me +intellect, and I reformed his heart." But if the taint was removed from +his heart, it continued in the understanding. His famous "Maxims," +published in 1665, gained for the author a lasting reputation, not less +for the perfection of his style, than for the boldness of his paradoxes. +The leading peculiarity of this work is the principle that self-interest +is the ruling motive in human nature, placing every virtue, as well as +every vice, under contribution to itself. It is generally agreed that +Rochefoucauld's views of human nature were perverted by the specimens of +it which he had known in the wars of the Fronde, which were stimulated by +vice, folly, and a restless desire of power. His "Memoirs of the Reign of +Anne of Austria" embody the story of the Fronde, and his "Maxims" the +moral philosophy he deduced from it. + +While Pascal, in proving all human remedies unworthy of confidence, had +sought to drive men upon faith by pursuing them with despair, and +Rochefoucauld, by his pitiless analysis of the disguises of the human +heart, led his readers to suspect their most natural emotions, and well- +nigh took away the desire of virtue by proving its impossibility, La +Bruyère (1639-1696) endeavored to make the most of our nature, such as it +is, to render men better, even with their imperfections, to assist them by +a moral code suited to their strength, or rather to their weakness. His +"Characters of our Age" is distinguished for the exactness and variety of +the portraits, as well as for the excellence of its style. The philosophy +of La Bruyère is unquestionably based on reason, and not on revelation. + +In the moral works of Nicole, the Port Royalist (1611-1645), we find a +system of truly Christian ethics, derived from the precepts of revelation; +they are elegant in style, though they display little originality. + +The only speculative philosopher of this age, worthy of mention, is +Malebranche (1631-1715), a disciple of Descartes; but, unlike his master, +instead of admitting innate ideas, he held that we see all in Deity, and +that it is only by our spiritual union with the Being who knows all things +that we know anything. He professed optimism, and explained the existence +of evil by saying that the Deity acts only as a universal cause. His +object was to reconcile philosophy with revelation; his works, though +models of style, are now little read. + +12. HISTORY AND MEMOIRS.--History attained no degree of excellence during +this period. Bossuet's "Discourse on Universal History" was a sermon, with +general history as the text. At a somewhat earlier date, Mézeray (1610- +1683) compiled a history of France. The style is clear and nervous, and +the spirit which pervades it is bold and independent, but the facts are +not always to be relied on. The "History of Christianity," by the Abbé +Fleury (1640-1723), was pronounced by Voltaire to be the best work of the +kind that had ever appeared. Rollin (1661-1741) devoted his declining +years to the composition of historical works for the instruction of young +people. His "Ancient History" is more remarkable for the excellence of his +intentions than for the display of historical talent. Indeed, the +historical writers of this period may be said to have marked, rather than +filled a void. + +The writers of memoirs were more happy. At an earlier period, Brantôme +(1527-1614), a gentleman attached to the suite of Charles IX. and Henry +III., employed his declining years in describing men and manners as he had +observed them; and his memoirs are admitted to embody but too faithfully a +representation of that singular mixture of elegance and grossness, of +superstition and impiety, of chivalrous feelings and licentious morals, +which characterized the sixteenth century. The Duke of Sully (1559-1641), +the skillful financier of Henry IV., left valuable memoirs of the stirring +events of his day. The "Memoirs" of the Cardinal de Betz (1614-1679), who +took so active a part in the agitations of the Fronde, embody the enlarged +views of the true historian, and breathe the impetuous spirit of a man +whose native element is civil commotion, and who looks on the +chieftainship of a party as worthy to engage the best powers of his head +and heart; but his style abounds with negligences and irregularities which +would have shocked the littérateurs of the day. + +The Duke de St. Simon (1675-1755) is another of those who made no +pretensions to classical writing. All the styles of the seventeenth +century are found in him. His language has been compared to a torrent, +which appears somewhat incumbered by the debris which it carries, yet +makes its way with no less rapidity. + +Count Hamilton (1646-1720) narrates the adventures of his brother-in-law, +Count de Grammont, of which La Harpe says, "Of all frivolous books, it is +the most diverting and ingenious." Much lively narration is here expended +on incidents better forgotten. + +13. ROMANCE AND LETTER-WRITING.--The growth of kingly power, the order +which it established, and the civilization which followed in its train, +restrained the development of public life and increased the interests of +the social relations. From this new state of things arose a modified kind +of romance, in which elevated sentiments replaced the achievements of +mediaeval fiction and the military exploits of Mademoiselle de Scudery's +tales. Madame de Lafayette introduced that kind of romance in which the +absorbing interest is that of conflicting passion, and external events +were the occasion of developing the inward life of thought and feeling. +She first depicted manners as they really were, relating natural events +with gracefulness, instead of narrating those that never could have had +existence. + +The illustrious Fénelon (1651-1715) was one of the few authors of this +period who belonged exclusively to no one class. He appears as a divine in +his "Sermons" and "Maxims;" as a rhetorician in his "Dialogues on +Eloquence;" as a moralist in his "Education of Girls;" as a politician in +his "Examination of the Conscience of a King;" and it may be said that all +these characters are combined in "Telemachus," which has procured for him +a widespread fame, and which classes him among the romancers. Telemachus +was composed with the intention of its becoming a manual for his pupil, +the young Duke of Burgundy, on his entrance into manhood. Though its +publication caused him the loss of the king's favor, it went through +numerous editions, and was translated into every language of Europe. It +was considered, in its day, a manual for kings, and it became a standard +book, on account of the elegance of its style, the purity of its morals, +and the classic taste it was likely to foster in the youthful mind. + +Madame de Sévigné made no pretensions to authorship. Her letters were +written to her daughter, without the slightest idea that they would be +read, except by those to whom they were addressed; but they have +immortalized their gifted author, and have been pronounced worthy to +occupy an eminent place among the classics of French literature. The +matter which these celebrated letters contain is multifarious; they are +sketches of Madame de Sévigné's friends, Madame de Lafayette, Madame +Scarron, and all the principal personages of that brilliant court, from +which, however, she was excluded, in consequence of her early alliance +with the Fronde, her friendship for Fouquet, and her Jansenist opinions. +All the occurrences, as well as the characters of the day, are touched in +these letters; and so graphic is the pen, so clear and easy the style, +that we seem to live in those brilliant days, and to see all that was +going on. Great events are detailed in the same tone as court gossip; +Louis XIV., Turenne, Condé, the wars of France and of the empire are +freely mingled with details of housewifery, projects of marriage,--in +short, the seventeenth century is depicted in the correspondence of two +women who knew nothing so important as their own affairs. + +Considerable interest attaches also to the letters of Madame de Maintenon +(1635-1719), a lady whose life presents singular contrasts, worthy of the +time. To her influence on the king, after her private marriage to him, is +attributed much that is inauspicious in the latter part of his reign, the +combination of ascetic devotion and religious bigotry with the most +flagrant immorality, the appointment of unskillful generals and weak- +minded ministers, the persecution of the Jansenists, and, above all, the +revocation of the Edict of Nantes, which had secured religious freedom to +the Protestants. + + +PERIOD THIRD. + +LITERATURE OF THE AGE OF THE REVOLUTION AND OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY +(1700-1885). + +1. THE DAWN OF SKEPTICISM.--In the age just past we have seen religion, +antiquity, and the monarchy of Louis XIV., each exercising a distinct and +powerful influence over the buoyancy of French genius, which cheerfully +submitted to their restraining power. A school of taste and elegance had +been formed, under these circumstances, which gave law to the rest of +Europe and constituted France the leading spirit of the age. On the other +hand, the dominant influences of the eighteenth century were a skeptical +philosophy, a preference for modern literature, and a rage for political +reform. The transition, however, was not sudden nor immediate, and we come +now to the consideration of those works which occupy the midway position +between the submissive age of Louis XIV. and the daring infidelity and +republicanism of the eighteenth century. + +The eighteenth century began with the first timid protestation against the +splendid monarchy of Louis XIV., the domination of the Catholic Church, +and the classical authority of antiquity, and it ended when words came to +deeds, in the sanguinary revolution of 1789. When the first generation of +great men who sunned themselves in the glance of Louis XIV. had passed +away, there were none to succeed them; the glory of the monarch began to +fade as the noble _cortège_ disappeared, and admiration and enthusiasm +were no more. The new generation, which had not shared the glory and +prosperity of the old monarch, was not subjugated by the recollections of +his early splendor, and was not, like the preceding, proud to wear his +yoke. A certain indifference to principle began to prevail; men ventured +to doubt opinions once unquestioned; the habit of jesting with everything +and unblushing cynicism appeared almost under the eyes of the aged Louis; +even Massillon, who exhorted the people to obedience, at the same time +reminded the king that it was necessary to merit it by respecting their +rights. The Protestants, exiled by the revocation of the Edict of Nantes, +revenged themselves by pamphlets against the monarch and the church, and +these works found their way into France, and fostered there the rising +discontent and contempt for the authority of the government. + +Among these refugees was Bayle (1647-1706), the coolest and boldest of +doubters. He wrote openly against the intolerance of Louis XIV., and he +affords the first announcement of the characteristics of the century. His +"Historical and Critical Dictionary," a vast magazine of knowledge and +incredulity, was calculated to supersede the necessity of study to a +lively and thoughtless age. His skepticism is learned and philosophical, +and he ridicules those who reject without examination still more than +those who believe with docile credulity. Jean Baptiste Rousseau (1670- +1741), the lyric poet of this age, displayed in his odes considerable +energy, and a kind of pompous harmony, which no other had imparted to the +language, yet he fails to excite the sympathy. In his writings we find +that free commingling of licentious morals with a taste for religious +sublimities which characterized the last years of Louis XIV. The Abbé +Chaulieu (1639-1720) earned the appellation of the Anacreon of the Temple, +but he did not, like Rousseau, prostitute poetry in strains of low +debauchery. + +The tragedians followed in the footsteps of Racine with more or less +success, and comedy continued, with some vigor, to represent the corrupt +manners of the age. Le Sage (1668-1747) applied his talent to romance; +and, like Molière, appreciated human folly without analyzing it. "Gil +Blas" is a picture of the human heart under the aspect at once of the +vicious and the ridiculous. + +Fontenelle (1657-1757), a nephew of the great Corneille, is regarded as +the link between the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, he having +witnessed the splendor of the best days of Louis XIV., and lived long +enough to see the greatest men of the eighteenth century. He made his +début in tragedy, in which, however, he found little encouragement. In his +"Plurality of Worlds," and "Dialogues of the Dead," there is much that +indicates the man of science. His other works are valued rather for their +delicacy and impartiality than for striking originality. + +Lamotte (1672-1731) was more distinguished in criticism than in any other +sphere of authorship. He raised the standard of revolt against the worship +of antiquity, and would have dethroned poetry itself on the ground of its +inutility. Thus skepticism began by making established literary doctrines +matters of doubt and controversy. Before attacking more serious creeds it +fastened on literary ones. + +Such is the picture presented by the earlier part of the eighteenth +century. Part of the generation had remained attached to the traditions of +the great age. Others opened the path into which the whole country was +about to throw itself. The faith of the nation in its political +institutions, its religious and literary creed, was shaken to its +foundation; the positive and palpable began to engross every interest +hitherto occupied by the ideal; and this disposition, so favorable to the +cultivation of science, brought with it a universal spirit of criticism. +The habit of reflecting was generally diffused, people were not afraid to +exercise their own judgment, every man had begun to have a higher estimate +of his own opinions, and to care less for those hitherto received as +undoubted authority. Still, literature had not taken any positive +direction, nor had there yet appeared men of sufficiently powerful genius +to give it a decisive impulse. + +2. PROGRESS OF SKEPTICISM.--The first powerful attack on the manners, +institutions, and establishments of France, and indeed of Europe in +general, is that contained in the "Persian Letters" of the Baron de +Montesquieu (1689-1755); in which, under the transparent veil of +pleasantries aimed at the Moslem religion, he sought to consign to +ridicule the belief in every species of dogma. But the celebrity of +Montesquieu is founded on his "Spirit of Laws," the greatest monument of +human genius in the eighteenth century. It is a profound analysis of law +in its relation with government, customs, climate, religion, and commerce. +The book is inspired with a spirit of justice and humanity; but it places +the mind too much under the dominion of matter, and argues for necessity +rather than liberty, thus depriving moral obligation of much of its +absolute character. It is an extraordinary specimen of argument, +terseness, and erudition. + +The maturity of the eighteenth century is found in Voltaire (1694-1778); +he was the personification of its rashness, its zeal, its derision, its +ardor, and its universality. In him nature had, so to speak, identified +the individual with the nation, bestowing on him a character in the +highest degree elastic, having lively sensibility but no depth of passion, +little system of principle or conduct, but that promptitude of self- +direction which supplies its place, a quickness of perception amounting +almost to intuition, and an unexampled degree of activity, by which he was +in some sort many men at once. No writer, even in the eighteenth century, +knew so many things or treated so many subjects. That which was the ruin +of some minds was the strength of his. Rich in diversified talent and in +the gifts of fortune, he proceeded to the conquest of his age with the +combined power of the highest endowments under the most favorable +circumstances. He was driven again and again, as a moral pest, from the +capital of France by the powers that fain would have preserved the people +from his opinions, yet ever gaining ground, his wit always welcome, and +his opinions gradually prevailing, one audacious sentiment after another +broached, and branded with infamy, yet secretly entertained, till the +futile struggle was at length given in, and the nation, as with one voice, +avowed itself his disciple. + +It has been said that Voltaire showed symptoms of infidelity from infancy. +When at college he gave way to sallies of wit, mirth, and profanity which +astonished his companions and terrified his preceptors. He was twice +imprisoned in the Bastile, and many times obliged to fly from the country. +In England he became acquainted with Bolingbroke and all the most +distinguished men of the time, and in the school of English philosophy he +learned to use argument, as well as ridicule, in his war with religion. In +1740 we find him assisting Frederick the Great to get up a refutation of +Machiavelli; again, he is appointed historiographer of France, Gentleman +of the Bed-chamber, and Member of the Academy; then he accepts an +invitation to reside at the Court of Prussia, where he soon quarrels with +the king. After many vicissitudes he finally purchased the estate of +Ferney, near the Lake of Geneva, where he resided during the rest of his +days. From this retreat he poured out an exhaustless variety of books, +which were extensively circulated and eagerly perused. He had the +admiration of all the wits and philosophers of Europe, and included among +his pupils and correspondents some of the greatest sovereigns of the age. +At the age of eighty-four he again visited Paris. Here his levees were +more crowded than those of any emperor; princes and peers thronged his +ante-chamber, and when he rode through the streets a train attended him +which stretched far over the city. He was made president of the Academy, +and crowned with laurel at the theatre, where his bust was placed on the +stage and adorned with palms and garlands. He died soon after, without the +rites of the church, and was interred secretly at a Benedictine abbey. + +The national enthusiasm which decreed Voltaire, as he descended to the +tomb, such a triumph as might have honored a benefactor of the race, gave +place to doubt and disputation as to his merits. In tragedy he is admitted +to rank after Corneille and Racine; in "Zaïre," which is his masterpiece, +there is neither the lofty conception of the one, nor the perfect +versification of the other, but there is a warmth of passion, an +enthusiasm of feeling, and a gracefulness of expression which fascinate +and subdue. As an epic poet he has least sustained his renown; though the +"Henriade" has unquestionably some great beauties, its machinery is tame, +and the want of poetic illusion is severely felt. His poetry, especially +that of his later years, is by no means so disgraceful to the author as +the witticisms in prose, the tales, dialogues, romances, and pasquinades +which were eagerly sought for and readily furnished, and which are, with +little exception, totally unworthy of an honorable man. As a historian, +Voltaire lacked reflection and patience for investigation. His "History of +Charles XII.," however, was deservedly successful; the reason being that +he chose for his hero the most romantic and adventurous of sovereigns, to +describe whom there was more need of rapid narrative and brilliant +coloring than of profound knowledge and a just appreciation of human +nature. In his history of the age of Louis XIV., Voltaire sought not only +to present a picture, but a series of researches destined to instruct the +memory and exercise the judgment. The English historians, imitating his +mode, have surpassed him in erudition and philosophic impartiality. Still +later, his own countrymen have carried this species of writing to a high +degree of perfection. Throughout the "Essay on the Manners of Nations" we +find traces of that hatred of religion which he openly cherished in the +latter part of his life. The style, however, is pleasing, the facts well +arranged, and the portraits traced with originality and vivacity. + +Some have attributed to Voltaire the serious design of overturning the +three great bases of society, religion, morality, and civil government, +but he had not the genius of a philosopher, and there is no system of +philosophy in his works. That he had a design to amuse and influence his +age, and to avenge himself on his enemies, is obvious enough. Envy and +hatred employed against him the weapons of religion, hence he viewed it +only as an instrument of persecution. His great powers of mind were +continually directed by the opinions of the times, and the desire of +popularity was his ruling motive. The character of his earlier writings +shows that he did not bring into the world a very independent spirit; they +display the lightness and frivolity of the time with the submission of a +courtier for every kind of authority, but as his success increased +everything encouraged him to imbue his works with that spirit which found +so general a welcome. In vain the authority of the civil government +endeavored to arrest the impulse which was gaining strength from day to +day; in vain this director of the public mind was imprisoned and exiled; +the farther he advanced in his career and the more audaciously he +propagated his views on religion and government, the more he was rewarded +with the renown which he sought. Monarchs became his friends and his +flatterers; opposition only increased his energy, and made him often +forget moderation and good taste. + +3. FRENCH LITERATURE DURING THE REVOLUTION.--The names of Voltaire and +Montesquieu eclipse all others in the first half of the eighteenth +century, but the influence of Voltaire was by far the most immediate and +extensive. After he had reached the zenith of his glory, about the middle +of the century, there appeared in France a display of various talent, +evoked by his example and trained by his instructions, yet boasting an +independent existence. In the works of these men was consummated the +literary revolution of which we have marked the beginnings, a revolution +more striking than any other ever witnessed in the same space of time. It +was no longer a few eminent men that surrendered themselves boldly to the +skeptical philosophy which is the grand characteristic of the eighteenth +century; writers of inferior note followed in the same path; the new +opinions took entire possession of all literature and cooperated with the +state of the morals and the government to bring about a fearful +revolution. The whole strength of the literature of this age being +directed towards the subversion of the national institutions and religion, +formed a homogeneous body of science, literature, and the arts, and a +compact phalanx of all writers under the common name of philosophers. +Women had their share in the maintenance of this league; the salons of +Mesdames du Deffand (1696-1780), Geoffrin (b. 1777), and De l'Espinasse +(1732-1776) were its favorite resorts; but the great rendezvous was that +of the Baron d'Holbach, whence its doctrines spread far and wide, +blasting, like a malaria, whatever it met with on its way that had any +connection with religion, morals, or venerable social customs. Besides +Voltaire, who presided over this coterie, at least in spirit, the daily +company included Diderot, an enthusiast by nature and a cynic and sophist +by profession; D'Alembert, a genius of the first order in mathematics, +though less distinguished in literature; the malicious Marmontel, the +philosopher Helvétius, the Abbé Raynal, the furious enemy of all modern +institutions; the would-be sentimentalist Grimm, and D'Holbach himself. +Hume, Gibbon, Bolingbroke, and others were affiliated members. Their plan +was to write a book which would in some sense supersede all others, itself +forming a library containing the most recent discoveries in philosophy, +and the best explanations and details on every topic, literary and +scientific. + +The project of this great enterprise of an Encyclopaedia as an immense +vehicle for the development of the opinions of the philosophers, alarmed +the government, and the parliament and the clergy pronounced its +condemnation. The philosophy of Descartes and the eminent thinkers of the +seventeenth century assumed the soul of man as the starting-point in the +investigation of physical science. The men of the eighteenth century had +become tired of following out the sublimities and abstractions of the +Cartesians, and they took the opposite course; beginning from sensation, +they did not stop short of the grossest materialism and positive atheism. + +Such were the principles of the Encyclopaedia, more fully developed and +explained in the writings of Condillac (1715-1780), the head of this +school of philosophy. His first work, "On the Origin of Human Knowledge," +contains the germ of all that he afterwards published. In his "Treatise on +Sensation," he endeavored, but in vain, to derive the notion of duty from +sensation, and expert as he was in logic, he could not conceal the great +gulf which his theory left between these two terms. Few writers have +enjoyed more success; he brought the science of thought within the reach +of the vulgar by stripping it of everything elevated, and every one was +surprised and delighted to find that philosophy was so easy a thing. +Having determined not to establish morality on any innate principles of +the soul, these philosophers founded it on the fact common to all animated +nature, the feeling of self-interest. Already deism had rejected the +evidence of a divine revelation. Now atheism raised a more audacious +front, and proclaimed that all religious sentiment was but the reverie of +a disordered mind. The works in which this opinion is most expressly +announced, date from the period of the Encyclopaedia. + +D'Alembert (1717-1773) is now chiefly known as the author of the +preliminary discourse of the Encyclopaedia, which is ranked among the +principal works of the age. + +Diderot (1714-1784), had he devoted himself to any one sphere, instead of +wandering about in the chaos of opinions which rose and perished around +him, might have left a lasting reputation, and posterity, instead of +merely repeating his name, would have spoken of his works. He may be +regarded as a writer injurious at once to literature and to morals. + +The most faithful disciple of the philosophy of this period was Helvétius +(1715-1771), known chiefly by his work, "On the Mind," the object of which +is to prove that physical sensibility is the origin of all our thoughts. +Of all the writers who maintained this opinion, none have represented it +in so gross a manner. His work was condemned by the Sorbonne, the pope, +and the parliament; it was burned by the hand of the hangman, and the +author was compelled to retract it. + +Jean Jacques Rousseau (1712-1778) was a writer who marched under none of +the recognized banners of the day. The Encyclopaedists had flattered +themselves that they had tuned the opinion of all Europe to their +philosophical strain, when suddenly they heard his discordant note. +Without family, without friends, without home, wandering from place to +place, from one condition in life to another, he conceived a species of +revolt against society, and a feeling of bitterness against those civil +organizations in which he could never find a suitable place. He combated +the atheism of the Encyclopaedists, their materialism and contempt for +moral virtue, for pure deism was his creed. He believed in a Supreme +Being, a future state, and the excellence of virtue, but denying all +revealed religion, he would have men advance in the paths of virtue, +freely and proudly, from love of virtue itself, and not from any sense of +duty or obligation. In the "Social Contract" he traced the principles of +government and laws in the nature of man, and endeavored to show the end +which they proposed to themselves by living in communities, and the best +means of attaining this end. + +The two most notable works of Rousseau are "Julie," or the "Nouvelle +Héloïse," and "Emile." The former is a kind of romance, owing its interest +mainly to development of character, and not to incident or plot. Emile +embodies a system of education in which the author's thoughts are digested +and arranged. He gives himself an imaginary pupil, the representative of +that life of spontaneous development which was the writer's ideal. In this +work there is an episode, the "Savoyard Vicar's Confession of Faith," +which is a declaration of pure deism, leveled especially against the +errors of Catholicism. It raised a perfect tempest against the author from +every quarter. The council of Geneva caused his book to be burned by the +executioner, and the parliament of Paris threatened him with imprisonment. +Under these circumstances he wrote his "Confessions," which he believed +would vindicate him before the world. The reader, who may expect to find +this book abounding with at least as much virtue as a man may possess +without Christian principle, will find in it not a single feature of +greatness; it is a proclamation of disagreeable faults; and yet he would +persuade us that he was virtuous, by giving the clearest proofs that he +was not. + +To the names of Montesquieu, Voltaire, and Rousseau, must be added that of +Buffon (1707-1788), and we have the four writers of this age who left all +their contemporaries far behind. Buffon having been appointed +superintendent of the Jardin des Plantes, and having enriched this fine +establishment, and gathered into it, from all parts of the world, various +productions of nature, conceived the project of composing a natural +history, which should embrace the whole immensity of being, animate and +inanimate. He first laid down the theory of the earth, then treated the +natural history of man, afterwards that of viviparous quadrupeds and +birds. The first volumes of his work appeared in 1749; the most important +of the supplementary matter which followed was the "Epochs of Nature." He +gave incredible attention to his style, and is one of the most brilliant +writers of the eighteenth century. No naturalist has ever equaled him in +the magnificence of his theories, or the animation of his descriptions of +the manners and habits of animals. It is said that he wrote the "Epochs of +Nature" eleven times over. He not only recited his compositions aloud, in +order to judge of the rhythm and cadence, but he made a point of being in +full dress before he sat down to write, believing that the splendor of his +habiliments impressed his language with that pomp and elegance which he so +much admired, and which is his distinguishing characteristic. Buffon, +while maintaining friendship with the celebrated men of his age, did not +identify himself with the party of the encyclopaedists, or the sects into +which they were divided. But he lived among men who deemed physical nature +alone worthy of study, and the wits of the age who had succeeded in +discovering how a Supreme Being might be dispensed with. Buffon evaded the +subject entirely, and amid all his lofty soarings showed no disposition to +rise to the Great First Cause. After his time, science lost its +contemplative and poetical character, and acquired that of intelligent +observation. It became a practical thing, and entered into close alliance +with the arts. The arts and sciences, thus combined, became the glory of +France, as literature had been in the preceding age. + +The declining years of Voltaire and Rousseau witnessed no rising genius of +similar power, but some authors of a secondary rank deserve notice. +Marmontel (1728-1799) is distinguished as the writer of "Belisarius," a +philosophical romance, "Moral Tales," and "Elements of Literature." He +endeavors to lead his readers to the enjoyments of literature, instead of +detaining them with frigid criticisms. + +La Harpe (1739-1803) displayed great eloquence in literary criticism, and +some of his works maintain their place, though they have little claim to +originality. + +Many writers devoted themselves to history, but the spirit of French +philosophy was uncongenial to this species of composition, and the age +does not afford one remarkable historian. The fame of the Abbé Raynal +(1718-1796) rests chiefly on his "History of the Two Indies." It is +difficult to conceive how a sober man could have arrived at such delirium +of opinion, and how he could so complacently exhibit principles which +tended to overthrow the whole system of society. Scarcely a crime was +committed during the revolution, with which this century closes, but could +find its advocate in this declaimer. When, however, Raynal found himself +in the midst of the turmoils he had suggested, he behaved with justice, +moderation, and courage; thus proving that his opinions were not the +result of experience. + +The days of true religious eloquence were past; faith was extinct among +the greater part of the community, and cold and timid among the rest. +Preachers, in deference to their audience, kept out of view whatever was +purely religious, and enlarged on those topics which coincided with mere +human morality. Religion was introduced only as an accessory which it was +necessary to disguise skillfully, in order to escape derision. Genuine +pulpit eloquence was out of the question under these circumstances. + +Forensic eloquence had been improving in simplicity and seriousness since +the commencement of the eighteenth century, and men of the law were now +led by the circumstances of the times to trace out universal principles, +rather than to discuss isolated facts. The eloquence of the bar thus +acquired more extensive influence; the measures of the government +converted it into a hostile power, and it furnished itself with weapons of +reason and erudition which had not been thought of before. + +We come now close upon the epoch when the national spirit was no longer to +be traced in books, but in actions. The reign of Louis XV. had been marked +with general disorder, and while he was sinking into the grave, amid the +scorn of the people, the magistrates were punished for opposing the royal +authority, and the public were indignant at the arbitrary proceeding. +Beaumarchais (1732-1799) became the organ of this feeling, and his +memoirs, like his comedies, are replete with enthusiasm, cynicism, and +buffoonery. Literature was never so popular; it was regarded as the +universal and powerful instrument which it behooved every man to possess. +All grades of society were filled with authors and philosophers; the +public mind was tending towards some change, without knowing what it would +have; from the monarch on the throne to the lowest of the people, all +perceived the utter discordance that prevailed between existing opinions +and existing institutions. + +In the midst of the dull murmur which announced the approaching storm, +literature, as though its work of agitation had been completed, took up +the shepherd's reed for public amusement. "Posterity would scarcely +believe," says an eminent historian, "that 'Paul and Virginia' and the +'Indian Cottage' were composed at this juncture by Bernardin de St, +Pierre, (1737-1814), as also the 'Fables of Florian' which are the only +ones that have been considered readable since those of La Fontaine." About +the same time appeared the "Voyage of Anacharsis," in which the Abbé +Barthélemy (1716-1795) embodied his erudition in an attractive form, +presenting a lively picture of Greece in the time of Pericles. + +Among the more moral writers of this age was Necker (1732-1804), the +financial minister of Louis XVI., who maintained the cause of religion +against the torrent of public opinion in works distinguished for delicacy +and elevation, seriousness and elegance. + +When the storm at length burst, the country was exposed to every kind of +revolutionary tyranny. The first actors in the work of destruction were, +for the most part, actuated by good intentions; but these were soon +superseded by men of a lower class, envious of all distinctions of rank +and deeply imbued with the spirit of the philosophers. Some derived, from +the writings of Rousseau, a hatred of everything above them; others had +taken from Mably his admiration of the ancient republics of Greece and +Rome, and would reproduce them in France; others had borrowed from Raynal +the revolutionary torch which he had lighted for the destruction of all +institutions; others, educated in the atheistic fanaticism of Diderot, +trembled with rage at the very name of a priest or religion; and thus the +Revolution was gradually handed over to the guidance of passion and +personal interest. + +In hurrying past these years of anarchy and bloodshed, we cast a glance +upon the poet, André Chénier (1762-1794), who dared to write against the +excesses of his countrymen, in consequence of which he was cited before +the revolutionary tribunal, condemned, and executed. + +4. FRENCH LITERATURE UNDER THE EMPIRE.--Napoleon, on the establishment of +the empire, gave great encouragement to the arts, but none to literature. +Books were in little request; old editions were sold for a fraction of +their original price; but new works were dear, because the demand for them +was so limited. When literature again lifted its head, it appeared that in +the chaos of events a new order of thought had been generated. The +feelings of the people were for the freer forms of modern literature, +introduced by Madame de Staël and Châteaubriand, rather than the ancient +classics and the French models of the seventeenth century. + +Madame de Staël (1766-1817) has been pronounced by the general voice to be +among the greatest of all female authors. She was early introduced to the +society of the cleverest men in Paris, with whom her father's house was a +favorite resort; and before she was twelve years of age, such men as +Raynal, Marmontel, and Grimm used to converse with her as though she were +twenty, calling out her ready eloquence, inquiring into her studies, and +recommending new books. She thus imbibed a taste for society and +distinction, and for bearing her part in the brilliant conversation of the +salon. At the age of twenty she became the wife of the Baron de Staël, the +Swedish minister at Paris. On her return, after the Reign of Terror, +Madame de Staël became the centre of a political society, and her drawing- +rooms were the resort of distinguished foreigners, ambassadors, and +authors. On the accession of Napoleon, a mutual hostility arose between +him and this celebrated woman, which ended in her banishment and the +suppression of her works. + +"The Six Years of Exile" is the most simple and interesting of her +productions. Her "Considerations on the French Revolution" is the most +valuable of her political articles. Among her works of fiction, "Corinne" +and "Delphine" have had the highest popularity. But of all her writings, +that on "Germany" is considered worthy of the highest rank, and it was +calculated to influence most beneficially the literature of her country, +by opening to the rising generation of France unknown treasures of +literature and philosophy. Writers like Delavigne, Lamartine, Béranger, De +Vigny, and Victor Hugo, though in no respect imitators of Madame de Staël, +are probably much indebted to her for the stimulus to originality which +her writings afforded. + +Another female author, who lived, like Madame de Staël through the +Revolution, and exercised an influence on public events, was Madame de +Genlis (1746-1830). Her works, which extend to at least eighty volumes, +are chiefly educational treatises, moral tales, and historical romances. +Her political power depended rather on her private influence in the +Orleans family than upon her pen. + +Châteaubriand (1769-1848) must be placed side by side with Madame de +Staël, as another of those brilliant and versatile geniuses who have +dazzled the eyes of their countrymen, and exerted a permanent influence on +French literature. While the eighteenth century had used against religion +all the weapons of ridicule, he defended it by poetry and romance. +Christianity he considered the most poetical of all religions, the most +attractive, the most fertile in literary, social, and artistic results, +and he develops his theme with every advantage of language and style in +the "Genius of Christianity" and the "Martyrs." Some of the +characteristics of Châteaubriand, however, have produced a seriously +injurious effect on French literature, and of these the most contagious +and corrupting is his passion for the glitter of words and the pageantry +of high-sounding phrases. + +The salutary reaction against skepticism, produced in literature by Madame +de Staël and Châteaubriand was carried into philosophy by Maine de Biran +(1766-1824), and more particularly by Royer-Collard (1763-1846) who took a +decided stand against the school of Condillac and the materialists of the +eighteenth century. Royer-Collard restored its spiritual character to the +science of the human mind, by introducing into it the psychological +discoveries of the Scotch school. Benjamin Constant (1767-1830) infused +into political science a spirit of freedom before quite unknown. In his +works he attempted to limit the authority of the government, to build up +society on personal freedom, and on the guaranties of individual right. +His writings combine extraordinary power of logic with great variety and +beauty of style. + +Proceeding in another direction, Bonald (1753-1846) opposed the spirit of +the French Revolution, by establishing the authority of the church as the +only criterion of truth and morality. As Rousseau had placed sovereign +power in the will of the people, Bonald placed it in that of God, as it is +manifested to man through language and revelation, and of this revelation +he regarded the Catholic church as the interpreter. He develops his +doctrines in numerous works, especially in his "Primitive Legislation," +which is characterized by boldness, dogmatism, sophistry in argument, and +by severity and purity of style. + +The peculiarities of Bonald were carried still farther by De Maistre +(1755-1852), whose hatred of the Revolution led him into the system of an +absolute theocracy, such as was dreamed of by Gregory VII. and Innocent +III. + +5. FRENCH LITERATURE FROM THE RESTORATION TO THE PRESENT TIME.--The +influences already spoken of, in connection with the literary progress +which began in Germany and England towards the close of the eighteenth +century, produced in the beginning of the nineteenth century a revival in +French literature; but the conflict of opinions, the immense number of +authors, and their extraordinary fecundity, render it difficult to examine +or classify them. We first notice the great advances in history and +biography. Among the earlier specimens may be mentioned the voluminous +works of Sismondi and the "Biographie Universelle," in fifty-two closely +printed volumes, the most valuable body of biography that any modern +literature can boast. Since 1830, historians and literary critics have +occupied the foreground in French literature. The historians have divided +themselves into two schools, the descriptive and the philosophical. With +the one class history consists of a narration of facts in connection with +a picture of manners, bringing scenes of the past vividly before the mind +of the reader, leaving him to deduce general truths from the particular +ones brought before him. The style of these writers is simple and manly, +and no opinions of their own shine through their statements. The chief +representatives of this class, who regard Sir Walter Scott as their +master, are Thierry, Villemain, Barante, and in historical sketches and +novels, Dumas and De Vigny. + +The philosophical school, on the other hand, consider this scenic +narrative more suitable to romance than to history; they seek in the +events of the past the chain of causes and effects in order to arrive at +general conclusions which may direct the conduct of men in the future. At +the head of this school is Guizot (1787-1876), who has developed his +historical views in his essays on the "History of France," and more +particularly in his "History of European Civilization," in which he points +out the origin of modern civilization, and follows the progress of the +human mind from the fall of the Roman Empire. The philosophical historians +have been again divided according to their different theories, but the +most eminent of them are those whom Châteaubriand calls fatalists; men +who, having surveyed the course of public events, have come to the +conclusion that individual character has had little influence on the +political destinies of mankind, that there is a general and inevitable +series of events which regularly succeed each other with the certainty of +cause and effect, and that it is as easy to trace it as it is impossible +to resist or divert it from its course. A tendency to these views is +visible in almost every French historian and philosopher of the present +time. The philosophy of history thus grounded has, in their hands, assumed +the aspect of a science. + +HISTORY.--Among the celebrated writers who have combined the philosophical +and narrative styles are the brothers Amadée and Augustine Thierry (1787- +1873), (1795-1856), who produced a "History of the Gauls," of "The Norman +Conquest," and other excellent works; Sismondi (1773-1842), whose history +of the "Italian Republics" and of the "French People" are characterized by +immense erudition; Thiers (1797-1877), whose clearness of style is +combined with comprehensiveness and eloquence; Mignet (1796-1884), +celebrated for his history of the French Revolution. The voluminous +"History of France," by Henri Martin (1810-1884), is perhaps the best and +most important work treating the whole subject in detail. + +The downfall of the July Monarchy brought forth works of importance on +this subject, the most noted of which are those by Lamartine, Michelet, +and Louis Blanc. Lamartine's "History of the Girondins" was written from a +constitutional and republican point of view, and was not without influence +in producing the Revolution of 1848, but it is the work of an orator and +poet rather than that of a historian. The historical and political works +of Michelet (1778-1873) are of a more original character; his imaginative +powers are of the highest order, and his style is striking and +picturesque. The work of Louis Blanc (1813-1883) is that of a sincere and +ardent republican, and is useful from that point of view, as is that of +Quinet (1803-1875). Lanfrey places the character of Napoleon in a new and +far from favorable light. Taine, so distinguished in literary criticism, +has discussed elaborately the causes of the Revolution. + +POETRY AND THE DRAMA; RISE OF THE ROMANTIC SCHOOL.--During the Middle Ages +men of letters followed each other in the cultivation of certain literary +forms, often with little regard to their adaptation to the subject. The +vast extension of thought and knowledge in the sixteenth century broke up +the old forms and introduced the practice of treating each subject in a +manner more or less appropriate to it. The seventeenth and eighteenth +centuries witnessed a return to the observance of arbitrary rules, though +the evil effects were somewhat counterbalanced by the enlargement of +thought and the increasing knowledge of other literature, ancient and +modern. The great Romantic movement, which began in the second quarter of +the nineteenth century, repeated on a larger scale the movement of the +sixteenth to break up and discard many stiff and useless literary forms, +to give strength and variety to such as were retained, and to enrich the +language by new inventions and revivals. The supporters of this reform +long maintained an animated controversy with the adherents of the +classical school, and it was only after several years that the younger +combatants came out victorious. The objects of the school were so +violently opposed that the king was petitioned to forbid the admission of +any Romantic drama at the Théâtre Français, the petitioners asserting that +the object of their adversaries was to burn everything that had been +adored and to adore everything that had been burned. The representation of +Victor Hugo's "Hernani" was the culmination of the struggle, and since +that time all the greatest men of letters in France have been on the +innovating side. In _belles-lettres_ and history the result has been most +remarkable. Obsolete rules which had so long regulated the French stage +have been abolished; poetry not dramatic has been revived; prose romance +and literary criticism have been brought to a degree of perfection +previously unknown; and in history more various and remarkable works have +been produced than ever before, while the modern French language, if it +lacks the precision and elegance to which from 1680 to 1800 all else had +been sacrificed, has become a much more suitable instrument for the +accurate and copious treatment of scientific subjects. At the time of the +accession of Charles X. (1824), the only writers of eminence were Béranger +(1780-1857), Lamartine (1790-1869), and Lamennais (1782-1854), and they +mark the transition between the old and new. Béranger was the poet of the +people; most of his earlier compositions were political, extolling the +greatness of the fallen empire or bewailing the low state of France under +the restored dynasty. They were received with enthusiasm and sung from one +end of the country to the other. His later songs exhibit a not unpleasing +change from the audacious and too often licentious tone of his earlier +days. In the hands of Lamartine the language, softened and harmonized, +loses that clear epigrammatic expression which, before him, had appeared +inseparable from French poetry. His works are pervaded by an earnest +religious feeling and a rare delicacy of expression. "Jocelyn," a romance +in verse, the "Meditations," and "Harmonies" are among his best works. + +Victor Hugo (b. 1800) at the age of twenty-five was the acknowledged +master in poetry as in the drama, and this position he still holds. In him +all the Romantic characteristics are expressed and embodied,--disregard of +arbitrary rules, free choice of subjects, variety and vigor of metre, and +beauty of diction. His poetical influence has been represented in three +different schools, corresponding in point of time with the first outburst +of the movement, a brief period of reaction, and the closing years of the +second empire. Of the first, Théophile Gautier (1811-1872) was the most +distinguished member. The next generation produced those remarkable poets, +Theodore de Banville (b. 1820), who composed a large amount of verse +faultless in form and exquisite in shade and color, but so neutral in tone +that it has found few admirers, and Charles Baudelaire (1821-1867), who +offends by the choice of unpopular subjects and the terrible truth of his +analysis. + +The poems of De Vigny are sweet and elegant, though somewhat lacking in +the energy belonging to lyric composition. Those of Alfred de Musset +(1800-1857) are among the finest in the language. + +The Gascon poet Jasmin has produced a good deal of verse in the western +dialect of the _Langue d'oc_, and recently a more cultivated and literary +school of poets has arisen in Provence, the chief of whom is Mistral. + +The effect of the Romantic movement on the drama has been the introduction +of a species of play called the _drame_, as opposed to regular comedy and +tragedy, and admitting of freer treatment. Victor Hugo, Alexandre Dumas +(1803-1874), Victorien Sardou (b. 1831), Alexandre Dumas _fils_ (b. 1821), +Legouvé (b. 1807), Scribe (1791-1861), Octave Feuillet (b. 1812), have +produced works of this class. + +The literature of France during the last generation has been prolific in +dramas and romances, all of which indicate a chaos of opinion. It is not +professedly infidel, like that of the eighteenth century, nor professedly +pietistic, like that of the seventeenth. It seems to have no general aim, +the opinions and efforts of the authors being seldom consistent with +themselves for any length of time. No one can deny that this literature +engages the reader's most intense interest by the seductive sagacity of +the movement, the variety of incident, and the most perfect command of +those means calculated to produce certain ends. + +In 1866 appeared a collection of poems, "Le Parnasse Contemporain," which +included contributions of many poets already named, and of others unknown. +Two other collections followed, one in 1869 and one in 1876, by numerous +contributors, who have mostly published separate works. They are called +collectively, half seriously and half in derision, "Les Parnassiens." +Their cardinal principle is a devotion to poetry as an art, with diversity +of aim and subject. Of these, Coppée devotes himself to domestic and +social subjects; Louise Siefert indulges in the poetry of despair; +Glatigny excels all in individuality of poetical treatment. The +Parnassiens number three or four score poets; the average of their work is +high, though to none can be assigned the first rank. + +FICTION.--Previous to 1830 no writer of fiction had formed a school, nor +had this form of literature been cultivated to any great extent. From the +immense influence of Walter Scott, or from other causes, there suddenly +appeared a remarkable group of novelists, Hugo, Gautier, Dumas, Mérimée, +Balzac, George Sand, Sandeau, Charles de Bernard, and others scarcely +inferior. It is remarkable that the excellence of the first group has been +maintained by a new generation, Murger, About, Feuillet, Flaubert, +Erckmann-Chatrian, Droz, Daudet, Cherbulliez, Gaboriau, Dumas _fils_, and +others. + +During this period the romance-writing of France has taken two different +directions. The first, that of the novel of incident, of which Scott was +the model; the second, that of analysis and character, illustrated by the +genius of Balzac and George Sand. The stories of Hugo are novels of +incident with ideal character painting. Dumas's works are dramatic in +character and charming for their brilliancy and wit. His "Trois +Mousquetaires" and "Monte Christo" are considered his best novels. Of a +similar kind are the novels of Eugene Sue. Both writers were followed by a +crowd of companions and imitators. The taste for the novel of incident, +which had nearly died out, was renewed in another form, with the admixture +of domestic interest, by the literary partners, Erckmann-Chatrian. + +Théophile Gautier modified the incident novel in many short tales, a kind +of writing for which the French have always been famous, and of which the +writings of Gautier were masterpieces. With him may be classed Prosper +Mérimée (1803-1871), one of the most exquisite masters of the language. + +Since 1830 the tendency has been towards novels of contemporary life. The +two great masters of the novel of character and manners, as opposed to +that of history and incident, are Honoré de Balzac (1799-1850) and Aurore +Dudevant, commonly called George Sand (d. 1876), whose early writings are +strongly tinged with the spirit of revolt against moral and social +arrangements: later she devoted herself to studies of country life and +manners, involving bold sketches of character and dramatic situations. One +of the most remarkable characteristics of her work is the apparently +inexhaustible imagination with which she continued to the close of her +long life to pour forth many volumes of fiction year after year. Balzac, +as a writer, was equally productive. In the "Comédie Humaine" he attempted +to cover the whole ground of human, or at least of French life, and the +success he attained was remarkable. The influence of these two writers +affected the entire body of those who succeeded them with very few +exceptions. Among these are Jules Sandeau, whose novels are distinguished +by minute character-drawing in tones of a sombre hue. + +Saintine, the author of "Picciola," Mme. Craven (Reçit d'une Soeur), Henri +Beyle, who, under the _nom de plume_ of _Stendhal_, wrote the "Chartreuse +de Parme," a powerful novel of the analytical kind, and Henri Murger, a +painter of Bohemian life. Octave Feuillet has attained great popularity in +romances of fashionable life. Gustave Flaubert (b. 1821), with great +acuteness and knowledge of human nature, combines scholarship and a power +over the language not surpassed by any writer of the century. Edmond About +(b. 1828) is distinguished by his refined wit. One of the most popular +writers of the second empire is Ernest Feydeau (1821-1874), a writer of +great ability, but morbid and affected in the choice and treatment of his +subjects. Of late, many writers of the realist school have striven to +outdo their predecessors in carrying out the principles of Balzac; among +these are Gaboriau, Cherbulliez, Droz, Bélot, Alphonse Daudet. + +CRITICISM.--Previous to the Romantic movement in France the office of +criticism had been to compare all literary productions with certain +established rules, and to judge them accordingly. The theory of the new +school was, that a work should be judged by itself alone or by the +author's ideal. The great master of this school was Sainte-Beuve (1804- +1869), who possessed a rare combination of great and accurate learning, +compass and profundity of thought, and above all sympathy in judgment. +Hippolyte Taine (b. 1828), the most brilliant of living French critics, +Théophile Gautier, Arsène Houssaye, Jules Janin (d. 1874), Sarcey, and +others, are distinguished in this branch of letters. + +MISCELLANEOUS.--Among earlier writers of the nineteenth century are +Sismondi, whose "Literature of Southern Europe" remains without a rival, +the work of Ginguené on "Italian Literature," and of Renouard on +"Provençal Poetry." In intellectual philosophy Jouffroy and Damiron +continued the work begun by Royer-Collard, that of destroying the +influence of sensualism and materialism. The philosophical writings of +Cousin (1792-1867) are models of didactic prose, and in his work on "The +Beautiful, True, and Good" he raises the science of aesthetics to its +highest dignity. Lamennais (1782-1854) exhibits in his writings various +phases of religious thought, ending in rationalism. Comte (1798-1857), in +his "Positive Philosophy," shows power of generalization and force of +logic, though tending to atheism and socialism. De Tocqueville and +Chevalier are distinguished in political science, the former particularly +for his able work on "Democracy in America." Renan (b. 1823) is a +prominent name in theological writing, and Montalembert (1810-1870) a +historian with strong religious tendencies. + +Among the orators Lacordaire, Père Felix, Père Hyacinthe, and Coquerel are +best known. + +Among the women of France distinguished for their literary abilities are +Mme. Durant, who, under the name of Henri Greville, has given, in a series +of tales, many charming pictures of Russian life, Mlle. Clarisse Bader, +who has produced valuable historical works on the condition of women in +all ages, and Mme. Adam, a brilliant writer and journalist. + +In science, Pasteur and Milne-Edwards hold the first rank in biology, Paul +Bert in physiology, and Quatrefages in anthropology of races. + + + + +SPANISH LITERATURE. + +INTRODUCTION.--1. Spanish Literature and its Divisions.--2. The Language. + +PERIOD FIRST.--1. Early National Literature; the Poem of the Cid; Berceo, +Alfonso the Wise, Segura; Don Juan Manuel, the Archpriest of Hita, Santob, +Ayala.--2. Old Ballads.--3. The Chronicles.--4. Romances of Chivalry.--5. +The Drama.--6. Provençal Literature in Spain.--7. The Influence of Italian +Literature in Spain.--8. The Cancioneros and Prose Writing.--9. The +Inquisition. + +PERIOD SECOND.--1. The Effect of Intolerance on Letters.--2. Influence of +Italy on Spanish Literature; Boscan, Garcilasso de la Vega, Diego de +Mendoza.--3. History; Cortez, Gomara, Oviedo, Las Casas.--4. The Drama, +Rueda, Lope de Vega, Calderon de la Barca.--5. Romances and Tales; +Cervantes, and other Writers of Fiction.--6. Historical Narrative Poems; +Ercilla.--7. Lyric Poetry; the Argensolas; Luis de Leon, Quevedo, Herrera, +Gongora, and others.--8. Satirical and other Poetry.--9. History and other +Prose Writing; Zurita, Mariana, Sandoval, and others. + +PERIOD THIRD.--1. French Influence on the Literature of Spain.--2. The +Dawn of Spanish Literature in the Eighteenth Century; Feyjoo, Isla, +Moratin the elder, Yriarte, Melendez, Gonzalez, Quintana, Moratin the +younger.--3. Spanish Literature in the Nineteenth Century. + + +INTRODUCTION. + +1. SPANISH LITERATURE AND ITS DIVISIONS.--At the period of the subversion +of the Empire of the West, in the fifth century, Spain was invaded by the +Suevi, the Alans, the Vandals, and the Visigoths. The country which had +for six centuries been subjected to the dominion of the Romans, and had, +adopted the language and arts of its masters, now experienced those +changes in manners, opinions, military spirit, and language, which took +place in the other provinces of the empire, and which, were, in fact, the +origin of the nations which arose on the overthrow of the Roman power. +Among the conquerors of Spain, the Visigoths were the most numerous; the +ancient Roman subjects were speedily confounded with them, and their +dominion soon extended over nearly the whole country. In the year 710 the +peninsula was invaded by the Arabs or Moors, and from that time the active +and incessant struggles of the Spanish Christians against the invaders, +and their necessary contact with Arabian civilization, began to elicit +sparks of intellectual energy. Indeed, the first utterance of that popular +feeling which became the foundation of the national literature was heard +in the midst of that extraordinary contest, which lasted for more than +seven centuries, so that the earliest Spanish poetry seems but a breathing +of the energy and heroism which, at the time it appeared, animated the +Spanish Christians throughout the peninsula. Overwhelmed by the Moors, +they did not entirely yield; a small but valiant band, retreating before +the fiery pursuit of their enemies, established themselves in the extreme +northwestern portion of their native land, amidst the mountains and the +fastnesses of Biscay and Asturias, while the others remained under the +yoke of the conquerors, adopting, in some degree, the manners and habits +of the Arabians. On the destruction of the caliphat of Cordova, in the +year 1031, the dismemberment of the Moslem territories into petty +Independent kingdoms, often at variance with each other, afforded the +Christians a favorable opportunity of reconquering their country. One +after another the Moorish states fell before them. The Moors were driven +farther and farther to the south, and by the middle of the thirteenth +century they had no dominion in Spain except the kingdom of Granada, which +for two centuries longer continued the splendid abode of luxury and +magnificence. + +As victory inclined more and more to the Spanish arms, the Castilian +dialect rapidly grew into a vehicle adequate to express the pride and +dignity of the prevailing people, and that enthusiasm for liberty which +was long their finest characteristic. The poem of the Cid early appeared, +and in the thirteenth century a numerous family of romantic ballads +followed, all glowing with heroic ardor. As another epoch drew near, the +lyric form began to predominate, in which, however, the warm expressions +of the Spanish heart were restricted by a fondness for conceit and +allegory. The rudiments of the drama, religious, pastoral, and satiric, +soon followed, marked by many traits of original thought and talent. Thus +the course of Spanish literature proceeded, animated and controlled by the +national character, to the end of the fifteenth century. + +In the sixteenth, the original genius of the Spaniards, and their proud +consciousness of national greatness, contributed to the maintenance and +improvement of their literature in the face of the Inquisition itself. +Released by the conquest of Granada (1492) from the presence of internal +foes, prosperous at home and powerful abroad, Spain naturally rose to high +mental dignity; and with all that she gathered from foreign contributions, +her writers kept much of their native vein, more free than at first from +Orientalism, but still breathing of their own romantic land. A close +connection, however, for more than one hundred years with Italy, +familiarized the Spanish mind with eminent Italian authors and with the +ancient classics. + +During the seventeenth century, especially from the middle to the close, +the decay of letters kept pace with the decline of Spanish power, until +the humiliation of both seemed completed in the reign of Charles II. About +that time, however, the Spanish drama received a full development and +attained its perfection. In the eighteenth century, under the government +of the Bourbons, and partly through the patronage of Philip V., there was +a certain revival of literature; but unfortunately, parties divided, and +many of the educated Spaniards were so much attracted by French glitter as +to turn with disgust from their own writers. The political convulsions, of +which Spain has been the victim since the time of Ferdinand VII., have +greatly retarded the progress of national literature, and the nineteenth +century has thus far produced little which is worthy of mention. + +The literary history of Spain may be divided into three periods:-- + +The first, extending from the close of the twelfth century to the +beginning of the sixteenth, will contain the literature of the country +from the first appearance of the present written language to the early +part of the reign of Charles V., and will include the genuinely national +literature, and that portion which, by imitating the refinement of +Provence or of Italy, was, during the same interval, more or less +separated from the popular spirit and genius. + +The second, the period of literary success and national glory, extending +from the beginning of the sixteenth century to the close of the +seventeenth, will embrace the literature from the accession of the +Austrian family to its extinction. + +The third, the period of decline, extends from the beginning of the +eighteenth to the middle of the nineteenth century, or from the accession +of the Bourbon family to the present time. + +2. THE LANGUAGE.--The Spanish Christians who, after the Moorish conquest, +had retreated to the mountains of Asturias, carried with them the Latin +language as they had received it corrupted from the Romans, and still more +by the elements introduced into it by the invasion of the northern tribes. +In their retreat they found themselves amidst the descendants of the +Iberians, the earliest race which had inhabited Spain, who appeared to +have shaken off little of the barbarism that had resisted alike the +invasion of the Romans and of the Goths, and who retained the original +Iberian or Basque tongue. Coming in contact with this, the language of +those Christians underwent new modifications; later, when they advanced in +their conquest toward the south and the east, and found themselves +surrounded by those portions of their race that had remained among the +Arabs, known as Muçárabes, they felt that they were in the presence of a +civilization and refinement altogether superior to their own. As the +Goths, between the fifth and eighth centuries, had received a vast number +of words from the Latin, because it was the language of a people with whom +they were intimately mingled, and who were much more intellectual and +advanced than themselves, so, for the same reason, the whole nation, +between the eighth and thirteenth centuries, received another increase of +their vocabulary from the Arabic, and accommodated themselves in a +remarkable degree to the advanced culture of their southern countrymen, +and of their new Moorish subjects. + +It appears that about the middle of the twelfth century this new dialect +had risen to the dignity of being a written language; and it spread +gradually through the country. It differed from the pure or the corrupted +Latin, and still more from the Arabic; yet it was obviously formed by a +union of both, modified by the analogies and spirit of the Gothic +constructions and dialects, and containing some remains of the +vocabularies of the Iberians, the Celts, the Phoenicians, and of the +German tribes, who at different periods had occupied the peninsula. This, +like the other languages of Southern Europe, was called originally the +Romance, from the prevalence of the Roman and Latin elements. + +The territories of the Christian Spaniards were divided into three +longitudinal sections, having each a separate dialect, arising from the +mixture of different primitive elements. The Catalan was spoken in the +east, the Castilian in the centre, while the Galician, which originated +the Portuguese, prevailed in the west. + +The Catalan or Limousin, the earliest dialect cultivated in the peninsula, +bore a strong resemblance to the Provençal, and when the bards were driven +from Provence they found a home in the east of Spain, and numerous +celebrated troubadours arose in Aragon and Catalonia. But many elements +concurred to produce a decay of the Catalan, and from the beginning of the +sixteenth century it rapidly declined. It is still spoken in the Balearic +Islands and among the lower classes of some of the eastern parts of Spain, +but since the sixteenth century the Castilian alone has been the vehicle +of literature. + +The Castilian dialect followed the fortune of the Castilian arms, until it +finally became the established language, even of the most southern +provinces, where it had been longest withstood by the Arabic. Its clear, +sonorous vowels and the beautiful articulation of its syllables, give it a +greater resemblance to the Italian than any other idiom of the peninsula. +But amidst this euphony the ear is struck with the sound of the German and +Arabic guttural, which is unknown in the other languages in which Latin +roots predominate. + + +PERIOD FIRST. + +FROM THE FIRST APPEARANCE OF THE WRITTEN LANGUAGE TO THE EARLY PART OF THE +REIGN OF CHARLES V. (1200-1500). + +1. EARLY NATIONAL LITERATURE.--There are two traits of the earliest +Spanish literature which so peculiarly distinguish it that they deserve to +be noticed from the outset--religious faith and knightly loyalty. The +Spanish national character, as it has existed from the earliest times to +the present day, was formed in that solemn contest which began when the +Moors landed beneath the rock of Gibraltar, and which did not end until +eight centuries after, when the last remnants of the race were driven from +the shores of Spain. During this contest, especially that part of it when +the earliest Spanish poetry appeared, nothing but an invincible faith and +a not less invincible loyalty to their own princes could have sustained +the Christian Spaniards in their struggles against their infidel +oppressors. It was, therefore, a stern necessity which made these two high +qualities elements of the Spanish national character, and it is not +surprising that we find submission to the church and loyalty to the king +constantly breathing through every portion of Spanish literature. + +The first monument of the Spanish, or, as it was oftener called, the +Castilian tongue, the most ancient epic in any of the Romance languages, +is "The Poem of the Cid." It consists of more than three thousand lines, +and was probably not composed later than the year 1200. This poem +celebrates the achievements of the great hero of the chivalrous age of +Spain, Rodrigo Diaz (1020-1099), who obtained from five Moorish kings, +whom he had vanquished in battle, the title of El Seid, or my lord. He was +also called by the Spaniards El Campeador or El Cid Campeador, the +Champion or the Lord Champion, and he well deserved the honorable title, +for he passed almost the whole of his life in the field against the +oppressors of his country, and led the conquering arms of the Christians +over nearly a quarter of Spain. No hero has been so universally celebrated +by his countrymen, and poetry and tradition have delighted to attach to +his name a long series of fabulous achievements, which remind us as often +of Amadis and Arthur, as they do of the sober heroes of history. His +memory is so sacredly dear to the Spanish nation, that to say "by the +faith of Rodrigo," is still considered the strongest vow of loyalty. + +The poem of the Cid is valuable mainly for the living picture it presents +of manners and character in the eleventh century. It is a contemporary and +spirited exhibition of the chivalrous times of Spain, given occasionally +with an admirable and Homeric simplicity. It is the history of the most +romantic hero of Spanish tradition, continually mingled with domestic and +personal details, that bring the character of the Cid and his age very +near to our own sympathies and interests. The language is the same which +he himself spoke--still only imperfectly developed--it expresses the bold +and original spirit of the time, and the metre and rhyme are rude and +unsettled; but the poem throughout is striking and original, and breathes +everywhere the true Castilian spirit. During the thousand years which +elapsed from the time of the decay of Greek and Roman culture down to the +appearance of the Divine Comedy, no poetry was produced so original in its +tone, or so full of natural feeling, picturesqueness, and energy. + +There are a few other poems, anonymous, like that of the Cid, whose +language and style carry them back to the thirteenth century. The next +poetry we meet is by a known author, Gonzalo (1220-1260), a priest +commonly called Berceo, from the place of his birth. His works, all on +religious subjects, amount to more than thirteen thousand lines. His +language shows some advance from that in which the Cid was written, but +the power and movement of that remarkable legend are entirely wanting in +these poems. There is a simple-hearted piety in them, however, that is +very attractive, and in some of them a story-telling spirit that is +occasionally vivid and graphic. + +Alfonso, surnamed the Wise (1221-1284), united the crowns of Leon and +Castile, and attracted to his court many of the philosophers and learned +men of the East. He was a poet closely connected with the Provençal +troubadours of his time, and so skilled in astronomy and the occult +sciences that his fame spread throughout Europe. He had more political, +philosophical, and elegant learning than any man of his age, and made +further advances in some of the exact sciences. At one period his +consideration was so great, that he was elected Emperor of Germany; but +his claims were set aside by the subsequent election of Rudolph of +Hapsburg. The last great work undertaken by Alfonso was a kind of code +known as "Las Siete Partidas," or The Seven Parts, from the divisions of +the work itself. This is the most important legislative monument of the +age, and forms a sort of Spanish common law, which, with the decisions +under it, has been the basis of Spanish jurisprudence ever since. Becoming +a part of the Constitution of the State in all Spanish colonies, it has, +from the time Louisiana and Florida were added to the United States, +become in some cases the law in our own country. + +The life of Alfonso was full of painful vicissitudes. He was driven from +his throne by factious nobles and a rebellious son, and died in exile, +leaving behind him the reputation of being the wisest fool in Christendom. +Mariana says of him: "He was more fit for letters than for the government +of his subjects; he studied the heavens and watched the stars, but forgot +the earth and lost his kingdom." Yet Alfonso is among the chief founders +of his country's intellectual fame, and he is to be remembered alike for +the great advancement Castilian prose composition made in his hands, for +his poetry, for his astronomical tables--which all the progress of modern +science has not deprived of their value--and for his great work on +legislation, which is at this moment an authority in both hemispheres. + +Juan Lorenzo Segura (1176-1250) was the author of a poem containing more +than ten thousand lines, on the history of Alexander the Great. In this +poem the manners and customs of Spain in the thirteenth century are +substituted for those of ancient Greece, and the Macedonian hero is +invested with all the virtues and even equipments of European chivalry. + +Don Juan Manuel, (1282-1347), a nephew of Alfonso the Wise, was one of the +most turbulent and dangerous Spanish barons of his time. His life was full +of intrigue and violence, and for thirty years he disturbed his country by +his military and rebellious enterprises. But in all these circumstances, +so adverse to intellectual pursuits, he showed himself worthy of the +family in which for more than a century letters had been honored and +cultivated. Don Juan is known to have written twelve works, but it is +uncertain how many of these are still in existence; only one, "Count +Lucanor," has been placed beyond the reach of accident by being printed. +The Count Lucanor is the most valuable monument of Spanish literature in +the fourteenth century, and one of the earliest prose works in the +Castilian tongue, as the Decameron, which appeared about the same time, +was the first in the Italian. Both are collections of tales; but the +object of the Decameron is to amuse, while the Count Lucanor is the +production of a statesman, instructing a grave and serious nation in +lessons of policy and morality in the form of apologues. These stories +have suggested many subjects for the Spanish stage, and one of them +contains the groundwork of Shakspeare's "Taming of the Shrew." + +Juan Ruiz, arch-priest of Hita (1292-1351), was a contemporary of Don +Manuel. His works consist of nearly seven thousand verses, forming a +series of stories which appear to be sketches from his own history, +mingled with fictions and allegories. The most curious is "The Battle of +Don Carnival with Madame Lent," in which Don Bacon, Madame Hungbeef, and a +train of other savory personages, are marshaled in mortal combat. The +cause of Madame Lent triumphs, and Don Carnival is condemned to solitary +imprisonment and one spare meal each day. At the end of forty days the +allegorical prisoner escapes, raises new followers, Don Breakfast and +others, and re-appears in alliance with Don Amor. The poetry of the arch- +priest is very various in tone. In general, it is satirical and pervaded +by a quiet humor. His happiest success is in the tales and apologues which +illustrate the adventures that constitute a framework for his poetry, +which is natural and spirited; and in this, as in other points, he +strikingly resembles Chaucer. Both often sought their materials in +Northern French poetry, and both have that mixture of devotion and of +licentiousness belonging to their age, as well as to the personal +character of each. + +Rabbi Santob, a Jew of Carrion (fl. 1350), was the author of many poems, +the most important of which is "The Dance of Death," a favorite subject of +the painters and poets of the Middle Ages, representing a kind of +spiritual masquerade, in which persons of every rank and age appear +dancing with the skeleton form of Death. In this Spanish version it is +perhaps more striking and picturesque than in any other--the ghastly +nature of the subject being brought into very lively contrast with the +festive tone of the verses. This grim fiction had for several centuries +great success throughout Europe. + +Pedro Lopez Ayala (1332-1407), grand chancellor of Castile under four +successive sovereigns, was both a poet and a historian. His poem, "Court +Rhymes," is the most remarkable of his productions. His style is grave, +gentle, and didactic, with occasional expressions of poetic feeling, which +seem, however, to belong as much to their age as to their author. + +2. OLD BALLADS.--From the thirteenth to the fifteenth century, the period +we have just gone over, the courts of the different sovereigns of Europe +were the principal centres of refinement and civilization, and this was +peculiarly the case in Spain during this period, when literature was +produced or encouraged by the sovereigns and other distinguished men. But +this was not the only literature of Spain. The spirit of poetry diffused +throughout the peninsula, excited by the romantic events of Spanish +history, now began to assume the form of a popular literature, and to +assert for itself a place which in some particulars it has maintained ever +since. This popular literature may be distributed into four different +classes. The first contains the _Ballads_, or the narrative and lyrical +poetry of the common people from the earliest times; the second, the +_Chronicles_, or the half-genuine, half-fabulous histories of the great +events and heroes of the national annals; the third class comprises the +_Romances of Chivalry_, intimately connected with both the others, and, +after a time, as passionately admired by the whole nation; and the fourth +includes the _Drama_, which in its origin has always been a popular and +religious amusement, and was hardly less so in Spain than it was in Greece +or in France. These four classes compose what was generally most valued in +Spanish literature during the latter part of the fourteenth century, the +whole of the fifteenth, and much of the sixteenth. They rested on the deep +foundations of the national character, and therefore by their very nature +were opposed to the Provençal, the Italian, and the courtly schools, which +flourished during the same period. + +The metrical structure of the old Spanish ballad was extremely simple, +consisting of eight-syllable lines, which are composed with great facility +in other languages as well as the Castilian. Sometimes they were broken +into stanzas of four lines each, thence called _redondillas_, or +roundelays, but their prominent peculiarity is that of the _asonante_, an +imperfect rhyme that echoes the same vowel, but not the same final +consonant in the terminating syllables. This metrical form was at a later +period adopted by the dramatists, and is now used in every department of +Spanish poetry. + +The old Spanish ballads comprise more than a thousand poems, first +collected in the sixteenth century, whose authors and dates are alike +unknown. Indeed, until after the middle of that century, it is difficult +to find ballads written by known authors. These collections, arranged +without regard to chronological order, relate to the fictions of chivalry, +especially to Charlemagne and his peers, to the traditions and history of +Spain, to Moorish adventures, and to the private life and manners of the +Spaniards themselves; they belong to the unchronicled popular life and +character of the age which gave them birth. The ballads of chivalry, with +the exception of those relating to Charlemagne, occupy a less important +place than those founded on national subjects. The historical ballads are +by far the most numerous and the most interesting; and of those the first +in the order of time are those relating to Bernardo del Carpio, concerning +whom there are about forty. Bernardo (fl. 800) was the offspring of a +secret marriage between the Count de Saldaña and a sister of Alfonso the +Chaste, at which the king was so much offended that he sent the Infanta to +a convent, and kept the Count in perpetual imprisonment, educating +Bernardo as his own son, and keeping him in ignorance of his birth. The +achievements of Bernardo ending with the victory of Roncesvalles, his +efforts to procure the release of his father, the falsehood of the king, +and the despair and rebellion of Bernardo after the death of the Count in +prison, constitute the romantic incidents of these ballads. + +The next series is that on Fernan Gonzalez, a chieftain who, in the middle +of the tenth century, recovered Castile from the Moors and became its +first sovereign count. The most romantic are those which describe his +being twice rescued from prison by his heroic wife, and his contest with +King Sancho, in which he displayed all the turbulence and cunning of a +robber baron of the Middle Ages. + +The Seven Lords of Lara form the next group; some of them are beautiful, +and the story they contain is one of the most romantic in Spanish history. +The Seven Lords of Lara are betrayed by their uncle into the hands of the +Moors, and put to death, while their father, by the basest treason, is +confined in a Moorish prison. An eighth son, the famous Mudarra, whose +mother is a noble Moorish lady, at last avenges all the wrongs of his +race. + +But from the earliest period, the Cid has been the occasion of more +ballads than any other of the great heroes of Spanish history or fable. +They were first collected in 1612, and have been continually republished +to the present day. There are at least a hundred and sixty of them, +forming a more complete series than any other, all strongly marked with +the spirit of their age and country. + +The Moorish ballads form a large and brilliant class by themselves. The +period when this style of poetry came into favor was the century after the +fall of Granada, when the south, with its refinement and effeminacy, its +magnificent and fantastic architecture, the foreign yet not strange +manners of its people, and the stories of their warlike achievements, all +took strong hold of the Spanish imagination, and made of Granada a fairy +land. + +Of the ballads relating to private life, most of them are effusions of +love, others are satirical, pastoral, and burlesque, and many descriptive +of the manners and amusements of the people at large; but all of them are +true representations of Spanish life. They are marked by an attractive +simplicity of thought and expression, united to a sort of mischievous +shrewdness. No such popular poetry exists in any other language, and no +other exhibits in so great a degree that nationality which is the truest +element of such poetry everywhere. The English and Scotch ballads, with +which they may most naturally be compared, belong to a ruder state of +society, which gave to the poetry less dignity and elevation than belong +to a people who, like the Spanish, were for centuries engaged in a contest +ennobled by a sense of religion and loyalty, and which could not fail to +raise the minds of those engaged in it far above the atmosphere that +settled around the bloody feuds of rival barons, or the gross maraudings +of border warfare. The great Castilian heroes, the Cid, Bernardo del +Carpio, and Pelayo, are even now an essential portion of the faith and +poetry of the common people of Spain, and are still honored as they were +centuries ago. The stories of Guarinos and of the defeat at Roncesvalles +are still sung by the wayfaring muleteers, as they were when Don Quixote +heard them on his journey to Toboso, and the showmen still rehearse the +same adventures in the streets of Seville, that they did at the solitary +inn of Montesinos when he encountered them there. + +3. THE CHRONICLES.--As the great Moorish contest was transferred to the +south of Spain, the north became comparatively quiet. Wealth and leisure +followed; the castles became the abodes of a crude but free hospitality, +and the distinctions of society grew more apparent. The ballads from this +time began to subside into the lower portions of society; the educated +sought forms of literature more in accordance with their increased +knowledge and leisure, and their more settled system of social life. The +oldest of these forms was that of the Spanish prose chronicles, of which +there are general and royal chronicles, chronicles of particular events, +chronicles of particular persons, chronicles of travels, and romantic +chronicles. + +The first of these chronicles in the order of time as well as that of +merit, comes from the royal hand of Alfonso the Wise, and is entitled "The +Chronicle of Spain." It begins with the creation of the world, and +concludes with the death of St. Ferdinand, the father of Alfonso. The last +part, relating to the history of Spain, is by far the most attractive, and +sets forth in a truly national spirit all the rich old traditions of the +country. This is not only the most interesting of the Spanish chronicles, +but the most interesting of all that in any country mark the transition +from its poetical and romantic traditions to the grave exactness of +historical truth. The chronicle of the Cid was probably taken from this +work. + +Alfonso XI. ordered the annals of the kingdom to be continued down to his +own reign, or through the period from 1252 to 1312. During many succeeding +reigns the royal chronicles were continued,--that of Ferdinand and +Isabella, by Pulgar, is the last instance of the old style; but though the +annals were still kept up, the free and picturesque spirit that gave them +life was no longer there. + +The chronicles of particular events and persons are most of them of little +value. + +Among the chronicles of travels, the oldest one of any value is an account +of a Spanish embassy to Tamerlane, the great Tartar potentate. + +Of the romantic chronicles, the principal specimen is that of Don Roderic, +a fabulous account of the reign of King Roderic, the conquest of the +country by the Moors, and the first attempts to recover it in the +beginning of the eighth century. The style is heavy and verbose, although +upon it Southey has founded much of his beautiful poem of "Roderic, the +last of the Goths." This chronicle of Don Roderic, which was little more +than a romance of chivalry, marks the transition to those romantic +fictions that had already begun to inundate Spain. But the series which it +concludes extends over a period of two hundred and fifty years, from the +time of Alfonso the Wise to the accession of Charles V. (1221-1516), and +is unrivaled in the richness and variety of its poetic elements. In truth, +these old Spanish chronicles cannot be compared with those of any other +nation, and whether they have their foundation in truth or in fable, they +strike their strong roots further down into the deep soil of popular +feeling and character. The old Spanish loyalty, the old Spanish religious +faith, as both were formed and nourished in long periods of national trial +and suffering, everywhere appear; and they contain such a body of +antiquities, traditions, and fables as has been offered to no other +people; furnishing not only materials from which a multitude of old +Spanish plays, ballads, and romances have been drawn, but a mine which has +unceasingly been wrought by the rest of Europe for similar purposes, and +which still remains unexhausted. + +4. ROMANCES OF CHIVALRY.--The ballads originally belonged to the whole +nation, but especially to its less cultivated portions. The chronicles, on +the contrary, belonged to the knightly classes, who sought in these +picturesque records of their fathers a stimulus to their own virtue. But +as the nation advanced in refinement, books of less grave character were +demanded, and the spirit of poetical invention soon turned to the national +traditions, and produced from these new and attractive forms of fiction. +Before the middle of the fourteenth century, the romances of chivalry +connected with the stories of Arthur and the knights of the Round Table, +and Charlemagne and his peers, which had appeared in France two centuries +before, were scarcely known in Spain; but after that time they were +imitated, and a new series of fictions was invented, which soon spread +through the world, and became more famous than, either of its +predecessors. + +This extraordinary family of romances is that of which "Amadis" is the +poetical head and type, and this was probably produced before the year +1400, by Vasco de Lobeira, a Portuguese. The structure and tone of this +fiction are original, and much more free than those of the French romances +that had preceded it. The stories of Arthur and Charlemagne are both +somewhat limited in invention by the adventures ascribed to them in the +traditions and chronicles, while that of Amadis belongs purely to the +imagination, and its sole purpose is to set forth the character of a +perfect knight. Amadis is admitted by general consent to be the best of +all the old romances of chivalry. The series which followed, founded upon +the Amadis, reached the number of twenty-four. They were successively +translated into French, and at once became famous. Considering the +passionate admiration which this work so long excited, and the influence +that, with little merit of its own, it has ever since exercised on the +poetry and romance of modern Europe, it is a phenomenon without parallel +in literary history. + +Many other series of romances followed, numbering more than seventy +volumes, most of them in folio, and their influence over the Spanish +character extended through two hundred years. Their extraordinary +popularity may be accounted for, if we remember that, when they first +appeared in Spain, it had long been peculiarly the land of knighthood. +Extravagant and impossible as are many of the adventures recorded in these +books of chivalry, they so little exceeded the absurdities of living men +that many persons took the romances themselves to be true histories, and +believed them. The happiest work of the greatest genius Spain has produced +bears witness on every page to the prevalence of an absolute fanaticism +for these books of chivalry, and becomes at once the seal of their vast +popularity and the monument of their fate. + +5. THE DRAMA.--The ancient theatre of the Greeks and Romans was continued +in some of its grosser forms in Constantinople and in other parts of the +fallen empire far into the Middle Ages. But it was essentially +mythological or heathenish, and, as such, it was opposed by the Christian +church, which, however, provided a substitute for what it thus opposed, by +adding a dramatic element to its festivals. Thus the manger at Bethlehem, +with the worship of the shepherds and magi, was at a very early period +solemnly exhibited every year before the altars of the churches, at +Christmas, as were the tragical events of the last days of the Saviour's +life, during Lent and at the approach of Easter. To these spectacles, +dialogue was afterwards added, and they were called, as we have seen, +_Mysteries_; they were used successfully not only as a means of amusement, +but for the religious edification of an ignorant multitude, and in some +countries they have been continued quite down to our own times. The period +when these representations were first made in Spain cannot now be +determined, though it was certainly before the middle of the thirteenth +century, and no distinct account of them now remains. + +A singular combination of pastoral and satirical poetry indicates the +first origin of the Spanish secular drama. Towards the close of the +fifteenth century, these pastoral dialogues were converted into real +dramas by Enzina, and were publicly represented. But the most important of +these early productions is the "Tragi-comedy of Calisto and Meliboea," or +"Celestina." Though it can never have been represented, it has left +unmistakable traces of its influence on the national drama ever since. It +was translated into various languages, and few works ever had a more +brilliant success. The great fault of the Celestina is its shameless +libertinism of thought and language; and its chief merits are its life- +like exhibition of the most unworthy forms of human character, and its +singularly pure, rich, and idiomatic Castilian style. + +The dramatic writers of this period seem to have had no idea of founding a +popular national drama, of which there is no trace as late as the close of +the reign of Ferdinand and Isabella. + +6. PROVENÇAL LITERATURE IN SPAIN.--When the crown of Provence was +transferred, by the marriage of its heir, in 1113, to Berenger, Count of +Barcelona, numbers of the Provençal poets followed their liege lady from +Arles to Barcelona, and established themselves in her new capital. At the +very commencement, therefore, of the twelfth century, Provençal refinement +was introduced into the northeastern corner of Spain. Political causes +soon carried it farther towards the centre of the country. The Counts of +Barcelona obtained, by marriage, the kingdom of Aragon, and soon spread +through their new territories many of the refinements of Provence. The +literature thus introduced retained its Provençal character till it came +in contact with that more vigorous spirit which had been advancing from +the northwest, and which afterwards gave its tone to the consolidated +monarchy. + +The poetry of the troubadours in Catalonia, as well as in its native home, +belonged much to the court, and the highest in rank and power were +earliest and foremost on its lists. From 1209 to 1229, the war against the +Albigenses was carried on with extraordinary cruelty and fury. To this +sect nearly all the contemporary troubadours belonged, and when they were +compelled to escape from the burnt and bloody ruins of their homes, many +of them hastened to the friendly court of Aragon, sure of being protected +and honored by princes who were at the same time poets. + +From the close of the thirteenth century, the songs of the troubadours +were rarely heard in the land that gave them birth three hundred years +before; and the plant that was not permitted to expand in its native soil, +soon perished in that to which it had been transplanted. After the opening +of the fourteenth century, no genuinely Provençal poetry appears in +Castile, and from the middle of that century it begins to recede from +Catalonia and Aragon; or rather, to be corrupted by the hardier dialect +spoken there by the mass of the people. The retreat of the troubadours +over the Pyrenees, from Aix to Barcelona, from Barcelona to Saragossa and +Valencia, is everywhere marked by the wrecks and fragments of their +peculiar poetry and cultivation. At length, oppressed by the more powerful +Castilian, what remained of the language, that gave the first impulse to +poetic feeling in modern times, sank into a neglected dialect. + +7. THE INFLUENCE OF ITALIAN LITERATURE IN SPAIN.--The influence of the +Italian literature over the Spanish, though less apparent at first, was +more deep and lasting than that of the Provençal. The long wars that the +Christians of Spain waged against the Moors brought them into closer +spiritual connection with the Church of Rome than any other people of +modern times. Spanish students repaired to the famous universities of +Italy, and returned to Spain, bringing with them the influence of Italian +culture; and commercial and political relations still further promoted a +free communication of the manners and literature of Italy to Spain. The +language, also, from its affinity with the Spanish, constituted a still +more important and effectual medium of intercourse. In the reign of John +II. (1407-1454), the attempt to form an Italian school in Spain became +apparent. This sovereign gathered about him a sort of poetical court, and +gave an impulse to refinement that was perceptible for several +generations. + +Among those who interested themselves most directly in the progress of +poetry in Spain, the first in rank, after the king himself, was the +Marquis of Villena (1384-1434), whose fame rests chiefly on the "Labors of +Hercules," a short prose treatise or allegory. + +First of all the courtiers and poets of this reign, in point of merit, +stands the Marquis of Santillana (1398-1458), whose works belong more or +less to the Provençal, Italian, and Spanish schools. He was the founder of +an Italian and courtly school in Spanish poetry--one adverse to the +national school and finally overcome by it, but one that long exercised a +considerable sway. Another poet of the court of John II. is Juan de Mena, +historiographer of Castile. His principal works are, "The Coronation" and +"The Labyrinth," both imitations of Dante. They are of consequence as +marking the progress of the language. The principal poem of Manrique the +younger, one of an illustrious family of that name, who were poets, +statesmen, and soldiers, on the death of his father, is remarkable for +depth and truth of feeling. Its greatest charm is its beautiful +simplicity, and its merit entitles it to the place it has taken among the +most admired portions of the elder Spanish literature. + +8. THE CANCIONEROS AND PROSE WRITINGS.--The most distinct idea of the +poetical culture of Spain, during the fifteenth century, may he obtained +from the "Cancioneros," or collections of poetry, sometimes all by one +author, sometimes by many. The oldest of these dates from about 1450, and +was the work of Baena. Many similar collections followed, and they were +among the fashionable wants of the age. In 1511, Castillo printed at +Valencia the "Cancionero General," which contained poems attributed to +about a hundred different poets, from the time of Santillana to the period +in which it was made. Ten editions of this remarkable book followed, and +in it we find the poetry most in favor at the court and with the refined +society of Spain. It contains no trace of the earliest poetry of the +country, but the spirit of the troubadours is everywhere present; the +occasional imitations from the Italian are more apparent than successful, +and in general it is wearisome and monotonous, overstrained, formal, and +cold. But it was impossible that such a state of poetical culture should +become permanent in a country so full of stirring events as Spain was in +the age that followed the fall of Granada and the discovery of America; +everything announced a decided movement in the literature of the nation, +and almost everything seemed to favor and facilitate it. + +The prose writers of the fifteenth century deserve mention chiefly because +they were so much valued in their own age. Their writings are encumbered +with the bad taste and pedantry of the time. Among them are Lucena, +Alfonso de la Torre, Pulgar, and a few others. + +9. THE INQUISITION.--The first period of the history of Spanish +literature, now concluded, extends through nearly four centuries, from the +first breathings of the poetical enthusiasm of the mass of the people, +down to the decay of the courtly literature in the latter part of the +reign of Ferdinand and Isabella. The elements of a national literature +which it contains--the old ballads, the old chronicles, the old theatre-- +are of a vigor and promise not to be mistaken. They constitute a mine of +more various wealth than had been offered under similar circumstances, at +so early a period, to any other people; and they give indications of a +subsequent literature that must vindicate for itself a place among the +permanent monuments of modern civilization. + +The condition of things in Spain, at the close of the reign of Ferdinand +and Isabella, seemed to promise a long period of national prosperity. But +one institution, destined to check and discourage all intellectual +freedom, was already beginning to give token of its great and blighting +power. The Christian Spaniards had from an early period been essentially +intolerant. The Moors and the Jews were regarded by them with an intense +and bitter hatred; the first as their conquerors, and the last for the +oppressive claims which their wealth gave them on numbers of the Christian +inhabitants; and as enemies of the Cross, it was regarded as a merit to +punish them. The establishment of the Inquisition, therefore, in 1481, +which had been so effectually used to exterminate the heresy of the +Albigenses, met with little opposition. The Jews and the Moors were its +first victims, and with them it was permitted to deal unchecked by the +power of the state. But the movements of this power were in darkness and +secrecy. From the moment when the Inquisition laid its grasp on the object +of its suspicions to that of his execution, no voice was heard to issue +from its cells. The very witnesses it summoned were punished with death if +they revealed the secrets of its dread tribunals; and often of the victim +nothing was known but that he had disappeared from his accustomed haunts +never again to be seen. The effect was appalling. The imaginations of men +were filled with horror at the idea of a power so vast, so noiseless, +constantly and invisibly around them, whose blow was death, but whose step +could neither be heard nor followed amidst the gloom into which it +retreated. From this time, Spanish intolerance took that air of sombre +fanaticism which it never afterwards lost. The Inquisition gradually +enlarged its jurisdiction, until none was too humble to escape its notice, +or too high to be reached by its power. From an inquiry into the private +opinions of individuals to an interference with books and the press was +but a step, and this was soon taken, hastened by the appearance and +progress of the Reformation of Luther. + + +PERIOD SECOND. + +FROM THE ACCESSION OF THE AUSTRIAN FAMILY TO ITS EXTINCTION +(1500-1700). + +1. THE EFFECT OF INTOLERANCE ON LETTERS.--The central point in Spanish +history is the capture of Granada. During nearly eight centuries before +that event, the Christians of Spain were occupied with conflicts that +developed extraordinary energies, till the whole land was filled to +overflowing with a power which had hardly yet been felt in Europe. But no +sooner was the last Moorish fortress yielded up, than this accumulated +flood broke loose and threatened to overspread the best portions of the +civilized world. Charles the Fifth, grandson of Ferdinand and Isabella, +inherited not only Spain, but Naples, Sicily, and the Low Countries. The +untold wealth of the Indies was already beginning to pour into his +treasury. He was elected Emperor of Germany, and he soon began a career of +conquest such as had not been imagined since the days of Charlemagne. +Success and glory ever waited for him as he advanced, and this brilliant +aspect seemed to promise that Spain would erelong be at the head of an +empire more extensive than the Roman. But a moral power was at work, +destined to divide Europe anew, and the monk Luther was already become a +counterpoise to the military master of so many kingdoms. During the +hundred and thirty years of struggle, that terminated with the peace of +Westphalia, though Spain was far removed from the fields where the most +cruel battles of the religious wars were fought, the interest she took in +the contest may be seen from the presence of her armies in every part of +Europe where it was possible to assail the great movement of the +Reformation. + +In Spain, the contest with Protestantism was of short duration. By +successive decrees the church ordained that all persons who kept in their +possession books infected with the doctrines of Luther, and even all who +failed to denounce such persons, should be excommunicated, and subjected +to cruel and degrading punishments. The power of the Inquisition was +consummated in 1546, when the first "Index Expurgatorius" was published in +Spain. This was a list of the books that all persons were forbidden to +buy, sell, or keep possession of, under penalty of confiscation and death. +The tribunals were authorized and required to proceed against all persons +supposed to be infected with the new belief, even though they were +cardinals, dukes, kings, or emperors,--a power more formidable to the +progress of intellectual improvement, than had ever before been granted to +any body of men, civil or ecclesiastical. + +The portentous authority thus given was freely exercised. The first public +_auto da fé_ of Protestants was held in 1559, and many others followed. +The number of victims seldom exceeded twenty burned at one time, and fifty +or sixty subjected to the severest punishments; but many of those who +suffered were among the active and leading minds of the age. Men of +learning were particularly obnoxious to suspicion, nor were persons of the +holiest lives beyond its reach if they showed a tendency to inquiry. So +effectually did the Inquisition accomplish its purpose, that, from the +latter part of the reign of Philip II., the voice of religious dissent was +scarcely heard in the land. The great body of the Spanish people rejoiced +alike in their loyalty and their orthodoxy, and the few who differed from +the mass of their fellow-subjects were either silenced by their fears, or +sunk away from the surface of society. From that time down to its +overthrow, in 1808, this institution was chiefly a political engine. + +The result of such extraordinary traits in the national character could +not fail to be impressed upon the literature. Loyalty, which had once been +so generous an element in the Spanish character and cultivation, was now +infected with the ambition of universal empire, and the Christian spirit +which gave an air of duty to the wildest forms of adventure in its long +contest with misbelief, was now fallen into a bigotry so pervading that +the romances of the time are full of it, and the national theatre becomes +its grotesque monument. + +Of course the literature of Spain produced during this interval--the +earlier part of which was the period of the greatest glory the country +ever enjoyed--was injuriously affected by so diseased a condition of the +national mind. Some departments hardly appeared at all, others were +strangely perverted, while yet others, like the drama, ballads, and +lyrical verse, grew exuberant and lawless, from the very restraints +imposed on the rest. But it would be an error to suppose that these +peculiarities in Spanish literature were produced by the direct action +either of the Inquisition or of the government. The foundations of this +dark work were laid deep and sure in the old Castilian character. It was +the result of the excess and misdirection of that very Christian zeal +which fought so gloriously against the intrusion of Mohammedanism into +Spain, and of that loyalty which sustained the Spanish princes so +faithfully through the whole of that terrible contest. This state of +things, however, involved the ultimate sacrifice of the best elements of +the national character. Only a little more than a century elapsed, before +the government that had threatened the world with a universal empire, was +hardly able to repel invasion from abroad or maintain its subjects at +home. The vigorous poetical life which had been kindled through the +country in its ages of trial and adversity, was evidently passing out of +the whole Spanish character. The crude wealth from their American +possessions sustained, for a century longer, the forms of a miserable +political existence; but the earnest faith, the loyalty, the dignity of +the Spanish people were gone, and little remained in their place but a +weak subserviency to unworthy masters of state, and a low, timid bigotry +in whatever related to religion. The old enthusiasm faded away, and the +poetry of the country, which had always depended more on the state of the +popular feeling than any other poetry of modern times, faded and failed +with it. + +2. INFLUENCE OF ITALY ON SPANISH LITERATURE.--The political connection +between Spain and Italy in the early part of the sixteenth century, and +the superior civilization and refinement of the latter country, could not +fail to influence Spanish literature. Juan Boscan (d. 1543) was the first +to attempt the proper Italian measures as they were then practiced. He +established in Spain the Italian iambic, the sonnet, and canzone of +Petrarch, the _terza rima_ of Dante, and the flowing octaves of Ariosto. +As an original poet, the talents of Boscan were not of the highest order. + +Garcilasso de la Vega (1503-1536), the contemporary and friend of Boscan, +united with him in introducing an Italian school of poetry, which has been +an important part of Spanish literature ever since. The poems of +Garcilasso are remarkable for their gentleness and melancholy, and his +versification is uncommonly sweet, and well adapted to the tender and sad +character of his poetry. + +The example set by Boscan and Garcilasso so well suited the demands of the +age, that it became as much a fashion at the court of Charles V. to write +in the Italian manner, as it did to travel in Italy, or make a military +campaign there. Among those who did most to establish the Italian +influence in Spanish literature was Diego de Mendoza (1503-1575), a +scholar, a soldier, a poet, a diplomatist, a statesman, a historian, and a +man who rose to great consideration in whatever he undertook. One of his +earliest works, "Lazarillo de Tormes," the auto-biography of a boy, little +Lazarus, was written with the object of satirizing all classes of society +under the character of a servant, who sees them in undress behind the +scenes. The style of this work is bold, rich, and idiomatic, and some of +its sketches are among the most fresh and spirited that can be found in +the whole class of prose works of fiction. It has been more or less a +favorite in all languages, down to the present day, and was the foundation +of a class of fictions which the "Gil Blas" of Le Sage has made famous +throughout the world. Mendoza, after having filled many high offices under +Charles V., when Philip ascended the throne, was, for some slight offense, +banished from the court as a madman. In the poems which he occasionally +wrote during his exile, he gave the influence of his example to the new +form introduced by Boscan and Garcilasso. At a later period he occupied +himself in writing some portions of the history of his native city, +Granada, relating to the rebellion of the Moors (1568-1570). Familiar with +everything of which he speaks, there is a freshness and power in his +sketches that carry us at once into the midst of the scenes and events he +describes. "The War of Granada" is an imitation of Sallust. Nothing in the +style of the old chronicles is to be compared to it, and little in any +subsequent period is equal to it for manliness, vigor, and truth. + +3. HISTORY.--The imperfect chronicles of the age of Charles V. were +surpassed in importance by the histories or narratives, more or less +ample, of the discoverers of the western world, all of which were +interesting from their subject and their materials. First in the +foreground of this picturesque group stands Fernando Cortes (1485-1554), +of whose voluminous documents the most remarkable were five long reports +to the Emperor on the affairs of Mexico. + +The marvelous achievements of Cortes, however, were more fully recorded by +Gomara (b. 1510), the oldest of the regular historians of the New World. +His principal works are the "History of the Indies," chiefly devoted to +Columbus and the conquest of Peru, and the "Chronicle of New Spain," which +is merely the history and life of Cortes, under which title it has since +been republished. The style of Gomara is easy and flowing, but his work +was of no permanent authority, in consequence of the great and frequent +mistakes into which he was led by those who were too much a part of the +story to relate it fairly. These mistakes Bernal Diaz, an old soldier who +had been long in the New World, set himself at work to correct, and the +book he thus produced, with many faults, has something of the honest +nationality, and the fervor and faith of the old chronicles. + +Among those who have left records of their adventures in America, one of +the most considerable is Oviedo (1478-1557), who for nearly forty years +devoted himself to the affairs of the Spanish colonies in which he +resided. His most important work is "The Natural and General History of +the Indies," a series of accounts of the natural condition, the aboriginal +inhabitants, and the political affairs of the Spanish provinces in +America, as they stood in the middle of the sixteenth century. It is of +great value as a vast repository of facts, and not without merit as a +composition. + +In Las Casas (1474-1566) Oviedo had a formidable rival, who, pursuing the +same course of inquiries in the New World, came to conclusions quite +opposite. Convinced from his first arrival in Hispaniola that the gentle +nature and slight frames of the natives were subjected to toil and +servitude so hard that they were wasting away, he thenceforth devoted his +life to their emancipation. He crossed the Atlantic six times, in order to +persuade the government of Charles V. to ameliorate their condition, and +always with more or less success. His earliest work, "A Short Account of +the Ruin of the Indies," was a tract in which the sufferings and wrongs of +the Indians were doubtless much overstated by the zeal of its author, but +it awakened all Europe to a sense of the injustice it set forth. Other +short treatises followed, but none ever produced so deep and solemn an +effect on the world. + +The great work of Las Casas, however, still remains inedited,--"A General +History of the Indies from 1492 to 1525." Like his other works, it shows +marks of haste and carelessness, but its value is great, notwithstanding +his too fervent zeal for the Indians. It is a repository to which Herrera, +and, through him, all subsequent historians of the Indies resorted for +materials, and without which the history of the earliest period of the +Spanish settlements in America cannot even now be written. + +There are numerous other works on the discovery and conquest of America, +but they are of less consequence than those already mentioned. As a class, +they resemble the old chronicles, though they announce the approach of the +more regular form of history. + +4. THE DRAMA.--Before the middle of the sixteenth century, the Mysteries +were the only dramatic exhibitions of Spain. They were upheld by +ecclesiastical power, and the people, as such, had no share in them. The +first attempt to create a popular drama was made by Lope de Rueda, a +goldbeater of Seville, who flourished between 1544 and 1567, and who +became both a dramatic writer and an actor. His works consist of comedies, +pastoral colloquies, and dialogues in prose and verse. They were written +for representation, and were acted before popular audiences by a strolling +company led about by Lope de Rueda himself. Naturalness of thought, the +most easy, idiomatic Castilian terms of expression, a good-humored gayety, +a strong sense of the ridiculous, and a happy imitation of the tone and +manners of common life, are the prominent characteristics of these plays, +and their author was justly reckoned by Cervantes and Lope de Vega as the +true founder of the popular national theatre. The ancient simplicity and +severity of the Spanish people had now been superseded by the luxury and +extravagance which the treasures of America had introduced; the +ecclesiastical fetters imposed on opinion and conscience had so connected +all ideas of morality and religion with inquisitorial severity, that the +mind longed for an escape, and gladly took refuge in amusements where +these unwelcome topics had no place. So far, the number of dramas was +small, and these had been written in forms so different and so often +opposed to each other as to have little consistency or authority, and to +offer no sufficient indication of the channel in which the dramatic +literature of the country was at last to flow. It was reserved for Lope de +Vega to seize, with the instinct of genius, the crude and unsettled +elements of the existing drama, and to form from them, and from the +abundant and rich inventions of his own overflowing fancy, a drama which, +as a whole, was unlike anything that had preceded it, and yet was so truly +national and rested so faithfully on tradition, that it was never +afterwards disturbed, till the whole literature of which it was so +brilliant a part was swept away with it. + +Lope de Vega (1562-1635) early manifested extraordinary powers and a +marvelous poetic genius. After completing his education, he became +secretary to the Duke of Alba. Engaging in an affair of honor, in which he +dangerously wounded his adversary, he was obliged to fly and to remain +several years in exile. On his return to Madrid, religious and patriotic +zeal induced him to join the expedition of the Invincible Armada for the +invasion of England, and he was one of the few who returned in safety to +his native country. Domestic afflictions soon after determined him to +renounce the world and to enter holy orders. Notwithstanding this change, +he continued to cultivate poetry to the close of his long life, with so +wonderful a facility that a drama of more than two thousand lines, +intermingled with sonnets and enlivened with all kinds of unexpected +incidents and intrigues, frequently cost him no more than the labor of a +single day. He composed more rapidly than his amanuensis could transcribe, +and the managers of the theatres left him no time to copy or correct his +compositions; so that his plays were frequently represented within twenty- +four hours after their first conception. His fertility of invention and +his talent for versification are unparalleled in the history of +literature. He produced two thousand two hundred dramas, of which only +about five hundred were printed. His other poems were published at Madrid +in 1776, in twenty-one volumes quarto. His prodigious literary labors +produced him nearly as much money as glory; but his liberality to the poor +and his taste for pomp soon dissipated his wealth, and after living in +splendor, he died almost in poverty. + +No poet has ever in his lifetime enjoyed such honors. Eager crowds +surrounded him whenever he showed himself abroad, and saluted him with the +appellation of _Prodigy of Nature_. Every eye was fixed on him, and +children followed him with cries of pleasure. He was chosen President of +the Spiritual College at Madrid, and the pope conferred upon him high +marks of distinction, not only for his poetical talents, but for his +enthusiastic zeal for the interests of religion. He was also appointed one +of the _familiars_ of the Inquisition, an office to which the highest +honor was at that time attached. + +The fame of Lope de Vega rests upon his dramas alone, and in these there +is no end to their diversity, the subjects varying from the deepest +tragedy to the broadest farce, from the solemn mysteries of religion to +the loosest frolics of common life, and the style embracing every variety +of tone and measure known to the language of the country. In these dramas, +too, the sacred and secular, the tragic and comic, the heroic and vulgar, +all run into each other, until it seems that there is neither separate +form nor distinction attributed to any of them. + +The first class of plays that Lope seems to have invented, and the one +which still remains most popular in Spain, are _dramas of the cloak and +sword_, so called from the picturesque national dress of the fashionable +class of society from which the principal characters were selected. Their +main principle is gallantry. The story is almost always involved and +intriguing, accompanied with an under-plot and parody on the principal +parties, formed by the servants and other inferior persons. The action is +chiefly carried on by lovers full of romance, or by low characters, whose +wit is mixed with buffoonery. + +To the second class belong the historical or heroic dramas. Their +characters are usually kings, princes, and personages in the highest rank +of life, and their prevailing tone is imposing and tragical. A love story, +filled as usual with hair-breadth escapes, jealous quarrels, and questions +of honor, runs through nearly every one of them; but truth, in regard to +facts, manners, and customs, is entirely disregarded. + +The third class contains the dramas founded on the manners of common life; +of these there are but few. Lope de Vega would doubtless have confined +himself to these three forms, but that the interference of the church for +a time forbade the representations of the secular drama, and he therefore +turned his attention to the composition of religious plays. The subjects +of these are taken from the Scriptures, or lives of the saints, and they +approach so near to the comedies of intrigue, that but for the religious +passages they would seem to belong to them. His "Sacramental Acts" was +another form of the religious drama which was still more grotesque than +the last. They were performed in the streets during the religious +ceremonies of the Corpus Christi. The spiritual dramas of Lope de Vega are +a heterogeneous mixture of bright examples of piety, according to the +views of the age and country, and the wildest flights of imagination, +combined into a whole by a fine poetic spirit. + +The variety and inexhaustible fertility of the genius of this writer +constituted the corner-stone of his success, and did much to make him the +monarch of the stage while he lived, and the great master of the national +theatre ever since. But there were other circumstances that aided in +producing these surprising results, the first of which is the principle, +that runs through all his plays, of making all other interests subordinate +to the interest of the story. For this purpose he used dialogue rather to +bring out the plot than the characters, and to this end also he sacrificed +dramatic probabilities and possibilities, geography, history, and a decent +morality. + +Another element which he established in the Spanish drama, was the comic +under-plot, and the witty _gracioso_ or droll, the parody of the heroic +character of the play. Much of his power over the people of his time is +also to be found in the charm of his versification, which was always +fresh, flowing, and effective. The success of Lope de Vega was in +proportion to his rare powers. For the forty or fifty years that he wrote, +nobody else was willingly heard upon the stage, and his dramas were +performed in France, Italy, and even in Constantinople. His extraordinary +talent was nearly allied to improvisation, and it required but a little +more indulgence of his feeling and fancy to have made him not only an +improvisator, but the most remarkable one that ever lived. + +Nearly thirty dramatic writers followed Lope de Vega, but the school was +not received with universal applause. In its gross extravagances and +irregularities, severe critics found just cause for complaint. The +opposition of the church to the theatre, however, which had been for a +time so formidable, had at last given way, and from the beginning of the +seventeenth century, the popular drama was too strong to be subjected +either to classical criticism or ecclesiastical rule. + +Calderon de la Barca (1600-1681) was the great successor and rival of Lope +de Vega. At the age of thirty-two, his reputation as a poet was an +enviable one. Soon after, when the death of Lope de Vega left the theatre +without a master, he was formally attached to the court for the purpose of +furnishing dramas to be represented in the royal theatres. In 1651, he +followed the example of Lope de Vega and other men of letters of his time, +by entering a religious brotherhood. Many ecclesiastical dignities were +conferred upon him, but he did not, however, on this account intermit his +dramatic labors, but continued through his long life to write for the +theatres, for the court, and for the churches. Many dramas of Calderon +were printed without his consent, and many were attributed to him which he +never wrote. His reputation as a dramatic poet rests on the seventy-three +sacramental _autos_, and one hundred and eight dramas, which are known to +be his. The _autos_, from the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, were among +the favorite amusements of the people; but in the age of Calderon they +were much increased in number and importance; they had become attractive +to all classes of society, and were represented with great luxury and at +great expense in the streets of all the larger cities. A procession, in +which the king and court appeared, preceded by the fantastic figures of +giants, with music, banners, and religious shows, followed the sacrament +through the street, and then, before the houses of the great officers of +state, the _autos_ were performed; the giants made sport for the +multitude, and the entertainment concluded with music and dancing. +Sometimes the procession was headed by the figure of a monster called the +_Tarasca_, half serpent in form, borne by men concealed in its cumbrous +bulk, and surmounted by another figure representing the woman of Babylon, +--all so managed as to fill with wonder and terror the country people who +crowded round it, and whose hats and caps were generally snatched away by +the grinning beast, and became the lawful prize of his conductors. This +exhibition was at first rude and simple, but under the influence of Lope +de Vega it became a well-defined, popular entertainment, divided into +three parts, each distinct from the other. First came the _loa_, a kind of +prologue; then the _entremes_, a kind of interlude or farce; and last, the +_autos sacramentales_, or sacred acts themselves, which were more grave in +their tone, though often whimsical and extravagant. + +The seventy-three _autos_ written by Calderon are all allegorical, and by +the music and show with which they abound, they closely approach to the +opera. They are upon a great variety of subjects, and indicate by their +structure that elaborate and costly machinery must have been used in their +representation. They are crowded with such personages as Sin, Death, +Judaism, Mercy, and Charity, and the purpose of all is to set forth the +Real Presence in the Eucharist. The great enemy of mankind of course fills +a large place in them. Almost all of them contain passages of striking +lyrical poetry. + +The secular plays of Calderon can scarcely be classified, for in many of +them even more than two forms of the drama are mingled. To the principle +of making a story that should sustain the interest throughout, Calderon +sacrificed almost as much as Lope de Vega did. To him facts are never +obstacles. Coriolanus is a general under Romulus; the Danube is placed +between Sweden and Russia; and Herodotus is made to describe America. But +in these dramas we rarely miss the interest and charm of a dramatic story, +which provokes the curiosity and enchains the attention. + +In the dramas of the Cloak and Sword the plots of Calderon are intricate. +He excelled in the accumulation of surprises, in plunging his characters +into one difficulty after another, maintaining the interest to the last. +In style and versification Calderon has high merits, though they are +occasionally mingled with the defects of his age. He added no new forms to +dramatic composition, nor did he much modify those which had been already +settled by Lope de Vega; but he showed greater skill in the arrangement of +his incidents, and more poetry in the structure and tendency of his +dramas. To his elevated tone we owe much of what distinguishes Calderon +from his predecessors, and nearly all that is most individual in his +merits and defects. In carrying out his theory of the national drama, he +often succeeds and often fails; and when he succeeds, he sets before us an +idealized drama, resting on the noblest elements of the Spanish national +character, and one which, with all its unquestionable defects, is to be +placed among the extraordinary phenomena of modern poetry. + +The most brilliant period of the Spanish drama falls within the reign of +Philip II., which extended from 1620 to 1665, and embraced the last years +of the life of Lope de Vega, and the thirty most fortunate years of the +life of Calderon. After this period a change begins to be apparent; for +the school of Lope was that of a drama in the freshness and buoyancy of +youth, while that of Calderon belongs to the season of its maturity and +gradual decay. The many writers who were either contemporary with Lope de +Vega and Calderon, or who succeeded them, had little influence on the +character of the theatre. This, in its proper outlines, always remained as +it was left by these great masters, who maintained an almost unquestioned +control over it while they lived, and at their death left a character +impressed upon it, which it never lost till it ceased to exist altogether. + +When Lope de Vega first appeared as a dramatic writer at Madrid, the only +theatres he found were two unsheltered courtyards, which depended on such +companies of strolling players as occasionally visited the capital. Before +he died, there were, besides the court-yards in Madrid, several theatres +of great magnificence in the royal palaces, and many thousand actors; and +half a century later, the passion for dramatic representations had spread +into every part of the kingdom, and there was hardly a village that did +not possess a theatre. + +During the whole of the successful period of the drama, the +representations took place in the daytime. Dancing was early an important +part of the theatrical exhibitions in Spain, even of the religious, and +its importance has continued down to the present day. From the earliest +antiquity it was the favorite amusement of the rude inhabitants of the +country, and in modern times dancing has been to Spain what music has been +to Italy, a passion with the whole population. + +In all its forms and subsidiary attractions, the Spanish drama was +essentially a popular entertainment, governed by the popular will. Its +purpose was to please all equally, and it was not only necessary that the +play should be interesting; it was, above all, required that it should be +Spanish, and, therefore, whatever the subject might be, whether actual or +mythological, Greek or Roman, the characters were always represented as +Castilian, and Castilian of the seventeenth century. It was the same with +their costumes. Coriolanus appeared in the costume of Don Juan of Austria, +and Aristotle came on the stage dressed like a Spanish Abbé, with curled +periwig and buckles on his shoes. + +The Spanish theatre, therefore, in many of its characteristics and +attributes, stands by itself. It is entirely national, it takes no +cognizance of ancient example, and it borrowed nothing from the drama of +France, Italy, or England. Founded on traits of national character, with +all its faults, it maintained itself as long as that character existed in +its original attributes, and even now it remains one of the most striking +and interesting portions of modern literature. + +5. ROMANCES AND TALES.--Hitherto the writers of Spain had been little +known, except in their own country; but we are now introduced to an author +whose fame is bounded by no language and no country, and whose name is not +alone familiar to men of taste and learning, but to almost every class of +society. + +Cervantes (1547-1616), though of noble family, was born in poverty and +obscurity, not far from Madrid. When he was about twenty-one years of age, +he attached himself to the person of Cardinal Aquaviva, with whom he +visited Rome. He soon after enlisted as a common soldier in the war +against the Turks, and, in the great battle of Lepanto, 1572, he received +a wound which deprived him of the use of his left hand and arm, and +obliged him to quit the military profession. On his way home he was +captured by pirates, carried to Algiers, and sold for a slave. Here he +passed five years full of adventure and suffering. At length his ransom +was effected, and he returned home to find his father dead, his family +reduced to a still more bitter poverty by his ransom, and himself +friendless and unknown. He withdrew from the world to devote himself to +literature, and to gain a subsistence by his pen. + +One of the first productions of Cervantes was the pastoral romance of +"Galatea." This was followed by several dramas, the principal of which is +founded on the tragical fate of Numantia. Notwithstanding its want of +dramatic skill, it may be cited as a proof of the author's poetical +talent, and as a bold effort to raise the condition of the stage. + +After many years of poverty and embarrassment, in 1605, when Cervantes had +reached his fiftieth year, he published the first part of "Don Quixote." +The success of this effort was incredible. Many thousand copies are said +to have been printed during the author's lifetime. It was translated into +various languages, and eulogized by every class of readers, yet it +occasioned little improvement in the pecuniary circumstances of the +author. In 1615, he published the second part of the same work, and, in +the year following, his eventful and troubled life drew to its close. + +"Don Quixote," of all the works of all modern times, bears most deeply the +impression of the national character it represents, and it has in return +enjoyed a degree of national favor never granted to any other. The object +of Cervantes in writing it was, as he himself declares, "to render +abhorred of men the false and absurd stories contained in books of +chivalry." The fanaticism for these romances was so great in Spain during +the sixteenth century, and they were deemed so noxious, that the burning +of all copies extant in the country was earnestly asked for by the Cortes. +To destroy a passion that had struck its roots so deeply in the character +of all classes of men, to break up the only reading which, at that time, +was fashionable and popular, was a bold undertaking, yet one in which +Cervantes succeeded. No book of chivalry was written after the appearance +of "Don Quixote;" and from that time to the present they have been +constantly disappearing, until they are now among the rarest of literary +curiosities,--a solitary instance of the power of genius to destroy, by a +well-timed blow, an entire department of literature. + +In accomplishing this object, Cervantes represents "Don Quixote" as a +country gentleman of La Mancha, full of Castilian honor and enthusiasm, +but so completely crazed by reading the most famous books of chivalry, +that he not only believes them to be true, but feels himself called upon +to become the impossible knight-errant they describe, and actually goes +forth into the world, like them, to defend the oppressed and avenge the +injured. To complete his chivalrous equipment, which he had begun by +fitting up for himself a suit of armor strange to his century, he took an +esquire out of his neighborhood, a middle-aged peasant, ignorant, +credulous, and good-natured, but shrewd enough occasionally to see the +folly of their position. The two sally forth from their native village in +search of adventures, of which the excited imagination of the knight-- +turning windmills into giants, solitary turrets into castles, and galley +slaves into oppressed gentlemen--finds abundance wherever he goes, while +the esquire translates them all into the plain prose of truth, with a +simplicity strikingly contrasted with the lofty dignity and the +magnificent illusions of the knight. After a series of ridiculous +discomfitures, the two are at last brought home like madmen to their +native village. + +Ten years later, Cervantes published the second part of Don Quixote, which +is even better than the first. It shows more vigor and freedom, the +invention and the style of thought are richer, and the finish more exact. +Both Don Quixote and Sancho are brought before us like such living +realities, that at this moment the figures of the crazed, gaunt, and +dignified knight, and of his round, selfish, and most amusing esquire, +dwell bodied forth in the imagination of more, among all conditions of men +throughout Christendom, than any other of the creations of human talent. +In this work Cervantes has shown himself of kindred to all times and all +lands, to the humblest as well as to the highest degrees of cultivation, +and he has received in return, beyond all other writers, a tribute of +sympathy and admiration from the universal spirit of humanity. + +This romance, which Cervantes threw so carelessly from him, and which he +regarded only as a bold effort to break up the absurd taste for the +fancies of chivalry, has been established by an uninterrupted and an +unquestioned success ever since, as the oldest classical specimen of +romantic fiction, and as one of the most remarkable monuments of modern +genius. But Cervantes is entitled to a higher glory: it should be borne in +mind that this delightful romance was not the result of a youthful +exuberance of feeling, and a happy external condition; with all its +unquenchable and irresistible humor, its bright views, and its cheerful +trust in goodness and virtue, it was written in his old age, at the +conclusion of a life which had been marked at nearly every step with +struggle, disappointment, and calamity; it was begun in prison, and +finished when he felt the hand of death pressing cold and heavy upon his +heart. If this be remembered as we read, we may feel what admiration and +reverence are due, not only to the living power of Don Quixote, but to the +character and genius of Cervantes; if it be forgotten or underrated, we +shall fail in regard to both. + +The first form of romantic fiction which succeeded the romances of +chivalry was that of prose pastorals, which was introduced into Spain by +Montemayor, a Portuguese, who lived, probably, between 1520 and 1561. To +divert his mind from the sorrow of an unrequited attachment, he composed a +romance entitled "Diana," which, with numerous faults, possesses a high +degree of merit. It was succeeded by many similar tales. + +The next form of Spanish prose fiction, and the one which has enjoyed a +more permanent regard, is that known as tales in the _gusto picaresco_, or +style of the rogues. As a class, they constitute a singular exhibition of +character, and are as separate and national as anything in modern +literature. The first fiction of this class was the "Lazarillo de Tormes" +of Mendoza, already spoken of, published in 1554,--a bold, unfinished +sketch of the life of a rogue from the very lowest condition of society. +Forty-five years afterwards this was followed by the "Guzman de Alfarache" +of Aleman, the most ample portraiture of its class to be found in Spanish +literature. It is chiefly curious and interesting because it shows us, in +the costume of the times, the life of an ingenious Machiavelian rogue, who +is never at a loss for an expedient, and who speaks of himself always as +an honest man. The work was received with great favor, and translated into +all the languages of Europe. + +But the work which most plainly shows the condition of social life which +produced this class of tales, is the "Life of Estevanillo Gonzalez," first +printed in 1646. It is the autobiography of a buffoon who was long in the +service of Piccolomini, the great general of the Thirty Years' War. The +brilliant success of these works at home and abroad subsequently produced +the Gil Blas of Le Sage, an imitation more brilliant than any of the +originals that it followed. + +The serious and historical fictions produced in Spain were limited in +number, and with few exceptions deserved little favor. Short stories or +tales were more successful than any other form of prose-fiction during the +latter part of the sixteenth, and the whole of the seventeenth century. +They belonged to the spirit of their own times and to the state of society +in which they appeared. Taken together, the number of fictions in Spanish +literature is enormous; but what is more remarkable than their multitude, +is the fact that they were produced when the rest of Europe, with a +partial exception in favor of Italy, was not yet awakened to corresponding +efforts of the imagination. The creative spirit, however, soon ceased, and +a spirit of French imitation took its place. + +6. HISTORICAL NARRATIVE POEMS.--Epic poetry, from its dignity and +pretensions, is almost uniformly placed at the head of the different +divisions of a nation's literature. But in Spain little has been achieved +in this department that is worthy of memory. The old half-epic poem of the +Cid--the first attempt at narration in the languages of modern Europe that +deserves the name--is one of the most remarkable outbreaks of poetical and +national enthusiasm on record. The few similar attempts that followed +during the next three centuries, while they serve to mark the progress of +Spanish culture, show little of the power manifested in the Cid. + +In the reign of Charles V., the poets of the time evidently imagined that +to them was assigned the task of celebrating the achievements in the Old +World and in the New, which had raised their country to the first place +among the powers of Europe. There were written, therefore, during this and +the succeeding reigns, an extraordinary number of epic and narrative poems +on subjects connected with ancient and modern Spanish glory, but they all +belong to patriotism rather than to poetry; the best of these come with +equal pretension into the province of history. There is but one long poem +of this class which obtained much regard when it appeared, and which has +been remembered ever since, the "Araucana." The author of this work, +Ercilla (1533-1595), was a page of Philip the Second, and accompanied him +to England on the occasion of his marriage with Mary. News having arrived +that the Araucans, a tribe of Indians in Chili, had revolted against the +Spanish authority, Ercilla joined the adventurous expedition that was sent +out to subdue them. In the midst of his exploits he conceived the plan of +writing a narrative of the war in the form of an epic poem. After the +tumult of a battle, or the fatigues of a march, he devoted the hours of +the night to his literary labors, wielding the pen and sword by turns, and +often obliged to write on pieces of skin or scraps of paper so small as to +contain only a few lines. In this poem the descriptive powers of Ercilla +are remarkable, and his characters, especially those of the American +chiefs, are drawn with force and distinctness. The whole poem is pervaded +by that deep sense of loyalty, always a chief ingredient in Spanish honor +and heroism, and which, in Ercilla, seems never to have been chilled by +the ingratitude of the master to whom he devoted his life, and to whose +glory he consecrated this poem. + +These narrative and heroic poems continued long in favor in Spain, and +they retained to the last those ambitious feelings of national greatness +which had given them birth. Devoted to the glory of their country, they +were produced when the national character was on the decline; and as they +sprang more directly from that character, and depended more on its spirit +than did the similar poetry of any other people in modern times, so they +now visibly declined with them. + +7. LYRIC POETRY.--The number of authors in the various classes of Spanish +lyric poetry, whose works have been preserved between the beginning of the +reign of Charles V. and the end of that of the last of his race, is not +less than a hundred and twenty; but the number of those who were +successful is small. A little of what was written by the Argensolas, more +of Herrera, and nearly the whole of the Bachiller de la Torre and Luis de +Leon, with occasional efforts of Lope de Vega and Quevedo, and single odes +of other writers, make up what gives its character to the graver and less +popular portion of Spanish lyric poetry. Their writings form a body of +poetry, not large, but one that from its living, national feeling on the +one side, and its dignity on the other, may be placed without question +among the most successful efforts of modern literature. + +The Argensolas were two brothers who flourished in Spain at the beginning +of the seventeenth century; both occupy a high place in this department of +poetry. The original poems of Luis de Leon (1528-1591) fill no more than a +hundred pages, but there is hardly a line of them which has not its value, +and the whole taken together are to be placed at the head of Spanish lyric +poetry. They are chiefly religious, and the source of their inspiration is +the Hebrew Scriptures. Herrera (1534-1597) is the earliest classic ode +writer in modern literature, and his poems are characterized by dignity of +language, harmony of versification, and elevation of ideas. Luis de Leon +and Herrera are considered the two great masters of Spanish lyric poetry. + +Quevedo (1580-1645) was successful in many departments of letters. The +most prominent characteristics of his verse are a broad, grotesque humor, +and a satire often imitated from the ancients. His amatory and religious +poems are occasionally marked by extreme beauty and tenderness. The works +upon which his reputation principally rests, however, are in prose, and +belong to theology and metaphysics rather than to elegant literature. They +were produced during the weary years of an unjust imprisonment. His prose +satires are the most celebrated of his compositions, and by these he will +always be remembered throughout the world. + +In the early part of the seventeenth century there arose a sect who +attempted to create a new epoch in Spanish poetry, by affecting an +exquisite refinement, and who ran into the most ridiculous extravagance +and pedantry. The founder of this "cultivated style," as it was called, +was Luis Gongora (1561-1627), and his name, like that of Marini in Italy, +has become a byword in literature. The style he introduced became at once +fashionable at court, and it struck so deep root in the soil of the whole +country, that it has not yet been completely eradicated. The most odious +feature of this style is, that it consists entirely of metaphors, so +heaped upon one another that it is as difficult to find out the meaning +hidden under their grotesque mass, as if it were a series of confused +riddles. The success of this style was very great, and inferior poets +bowed to it throughout the country. + +8. SATIRICAL AND OTHER POETRY.--Satirical poetry never enjoyed a wide +success in Spain. The nation has always been too grave and dignified to +endure the censure it implied. It was looked upon with, distrust, and +thought contrary to the conventions of good society to indulge in its +composition. Neither was elegiac poetry extensively cultivated. The +Spanish temperament was little fitted to the subdued, simple, and gentle +tone of the proper elegy. The echoes of pastoral poetry in Spain are heard +far back among the old ballads; but the Italian forms were early +introduced and naturalized. Two Portuguese writers, Montemayor and +Miranda, were most successful in this department of poetry. Equally +characteristic of the Spanish genius, with its pastorals, were the short +epigrammatic poems which appeared through the best age of its literature. +They are generally in the truest tone of popular verse. Of didactic +poetry, there were many irregular varieties; but the popular character of +Spanish poetry, and the severe nature of the ecclesiastical and political +constitutions of Spain, were unfavorable to the development of this form +of verse, and unlikely to tolerate it on any important subject. It +remained, therefore, one of the feeblest and least successful departments +of the national literature. + +In the seventeenth century, ballads had become the delight of the whole +Spanish people. The soldier solaced himself with them in his tent, the +maiden danced to them on the green, the lover sang them for his serenade, +the street beggar chanted them for alms; they entered into the sumptuous +entertainments of the nobility, the holiday services of the church, and +into the orgies of thieves and vagabonds. No poetry of modern times has +been so widely spread through all classes of society, and none has so +entered into the national character. They were often written by authors +otherwise little known, and they were always found in the works of those +poets of note who desired to stand well with the mass of their countrymen. + +9. HISTORY AND OTHER PROSE WRITINGS.--The fathers of Spanish history are +Zurita and Morales. Zurita (1512-1580) was the author of the "Annals of +Aragon," a work more important to Spanish history than any that had +preceded it. Morales (1513-1591) was historiographer to the crown of +Castile, and his unfinished history of that country is marked by much +general ability. Contemporary with these writers was Mendoza, already +mentioned. The honor of being the first historian of the country, however, +belongs to Mariana (1536-1623), a foundling who was educated a Jesuit. His +main occupation for the last thirty or forty years of his life was his +great "History of Spain." There is an air of good faith in his accounts +and a vividness in his details which are singularly attractive. If not in +all respects the most trustworthy of annals, it is at least the most +remarkable union of picturesque chronicling with sober history that the +world has ever seen. Sandoval (d. 1621) took up the history of Spain where +Mariana left it; but while his is a work of authority, it is unattractive +in style. "The General History of the Indies," by Herrera, is a work of +great value, and the one on which the reputation of the author as a +historian chiefly rests. + +One of the most pleasing of the minor Spanish histories is Argensola's +account of the Moluccas. It is full of the traditions found among the +natives by the Portuguese when they first landed there, and of the wild +adventures that followed when they had taken possession of the island. +Garcilasso de la Vega, the son of one of the unscrupulous conquerors of +Peru, descended on his mother's side from the Incas, wrote the "History of +Florida," of which the adventures of De Soto constitute the most brilliant +portion. His "Commentaries on Peru" is a striking and interesting work. + +The last of the historians of eminence in the elder school of Spanish +history was Solis, whose "Conquest of Mexico" is beautifully written, and +as it was flattering to the national history, it was at once successful, +and has enjoyed an unimpaired popularity down to our times. + +The spirit of political tyranny in the government, and of religious +tyranny in the Inquisition, now more than ever united, were more hostile +to bold and faithful inquiry in the department of history than in almost +any other. Still, the historians of this period were not unworthy of the +national character. Their works abound in feeling rather than philosophy, +and are written in a style that marks, not so much the peculiar genius of +their authors, perhaps, as that of the country that gave them birth. +Although they may not be entirely classical, they are entirely Spanish; +and what they want in finish and grace they make up in picturesqueness and +originality. + +In one form of didactic composition, Spain stands in advance of other +countries: that of proverbs, which Cervantes has happily called "short +sentences drawn from long experience." Spanish proverbs can be traced back +to the earliest times. Although twenty-four thousand have been collected, +many thousands still remain known only among the traditions of the humbler +classes of society that have given birth to them all. + +From the early part of the seventeenth century, Spanish prose became +infected with that pedantry and affectation already spoken of as +Gongorism, or "the cultivated style;" and from this time, everything in +prose as well as in poetry announced that corrupted taste which both +precedes and hastens the decay of a literature, and which in the latter +half of the seventeenth century was in Spain but the concomitant of a +general decline in the arts and the gradual degradation of the monarchy. +No country in Christendom had fallen from such a height of power as that +which Spain occupied in the time of Charles V. into such an abyss of +degradation as she reached when Charles II., the last of the house of +Austria, ceased to reign. The old religion of the country, the most +prominent of all the national characteristics, was now so perverted from +its true character by intolerance that it had become a means of +oppression, such as Europe never before witnessed. The principle of +loyalty, now equally perverted and mischievous, had sunk into servile +submission, and as we approach the conclusion of the century, the +Inquisition and the despotism seem to have cast their blight over +everything. + + +PERIOD THIRD. + +THE ACCESSION OF THE BOURBON FAMILY TO THE PRESENT TIME (1700-1885). + +1. FRENCH INFLUENCE ON THE LITERATURE OF SPAIN.--The death of Charles II., +in 1700, was followed by the War of the Succession between the houses of +Hapsburg and Bourbon, which lasted thirteen years. It was terminated by +the treaty of Utrecht and the accession of Philip V., the grandson of +Louis XIV. Under his reign the influence of France became apparent in the +customs of the country. The Academy of Madrid was soon established in +imitation of that of Paris, with the object of establishing and +cultivating the purity of the Castilian language. The first work published +by this association was a Dictionary, which has continued in successive +editions to be the proper standard of the language. At this time French +began to be spoken in the elegant society of the court and the capital, +translations from the French were multiplied, and at last, a poetical +system, founded on the critical doctrine of Boileau, prevalent in France, +was formally introduced into the country by Luzan, in his "Art of Poetry," +which from its first appearance (1737) exercised a controlling authority +at the court, and over the few writers of reputation then to be found in +the country. Though the works of Luzan offered a remedy for the bad taste +which had accompanied and in no small degree hastened the decline of the +national taste, they did not lay a foundation for advancement in +literature. The national mind had become dwarfed for want of its +appropriate nourishment; the moral and physical sciences that had been +advancing for a hundred years throughout Europe, were forbidden to cross +the Pyrenees. The scholastic philosophy was still maintained as the +highest form of intellectual culture; the system of Copernicus was looked +upon as contrary to the inspired record; while the philosophy of Bacon and +the very existence of mathematical science were generally unknown even to +the graduates of universities. It seemed as if the faculties of thinking +and reasoning were becoming extinct in Spain. + +2. THE DAWN OF SPANISH LITERATURE IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY.--The first +effort for intellectual emancipation was made by a monk, Benito Feyjoo +(1676-1764), who, having made himself acquainted with the truths brought +to light by Galileo, Bacon, Newton, Leibnitz, and Pascal, devoted his life +to the labor of diffusing them among his countrymen. The opposition raised +against him only drew to his works the attention he desired. Even the +Inquisition summoned him in vain, for it was impossible to question that +he was a sincere and devout Catholic, and he had been careful not to +interfere with any of the abuses sanctioned by the church. Before his +death he had the pleasure of seeing that an impulse in the right direction +had been imparted to the national mind. + +One of the striking indications of advancement was an attack upon the +style of popular preaching, which was now in a state of scandalous +degradation. The assailant was Isîa (1703-1781), a Jesuit, whose "History +of Friar Gerund" is a satirical romance, slightly resembling Don Quixote +in its plan, describing one of those bombastic orators of the age. It was +from the first successful in its object of destroying the evil at which it +aimed, and preachers of the class of Friar Gerund soon found themselves +without an audience. + +The policy of Charles III. (1759-1788) was highly favorable to the +progress of literature. He abridged the power of the Inquisition, and +forbade the condemnation of any book till its writer or publisher had been +heard in its defense; he invited the suggestion of improved plans of +study, made arrangements for popular education, and raised the tone of +instruction in the institutions of learning. Finally, perceiving the +Jesuits to be the most active opponents of these reforms, he expelled them +from every part of his dominions, breaking up their schools, and +confiscating their revenues. During his reign, intellectual life and +health were infused into the country, and its powers, which had been so +long wasting away, were revived and renewed. + +Among the writers of this age are Moratin the elder (1737-1780), whose +poems are marked by purity of language and harmony of versification; and +Yriarte (1750-1791), who was most successful in fables, which he applied, +to the correction of the faults and follies of literary men. To this +period may also be referred the school of Salamanca, whose object was to +combine in literature the power and richness of the old writers of the +time of the Philips with the severer taste then prevailing on the +continent. Melendez (1754-1817), who was the founder of this school, +devoted his muse to the joys and sorrows of rustic love, and the leisure +and amusements of country life. Nothing can surpass some of his +descriptions in the graceful delineation of tender feeling, and his verse +is considered in sweetness and native strength, to be such a return to the +tones of Garcilasso, as had not been heard in Spain for more than a +century. Gonzalez (d. 1794), who, with happy success, imitated Luis de +Leon, Jovellanos (1744-1811), who exerted great influence on the literary +and political condition of his country, and Quintana (b. 1772), whose +poems are distinguished by their noble and patriotic tone, are considered +among the principal representatives of the school of Salamanca. + +The most considerable movement of the eighteenth century in Spain, is that +relating to the theatre, which it was earnestly attempted to subject to +the rules then prevailing on the French stage. The Spanish theatre, in +fact, was now at its lowest ebb, and wholly in the hands of the populace. +The plays acted for public amusement were still represented as they had +been in the seventeenth century,--in open court-yards, in the daytime, +without any pretense of scenery or of dramatic ingenuity. Soon after, +through the influence of Isabella, the second wife of Philip V., +improvements were made in the external arrangements and architecture of +the theatres; yet, owing to the exclusive favor shown to the opera by the +Italian queens, the old spirit continued to prevail. + +In the middle of the eighteenth century a reform of the comedy and tragedy +was undertaken by Montiano and others, who introduced the French style in +dramatic compositions, and from that time an active contest went on +between the innovators and the followers of the old drama. The latter was +attacked, in 1762, by Moratin the elder, who wrote against it, and +especially against the _autos sacramentales_, showing that such wild, +coarse, and blasphemous exhibitions, as they generally were, ought not to +be tolerated in a civilized and religious community. So far as the _autos_ +were concerned, Moratin was successful; they were prohibited in 1768, and +since that time, in the larger cities, they have not been heard. + +The most successful writer for the stage was Ramon de la Cruz (1731-1799), +the author of about three hundred dramatic compositions, founded on the +manners of the middle and lower classes. They are entirely national in +their tone, and abound in wit and in faithful delineations of character. + +While a number of writers pandered to the bad taste of low and vulgar +audiences, a formidable antagonist appeared in the person of Moratin the +younger (1760-1828), son of that poet who first produced, on the Spanish +stage, an original drama written according to the French doctrines. +Notwithstanding the taste of the public, he determined to tread in the +footsteps of his father. Though his comedies have failed to educate a +school strong enough to drive out the bad imitations of the old masters, +they have yet been able to keep their own place. + +The eighteenth century was a period of revolution and change with the +Spanish theatre. While the old national drama was not restored to its +ancient rights, the drama founded on the doctrines taught by Luzan, and +practiced by the Moratins, had only a limited success. The audiences did +as much to degrade it as was done by the poets they patronized and the +actors they applauded. On the one side, extravagant and absurd dramas in +great numbers, full of low buffoonery, were offered; on the other, meagre, +sentimental comedies, and stiff, cold translations from the French, were +forced, in almost equal numbers, upon the actors, by the voices of those +from whose authority or support they could not entirely emancipate +themselves. + +3. SPANISH LITERATURE IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY.--The new life and health +infused into literature in the age of Charles III. was checked by the +French revolutionary wars in She reign of Charles IV., and afterwards by +the restoration of civil despotism and the Inquisition, brought again into +the country by the return of the Bourbon dynasty in 1814. Amidst the +violence and confusion of the reign of Ferdinand VII. (1814-1833), elegant +letters could hardly hope to find shelter or resting-place. Nearly every +poet and prose writer, known as such at the end of the reign of Charles +IV., became involved in the fierce political changes of the time,--changes +so various and so opposite, that those who escaped from the consequences +of one, were often, on that very account, sure to suffer in the next that +followed. Indeed, the reign of Ferdinand VII. was an interregnum in all +elegant culture, such as no modern nation has yet seen,--not even Spain +herself during the War of the Succession. This state of things continued +through the long civil war which arose soon after the death of that king, +and, indeed, it is not yet entirely abated. But in despite of the troubled +condition of the country, even while Ferdinand was living, a movement was +begun, the first traces of which are to be found among the emigrated +Spaniards, who cheered with letters their exile in England and France, and +whose subsequent progress from the time when the death of their unfaithful +monarch permitted them to return home, is distinctly perceptible in their +own country. + +The two principal writers of the first half of the century are the +satirist José de Larra (d. 1837), and the poet Espronceda (d. 1842); both +were brilliant writers, and both died young. Zorrilla (b. 1817), has great +wealth of imagination, and Fernan Caballero is a gifted woman whose +stories have been often translated. Antonio de Trueba is a writer of +popular songs and short stories not without merit, Campoamor (b. 1817) and +Bequer represent the poetry of twenty years ago. The short lyrics of the +first named are remarkable for their delicacy and finesse. Bequer, who +died at the age of thirty, left behind him poems which have already +exercised a wide influence in his own country and in Spanish America; they +tell a story of passionate love, despair, and death. Perez Galdos, a +writer of fiction, attacks the problem of modern life and thought, and +represents with vivid and often bitter fidelity the conflicting interests +and passions of Spanish life. Valera, the present minister from Spain to +the United States, is the author of the most famous Spanish novel of the +day, "Pepita Jimenez," a work of great artistic perfection, and his skill +and grace are still more evident in his critical essays. Castelar has +gained a European celebrity as an orator and a political and miscellaneous +writer. The works of these authors, and of many others not named, show +clearly that Spain is making vigorous efforts to bring herself, socially +and intellectually, into line with the rest of Europe. + +Of the Spanish colonies Cuba has produced some writers of enduring renown. +The most distinguished for poetic fame is Gertrude de Avelleneda; Heredia +and Placido may also be mentioned. In Venezuela, Baralt is known as a +historian, poet, and classical writer; Olmedo as a poet of Bolivia, and +Caro a writer of the United States of Colombia. + + + + +PORTUGUESE LITERATURE. + +1. The Portuguese Language.--2. Early Literature of Portugal.--3. Poets of +the Fifteenth Century; Macias, Ribeyro.--4. Introduction of the Italian +Style; San de Miranda, Montemayor, Ferreira.--5. Epic Poetry; Camoëns; The +Lusiad.--6. Dramatic Poetry; Gil Vicente.--7. Prose Writing; Rodriguez +Lobo, Barros, Brito, Veira.--8. Portuguese Literature in the Seventeenth, +Eighteenth, and Nineteenth Centuries; Antonio José, Manuel do Nascimento, +Manuel de Bocage. + + +1. THE PORTUGUESE LANGUAGE.--Portugal was long considered only as an +integral part of Spain; its inhabitants called themselves Spaniards, and +conferred on their neighbors the distinctive appellation of Castilians. +Their language was originally the same as the Galician; and had Portugal +remained a province of Spain, its peculiar dialect would probably, like +that of Aragon, have been driven from the fields of literature by the +Castilian. But at the close of the eleventh century, Alphonso VI., +celebrated in Spanish history for his triumphs over the Moors, gave +Portugal as a dowry to his daughter on her marriage with Henry of +Burgundy, with permission to call his own whatever accessions to it the +young prince might be able to conquer from the Moorish territory. Alphonso +Henriquez, the son of this pair, was saluted King of Portugal by his +soldiers on the battle-field of Castro-Verd, in the year 1139, his kingdom +comprising all the provinces we now call Portugal, except the province of +Algarve. Thenceforward the Portuguese became a separate nation from the +Spaniards, and their language asserted for itself an independent +existence. Still, however, the Castilian was long considered the proper +vehicle for literature; and while few Portuguese writers wholly disused +it, there were many who employed no other. + +Although the Portuguese language, founded on the Galician dialect, bears +much similarity to the Spanish in its roots and structure, it differs +widely from it in its grammatical combinations and derivations, so that it +constitutes a language by itself. It has far more French, and fewer Basque +and Arabic elements than the Spanish; it is softer, but it has, at the +same time, a truncated and incomplete sound, compared with the sonorous +beauty of the Castilian, and a predominance of nasal sounds stronger than +those of the French. It is graceful and easy in its construction, but it +is the least energetic of all the Romance tongues. + +2. EARLY LITERATURE OF PORTUGAL.--The people, as well as the language, of +Portugal possess a distinctive character. Early in the history of the +country the extensive and fertile plains were abandoned to pasturage, and +the number of shepherds in proportion to the rest of the population was so +great, that the idea of rural life among them was always associated with +the care of flocks. At the same time, their long extent of coast invited +to the pursuits of commerce and navigation; and the nation, thus divided +into hardy navigators, soldiers, and shepherds, was better calculated for +the display of energy, valor, and enterprise than for laborious and +persevering industry. Accustomed to active intercourse with society, +rather than to the seclusion of castles, they were far less haughty and +fanatical than the Castilians; and the greater number of Moçárabians that +were incorporated among them, diffused over their feelings and manners a +much stronger influence of orientalism. The passion of love seemed to +occupy a larger share of their existence, and their poetry was more +enthusiastic than that of any other people of Europe. + +Although the literature of Portugal, like the character of its people, is +marked by excessive softness, elegiac sentimentality, and an undefined +melancholy, it affords little originality in the general tone of its +productions. Henry of Burgundy and his knights early introduced Provençal +poetry, and the native genius was nurtured in the succeeding age by +Spanish and Italian taste, and afterwards modified by the influence of +French and English civilization. National songs were not wanting in the +early history of the country, yet no relics of them have been preserved. +The earliest monuments of Portuguese literature relate to the age of the +French knights who founded the political independence of the country, and +must be sought in the "Cancioneros," containing courtly ballads composed +in the Galician dialect, after the Provençal fashion, and sung by +wandering minstrels. The Cancionero of King Dionysius (1279-1325) is the +most ancient of those collections, the king himself being considered by +the Portuguese as the earliest poet. In fact, Galician poetry, modeled +after the Provençal, was cultivated at that time all along the western +portion of the Pyrenean peninsula. Alfonso the Wise, King of Castile, used +this dialect in his poems; and as a poet and patron of the Spanish +troubadours, he may be considered as belonging both to the Spanish and +Portuguese literatures. + +In the fourteenth and beginning of the fifteenth century, Portuguese +poetry preserved its Provençal character. The poets rallied around the +court, and the kings and princes of the age sang to the Provençal lyre +both in the Castilian and the Galician dialects; but only a few fragments +of the poetry of the fourteenth century are extant. + +3. POETS OF THE FIFTEENTH CENTURY.--Early in the fifteenth century, the +same chivalrous spirit which had achieved the conquest of the country from +the Moors, led the Portuguese to cross the Straits of Gibraltar, and plant +their banner on the walls of Ceuta. Many other cities of Africa were +afterwards taken; and in 1487, Bartolomeo Diaz doubled the Cape of Good +Hope, and Vasco da Gama pointed out to Europe the hitherto unknown track +to India. Within fifteen years after, a Portuguese kingdom was founded in +Hindostan, and the treasures of the East flowed into Portugal. The +enthusiasm of the people was thus awakened, and high views of national +importance, and high hopes of national glory, arose in the public mind. +The time was peculiarly favorable to the development of genius, and +especially to the spirit of poetry. Indeed, the last part of the fifteenth +century, and the beginning of the sixteenth, the age of King John (1481- +1495), and of Emanuel (1495-1521), may be called the golden age of the +Portuguese poetry. + +At the head of the poetical school of the fifteenth century, stands +Macias, surnamed the Enamored (fl. 1420). He was distinguished as a hero +in the wars against the Moors of Granada, and as a poet in the retinue of +the Marquis of Villena. He became attached to a lady of the same princely +household, who was forced to marry another. Macias continuing to express +his love, though prohibited by the marquis from doing so, was thrown into +prison; but even there, he still poured forth his songs on his ill-fated +love, regarding the hardships of captivity as light, in comparison with +the pangs of absence from his mistress. The husband of the lady, stung +with jealousy, recognizing Macias through the bars of his prison, took +deadly aim at him with his javelin, and killed him on the spot. The weapon +was suspended over the poet's tomb, in the Church of St. Catherine, with +the inscription, "Here lies Macias the Enamored." + +The death of Macias produced such a sensation as could only belong to an +imaginative age. All those who desired to be thought cultivated mourned +his fate. His few poems of moderate merit became generally known and +admired, and his melancholy history continued to be the theme of songs and +ballads, until, in the poetry of Lope de Vega and Calderon, the name of +Macias passed into a proverb, and became synonymous with the highest and +tenderest love. + +Ribeyro (1495-1521), one of the earliest and best poets of Portugal, was +attached to the court of King Emanuel. Here he indulged a passion for one +of the ladies of the court, which gave rise to some of his most exquisite +effusions. It is supposed that the lady, whose name he studiously +conceals, was the Infanta Beatrice, the king's own daughter. He was so +wholly devoted to the object of his love, that he is said to have passed +whole nights wandering in the woods, or beside the banks of a solitary +stream, pouring forth the tale of his woes in strains of mingled +tenderness and despair. The most celebrated productions of Ribeyro are +eclogues. The scene is invariably laid in his own country; his shepherds +are all Portuguese, and his peasant girls have Christian names. But under +the disguise of fictitious characters, he evidently sought to place before +the eyes of his beloved mistress the feelings of his own breast; and the +wretchedness of an impassioned lover is always his favorite theme. + +The bucolic poets of Portugal may be regarded as the earliest in Europe, +and their favorite creed, that pastoral life was the poetical model of +human life, and the ideal point from which every sentiment and passion +ought to be viewed, was first represented by Ribeyro. This idea threw an +air of romantic sweetness and elegance over the poetry of the sixteenth +century, but at the same time it gave to it a monotonous tone and an air +of tedious affectation. + +4. INTRODUCTION OF THE ITALIAN STYLE.--The poet who first introduced the +Italian style into Portuguese poetry was so successful in seizing the +delicate tone by which the blending of the two was to be effected that the +innovation was accomplished without a struggle. Saa de Miranda (1495-1558) +was one of the most pleasing and accomplished men of his age. He traveled +extensively, and on his return was attached to the court of Lisbon. It is +related of him that he would often sit silent and abstracted in company, +and that tears, of which no one knew the cause, would flow from his eyes, +while he seemed unconscious of the circumstance, and indifferent to the +observation he was thus attracting. These emotions were of course +attributed to poetic thought and romantic attachments. He insisted on +marrying a lady who was neither young nor handsome, and whom he had never +seen, having been captivated by her reputation for amiability and +discretion. He became so attached to her, that when she died he renounced +all his previous pursuits and purposes in life, remained inconsolable, and +soon followed her to the grave. Miranda is chiefly celebrated for his +lyric and pastoral poetry. + +Montemayor was a contemporary of Miranda, and a native of Portugal, but he +declined holding any literary position in his own country. The pastoral +romance of "Diana," written in the Castilian language, is his most +celebrated work. It was received with great favor, and extensively +imitated. With many faults, it possesses a high degree of poetic merit, +and is entitled to the esteem of all ages. + +Ferreira (1528-1569) has been called the Horace of Portugal. His works are +correct and elegant, but they are wanting in those higher efforts of +genius which strike the imagination and fire the spirit. The glory, +advancement, and civilization of his country were his darling themes, and +it was this enthusiasm of patriotism that made him great. In his tragedy +of Inez de Castro, Ferreira raised himself far above his Italian +contemporaries. Many similar writers shed a lustre on this, the brightest +and indeed the only brilliant period of Portuguese literature; but they +are all more remarkable for taste and elegance than for richness of +invention. + +5. EPIC POETRY.--The chief and only boast of his country, the sole poet +whose celebrity has extended beyond the peninsula, and whose name appears +in the list of those who have conferred honor upon Europe, is Luis de +Camoëns (1524-1579). He was descended from a noble, but by no means a +wealthy family. After having completed his studies at the university, he +conceived a passion for a lady of the court, so violent that for some time +he renounced all literary and worldly pursuits. He entered the military +service, and in an engagement before Ceuta, in which he greatly +distinguished himself, he lost an eye. Neglected and contemned by his +country, he embarked for the East Indies. After various vicissitudes +there, he wrote a bitter satire on the government, which occasioned his +banishment to the island of Macao, where he remained for five years, and +where he completed the great work which was to hand down his name to +posterity. There is still to be seen, on the most elevated point of the +isthmus which unites the town of Macao to the Chinese continent, a sort of +natural gallery formed out of the rocks, apparently almost suspended in +the air, and commanding a magnificent prospect over both seas, and the +lofty chain of mountains which rises above their shores. Here he is said +to have invoked the genius of the epic muse, and tradition has conferred +on this retreat the name of the Grotto of Camoëns. + +On his return to Goa, Camoëns was shipwrecked, and of all his little +property, he succeeded only in saving the manuscript of the Lusiad, which +he bore in one hand above the water, while swimming to the shore. Soon +after reaching Goa, he was thrown into prison upon some unjust accusation, +and suffered for a long time to linger there. At length released, he took +passage for his native country, which he reached after an absence of +sixteen years. Portugal was at this time ravaged by the plague, and in the +universal sorrow and alarm, the poet and his great work were alike +neglected. The king at length consented to accept the dedication of this +poem, and made to the author the wretched return of a pension, amounting +to about twenty-five dollars. Camoëns was not unfrequently in actual want +of bread, for which he was in part indebted to a black servant who had +accompanied him from India, and who was in the habit of stealing out at +night to beg in the streets for what might support his master during the +following day. But more aggravated evils were in store for the unfortunate +poet. The young king perished in the disastrous expedition against +Morocco, and with him expired the royal house of Portugal. The +independence of the nation was lost, her glory eclipsed, and the future +pregnant with calamity and disgrace. Camoëns, who had so nobly supported +his own misfortunes, sank under those of his country. He was seized with a +violent fever, and expired in a public hospital without having a shroud to +cover his remains. + +The poem on which the reputation of Camoëns depends, is entitled "Os +Lusiadas;" that is, the Lusitanians (or Portuguese), and its design is to +present a poetic and epic grouping of all the great and interesting events +in the annals of Portugal. The discovery of the passage to India, the most +brilliant point in Portuguese history, was selected as the groundwork of +the epic unity of the poem. But with this, and the Portuguese conquests in +India, the author combined all the illustrious actions performed by his +countrymen in other quarters of the world, and whatever of splendid and +heroic achievement history or tradition could supply. Vasco da Gama has +been represented as the hero of the work, and those portions not +immediately connected with his expedition, as episodes. But there is, in +truth, no other leading subject than the country, and no episodes except +such parts as are not immediately connected with her glory. Camoëns was +familiar with the works of his Italian contemporaries, but the +circumstance that essentially distinguishes him from them, and which forms +the everlasting monument of his own and his country's glory, is the +national love and pride breathing through the whole work. His patriotic +spirit, devoting a whole life to raise a monument worthy of his country, +seems never to have indulged a thought which was not true to the glory of +an ungrateful nation. + +The Greek mythology forms the epic machinery of the Lusiad. Vasco da Gama, +having doubled the Cape of Good Hope, is steering along the western coast +of Africa, when the gods assemble on Mount Olympus to deliberate on the +fate of India. Venus and Bacchus form two parties; the former in favor, +the latter opposed to the Portuguese. The poet thus gratified his national +pride, as Portugal was eminently the land of love, and moderation in the +use of wine was one of its highest virtues. Bacchus lays many snares to +entrap and ruin the adventurers, who are warned and protected by Venus. He +visits the palace of the gods of the sea, who consent to let loose the +Winds and Waves upon the daring adventurers, but she summons her nymphs, +and adorning themselves with garlands of the sweetest flowers, they subdue +the boisterous Winds, who, charmed by the blandishments of love, become +calm. Vasco is hospitably received by the African king of Melinda, to whom +he relates the most interesting parts of the history of his native +country. On the homeward voyage, Venus prepares a magic festival for the +adventurers, on an enchanted island, and the goddess Thetis becomes the +bride of the admiral. Here the poet finds the opportunity to complete the +narrative of his country's history, and a prophetic nymph is brought +forward to describe the future achievements of the nation from that period +to the time of Camoëns. + +The Lusiad is one of the noblest monuments ever raised to the national +glory of any people, and it is difficult to conceive how so grand and +beautiful a whole could be formed on a plan so trivial and irregular. The +plan has been compared to a scaffolding surrounded and concealed by a +majestic building, serving to connect its parts, but having no share in +producing the unity of the effect. One of the most affecting and beautiful +of all the passages of the Lusiad, is the narrative of the tragical fate +of Iñez de Castro, who, after her death, was proclaimed queen of Portugal, +upon the accession of her lover to the throne. + +In the poems of Camoëns we find examples of every species of composition +practiced in his age and country. Some of them bear the impress of his +personal character, and of his sad and agitated career. A wild tone of +sorrow runs through them, which strikes the ear like wailings heard +through the gloom of midnight and darkness. We know not by what calamity +they were called forth, but it is the voice of grief, and it awakens an +answering throb within the breast. + +6. DRAMATIC POETRY.--The drama is quite a barren field in Portuguese +literature. The stage of Lisbon has been occupied almost exclusively by +the Italian opera and Spanish comedy. Only one poet of any name has +written in the Portuguese spirit. This was Gil Vicente (1490-1556). He +resided constantly at the court, and was employed in providing occasional +pieces for its civil and religious festivities. It is probable that he was +an actor, and it is certain that he educated for the stage his daughter, +Paula, who was equally celebrated as an actress, a poetess, and a +musician. The dramas of Vicente consist of autos, comedies, tragi- +comedies, and farces. The autos, or religious pieces, were written chiefly +to furnish entertainment for the court on Christmas night. The shepherds +had naturally an important part assigned to them, and the whole was +pervaded by the pastoral feeling which distinguishes them remarkably from +the Spanish autos. But the best productions of this author are his farces, +which approach much nearer to the style of true comedy than the plays +published under that name. + +Saa de Miranda, desirous of conferring on his country a classical theatre, +produced two erudite comedies, but he was born a pastoral poet, and made +himself a dramatist only by imitation. Ferreira belonged to the same +school, and the favor bestowed by the court on the dramas of these two +poets, was one obstacle to the formation of a national drama. Another was, +the pertinacious attachment of the Portuguese to pastoral poetry, and +nothing could be more contrary to dramatic life than the languor, +sentimentality, and monotony peculiar to the eclogue. + +7. PROSE WRITING.--After Camoëns, Saa de Miranda, and Ferreira, the +language and the literature of Portugal are indebted to no other writer so +much as to Rodriguez Lobo (b. 1558). The history of Portuguese eloquence +may be said to commence with him, for he laid so good a foundation for the +cultivation of a pure prose style that, in every effort to obtain classic +perfection, subsequent writers have merely followed in his steps. His +verse is nowise inferior to his prose. Among his poetic works appears a +whole series of historic romances, written by way of ridiculing that +species of composition. + +Lobo stood alone, in the sixteenth century, in his efforts to improve the +prose of his country. Gongorism had, meanwhile, introduced bombast and +metaphorical obscurity, and no writer of eminence arose to attempt a more +natural style, till the end of the seventeenth century. + +Foremost among those who undertook to relate the history of their country, +especially of her oriental discoveries, and who communicated to their +records an ardent patriotic feeling, is Barros (1496-1571); he took Livy +for his model, and his labors are worthy of honorable notice. India was +the favorite topic of Portuguese historians; and several similar works, +but inferior to that of Barros, appeared in the same age. Bernardo de +Brito (d. 1617) undertook the task of compiling a history of Portugal. His +narration begins with the creation of the world, and breaks off where the +history of modern Portugal commences. It is eminently distinguished for +style and descriptive talent. The biography of Juan de Castro, written by +Jacinto de Andrade, is considered as a masterpiece of the Portuguese +prose. + +The conquered Indians found an eloquent defender in Veira (1608-1697), a +Catholic missionary, who spent a great part of his life in the deserts of +South America, and wrote catechisms in different languages for the use of +the natives. Having returned to the court of John IV., he undertook to +defend the natural rights of Indians against the rapacity of the +conquerors. He undertook also the defense of the Jews in his native +country, and showed so much interest in their cause that he was twice +brought before the Inquisition. His sermons and letters are models of +prose writings, full of the inspiration which springs from the boldness of +his subjects. + +8. PORTUGUESE LITERATURE IN THE SEVENTEENTH, EIGHTEENTH, AND NINETEENTH +CENTURIES.--Portuguese literature during the seventeenth century would +present an utter blank, but for the few literary productions to which we +have alluded. Previous to that time, patriotic valor and romantic +enterprise expanded the national genius; but before it could mature, the +despotism of the monarchy, the horrors of the Inquisition, and the +influence of wealth and luxury, had done their work of destruction, and +the prostrate nation had in the seventeenth century reaped the bitter +fruits. The most brilliant period of Portuguese poetry had passed away, +and no new era commenced. The flame of patriotism was extinct, Brazil was +the only colony that remained, the spirit of national enterprise was no +more, and a general lethargy overspread the nation. Labor was reckoned a +disgrace, commerce a degradation, and agriculture too fatiguing for even +the lowest classes of the community. Both Spain and Portugal felt the +paralyzing influence of their humbled position in the scale of nations, +and civil and religious despotism had overthrown, in both countries, the +intellectual power which had so long withstood its degrading influence. + +Thousands of sonnets, chiefly of an amorous nature, filled up the +seventeenth century in Portugal, while Spain was exhausting its expiring +energies in dramas. Souza, the most eminent of the sonneteers, alone +produced six hundred. In the first, he announces that the collection is +designed to celebrate "the penetrating shafts of love, which were shot +from a pair of heavenly eyes, and which, after inflicting immortal wounds, +issued triumphant from the poet's breast." + +In the eighteenth century, the influence of French taste crept quietly +into the literature as well as the manners of the Portuguese nation. Royal +academies of history and language were founded, and an academy of +sciences, which, since 1792, has exercised an influence over literary +taste, and given birth to many excellent treatises on philosophy and +criticism. + +About the year 1735, the nation seemed on the eve of possessing a drama of +its own. Antonio José, an obscure Jew, composed a number of comic operas, +in the vernacular tongue, which had long been banished from the theatre of +Lisbon. In spite of much coarseness, their genuine humor and familiar +gayety excited the greatest enthusiasm, and for ten years the theatre was +crowded with delighted audiences. But the Jew was seized and burnt, by +order of the Inquisition, at the last _auto da fé_, which took place in +1745, and the theatre was closed. + +Although French literature continued to exert its influence in the +beginning of the nineteenth century, masterpieces of English literature at +that time found their way into Portugal, and excited much admiration and +imitation. Manuel do Nascimento (1734-1819) is the representative of the +classic style, and his works, both in poetry and prose, are distinguished +by purity of language. Manuel de Bocage (1766-1805) is one of the most +celebrated modern poets, and though his poems are not examples of refined +taste or elegance of style, they evince enthusiasm and poetical fire. +Among the poets of the present day, there are some who have emancipated +themselves from the imitation of foreign models, and have attempted to +combine the earliest national elements of their literature with the +characteristic tendencies of the present age. + + + + +FINNISH LITERATURE. + +1. The Finnish Language and Literature: Poetry; the Kalevala; Lönnrot; +Korhonen.--2. The Hungarian Language and Literature: the Age of Stephen +I.; Influence of the House of Anjou; of the Reformation; of the House of +Austria; Kossuth; Josika; Eötvös; Kuthy; Szigligeti; Petöfi. + + +1. THE FINNISH LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE.--On passing northward from the +Iranian plateaux through Turan to the Uralian mountains, which separate +Europe and Asia, we arrive at the primitive seat of the Finnish race. +Driven westward by other invading tribes, it scattered through northern +Europe, and established itself more particularly in Finland, where, at the +present time, we find its principal stock. From the earliest period of the +history of the Finns, until the middle of the twelfth century, they lived +under their own independent kings. They were then subjected by the Swedes, +who established colonies upon their coasts, and introduced Christianity +among them. After having been for many centuries the theatre of Russian +and Swedish wars, in the beginning of the present century Finland passed +under the dominion of Russia; yet, through these ages of foreign +domination, its inhabitants preserved their national character, and +maintained the use of their native tongue. + +The Finnish language is a branch of the Turanian family; it is written +with the Roman alphabet, but it has fewer sounds; it is complicated in its +declension and conjugation, but it has great capacity of expressing +compound ideas in one word; it is harmonious in sound, and free, yet +clear, in its construction. + +The Finns at an early period had attained a high degree of civilization, +and they have always been distinguished for their love of poetry, +especially for the melancholy strains of the elegy. They possess a vast +number of popular songs or ballads, which are either lyrical or +mythological; they are sung by the _song-men_, to the _kantele_, a kind of +harp with five wire strings, a favorite national instrument. They have +also legends, tales, and proverbs, some of which have recently been +collected and published at Helsingfors, the capital of Finland. + +The great monument of Finnish literature is the "Kalevala," a kind of epic +poem, which was arranged in a systematic collection, and given to the +world in 1833, by Elias Lönnrot (d. 1884). He wandered from place to place +in the remote districts of Finland, living with the peasants, and taking +down from their lips the popular songs as he heard them chanted. The +importance of this indigenous epic was at once recognized, and +translations were made in various languages. The poem, which strongly +resembles "Hiawatha," takes its name from the heroes of Kaleva, the land +of happiness and plenty, who struggle with three others from the cold +north and the land of death. It begins with the creation, and ends in the +triumph of the heroes of Kaleva. Max Müller says of this poem that it +possesses merits not dissimilar to those of the Iliad, and that it will +claim its place as the fifth national epic of the world, beside that of +the "Mahabharata," "Shah Nameh," and "Nibelungen." It is doubtless the +product of different minds at different periods, having evidently received +additions from time to time. + +During the present century there has been considerable literary activity +in Finland, and we meet with many names of poets and dramatists. The +periodical literature is specially rich and voluminous, and valuable works +on Finnish history and geography have recently appeared. Of recent poets +the most popular is Korrhoinen, a peasant, whose productions are +characterized by their sharp and biting sarcasm. The prose of Finland has +a religious and moral character, and is especially enriched by +translations from Swedish literature. + +2. HUNGARIAN LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE.--The language of the Magyars belongs +to the Turanian family, and more particularly to the Finnish branch. The +Hungarian differs from most European languages in its internal structure +and external form. It is distinguished by harmony and energy of sound, +richness and vigor of form, regularity of inflexion, and power of +expression. + +Towards the close of the seventh century, the Magyars emigrated from Asia +into Europe, and for two hundred years they occupied the country between +the Don and Dneiper. Being at length pressed forward by other emigrant +tribes, they entered and established themselves in Hungary, after +subjugating its former inhabitants. + +In the year 1000, Stephen I. founded the kingdom of Hungary. He had +introduced Christianity into the country, and with it a knowledge of the +Latin language, which was now taught in the schools and made use of in +public documents, while the native idiom was spoken by the people, and in +part in the assemblies of the Diet. On the accession of the House of Anjou +to the throne of Hungary, in the fourteenth century, a new impulse was +given to the Hungarian tongue. The Bible was translated into it, and it +became the language of the court; although the Latin was still the organ +of the church and state, and from the fourteenth to the close of the +fifteenth century remained the literary language of the country. This +Latin literature boasted of many distinguished writers, but so little +influence had they on the nation at large, that during this period it +appears that many of the high officers of the kingdom could neither read +nor write. + +The sixteenth century was more favorable to Hungarian literature, and the +political and religious movements which took place in the reign of +Ferdinand I. and Maximilian II. (1527-1576) proved to be most beneficial +to the intellectual development of the people. The Reformation, which was +introduced into Hungary through Bohemia, the example of this neighboring +country, and the close alliance which existed between the two people, +exercised great influence on the public mind. The Hungarian language was +introduced into the church, the schools, and the religious controversies, +and became the vehicle of sacred and popular poetry. It was thus enriched +and polished, and acquired a degree of perfection which it retained until +the latter part of the eighteenth century. Translations of the Bible were +multiplied; chronicles, histories, grammars, and dictionaries were +published, and the number of schools, particularly among the Protestants, +was greatly increased. + +But these brilliant prospects were soon blighted when the country came +under the absolute dominion of Austria. In order to crush the national +tendencies of the Magyars, the government now restored the Latin and +German languages; and newspapers, calendars, and publications of all +kinds, including many valuable works, appeared in Latin. Indeed, the +interval from 1702 to 1780 was the golden age of this literature in +Hungary. Maria Theresa and Joseph II., however, by prescribing the use of +the German language in the schools, official acts, and public +transactions, produced a reaction in favor of the national tongue, which +was soon after taught in the schools, heard in the lecture-room, the +theatre, and popular assemblies, and became the organ of the public press. +These measures, however, the good effects of which were mainly confined to +the higher classes, were gradually pursued with less zeal. It is only of +late that the literature of Hungary has assumed a popular character, and +become a powerful engine for the advancement of political objects. + +Kossuth may be considered as the founder of a national party which is at +the head of the contemporary literature of the Magyars. Through the action +of this party and of its leader, the Hungarian Diet passed, in 1840, the +celebrated "Law of the Language," by which the supremacy of the Hungarian +tongue was established, and its use prescribed in the administration and +in the institutions of learning. From 1841 to 1844, Kossuth published a +paper, in which the most serious and important questions of politics and +economy were discussed in a style characterized by great elegance and +simplicity, and by a fervid eloquence, which awakened in all classes the +liveliest emotions of patriotism and independence. His writings greatly +enriched the national language, and excited the emulation even of those +who did not accept his political views. His memoirs, lately published, +have been extensively translated. + +The novels of Josika (1865), modeled after those of Walter Scott, the +works of Eötvös and Kemeny after the writers of Germany, and those of +Kuthy and others who have followed the French school, have greatly +contributed to enrich the literature of Hungary. The comedies and the +dramas of Eötvös and Gal, and particularly those of Szigligeti, show great +progress in the Hungarian theatre, while in the poems of Petöfi and others +is heard the harmonious yet sorrowful voice of the national muse. + +After 1849, the genius of Hungary seemed for a while buried under the +ruins of the nation. Many of the most eminent writers either fell in the +national struggle, or, being driven into exile, threw aside their pens in +despair. But the intellectual condition of the people has of late been +greatly improved. Public education has been promoted, scholastic +institutions have been established, and at the present time there are +eloquent voices heard which testify to the presence of a vigorous life +latent in the very heart of the country. + +Among many other writers of the present day, are Jokai (b. 1825), the +author of various historical romances which have been extensively +translated, Varga, a lyric poet, and Arany, perhaps the greatest poet +Hungary has produced, some of whose works are worthy of the literature of +any age. + +3. THE TURKISH LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE.--The Turks, or Osmanlis, are +descendants of the Tartars, and their language, which is a branch of the +Turanian family, is at the present day the commercial and political tongue +throughout the Levant. This language is divided into two principal +dialects, the eastern and the western. The eastern, though rough and +harsh, has been the vehicle of certain literary productions, of which the +most important are the biographies of more than three hundred ancient +poets, written by Mir-Ali-Schir, who flourished in the middle of the +fifteenth century, and who was the Maecenas of several Persian poets, +particularly of Jami; several historical memoirs, and a number of ballads, +founded on the traditions of the ancient Turkish tribes, belong also to +the literature of this dialect. The western idiom constitutes what is more +properly called the Turkish language. It is euphonious in sound and +regular in its grammatical forms, though poor in its vocabulary. To supply +its deficiencies, the Osmanlis have introduced many elements of the Arabic +and Persian. They have also adopted the Arabic alphabet, with some +alterations; and, like the Arabians, they write from right to left. + +The literature of Turkey, although it is extremely rich, contains little +that is original or national, but is a successful imitation of Persian or +Arabic. Even before the capture of Constantinople works had been produced +which the nation has not let perish. The most flourishing period was +during the reign of Solyman the Magnificent and his son Selim in the +sixteenth century. Fasli (d. 1563) was an erotic poet, who attained a high +reputation; and Baki (d. 1600), a lyric poet, is ranked by the Orientals +with the Persian Hafiz. In the seventeenth century a new period of +literature arose, though inferior to the last. Nebi was the most admired +poet, Nefi a distinguished satirist, and Hadji Khalfa a historian of +Arabic, Persian, and Turkish literature, who is the chief authority upon +this subject for the East and West. The annals of Saad-El-Din (d. 1599) +are important for the student of the history of the Ottoman Empire. The +style of these writers, however, is for the most part bombastic, +consisting of a mixture of poetry and prose overladen with figures. Novels +and tales abound in this literature, and it affords many specimens of +geographical works, many important collections of juridical decisions, and +valuable researches on the Persian and Arabian languages. + +The press was introduced into Constantinople early in the eighteenth +century, and has been actively engaged in publishing translations of the +most important works in Persian and Arabic, as well as in the native +tongue. Societies are established for the promotion of various branches of +science, and many scientific and literary journals are published. There +are numerous primary free schools and high scholastic institutions in +Constantinople, and some public libraries. + +4. THE ARMENIAN LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE.--The language of Armenia belongs +to the Indo-European family, and particularly to the Iranian variety; but +it has been greatly modified by contact with other languages, especially +the Turkish. At present the modern dialect is spoken in southern Russia +around the sea of Azof, in Turkey, Galicia, and Hungary. The ancient +Armenian, which was spoken down to the twelfth century, is preserved in +its purity in the ancient books of the people, and is still used in their +best works. This tongue, owing to an abundance of consonants, is lacking +in euphony; it is deficient in distinction of gender, though it is +redundant in cases and inflexions. Its alphabet is modeled after the +Greek. + +The Armenians, from the earliest period of their existence, through all +the political disasters which have signalized their history, have +exhibited a strong love for a national literature, and maintained +themselves as a cultivated people amidst all the revolutions which +barbarism, despotism, and war have occasioned. During so many ages they +have faithfully preserved not only their historical traditions, reaching +back to the period of the ancient Hebrew histories, but also their +national character. Their first abode--the vicinity of Mount Ararat--is +even at the present day the centre of their religious and political union. +Commerce has scattered them, like the Israelites, among all nations, but +without debasing their character; on the contrary, they are distinguished +by superior cultivation, manners, and honesty from the barbarians under +whose yoke they live. The cause is to be found in their creed and in their +religious union. + +Until the beginning of the fourth century A.D. the Armenians were Parsees; +the literature of the country up to this period was contained in a few +songs or ballads, and its civilization was only that which could be +wrought out by the philosophy of Zoroaster. In 319, when Christianity was +introduced into Armenia, the language and learning of the Greeks were +exciting the profound admiration of the most eminent fathers of the +church, and this attention to Greek literature was immediately manifest in +the literary history of Armenia. A multitude of Grecian works was +translated, commented upon, and their philosophy adopted, and the +literature was thus established upon a Grecian basis. + +About the same period, the alphabet at present in use in the Armenian +language was invented, or the old alphabet perfected by Mesrob, in +connection with which the language underwent many modifications. Mesrob, +with his three sons, especially educated for the task, commenced the +translation of the Bible 411 A.D., and its completion nearly half a +century later gave a powerful impulse to Armenian learning, and at the +same time stamped upon it a religious character which it has never lost. +The period from the sixth to the tenth century is the golden age of this +literature. Its temporary decline after this period was owing to the +invasion of the Arabians, when many of the inhabitants were converted to +the Mohammedan faith and many more compelled to suffer persecution for +their refusal to abjure Christianity. After the subjection of Armenia to +the Greek empire, literature again revived, and until the fourteenth +century was in a flourishing condition. In 1375, when the Turks took +possession of the country, the inhabitants were again driven from their +homes, and from that time their literature has steadily declined. After +their emigration, the Armenians established themselves in various +countries of Europe and Asia, and amidst all the disadvantages of their +position they still preserve not only the unity of their religious faith, +but the same unwearied desire to sustain a national literature. Wherever +they have settled, in Amsterdam, Leghorn, Venice, Constantinople, and +Calcutta, they have established printing presses and published valuable +books. Of their colonies or monasteries, the most interesting and fruitful +in literary works is that of Venice, which was founded in the eighteenth +century by Mechitar, an Armenian, and from him its monks are called +Mechitarists. From the time of their establishment they have constantly +issued translations of important religious works. They now publish a semi- +monthly paper in the Armenian language, which is circulated and read among +the scattered families of the Armenian faith over the world. They also +translate and publish standard works of modern literature. + +About the year 1840, through the influence of American missionaries, the +Bible was translated into Armenian, freed as far as possible from foreign +elements; school-books were also translated, newspapers established, and +the language awoke to new life. Within the last twenty years the +intellectual progress in Armenia has been very great. In 1863 Christopher +Robert, an American gentleman, established and endowed a college at +Constantinople for the education of pupils of all races, religions, and +languages found in the empire. This institution, not sectarian, though +Christian, has met with great success. It has two hundred and fifty +students from fifteen nationalities, though chiefly Armenian, Bulgarian, +and Greek. + + + + +SLAVIC LITERATURES. + +The Slavic Race and Languages; the Eastern and Western Stems; the +Alphabets; the Old or Church Slavic Language; St. Cyril's Bible; the +Pravda Russkaya; the Annals of Nestor. + + +THE SLAVIC RACE AND LANGUAGES.--The Slavic race, which belongs to the +great Indo-European family of nations, probably first entered Europe from +Asia, seven or eight centuries B.C. About the middle of the sixth century +A.D. we find Slavic tribes crossing the Danube in great multitudes, and +settling on both the banks of that river; from that time they frequently +appear in the accounts of the Byzantine historians, under different +appellations, mostly as involved in the wars of the two Roman empires; +sometimes as allies, sometimes as conquerors, often as vassals, and +oftener as emigrants and colonists, thrust out of their own countries by +the pressing forward of the more warlike Teutonic tribes. In the latter +half of the eleventh century the Slavic nations were already in possession +of the whole extent of territory which they still occupy, from the Arctic +Ocean on the north to the Black and Adriatic seas on the south, and from +Kamtschatka and the Russian islands of the Pacific to the Baltic, and +along the banks of the rivers Elbe, Muhr, and Ruab, again to the Adriatic. +They are represented by early historians as having been a peaceful, +industrious, hospitable people, obedient to their chiefs, and religious in +their habits. Wherever they established themselves, they began to +cultivate the earth, and to trade in the productions of the country. There +are also early traces of their fondness for music and poetry. + +The analogy between the Slavic and the Sanskrit languages indicates the +Oriental origin of the Slavonians, which appears also from their +mythology. The antithesis of a good and evil principle is met with among +most of the Slavic tribes; and even at the present time, in some of their +dialects, everything good and beautiful is to them synonymous with the +purity of the white color; they call the good spirit the White God, and +the evil spirit the Black God. We find also traces of their Oriental +origin in the Slavic trinity, which is nearly allied to that of the +Hindus. Other features of their mythology remind us of the sprightly and +poetical imagination of the Greeks. Such is the life attributed to the +inanimate objects of nature, rocks, brooks, and trees; such are also the +supernatural beings dwelling in the woods and mountains, nymphs, naiads, +and satyrs. Indeed, the Slavic languages, in their construction, richness, +and precision, appear nearly related to the Greek and Latin, with which +they have a common origin. + +Following the division of the Slavic nations into the eastern and western +stems, their languages may he divided into two classes, the first +containing the Russian and the Servian idioms, the second embracing the +Bohemian and the Polish varieties. The Slavi of the Greek faith use the +Cyrillic alphabet, so called from St. Cyril, its inventor, a Greek monk, +who went from Constantinople (862 A.D.) to preach to them the gospel. It +is founded on the Greek, with modifications and additions from Oriental +sources. The Hieronymic alphabet, particularly used by the priests of +Dalmatia and Croatia, is so called from the tradition which attributes it +to St. Hieronymus. The Bohemians and Poles use the Roman alphabet, with a +few alterations. + +St. Cyril translated the Bible into the language called the _Old or Church +Slavic_, and from the fact that this translation, made in the middle of +the ninth century, is distinguished by great copiousness, and bears the +stamp of uncommon perfection in its forms, it is evident that this +language must have been flourishing long before that time. The celebrated +"Pravda Russkaya," a collection of the laws of Jaroslav (1035 A.D.), and +the "Annals of Nestor," of the thirteenth century, are the most remarkable +monuments of the old Slavic language. This, however, has for centuries +ceased to be a living tongue. + + + + +RUSSIAN LITERATURE. + +1. The Language.--2. Literature in the Reign of Peter the Great; of +Alexander; of Nicholas; Danilof, Lomonosof, Kheraskof, Derzhavin, +Karamzin.--3. History, Poetry, the Drama: Kostrof, Dmitrief, Zhukoffski, +Krylof, Pushkin, Lermontoff, Gogol.--4. Literature in Russia since the +Crimean War: School of Nature; Turgenieff; Ultra-realistic School; +Science: Mendeleéff. + + +1. THE LANGUAGE.--In the Russian language three principal dialects are to +be distinguished; but the Russian proper, as it is spoken in Moscow and +all the central and northern parts of European Russia, is the literary +language of the nation. It is distinguished by its immense copiousness, +the consequence of its great flexibility in adopting foreign words, merely +as roots, from which, by means of its own resources, stems and branches +seem naturally to spring. Another excellence is the great freedom of +construction which it allows, without any danger of becoming ambiguous. It +is clear, euphonious, and admirably adapted to poetry. + +The germs of Russian civilization arose with the foundation of the empire +by the Varegians of Scandinavia (862 A.D.), but more particularly with the +introduction of Christianity by Vladimir the Great, who, towards the close +of the tenth century, established the first schools, introduced the Bible +of St. Cyril, called Greek artists from Constantinople, and became the +patron, and at the same time the hero of poetry. Indeed, he and his +knights are the Russian Charlemagne and his peers, and their deeds have +proved a rich source for the popular tales and songs of succeeding times. +Jaroslav, the son of Vladimir, was not less active than his father in +advancing the cause of Christianity; he sent friars through the country to +instruct the people, founded theological schools, and continued the +translation of the church books. To this age is referred the epic, "Igor's +Expedition against the Polovtzi," discovered in the eighteenth century, a +work characterized by uncommon grace, beauty, and power. + +From 1238 to 1462 A.D. the Russian princes were vassals of the Mongols, +and during this time nearly every trace of cultivation perished. The +invaders burned the cities, destroyed all written documents, and +demolished the monuments of national culture; but at length Ivan I. (1462- +1505) delivered his country from the Mongols, and prepared a new era in +the history of Russian civilization. + +At this early period the first germs of dramatic art were carried from +Poland to Russia. In Kief the theological students performed +ecclesiastical dramas, and traveled about, during the holidays, to exhibit +their skill in other cities. The tragedies of Simeon of Polotzk (1628- +1680), in the old Slavic language, penetrated from the convents to the +court, where they were performed in the middle of the seventeenth century. +At this time the first secular drama, a translation from Molière, was also +represented. + +2. THE LITERATURE.--Peter the Great (1689-1725) raised the Russian dialect +to the dignity of a written language, introduced it into the +administration and courts of justice, and caused many books to be +translated from foreign languages. He rendered the Slavic characters more +conformable to the Latin, and these letters, then generally adopted, +continue in use at the present time. Among the writers of the age of Peter +the Great may be mentioned Kirsha Danilof, who versified the popular +traditions of Vladimir and his heroes; and Kantemir, a satirist, who +translated many epistles of Horace, and the work of Fontenelle on the +plurality of worlds. + +Peter the Great laid the corner-stone of a national literature, but the +temple was not reared above the ground until the reign of Elizabeth and of +Catharine II. Lomonosof (1711-1765), a peasant, born in the dreary regions +of Archangel, has the honor of being the true founder of the Russian +literature. In his Russian grammar he first laid down the principles and +fixed the rules of the language; he first ventured to draw the boundary +line between the old Slavic and the Russian, and endeavored to fix the +rules of poetry according to the Latin standard. Among his contemporaries +may be mentioned Sumarokof (1718-1777) and Kheraskof (1733-1807), both +very productive writers in prose and verse, and highly admired by their +contemporaries. + +In the middle of the eighteenth century the dramatic talent of the +Russians was awakened, through the establishment of theatres at Jaroslav, +St. Petersburg, and Moscow; and several gifted literary men employed +themselves in dramatic compositions; but of all the productions of this +time, those of Von Wisin (1745-1792) only have continued to hold +possession of the stage. + +Among the poets of the eighteenth century, Derzhavin (1743-1816) sang the +glory of Catharine II., and of the Russian arms. His "Ode to God" has +obtained the distinction of being translated into several European +languages, and also into Chinese, and hung up in the Emperor's palace, +printed on white satin in golden letters. + +The reign of Alexander I. (1801-1825) opened a new era in the literature. +He manifested great zeal for the mental elevation of his subjects; he +increased the number of universities, established theological seminaries +and institutions for the study of oriental languages, and founded gymnasia +and numerous common schools for the people; he richly endowed the Asiatic +museum of St. Petersburg, and for a time patronized the Russian Bible +Society, and promoted the printing of books on almost all subjects. But +toward the close of his reign, in consequence of certain political +measures, literature sank with great rapidity. + +Karamzin (1765-1826), the representative of this age, undertook to shake +off the yoke of the classical rules established by Lomonosof, and +introduced more simplicity and naturalness. His reputation rests chiefly +upon his "History of the Russian Empire," which, with many faults, is a +standard work in Slavic literature. The reign of the Emperor Nicholas +opened with a bloody tragedy, which exhibited in a striking manner the +dissatisfied and unhealthy spirit of the literary youth of Russia. Several +poets and men of literary fame were among the conspirators; and to awaken +patriotism and to counteract the tendencies of the age, the government +promoted historical and archaeological researches, but at the same time +abolished professorships of philosophy, increased the vigilance of its +censorship of the press, lengthened the catalogue of forbidden books, and +reduced the term of lawful absence for its subjects. It took the most +energetic measures to promote national education, and to cultivate those +fields of science where no political tares could be sown. + +The leading idea of the time was Panslavism, the object of which was the +union of the Slavic race, an opposition to all foreign domination, and the +attainment of a higher intellectual and political condition in the general +march of mankind. Panslavism rose to a special branch of literature, and +its principal writers were Kollar, Grabowski, and Gurowski. + +3. HISTORY, POETRY, THE DRAMA.--History is a department of letters which +has been treated very successfully in Russia; critical researches have +been extended to all branches of archaeology, philology, mythology, and +kindred subjects, and valuable works have been produced. + +Dmitrief (1760-1827) combined in his poems imagination, taste, +correctness, and purity of language. Zhukoffski (b. 1785) a poet of deep +feeling, took his models from the Germans. + +The fables of Krylof (b. 1768) are equally celebrated among all classes +and ages, and are among the first books read by Russian children. + +Above all the others, Pushkin (1799-1835) must be considered as the +representative of Russian poetry in the nineteenth century. He was in the +service of the government, when an ode "to Liberty," written in too bold a +spirit, induced Alexander I. to banish him from St. Petersburg. The +Emperor Nicholas recalled him, and became his patron. Though by no means a +mere imitator, his poetry bears strong marks of the influence of Byron. + +Lermontoff (d. 1841) was a poet and novelist whose writings, like those of +Pushkin, were strongly influenced by Byron. Koltsoff (d. 1842) is the +first song writer of Russia, and his favorite theme is the joys and +sorrows of the people. Through the influence of Pushkin and Gogol (d. +1852), Russian literature became emancipated from the classic rule and +began to develop original tendencies. Gogol in his writings manifests a +deep sentiment of patriotism, a strong love of nature, and a fine sense of +humor. + +The Russians have few ballads of great antiquity, and these rarely have +any reference to the subjects of the heroic prose tales which are the +delight of Russian nurseries, the favorite subjects of which are the +traditions of Vladimir and his giant heroes, which doubtless once existed +in the form of ballads. The Russians have ever been a _singing_ race. +Every festival day and every extraordinary event has its accompanying +song. Though these songs have been modernized in language and form, that +they date from the age of paganism is evident from their frequent +invocations of heathen deities and allusions to heathen customs. Allied to +these songs are the various ditties which the peasant girls and lads sing +on certain occasions, consisting of endless repetitions of words or +syllables; yet through this melodious tissue, apparently without meaning, +sparks of real poetry often shine. + +The Russian songs, like the language, have a peculiar tenderness, and are +full of caressing epithets, which are often applied even to inanimate +objects. Russian lovers are quite inexhaustible in their endearing +expressions, and the abundance of diminutives which the language possesses +is especially favorable to their affectionate mode of address. With this +exquisite tenderness of the love-song is united a pensive feeling, which, +indeed, pervades the whole popular poetry of Russia, and which may be +characterized as _melancholy musical_, and in harmony with the Russian +national music, the expressive sweetness of which has been the admiration +of all foreign composers to whom it has been known. + +In the rich and fertile steppes of the Ukraine, where every forest tree +seems to harbor a singer, and every blade of grass on the boundless plains +seems to whisper the echo of a song, this pensive character of Russian +poetry deepens into a melancholy that finds expression in a variety of +sweet elegiac melodies. A German writer says of them, "they are the +sorrows of whole centuries blended in one everlasting sigh." The spirit of +the past indeed breathes through their mournful strains. The cradle of the +Kozak was rocked to the music of clashing swords, and for centuries the +country, on both banks of the Dnieper to the northwestern branch of the +Carpathian Mountains, the seat of this race, was the theatre of constant +warfare. Their narrative ballads, therefore, have few other subjects than +the feuds with the Poles and Tartars, the Kozak's parting with his beloved +one, his lonely death on the border or on the bloody field of battle. + +These ballads have sometimes a spirit and boldness which presents noble +relief to the habitual melancholy of this poetry in general. Professional +singers, with a kind of guitar in their hand, wander through the country, +sure to find a willing audience in whatever village they may stop. Their +ballads are not confined to the scenes of their early history, but find +subjects in the later wars with the Turks and Tartars, and in the +campaigns of more modern times; they illustrate the warlike spirit, as +well as the domestic relations of the Kozaks, and their skill in +narrative, as well as their power of expressing in lyric strains the +unsophisticated emotions of a tender heart. + +The poets of the present age exercise little or no influence on a society +distracted and absorbed by the political questions of the day. + +Although the history of Russia is rich in dramatic episodes, it has failed +to inspire any native dramatist. Count Tolstoi has been one of the most +successful writers in this line, but, with great merits, he has the fault +common to the Russian drama in general, that of great attention to the +study of the chief character, to the neglect of other points which +contribute to secure interest. + +4. LITERATURE IN RUSSIA SINCE THE CRIMEAN WAR.--After the Crimean War, in +1854, the Russian government took the initiative in an onward movement, +and by the abolition of serfdom the country awoke to new life. In +literature this showed itself in the rise of a new school, that of Nature, +in which Turgenieff (1818-1883) is the most prominent figure, a place +which he still holds in contemporary Russian literature. The publication +of his "Diary of a Sportsman" first made the nobility of Russia aware that +the serf was a man capable of feeling and suffering, and not a brute to be +bought and sold with the soil, and this work was not without its effect in +causing the emancipation. No writer has studied so faithfully and +profoundly the Russian peasant and better understood the moral needs of +the time and the great questions which agitate it. + +Within the last twenty years the new theory of Nihilism has begun to find +expression in literature, particularly in fiction. Rejecting all authority +in religion, politics, science, and art, this school is the reaction from +long ages of oppression. The school of nature lent itself to this new +movement until at last it reached the pessimistic standpoint of +Schopenhauer. + +Of late, the ultra-realistic school has appeared in Russia, the writers of +which devote themselves to the study of a low realism in its most +repulsive aspects. While it boasts of not idealizing the peasant, like +Turgenieff and others, it presents him in an aspect to excite only +aversion. Art being thus excluded, and the school having neither +authority, principle, nor object, whatever influence it may have cannot +but be pernicious. + +SCIENCE.--In mathematics and in all the natural sciences Russia keeps pace +with the most advanced European nations. In chemistry Mendeleéff +formulated the theory relating to atoms and their chemical properties and +relations, not then discovered to be the law by which they were governed, +as later experiments proved. + + + + +THE SERVIAN LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE. + + +The Servian alphabet was first fixed and the language reduced to certain +general rules only within the present century. The language extends, with +some slight variations of dialect, and various systems of writing, over +the Turkish and Austrian provinces of Servia, Bosnia, Herzegovina, +Montenegro, and Dalmatia, and the eastern part of Croatia. The southern +sky, and the beauties of natural scenery that abound in all these regions, +so favorable to the development of poetical genius, appear also to have +exerted a happy influence on the language. While it yields to none of the +other Slavic dialects in richness, clearness, and precision, it far +surpasses them all in euphony. + +The most interesting feature of the literature of these countries is their +popular poetry. This branch of literature still survives among the Slavic +race, particularly the Servians and Dalmatians, in its beauty and +luxuriance, while it is almost extinct in other nations. Much of this +poetry is of unknown antiquity, and has been handed down by tradition from +generation to generation. From the gray ages of paganism it reaches us +like the chimes of distant bells, unconnected, and half lost in the air. +It often manifests the strong, deep-rooted superstitions of the Slavic +race, and is full of dreams, omens, and forebodings; witchcraft, and a +certain Oriental fatalism, seeming to direct will and destiny. Love and +heroism form the subject of all Slavic poetry, which is distinguished for +the purity of manners it evinces. Wild passions or complicated actions are +seldom represented, but rather the quiet scenes of domestic grief and joy. +The peculiar relation of brother and sister, particularly among the +Servians, often forms an interesting feature of the popular songs. To have +no brother is a misfortune, almost a disgrace, and the cuckoo, the +constant image of a mourning woman in Servian poetry, was, according to +the legend, a sister who had lost her brother. + +This poetry was first collected by Vuk Stephanovitch Karadshitch (b. +1786), a Turkish Servian, the author of the first Oriental Servian grammar +and dictionary, who gathered the songs from the lips of the peasantry. His +work, published at Vienna in 1815, has been made known to the world +through a translation into German by the distinguished authoress of the +"Languages and Literature of the Slavic Nations," from which this brief +sketch has been made. Nearly one third of these songs consist of epic +tales several hundred verses in length. The lyric songs compare favorably +with those of other nations, but the long epic extemporized compositions, +by which the peasant bard, in the circle of other peasants, in +unpremeditated but regular and harmonious verse, celebrates the heroic +deeds of their ancestors or contemporaries, have no parallel in the whole +history of literature since the days of Homer. + +The poetry of the Servians is intimately interwoven with their daily life. +The hall where the women sit spinning around the fireside, the mountain on +which the boys pasture their flocks, the square where the village youth +assemble to dance, the plains where the harvest is reaped, and the forests +through which the lonely traveler journeys, all resound with song. Short +compositions, sung without accompaniment, are mostly composed by women, +and are called female songs; they relate to domestic life, and are +distinguished by cheerfulness, and often by a spirit of graceful roguery. +The feeling expressed in the Servian love-songs is gentle, often playful, +indicating more of tenderness than of passion. In their heroic poems the +Servians stand quite isolated; no modern nation can be compared to them in +epic productiveness, and the recent publication of these poems throws new +light on the grand compositions of the ancients. The general character of +these Servian tales is objective and plastic; the poet is, in most cases, +in a remarkable degree _above_ his subject; he paints his pictures, not in +glowing colors, but in prominent features, and no explanation is necessary +to interpret what the reader thinks he sees with his own eyes. The number +and variety of the Servian heroic poems is immense, and many of them, +until recently preserved only by tradition, cannot be supposed to have +retained their original form; they are frequently interwoven with a belief +in certain fanciful creatures of pagan superstition, which exercise a +constant influence on human affairs. The poems are often recited, but most +frequently sung to the music of a rude kind of guitar. The bard chants two +lines, then he pauses and gives a few plaintive strokes on his instrument; +then he chants again, and so on. While in Slavic poetry generally the +musical element is prominent, in the Servian it is completely subordinate. +Even the lyric poetry is in a high degree monotonous, and is chanted +rather than sung. + +Goethe, Grimm, and "Talvi" drew attention to these songs, many +translations of which were published in Germany, and Bowring, Lytton, and +others have made them known in England. + +At present there is much intellectual activity among the Servians in +various departments of literature, tragedy, comedy, satire, and fiction, +but the names of the writers are new to Europeans, and not easily +remembered. + + + + +THE BOHEMIAN LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE. + +John Huss, Jerome of Prague, Tycho Brahe, Kepler, Comenius, and others. + + +The Bohemian is one of the principal Slavic languages. It is spoken in +Bohemia and in Moravia, and is used by the Slovaks of Hungary in their +literary productions. Of all the modern Slavic dialects, the Bohemian was +the first cultivated; it early adopted the Latin characters, and was +developed under the influence of the German language. In its free +construction, the Bohemian approaches the Latin, and is capable of +imitating the Greek in all its lighter shades. + +The first written documents of the Bohemians are not older than the +introduction of Christianity into their country; but there exists a +collection of national songs celebrating battles and victories, which +probably belongs to the eighth or ninth century. During the eleventh and +twelfth centuries the influence of German customs and habits is apparent +in Bohemian literature; and in the thirteenth and fourteenth this +influence increased, and was manifest in the lyric poetry, which echoed +the lays of the German Minnesingers. Of these popular songs, however, very +few are left. + +In 1348 the first Slavic university was founded in Prague, on the plan of +those of Paris and Bologna, by the Emperor Charles IV., who united the +crowns of Germany and Bohemia. The influence of this institution was felt, +not merely in the two countries, but throughout Europe. + +The name of John Huss (1373-1415) stands at the head of a new period in +Bohemian literature. He was professor at the university of Prague, and +early became acquainted with the writings of Wickliffe, whose doctrines he +defended in his lectures and sermons. The care and attention he bestowed +on his compositions exerted a decided and lasting influence on the +language. The old Bohemian alphabet he arranged anew, and first settled +the Bohemian orthography according to fixed principles. Summoned to appear +before the council of Constance to answer to the charges of heresy, he +obeyed the call under a safe-conduct from the Emperor Sigismund. But he +was soon arrested by order of the council, condemned, and burned alive. + +Among the coadjutors of Huss was Jerome of Prague, a professor in the same +university, who in his erudition and eloquence surpassed his friend, whose +doctrinal views he adopted, but he had not the mildness of disposition nor +the moderation of conduct which distinguished Huss. He wrote several works +for the instruction of the people, and translated some of the writings of +Wickliffe into the Bohemian language. On hearing of the dangerous +situation of his friend he hastened to Constance to assist and support +him. He, too, was arrested, and even terrified into temporary submission; +but at the next audience of the council he reaffirmed his faith, and +declared that of all his sins he repented of none more than his apostasy +from the doctrines he had maintained. In consequence of this avowal he was +condemned to the same fate as his friend. + +These illustrious martyrs were, with the exception of Wickliffe, the first +advocates of truth a century before the Reformation. Since then, in no +language has the Bible been studied with more zeal and devotion than in +the Bohemian. The long contest for freedom of conscience which desolated +the country until the extinction of the nation is one of the great +tragedies of human history. + +The period from 1520 to 1620 is considered the golden age of Bohemian +literature. Nearly two hundred writers distinguished the reign of Rudolph +I. (1526-1611), and among them were many ladies and gentlemen of the +court, of which Tycho Brahe, Kepler, and other scientific men, from +foreign countries, were the chief ornaments. Numerous historical works +were published, theology was cultivated with talent and zeal, the +eloquence of the pulpit and the bar acquired a high degree of cultivation, +and in religious hymns all sects were equally productive. + +The triumph of the Catholic party, which followed the battle of the White +Mountain, near Prague (1620), gave a fatal blow to Bohemia. The leading +men of the country were executed, exiled, or imprisoned; the Protestant +religion was abolished, and the country was declared a hereditary Catholic +monarchy. The Bohemian language ceased to be used in public transactions; +and every book written in it was condemned to the flames as necessarily +heretical. Great numbers of monks came from southern Europe, and seized +whatever native books they could find; and this destruction continued to +go on until the close of the last century. + +Among the Bohemian emigrants who continued to write in their foreign +homes, Comenius (1592-1691) surpassed all others. When the great +persecution of the Protestants broke out he fled to Poland, and in his +exile he published several works in Latin and in Bohemian, distinguished +for the classical perfection of their style. + +In the latter part of the eighteenth century the efforts to introduce into +Bohemia the German as the official language of the country awoke the +national feeling of the people, and produced a strong reaction in favor of +their native tongue. When the tolerant views of Joseph II. were known, +more than a hundred thousand Protestants returned to their country; books +long hidden were brought to light, and many works were reprinted. During +the reign of his two successors, the Bohemians received still more +encouragement; the use of the language was ordained in all the schools, +and a knowledge of it was made a necessary qualification for office. Among +the writers who exerted a favorable influence in this movement may be +mentioned Kramerius (1753-1808), the editor of the first Bohemian +newspaper, and the author of many original works; Dobrovsky (1753-1829), +the patriarch of modern Slavic literature, and one of the profoundest +scholars of the age; and Kollar (b. 1763), the leading poet of modern +times in the Bohemian language. Schaffarik (b. 1795), a Slovak, is the +author of a "History of the Slavic Language and Literature," in German, +which has, perhaps, contributed more than any other work to a knowledge of +Slavic literature. Palacky, a Moravian by birth, was the faithful fellow- +laborer of Schaffarik; his most important work is a "History of Bohemia." + +Since 1848 there has arisen a school of poets whose writings are more in +accordance with those of the western nations. Among them are Hálek (d. +1874) and Cech, the most celebrated of living Bohemian poets. Caroline +Soêtla (b. 1830) is the originator of the modern Bohemian novel. Since +1879 many poems have appeared, epic in their character, taking their +materials both from the past and the present. In various branches of +literature able writers are found, too numerous even to name. + + + + +THE POLISH LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE. + +Rey, Bielski, Copernicus, Czartoryski, Niemcewicz, Mickiewicz, and others. + + +The Polish language is the only existing representative of that variety of +idioms originally spoken by the Slavic tribes, which, under the name of +Lekhes, in the sixth or seventh century, settled on the banks of the +Vistula and Varta. Although very little is known of the progress of the +language into its present state, it is sufficiently obvious that it has +developed from the conflict of its natural elements with the Latin and +German idioms. Of the other Slavic dialects, the Bohemian is the only one +which has exerted any influence upon this tongue. The Polish language is +refined and artificial in its grammatical structure, rich in its words and +phrases, and, like the Bohemian, capable of faithfully imitating the +refinements of the classical languages. It has a great variety and nicety +of shades in the pronunciation of the vowels, and such combinations of +consonants as can only be conquered by a Slavic tongue. + +The literary history of Poland begins, like that of Bohemia, at the epoch +of the introduction of Christianity. In the year 965, Miecislav, Duke of +Poland, married the Bohemian princess Dombrovka, who consented to the +marriage on the condition of the duke becoming a convert to Christianity; +and from that time the Polish princes, and the greater part of the nation, +adopted the new faith. The clergy in those early ages in Poland, as well +as elsewhere, were the depositaries of mental light; and the Benedictine +monks who, with others, had been invited to the converted country, founded +convents, to which they early attached schools. Their example was +followed, at a later period, by other orders, and for several centuries +the natives were excluded from all clerical dignities and privileges, and +the education of the country was directed by foreign monks. They burned +the few writings which they found in the vernacular tongue, and excited +unnatural prejudices against it. From the ninth to the sixteenth century +Polish literature was almost entirely confined to the translation of a +part of the Bible and a few chronicles written in Latin. Among these must +be noticed the chronicle of Martin Gallus (d. 1132), an emigrant +Frenchman, who is considered as the oldest historian of Poland. + +Casimir (1333-1370) was one of the few princes who acquired the name of +the Great, not by conquests, but by the substantial benefits of laws, +courts of justice, and means of education, which he procured for his +subjects. In his reign was formed the first code of laws, known by the +name of "Statute of Wislica," a part of which is written in the Polish +language; and he laid the foundation of the university of Cracow (1347), +which, however, was only organized half a century later. Hedevig, the +granddaughter of Casimir, married Jagello of Lithuania, and under their +descendants, who reigned nearly two centuries, Poland rose to the summit +of power and glory. With Sigismund I. (1505-1542), and Sigismund Augustus +(1542-1613), a new period of Polish literature begins. The university of +Cracow had been organized in 1400, on the model of that of Prague, and +this opened a door for the doctrines, first of the Bohemian, then of the +German reformers. The wild flame of superstition which kindled the fagots +for the disciples of the new doctrines in Poland was extinguished by +Sigismund I. and Sigismund II., in whom the Reformation found a decided +support. Under their administration Poland was the seat of a toleration +then unequaled in the world; the Polish language became more used in +literary productions, and was fixed as the medium through which laws and +decrees were promulgated. + +Rey of Naglowic (1515-1569), who lived at the courts of the Sigismunds, is +called the father of Polish poetry. Most of his productions are of a +religious nature, and bear the stamp of a truly poetical talent. John +Kochanowski (1530-1584) published a translation of the Psalms, which is +still considered as a classical work. His other poems, in which Pindar, +Anacreon, and Horace were alternately his models, are distinguished for +their conciseness and terseness of style. Rybinski (fl. 1581) and Simon +Szymonowicz (d. 1629), the former as a lyric poet, the latter as a writer +of idyls, maintain a high rank. + +The Poles possess all the necessary qualities for oratory, and the +sixteenth century was eminent for forensic and pulpit eloquence. History +was cultivated with much zeal, but mostly in the Latin language. Martin +Bielski (1500-1576) was the author of the "Chronicle of Poland," the first +historical work in Polish. Scientific works were mostly written in Latin, +the cultivation of which, in Poland, has ever kept pace with the study of +the vernacular tongue. Indeed, the most eminent writers and orators of the +sixteenth century, who made use of the Polish language, managed the Latin +with equal skill and dexterity, and in common conversation both Latin and +Polish were used. + +Among the scientific writers of Latin is the astronomer Copernicus (1473- +1543). He early went to Italy, and was appointed professor of mathematics +at Rome. He at length returned to Poland, and devoted himself to the study +of astronomy. Having spent twenty years in observations and calculations, +he brought his scheme to perfection, and established the theory of the +universe which is now everywhere received. + +The interval between 1622 and 1760 marks a period of a general decadence +in Polish literature. The perversion of taste which, at the beginning of +that age, reigned in Italy, and thence spread over Europe, reached Poland; +and for nearly a hundred and fifty years the country, under the influence +of the Jesuits, was the victim of a stifling intolerance, and of a general +mental paralysis. But in the reign of Stanislaus Augustus (1762-1795), +Poland began to revive, and the national literature received a new +impulse. Though the French language and manners prevailed, and the +bombastic school of Marini was only supplanted by that of the cold and +formal poets of France, the cultivation of the Polish language was not +neglected; a periodical work, to which the ablest men of the country +contributed, was published, public instruction was made one of the great +concerns of the government, and the power of the Jesuits was destroyed. + +The dissolution of the kingdom which soon followed, its partition and +amalgamation with foreign nations, kindled anew the patriotic spirit of +the Poles, who devoted themselves with more zeal than ever to the +cultivation of their native language, the sole tie which still binds them +together. The following are the principal representatives of this period: +Stephen Konarski (1700-1773), a writer on politics and education, who +devoted himself entirely to the literary and mental reform of his country; +Zaluski (1724-1786), known more especially as the founder of a large +library, which, at the dismemberment of Poland, was transferred to St. +Petersburg; and, above all, Adam Czartoryski (1731-1823), and the two +brothers Potocki, distinguished as statesmen, orators, writers, and +patrons of literature and art. At the head of the historical writers of +the eighteenth century stands Naruszewicz (1753-1796), whose history of +Poland is considered as a standard work. In respect to erudition, +philosophical conception, and purity of style, it is a masterpiece of +Polish literature. Krasicki (1739-1802), the most distinguished poet under +Stanislaus Augustus, was called the Polish Voltaire. His poems and prose +writings are replete with wit and spirit, though bearing evident marks of +French influence, which was felt in almost all the poetical productions of +that age. + +Niemcewicz (1787-1846) is regarded as one of the greatest poets of the +eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Having fought by the side of +Kosciusko, and shared his fate as a prisoner, he accompanied him to +America, where he became the friend and associate of Washington, whose +life he afterwards described. His other works consist of historical songs, +dramas, and a history of the reign of Sigismund. + +There is no branch of literature in which the Poles have manifested +greater want of original power than in the drama, where the influence of +the French school is decided, and, indeed, exclusive. Novels and tales, +founded on domestic life, are not abundant in Polish literature; +philosophy has had few votaries, and the other sciences, with the +exception of the mathematical and physical branches, have been, till +recently, neglected. + +The failure of the revolution of 1830 forms a melancholy epoch in Polish +history, and especially in Polish literature. The universities of Warsaw +and Wilna were broken up, and their rich libraries removed to St. +Petersburg. Even the lower schools were mostly deprived of their funds, +and changed to Russian government schools. The press was placed under the +strictest control, the language and the national peculiarities of the +country were everywhere persecuted, the Russian tongue and customs +substituted, and the poets and learned men either silenced or banished. +Yet since that time the national history has become more than ever a +chosen study with the people; and as the results of these researches, +since 1830, cannot be written in Poland, Paris has become the principal +seat of Polish learning. One of the first works of importance published +there was the "History of the Polish Insurrection," by Mochnachi (1804- +1835), known before as the author of a work on the Polish literature of +the nineteenth century, and as the able editor of several periodicals. +Lelewel, one of the leaders of the revolution, wrote a work on the civil +rights of the Polish peasantry, which has exercised a more decided +influence in Poland than that of any modern author. Miekiewicz (1798- +1843), a leader of the same revolution, is the most distinguished of the +modern poets of Poland. His magnificent poem of "The Feast of the Dead" is +a powerful expression of genius. His "Sonnets on the Crimea" are among his +happiest productions, and his "Sir Thaddeus" is a graphic description of +the civil and domestic life of Lithuania. Mickiewicz is the founder of the +modern romantic school in Poland, to which belong the most popular +productions of Polish literature. Zalesski, Grabowski, and others of this +school have chosen the Ukraine as the favorite theatre of their poems, and +give us pictures of that country, alternately sweet, wild, and romantic. + +Of all the Slavic nations, the Poles have most neglected their popular +poetry, a fact which may be easily explained in a nation among whom +whatever refers to mere boors and serfs has always been regarded with the +utmost contempt. Their beautiful national dances, however, the graceful +Polonaise, the bold Masur, the ingenious Cracovienne, are equally the +property of the nobility and peasantry, and were formerly always +accompanied by singing instead of instrumental music. These songs were +extemporized, and were probably never committed to writing. + +The centre of literary activity in Poland is Warsaw, which, in spite of +the severe restrictions on the press, has always maintained its +preëminence. + + + + +ROUMANIAN LITERATURE. + +Carmen Sylva. + + +The kingdom of Roumania, composed of the principalities of Moldavia and +Wallachia, united in 1859, has few literary monuments. The language is +Wallachian, in which the Latin predominates, with a mixture of Slavic, +Turkish, and Tartar, and has only of late been classed with the Romance +languages, by the side of Italian, Spanish, and Portuguese. There are some +historical fragments of the fifteenth century remaining; the literature +that followed was mostly theological. In recent times a great number of +learned and poetical works have been produced, and political movements +have led to many political writings and to the establishment of many +newspapers. + +The most distinguished name in Roumanian literature is that of "Carmen +Sylva," the _nom de plume_ of the beautiful and gifted queen of that +country, whose writings in prose and verse are remarkable for passionate +feeling, grace, and finished execution. + + + + +DUTCH LITERATURE. + +1. The Language.--2. Dutch Literature to the Sixteenth Century: Maerlant; +Melis Stoke; De Weert; the Chambers of Rhetoric; the Flemish Chroniclers; +the Rise of the Dutch Republic.--3. The Latin Writers: Erasmus; Grotius; +Arminius; Lipsius; the Scaligers, and others; Salmasius; Spinoza; +Boerhaave; Johannes Secundus.--4. Dutch Writers of the Sixteenth Century: +Anna Byns; Coornhert; Marnix de St. Aldegonde, Bor, Visscher, and +Spieghel.--5. Writers of the Seventeenth Century: Hooft; Vondel; Cats; +Antonides; Brandt, and others; Decline in Dutch Literature.--6. The +Eighteenth Century: Poot; Langendijk; Hoogvliet; De Marre; Feitama; +Huydecoper; the Van Harens; Smits; Ten Kate; Van Winter; Van Merken; De +Lannoy; Van Alphen; Bellamy; Nieuwland, Styl, and others.--7. The +Nineteenth Century: Feith; Helmers; Bilderdyk; Van der Palm; Loosjes; +Loots, Tollens, Van Kampen, De s'Gravenweert, Hoevill, and others. + + +1. THE LANGUAGE.--The Dutch, Flemish, and Frisic languages, spoken in the +kingdoms of Holland and Belgium, are branches of the Gothic family. Toward +the close of the fifteenth century, the Dutch gained the ascendency over +the others, which it has never since lost. This language is energetic and +flexible, rich in synonyms and delicate shades, and from its fullness and +strength, better adapted to history, tragedy, and odes, than to comedy and +the lighter kinds of poetry. The Flemish, which still remains the literary +language of the southern provinces, is inferior to the Dutch, and has been +greatly corrupted by the admixture of foreign words. The Frisic, spoken in +Friesland, is an idiom less cultivated than the others, and is gradually +disappearing. In the seventeenth century it boasted of several writers, of +whom the poet Japix was the most eminent. The first grammar of the Frisic +language was published by Professor Rask, of Copenhagen, in 1825. In some +parts of Belgium the Walloon, an old dialect of the French, is still +spoken, but the Flemish continues to be the common language of the people, +although since the establishment of Belgium as an independent kingdom the +use of the French language has prevailed among the higher classes. + +2. DUTCH LITERATURE TO THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY.--When the obscurity of the +dark ages began to disappear with the revival of letters, the Netherlands +were not last among the countries of Europe in coming forth from the +darkness. The cities of Flanders were early distinguished for the +commercial activity and industrial skill of their inhabitants. Bruges +reached the height of its splendor in the beginning of the fifteenth +century, and was for some time one of the great commercial emporiums of +the world, to which Constantinople, Genoa, and Venice sent their precious +argosies laden with the products of the East. At the close of the +thirteenth century Ghent, in wealth and power, eclipsed the French +metropolis; and at the end of the fifteenth century there was, according +to Erasmus, no town in all Christendom to compare with it for magnitude, +power, political institutions, or the culture of its citizens. The lays of +the minstrels and the romances of chivalry were early translated, and a +Dutch version of "Reynard the Fox" was made in the middle of the +thirteenth century. Jakob Maerlant (1235-1300), the first author of note, +translated the Bible into Flemish rhyme, and made many versions of the +classics; and Melis Stoke, his contemporary, wrote a rhymed "Chronicle of +Holland." + +The most important work of the fourteenth century is the "New Doctrine," +by De Weert, which, for the freedom of its expression on religious +subjects, may be regarded as one of the precursors of the Reformation. + +Towards the close of the fourteenth century there arose a class of +wandering poets called Sprekers, who, at the courts of princes and +elsewhere, rehearsed their maxims in prose or verse. In the fifteenth +century they formed themselves into literary societies, known as "Chambers +of Rhetoric" (poetry being at that time called the "Art of Rhetoric"), +which were similar to the Guilds of the Meistersingers. These institutions +were soon multiplied throughout the country, and the members exercised +themselves in rhyming, or composed and performed mysteries and plays, +which, at length, gave rise to the theatre. They engaged in poetical +contests, distributed prizes, and were prominent in all national fêtes. +The number of the rhetoricians was so immense, that during the reign of +Philip II. of Spain more than thirty chambers, composed of fifteen hundred +members, often entered Antwerp in triumphal procession. But the effect of +these associations, composed for the most part of illiterate men, was to +destroy the purity of the language and to produce degeneracy in the +literature. The Chamber of Amsterdam, however, was an honorable exception, +and towards the close of the sixteenth century it counted among its +members distinguished scholars, such as Spieghel, Coornhert, Marnix, and +Visscher, and it may be considered as the school which formed Hooft and +Vondel. + +During the reign of the House of Burgundy (1383-1477), which was +essentially French in tastes and manners, the native tongue became +corrupted by the admixture of foreign elements. The poets and chroniclers +of the time were chiefly of Flemish origin; the most widely known among +the latter are Henricourt (d. 1403), Monstrelet (d. 1453), and Chastelain +(d. 1475). A translation of the Bible and a few more works close the +literary record of the fifteenth century. + +The invention of printing, the great event of the age, is claimed by the +cities of Mayence, Strasbourg, and Harlem; but if the art which preserves +literature originated in the Netherlands, it did not at once create a +native literature, the growth of which was greatly retarded by the use of +the Latin tongue, which long continued to be the organ of expression with +the principal writers of the country, nearly all of whom, even to the +present day, are distinguished for the purity and elegance with which they +compose in this language. + +The Reformation and the great political agitations of the sixteenth +century ended in the independence of the northern provinces and the +establishment of the Dutch Republic (1581) under the name of the United +Provinces, commonly called Holland, from the province of that name, which +was superior to the others in extent, population, and influence. The new +republic rose rapidly in power; and while intolerance and religious +disputes distracted other European states, it offered a safe asylum to the +persecuted of all sects. The expanding energies of the people soon sought +a field beyond the narrow boundaries of the country; their ships visited +every sea, and they monopolized the richest commerce of the world. They +alone supplied Europe with the productions of the Spice Islands, and the +gold, pearls, and jewels of the East all passed through their hands; and +in the middle of the seventeenth century the United Provinces were the +first commercial and the first maritime power in the world. A rapid +development of the literature was the natural consequence of this +increasing national development, which was still more powerfully promoted +by the great and wise William I., Prince of Orange, who in 1575 founded +the university of Leyden as a reward to that city for its valiant defense +against the Spaniards. Similar institutions were soon established at +Groningen, Utrecht, and elsewhere; these various seats of learning +produced a rivalry highly advantageous to the diffusion of knowledge, and +great men arose in all branches of science and literature. Among the +distinguished names of the sixteenth century those of the Latin writers +occupy the first place. + +3. LATIN WRITERS.--One of the great restorers of letters in Europe, and +one of the most elegant of modern Latin authors, was Gerard Didier, a +native of Rotterdam, who took the name of Erasmus (1467-1536). To profound +learning he joined a refined taste and a delicate wit, and few men have +been so greatly admired as he was during his lifetime. The principal +sovereigns of Europe endeavored to draw him into their kingdoms. He +several times visited England, where he was received with great deference +by Henry VIII., and where he gave lectures on Greek literature at +Cambridge. He made many translations from Greek authors, and a very +valuable translation of the New Testament into Latin. His writings +introduced the spirit of free inquiry on all subjects, and to his +influence may be attributed the first dawning of the Reformation. But his +caution offended some of the best men of the times. His treatise on "Free +Will" made an open breach between him and Luther, whose opinions favored +predestination; his "Colloquies" gave great offense to the Catholics; and +as he had not declared for the Protestants, he had but lukewarm friends in +either party. It has been said of Erasmus, that he would have purified and +repaired the venerable fabric of the church, with a light and cautious +touch, fearful lest learning, virtue, and religion should be buried in its +fall, while Luther struck at the tottering ruin with a bold and reckless +hand, confident that a new and more beautiful temple would rise from its +ruins. + +Hugo de Groot, who, according to the fashion of the time, took the Latin +name of Grotius (1583-1645), was a scholar and statesman of the most +diversified talents, and one of the master minds of the age. He was +involved in the religious controversy which at that time disturbed +Holland, and he advocated the doctrines of Arminius, in common with the +great statesman, Barneveldt, whom he supported and defended by his pen and +influence. On the execution of Barneveldt, Grotius was condemned to +imprisonment for life in the castle of Louvestein; but after nearly two +years spent in the prison, his faithful wife planned and effected his +escape. She had procured the privilege of sending him a chest of books, +which occasionally passed and repassed, closely scrutinized. On one +occasion the statesman took the place of the books, and was borne forth +from the prison in the chest, which is still in the possession of the +descendants of Grotius, in his native city of Delft. The States-General +perpetuated the memory of the devoted wife by continuing to give her name +to a frigate in the Dutch navy. After his escape from prison, Grotius +found an asylum in Sweden, from whence he was sent ambassador to France. +His countrymen at length repented of having banished the man who was the +honor of his native land, and he was recalled; but on his way to Holland +he was taken ill and died before he could profit by this tardy act of +justice. The writings of Grotius greatly tended to diffuse an enlightened +and liberal manner of thinking in all matters of science. He was a +profound theologian, a distinguished scholar, an acute philosopher and +jurist, and among the modern Latin poets he holds a high place. The +philosophy of jurisprudence has been especially promoted by his great work +on natural and national law, which laid the foundation of a new science. + +Arminius (1560-1609), the founder of the sect of Arminians or +Remonstrants, was distinguished as a preacher and for his zeal in the +Reformed Religion. He attempted to soften the Calvinistic doctrines of +predestination, in which he was violently opposed by Gomarus. He counted +among his adherents Grotius, Barneveldt, and many of the eminent men of +Holland. Other eminent theologians of this period were Drusius and +Coeceius. + +Lipsius (1547-1606) is known as a philologist and for his treatises on the +military art of the Romans, on the Latin classics, and on the philosophy +of the Stoics. Another scholar of extensive learning, whose editions of +the principal Greek and Latin classics have rendered him famous all over +Europe, was Daniel Heinsius (1580-1655). Gronovius and several of the +members of the Spanheim family became also eminent for their scholarship +in various branches of ancient learning. + +The two Scaligers, father and son (1483-1554) (1540-1609), Italians, +resident in Holland, are eminent for their researches in chronology and +archaeology, and for their valuable works on the classics. Prominent among +those who followed in the new path of philological study opened by the +elder Scaliger was Vossius, or Voss (1577-1649), who excelled in many +branches of learning, and particularly in Latin philology, which owes much +to him. He left five sons, all scholars of note, especially the youngest, +Isaac Vossius (1618-1689). + +Peter Burmann (1668-1741) was a scholar of great erudition and industry. + +Christian Huyghens (1629-1695) was a celebrated astronomer and +mathematician, and many great men in those branches of science flourished +in Holland in the seventeenth century. Among the great philologists and +scholars must also be mentioned Hemsterhuis, Ruhnkenius, and Valckenaer. + +Menno van Coehorn (1641-1704) was a general and engineer distinguished for +his genius in military science; his great work on fortifications has been +translated into many foreign languages. Helmont and Boerhaave have +acquired world-wide fame by their labors in chemistry; Linnaeus collected +the materials for his principal botanical work from the remarkable +botanical treasures of Holland; and zoology and the natural sciences +generally counted many devoted and eminent champions in that country. + +Salmasius (1588-1653), though born in France, is ranked among the writers +of Holland. He was professor in the University of Leyden, and was +celebrated for the extent and depth of his erudition. He wrote a defense +of Charles I. of England, which was answered by Milton, in a work entitled +"A Defense of the English People against Salmasius' Defense of the King." +Salmasius died soon after, and some did not scruple to say that Milton +killed him by the acuteness of his reply. + +Boerhaave (1668-1738) was one of the most eminent writers on medical +science in the eighteenth century, and from the time of Hippocrates no +physician had excited so much admiration. Spinoza (1632-1677) holds a +commanding position as a philosophical writer. His metaphysical system, as +expounded in his principal work, "Ethica," merges everything individual +and particular in the Divine substance, and is thus essentially +pantheistic. The philosophy of Spinoza exercised a powerful influence upon +the mind of Kant, and the master-minds and great poets of modern times, +particularly of Germany, have drawn copiously from the deep wells of his +suggestive thought. + +Among the many Latin poets of Holland, John Everard (1511-1536) (called +Jan Second or Johannes Secundus, because he had an uncle of the same name) +is most celebrated. His poem entitled "The Basia or Kisses" has been +translated into the principal European languages. Nicholas Heinsius (1620- +1681), son of the great philologist and poet Heinsius, wrote various Latin +poems, the melody of which is so sweet that he was called by his +contemporaries the "Swan of Holland." + +4. DUTCH WRITERS OF THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY.--The first writer of this +century in the native language was Anna Byns, who has been called the +Flemish Sappho. She was bitterly opposed to the Reformation, and such of +her writings as were free from religious intolerance evince more poetic +fire than is found in those of her contemporaries. Coornhert (1522-1605) +was a poet and philosopher, distinguished not less by his literary works +than by his participation in the revolution of the Provinces. In purity of +style and vigor of thought he far surpassed his predecessors. Marnix de +St. Aldegonde (d. 1598) was a soldier, a statesman, a theologian, and a +poet. He was the author of the celebrated "Compromise of the Nobles," and +his satire on the Roman Catholic Church was one of the most effective +productions of the time. He translated the Psalms from the original +Hebrew, and was the author of a lyric which, after two centuries and a +half, is still the rallying song of the nation on all occasions of peril +or triumph. + +Bor (1559-1635) was commissioned by the States to write a history of their +struggles with Spain, and his work is still read and valued for its +truthfulness and impartiality. Meteren, the contemporary of Bor, wrote the +history of the country from the accession of the House of Burgundy to the +year 1612--a work which, with some faults, has a high place in the +literature. + +Visscher (d. 1612) and Spieghel (d. 1613) form the connecting link between +the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Visscher, the Maecenas of the +day, was distinguished for his epigrammatic and fugitive poems, and +rendered immense service to letters by his influence on the literary men +of his time. His charming daughters were both distinguished in literature. +Spieghel is best remembered by his poem, the "Mirror of the Heart," which +abounds in lofty ideas, and in sentiments of enlightened patriotism. + +5. THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY.--At the close of the sixteenth century, +although the language was established, it still remained hard and +inflexible, and the literature was still destitute of dramatic, erotic, +and the lighter kinds of poetry; but an earnest, patriotic, religious, and +national character was impressed upon it, and its golden age was near at +hand. + +The commencement of the seventeenth century saw the people of the United +Provinces animated by the same spirit and energy, preferring death to the +abandonment of their principles, struggling with a handful of men against +the most powerful monarchy of the time; conquering their political and +religious independence, after more than half a century of conflict, and +giving to the world a great example of freedom and toleration; covering +the ocean with their fleets, and securing possessions beyond the sea a +hundred times more vast than the mother country; becoming the centre of +universal commerce, and cultivating letters, the sciences, and the arts, +with equal success. Poetry was national, for patriotism predominated over +all other sentiments; and it was original, because it recognized no models +of imitation but the classics. + +The spirit of the age naturally communicated itself to the men of letters, +who soon raised the literature of the country to a classic height; first +among these were Hooft, Vondel, and Jacob Cats. + +Hooft (1581-1647), a tragic and lyric poet as well as a historian, greatly +developed and perfected the language, and by a careful study of the +Italian poets imparted to his native tongue that sonorous sweetness which +has since characterized the poetry of Holland. He was the creator of +native tragedy, as well as of erotic verse, in which his style is marked +by great sweetness, tenderness, and grace. He rendered still greater +service to the native prose. His histories of "Henry IV.," of the "House +of Medici," and above all the history of the "War of Independence in the +Low Countries," without sacrificing truth, often border on poetry, in +their brilliant descriptions and paintings of character, and in their +nervous and energetic style. Hooft was a man of noble heart; he dared to +protect Grotius in the days of his persecution; he defended Descartes and +offered an asylum to Galileo. + +Vondel (1587-1660), as a lyric, epic, and tragic poet, far surpassed all +his contemporaries, and his name is honored in Holland as that of +Shakspeare is in England. His tragedies, which are numerous, are his most +celebrated productions, and among them "Palamedes Unjustly Sacrificed" is +particularly interesting as representing the heroic firmness of +Barneveldt, who repeated one of the odes of Horace when undergoing the +torture. Vondel excelled as a lyric and epigrammatic poet, and the faults +of his style belonged rather to his age than to himself. + +No writer of the time acquired a greater or more lasting reputation than +Jacob Cats (1577-1660), no less celebrated for the purity of his life than +for the sound sense and morality of his writings, and the statesmanlike +abilities which he displayed as ambassador in England, and as grand +pensioner of Holland. His style is simple and touching, his versification +easy and harmonious, and his descriptive talent extraordinary. His works +consist chiefly of apologues and didactic and descriptive poems. No writer +of Holland has been more read than Father Cats, as the people +affectionately call him; and up to the present hour, in all families his +works have their place beside the Bible, and his verses are known by heart +all over the country. An illustrated edition of his poems in English has +been recently published in London. + +Hooft and Vondel left many disciples and imitators, among whom are +Antonides (1647-1684), surnamed Van der Goes, whose charming poem on the +River Y, the model of several similar compositions, is still read and +admired. Among numerous other writers were Huygens (b. 1596), a poet who +wrote in many languages besides his own; Heinsius (b. 1580), a pupil of +Scaliger, the author of many valuable works in prose and poetry; +Vallenhoven, contemporary with Antonides, a religious poet; Rotgans, the +author of an epic poem on William of England; Elizabeth Hoofman (b. 1664), +a poetess of rare elegance and taste, and Wellekens (b. 1658), whose +eclogues and idyls occupy the first place among that class of poems. As a +historian Hooft found a worthy successor in Brandt (1626-1683), also a +poet, but best known by his "History of the Reformation in the +Netherlands," which has been translated into French and English, and which +is a model in point of style. At this period the Bible was translated and +commented upon, and biographies, criticisms, and many other prose works +appeared. The voyages and discoveries of the Dutch merchants and +navigators were illustrated by numerous narratives, which, for their +interest both in style and detail, deserve honorable mention. + +From the commencement of the last quarter of the seventeenth century, +however, many causes combined to produce a decline in the literature of +the Netherlands. The honors which were accorded not only by the Dutch +universities, but by all Europe to their Latin writers and learned +professors, were rarely bestowed on writers in the native tongue, and thus +the minds of men of genius were turned to the study of the classics and +the sciences. The Dutch merchants, while they cultivated all other +languages for the facilities they thus gained in their commercial +transactions, restricted by so much the diffusion of their own. Other +causes of this decline are to be found in the indifference of the +republican government to the interests of literature, and in the +increasing number of alliances with foreigners, who were attracted to +Holland by the mildness of its laws, in the growing commercial spirit and +taste for luxury, and especially in the influence of French literature, +which, towards the close of the seventeenth century, became predominant in +Holland as elsewhere. + +6. THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY.--For the first three quarters of the eighteenth +century the literature of Holland, like that of other countries of Europe, +with the exception of France, remained stationary, or slowly declined. But +in the midst of universal mediocrity, a few names shine with distinguished +lustre. Among them that of Poot (1689-1732) is commonly cited with those +of Hooft and Vondel. He was a young peasant, whose rare genius found +expression in a sweet and unaffected style. He excelled in idyllic and +erotic poetry, and while he has no rival in Holland, he may perhaps be +compared to Burns in Scotland, and Béranger in France. The theatre of +Amsterdam, the only one of the country, continued to confine itself to +translations or imitations from the French. There appeared, however, at +the commencement of this period, an original comic author, Langendijk +(1662-1735), whose works still hold their place upon the stage, partly for +their merit, and partly to do honor to the only comic poet Holland has +produced. + +Hoogvliet (1689-1763) was distinguished as the author of a poem entitled +"Abraham," which had great and merited success, and which still ranks +among the classics; for some years after it appeared, it produced a flood +of imitations. + +De Marre (b. 1696), among numerous writers of tragedy, occupies the first +place. From his twelfth year he was engaged in the merchant marine +service, and besides his tragedies his voyages inspired many other works, +the chief of which, a poem entitled "Batavia," celebrates the Dutch +domination in the Asiatic archipelago. Feitama (1694-1758), with less +poetic merit than De Marre, had great excellence. He was the first +translator of the classics who succeeded in imparting to his verse the +true spirit of his originals. + +Huydecoper (d. 1778) was the first grammarian of merit, and he united +great erudition with true poetic power. His tragedies are still +represented. + +Onno Zwier Van Haren (1713-1789) was also a writer of tragedy, and the +author of a long poem in the epic style, called the Gueux (beggars), a +name given in derision to the allied noblemen of the Netherlands in the +time of Philip, and adopted by them. This poem represents the great +struggle of the country with Spain, which ended in the establishment of +the Dutch republic, and is distinguished for its fine episodes, its +brilliant pictures, and its powerful development of character. + +The only strictly epic poem that Holland has produced is the "Friso" of +William Van Haren (1710-1758), the brother of the one already named. +Friso, the mythical founder of the Frisons, is driven from his home on the +shores of the Ganges, and, after many adventures, finds an asylum and +establishes his government in the country to which he gives his name. This +work with many faults is full of beauties. The brothers Van Haren were +free from all foreign influence, and may justly be regarded as the two +great poets of their time. The poems of Smits (1702-1750) are full of +grace and sentiment, but, like those of almost all the Dutch poets, they +are characterized by a seriousness of tone nearly allied to melancholy. +Ten Kate (1676-1723) stands first among the grammarians and etymologists, +and his works are classical authorities on the subject of the language. + +Preëminent among the crowd of historians is Wagenaar (1709-1773), the +worthy successor of Hooft and Brandt, whose "History of the United +Provinces" is particularly valuable for its simplicity of style and +truthfulness of detail. + +Of the lighter literature, Van Effen, who had visited England, produced in +French the "Spectator," in imitation of the English periodical, and, like +that, it is still read and considered classical. + +Towards the conclusion of the century, other periodicals were established, +which, in connection with literary societies and academies, exercised +great influence on literature. The contemporary writers of Germany were +also read and translated, and henceforth in some degree they +counterbalanced French influence. + +First among the writers who mark the close of the eighteenth century are +Van Winter (d. 1795), and his distinguished wife, Madame Van Merken (d. +1789). They published conjointly a volume of tragedies in which the chief +merit of those of Van Winter consists in their originality and in the +expression of those sentiments of justice, humanity, and equality before +the law, which were just then beginning to find a voice in Europe. + +Madame Van Merken, who, late in life, married Van Winter, has been called +the Racine of Holland. To masculine energy and power she united all the +virtues and sweetness of her own sex. Besides many long poems, she was the +author of several tragedies, many of which have remarkable merit. Madame +Van Merken gave a new impulse to the literature of her country, of which +she is one of the classic ornaments, and prepared the way for Feith and +Bilderdyk. + +The Baroness De Lannoy, the contemporary of Madame Van Merken, was, like +her, eminent in tragedy and other forms of poetry, though less a favorite, +for in that free country an illustrious birth has been ever a serious +obstacle to distinction in the republic of letters. + +Nomz (d. 1803) furnished the theatre of Amsterdam with many pieces, +original and translated, and merited a better fate from his native city +than to die in the public hospital. + +The poets who mark the age from Madame Van Merken to Bilderdyk, are Van +Alphen, Bellamy, and Nieuwland. Van Alphen (d. 1803) is distinguished for +his patriotism, originality, and deeply religious spirit. His poems for +children are known by heart by all the children of Holland, and he is +their national poet, as Cats is the poet of mature life and old age. +Bellamy, who died at the early age of twenty-eight years (1786), left many +poems characterized by originality, force, and patriotic fervor, no less +than by beauty and harmony of style. Nieuwland (d. 1794), like Bellamy, +rose from the lower order of society by the force of his genius; at the +age of twenty-three he was called to the chair of philosophy, mathematics, +and astronomy at Utrecht, and later to the university of Leyden. He was +equally great as a mathematician and as a poet in the Latin language as +well as his own. All his productions are marked by elegance and power. + +Styl (d. 1804) was a poet as well as a historian; one of the most valuable +works on the history of the country is his "Growth and Prospects of the +United Provinces." Te Water, Bondam, and Van de Spiegel contributed to the +same department. + +Romance writing has, with few exceptions, been surrendered to women. Among +the romances of character and manners, those of Elizabeth Bekker Wolff (d. +1804) are distinguished for their brilliant and caustic style, and those +of Agatha Deken for their earnest and enlightened piety. The works of both +present lively pictures of national character and manners. + +7. THE NINETEENTH CENTURY.--The political convulsions of the last years of +the eighteenth century and the early part of the nineteenth, which +overthrew the Dutch Republic, revolutionized the literature not less than +the state,--and the new era was illustrated by its poets, historians, and +orators. But in the elevation of inferior men by the popular party, the +more eminent men of letters for a time withdrew from the field, and the +noblest productions of native genius were forgotten in the flood of poor +translations which inundated the country and corrupted the taste and the +language by their Germanisms and Gallicisms. + +Among the crowd of poets, a few only rose superior to the influences of +the time. Feith (d. 1824) united a lofty patriotism to a brilliant +poetical genius; his odes and other poems possess rare merit, and his +prose is original, forcible, and elegant. + +Helmers (d. 1813) is most honored for his poem, "The Dutch Nation," which, +with some faults, abounds in beautiful episodes and magnificent passages. + +Bilderdyk (1756-1831) is not only the greatest poet Holland has produced, +but he is equally eminent as a universal scholar. He was a lawyer, a +physician, a theologian, a historian, astronomer, draftsman, engineer, and +antiquarian, and he was acquainted with nearly all the ancient and modern +languages. In 1820 he published five cantos of a poem on "The Destruction +of the Primitive World," which, though it remains unfinished, is a superb +monument of genius and one of the literary glories of Holland. Bilderdyk +excelled in every species of poetry, tragedy only excepted, and his +published works fill more than one hundred octavo volumes. + +Van der Palm (b. 1763) occupies the same place among the prose writers of +the nineteenth century that Bilderdyk does among the poets. He held the +highest position as a pulpit orator and member of the Council of State, +and his discourses, orations, and other prose works are models of style, +and are counted among the classics of the country. His great work, +however, was the translation of the Bible. + +Since the time of Bilderdyk and Van der Palm no remarkable genius has +appeared in Holland. + +Loosjes (d. 1806) added to his reputation as a poet by his historical +romances, and Fokke (d. 1812) was a satirist of the follies and errors of +his age. Among the historians who have devoted themselves to the history +of foreign countries are Stuart, Van Hamelsveld, and Muntinghe, who, in a +short space of time, enriched their native literature with more than sixty +volumes of history, of a profoundly religious and philosophical character, +which bear the stamp of originality and nationality. + +The department of oratory in Dutch literature, with the exception of that +of the pulpit, is poor, and this is to be explained in part by the fact +that the deliberations of the States-General were always held with closed +doors. Holland was an aristocratic republic, and the few families who +monopolized the power had no disposition to share it with the people, who, +on the other hand, were too much occupied with their own affairs and too +confident of the wisdom and moderation of their rulers, to wish to mingle +in the business of state. The National Assembly, however, from 1775 to +1800, had its orators, chiefly men carried into public life by the events +of the age, but they were far inferior to those of other countries. + +The impulse given to literature by Bilderdyk and Van der Palm is not +arrested. Among the numerous authors who have since distinguished +themselves, are Loots, a patriotic poet of the school of Vondel; Tollens, +who ranks with the best native authors in descriptive poetry and romance; +Wiselius, the author of several tragedies, a scholar and political writer; +Klyn (d. 1856); Van Walré and Van Halmaal, dramatic poets of great merit; +Da Costa and Madame Bilderdyk, who, as a poetess, shared the laurels of +her husband. In romance, there are Anna Toussaint, Bogaers, and Jan Van +Lennep, son of the celebrated professor of that name, who introduced into +Holland historical romances modeled after those of Scott, and who +contributed much to discard French and to popularize the national +literature. In prose, De Vries must be named for his eloquent history of +the poetry of the Netherlands; Van Kampen (1776-1839) for his historical +works; Geysbeck for his biographical dictionary and anthology of the +poets, and De s'Gravenweert, a poet and the translator of the Iliad and +Odyssey. Von Hoevell is the author of a work on slavery, which appeared +not many years since, the effect of which can be compared only to that of +"Uncle Tom's Cabin." + +In Belgium, Conscience is a successful author of fiction and history, and +his works have been frequently translated into other languages. De Laet, +one of the ablest writers of the country in connection with Conscience, +has done much for the revival of Flemish literature, which now boasts of +many original writers in various departments. + +The literature of the Netherlands, like the people, is earnest, religious, +always simple, and often elevated and sublime. It is especially +distinguished for its reflective and patriotic character, and bears the +mark of that accurate study of the classic models which has formed the +basis of the national education, and to which its purity of taste, +naturalness, and simplicity are undoubtedly to be attributed. There exists +no nation of equal population which, within the course of two or three +centuries, has produced a greater number of eminent men. + +From the age of Hooft and Vondel to the present day, though the Dutch +literature may have submitted at times to foreign influence, and though, +like all others, it may have paid its tribute to the fashions and faults +of the day, it has still preserved its nationality, and is worthy of being +known and admired. + + + + +SCANDINAVIAN LITERATURE. + + +1. Introduction. The Ancient Scandinavians; their Influence on the English +Race.--2. The Mythology.--3. The Scandinavian Languages.--4. Icelandic, or +Old Norse Literature: the Poetic Edda, the Prose Edda, the Scalds, the +Sagas, the "Heimskringla," The Folks-Sagas and Ballads of the Middle +Ages.--5. Danish Literature: Saxo Grammaticus and Theodoric; Arreboe, +Kingo, Tycho Brahe, Holberg, Evald, Baggesen, Oehlenschläger, Grundtvig, +Blicher, Ingemann, Heiberg, Gyllenbourg, Winther, Hertz, Müller, Hans +Andersen, Plong, Goldschmidt, Hastrup, and others; Malte Brun, Rask, Rafn, +Magnusen, the brothers Oersted.--6. Swedish Literature: Messenius, +Stjernhjelm, Lucidor, and others. The Gallic period: Dalin, Nordenflycht, +Crutz and Gyllenborg, Gustavus III., Kellgren, Leopold, Oxenstjerna. The +New Era: Bellman, Hallman, Kexel, Wallenberg, Lidnor, Thorild, Lengren, +Franzen, Wallin. The Phosphorists: Atterborn, Hammarsköld, and Palmblad. +The Gothic School: Geijer, Tegnér, Stagnelius, Almquist, Vitalis, +Runeberg, and others. The Romance Writers: Cederborg, Bremer, Carlén, +Knorring. Science: Swedenborg, Linnaeus, and others. + + +1. INTRODUCTION.--It is a singular fact that the progressive and expanding +spirit which characterizes the English race should be so universally +referred to their Anglo-Saxon blood, while the transcendent influence of +the Scandinavian element is entirely overlooked. The so-called Anglo- +Saxons were a handful of people in Holstein, where they may still be found +in inglorious obscurity, the reluctant subjects of Denmark. The early +emigrants who bore that name, were, it is true, from various portions of +Germany; but even if the glory of our English ancestry be transferred from +Anglen, and spread over the whole country, we find a race bearing no +resemblance to the English in their more active and powerful qualities, +but an intellectual people, possessed of a patient and conceding nature, +which, without other more aspiring attributes, doubtless would have left +the English people in the same condition of political slavery that the +Germans continue in to this day. Of all those institutions so commonly and +gratuitously ascribed to them, of representative government, trial by +jury, and such machinery of political and social independence, there is +not a vestige to be found in any age in Germany, from the Christian era to +the present time. During the period of their dominion in England, the +Anglo-Saxons, so far from showing themselves an enterprising people were +notoriously weak, slothful, and degenerate, overrun by the Danes, and soon +permanently subjected by the Normans. It is evident, from the trifling +resistance they made, that they had neither energy to fight, nor property, +laws, nor institutions to defend, and that they were merely serfs on the +lands of the nobles or of the church, who had nothing to lose by a change +of masters. It is to the renewal of the original spirit of the Anglo- +Saxons, by the fresh infusion of the Danish conquerors into a very large +proportion of the whole population, in the eleventh century, that we must +look for the actual origin of the national character and institutions of +the English people, and for that check of popular opinion and will upon +arbitrary rule which grew up by degrees, and which slowly but necessarily +produced the English law, character, and institutions. These belong not to +the German or Anglo-Saxon race settled in England previous to the tenth or +eleventh century, but to that small, cognate branch of Northmen or Danes, +who, between the ninth and twelfth centuries, brought their paganism, +energy, and social institutions to conquer, mingle with, and invigorate +the inert descendants of the old race. That this northern branch of the +common race has been the more influential in the society of modern Europe, +we need only compare England and the United States with Saxony, Prussia, +Hanover, or any country of strictly ancient Teutonic descent, to be +satisfied. From whatever quarter civil, religious, and political liberty +and independence of mind may have come, it was not from the banks of the +Rhine or the forests of Germany. + +The difference in the spirit of the two branches of the same original race +was immense, even at the earliest period. When the Danes and Norwegians +overran England, the Germans had, for six centuries, been growing more and +more pliant to despotic government, and the Scandinavians more and more +bold and independent. At home they elected their kings, and decided +everything by the general voice of the _Althing_, or open Parliament. +Abroad they became the most daring of adventurers; their Vikings spread +themselves along the shores of Europe, plundering and planting colonies; +they subdued England, seized Normandy, besieged Paris, conquered a large +portion of Belgium, and made extensive inroads into Spain. They made +themselves masters of lower Italy and Sicily under Robert Guiscard, in the +eleventh century; during the Crusades they ruled Antioch and Tiberias, +under Tancred; and in the same century they marched across Germany, and +established themselves in Switzerland, where the traditions of their +arrival, and traces of their language still remain. In 861 they discovered +Iceland, and soon after peopled it; thence they stretched still farther +west, discovered Greenland, and proceeding southward, towards the close of +the tenth century they struck upon the shores of North America, it would +appear, near the coast of Massachusetts. They seized on Novogorod, and +became the founders of the Russian Empire, and of a line of Czars which +became extinct only in 1598, when the Slavonic dynasty succeeded. From +Russia they made their way to the Black Sea, and in 866 appeared before +Constantinople, where their attacks were bought off only on the payment of +large sums by the degenerate emperors. From. 902 to the fall of the +empire, the emperors retained a large body-guard of Scandinavians, who, +armed with double-edged battle-axes, were renowned through the world, +under the name of Varengar, or the _Väringjar_ of the old Icelandic Sagas. + +Such were the ancient Scandinavians. To this extraordinary people the +English and their descendants alone bear any resemblance. In them the old +Norse fire still burns, and manifests itself in the same love of martial +daring and fame, the same indomitable seafaring spirit, the same passion +for the discovery of new seas and new lands, and the same insatiable +longing, when discovered, to seize and colonize them. + +2. THE MYTHOLOGY.--The mythology of the northern nations, as represented +in the Edda, was founded on Polytheism; but through it, as through the +religion of all nations, there is dimly visible, like the sun shining +through a dense cloud, the idea of one Supreme Being, of infinite power, +boundless knowledge, and incorruptible justice, who could not be +represented by any corporeal form. Such, according to Tacitus, was the +supreme God of the Germans, and such was the primitive belief of mankind. +Doubtless, the poet priests, who elaborated the imaginative, yet +philosophical mythology of the north, were aware of the true and only God, +infinitely elevated above the attributes of that Nature, which they shaped +into deities for the multitude whom they believed incapable of more than +the worship of the material powers which they saw working in everything +around them. + +The dark, hostile powers of nature, such as frost and fire, are +represented as giants, "jotuns," huge, chaotic demons; while the friendly +powers, the sun, the summer heat, all vivifying principles, were gods. +From the opposition of light and darkness, water and fire, cold and heat, +sprung the first life, the giant Ymer and his evil progeny the frost +giants, the cow Adhumla, and Bor, the father of the god Odin. Odin, with +his brothers, slew the giant Ymer, and from his body formed the heavens +and earth. From two stems of wood they also shaped the first man and +woman, whom they endowed with life and spirit, and from whom descended all +the human race. + +There were twelve principal deities among the Scandinavians, of whom Odin +was the chief. There is a tradition in the north of a celebrated warrior +of that name, who, near the period of the Christian era, fled from his +country, between the Caspian and the Black Sea, to escape the vengeance of +the Romans, and marched toward the north and west of Europe, subduing all +who opposed him, and finally established himself in Sweden, where he +received divine honors. According to the Eddas, however, Odin was the son +of Bor, and the most powerful of the gods; the father of Thor, Balder, and +others; the god of war, eloquence, and poetry. He was made acquainted with +everything that happened on earth, through two ravens, Hugin and Munin +(mind and memory); they flew daily round the world, and returned every +night to whisper in his ear all that they had seen and heard. Thor, the +god of thunder, was the implacable and dreaded enemy of the giants, and +the avenger and defender of the gods. His stature was so lofty that no +horse could bear him, and lightning flashed from his eyes and from his +chariot wheels as they rolled along. His mallet or hammer, his belt of +strength and his gauntlets of iron, were of wonderful power, and with them +he could overthrow the giants and monsters who were at war with the gods. +Balder, the second son of Odin, was the noblest and fairest of the gods, +beloved by everything in nature. He exceeded all beings in gentleness, +prudence, and eloquence, and he was so fair and graceful that light +emanated from him as he moved. In his palace nothing impure could exist. +The death of Balder is the principal event in the mythological drama of +the Scandinavians. It was foredoomed, and a prognostic of the approaching +dissolution of the universe and of the gods themselves. Heimdall was the +warder of the gods; his post was on the summit of Bifrost, called by +mortals the rainbow--the bridge which connects heaven and earth, and down +which the gods daily traveled to hold their councils under the shade of +the tree Yggdrasil. The red color was the flaming fire, which served as a +defense against the giants. Heimdall slept more lightly than a bird, and +his ear was so exquisite that he could hear the grass grow in the meadows +and the wool upon the backs of the sheep. He carried a trumpet, the sound +of which echoed through all worlds. Loke was essentially of an evil +nature, and descended from the giants, the enemies of the gods; but he was +mysteriously associated with Odin from the infancy of creation. He +instilled a spark of his fire into a man at his creation, and he was the +father of three monsters, Hela or Death, the Midgard Serpent, and the wolf +Fenris, the constant terror of the gods, and destined to be the means of +their destruction. + +Besides these deities, there were twelve goddesses, the chief of whom was +Frigga, the wife of Odin, and the queen and mother of the gods. She knew +the future, but never revealed it; and she understood the language of +animals and plants. Freya was the goddess of love, unrivaled in grace and +beauty--the Scandinavian Venus. Iduna was possessed of certain apples, of +such virtue that, by eating of them, the gods became exempted from the +consequences of old age, and retained, unimpaired, all the freshness of +youth. The gods dwelt above, in Asgard, the garden of the Asen or the +Divinities; the home of the giants, with whom they were in perpetual war, +was Jotunheim, a distant, dark, chaotic land, of which Utgard was the +chief seat. Midgard, or the earth, the abode of man, was represented as a +disk in the midst of a vast ocean; its caverns and recesses were peopled +with elves and dwarfs, and around it lay coiled the huge Midgard Serpent. +Muspelheim, or Flameland, and Nifelheim or Mistland, lay without the +organized universe, and were the material regions of light and darkness, +the antagonism of which had produced the universe with its gods and men. +Nifelheim was a dark and dreary realm, where Hela, or Death, ruled with +despotic sway over those who had died ingloriously of disease or old age. +Helheim, her cold and gloomy palace, was thronged with their shivering and +shadowy spectres. She was livid and ghastly pale, and her very looks +inspired horror. + +The chief residence of Odin, in Asgard, was Valhalla, or the Hall of the +Slain; it was hung round with golden spears, and shields, and coats of +mail; and here he received the souls of warriors killed in battle, who +were to assist him in the final conflict with the giants; and here, every +day, they armed themselves for battle, and rode forth by thousands to +their mimic combat on the plains of Asgard, and at night they returned to +Valhalla to feast on the flesh of the boar, and to drink the intoxicating +mead. Here dwelt, also, the numerous virgins called the Valkyriur, or +Choosers of the Slain, whom Odin sent forth to every battle-field to sway +the victory, to make choice of those who should fall in the combat, and to +direct them on their way to Valhalla. They were called, also, the Sisters +of War; they watched with intense interest over their favorite warriors +and sometimes lent an ear to their love. In the field they were always in +complete armor; led on by Skulda, the youngest of the Fates, they were +foremost in battle, with helmets on their heads, armed with flaming +swords, and surrounded by lightning and meteors. Sometimes they were seen +riding through the air and over the sea on shadowy horses, from whose +manes fell hail on the mountains and dew on the valleys; and at other +times their fiery lances gleamed in the spectral lights of the aurora +borealis; and again, they were represented clothed in white, with flowing +hair, as cupbearers to the heroes at the feasts of Valhalla. + +In the centre of the world stood the great ash tree Yggdrasil, the Tree of +Life, of which the Christmas tree and the Maypole of northern nations are +doubtless emblems. It spread its life-giving arms through the heavens, and +struck its three roots down through the three worlds. It nourished all +life, even that of Nedhog, the most venomous of serpents, which +continually gnawed at the root that penetrated Nifelheim. A second root +entered the region of the frost giants, where was the well in which wisdom +and understanding were concealed. A third root entered the region of the +gods; and there, beside it, dwelt the three Nornor or Fates, over whom +even the gods had no power, and who, every day, watered it from the +primeval fountain, so that its boughs remained green. + +The gods were benevolent spirits--the friends of mankind, but they were +not immortal. A destiny more powerful than they or their enemies, the +giants, was one day to overwhelm them. At the Ragnarök, or twilight of the +gods, foretold in the Edda, the monsters shall be unloosed, the heavens be +rent asunder, and the sun and moon disappear; the great Midgard Serpent +shall lash the waters of the ocean till they overflow the earth; the wolf +Fenris, whose enormous mouth reaches from heaven to earth, shall rush upon +and devour all within his reach; the genii of fire shall ride forth, +clothed in flame, and lead on the giants to the storming of Asgard. +Heimdall sounds his trumpet, which echoes through all worlds; the gods fly +to arms; Odin appears in his golden casque, his resplendent cuirass, with +his vast scimitar in his hand, and marshals his heroes in battle array. +The great ash tree is shaken to its roots, heaven and earth are full of +horror and affright, and gods, giants, and heroes are at length buried in +one common ruin. Then comes forth the mighty one, who is above all gods, +who may not be named. He pronounces his decrees, and establishes the +doctrines which shall endure forever. A new earth, fairer and more +verdant, springs forth from the bosom of the waves, the fields bring forth +without culture, calamities are unknown, and in Heaven, the abode of the +good, a palace is reared, more shining than the sun, where the just shall +dwell forevermore. + +Traces of the worship of these deities by our pagan ancestors still remain +in the names given to four days of the week. Tuesday was consecrated to +Tyr, a son of Odin; Wednesday, Odin's or Wooden's day, to Odin; Thursday, +or Thor's day, to Thor; and Friday, or Freya's day, was sacred to the +goddess Freya. + +3. THE LANGUAGE.--The Scandinavian or Norse languages include the +Icelandic, Danish, Swedish, and Norwegian dialects. + +The Icelandic or Old Norse, which was the common language of Denmark, +Sweden, and Norway, in the ninth century, was carried into Iceland, where, +to the present time, it has wonderfully retained its early +characteristics. The written alphabet was called Runic, and the letters, +Runes, of which the most ancient specimens are the inscriptions on Rune +stones, rings, and wooden tablets. + +The Danish and Swedish, may be called the New Norse languages; they began +to assume a character distinct from the Old Norse about the beginning of +the twelfth century. The Danish language is not confined to Denmark, but +is used in the literature, and by the cultivated society of Norway. + +The Swedish is the most musical of the Scandinavian dialects, its +pronunciation being remarkably soft and agreeable. Its character is more +purely Norse than the Danish, which has been greatly affected by its +contact with the German. + +The Norwegian exists only in the form of dialects spoken by the peasantry. +It is distinguished from the other two by a rich vocabulary of words +peculiar to itself, and by its own pronunciation and peculiar +construction; only literary cultivation is wanted to make it an +independent language like the others. + +4. ICELANDIC OR OLD NORSE LITERATURE.--In 868 one of the Norwegian vikings +or sea rovers, being driven on the coast of Iceland, first made known the +existence of the island. Harold, the fair-haired, having soon after +subdued or slain the petty kings of Norway, and introduced the feudal +system, many of the inhabitants, disdaining to sacrifice their +independence, set forth to colonize this dreary and inhospitable region, +whose wild and desolate aspect seemed to attract their imaginations. Huge +mountains of ice here rose against the northern sky, from which the smoke +of volcanoes rolled balefully up; and the large tracts of lava, which had +descended from them to the sea, were cleft into fearful abysses, where no +bottom could be found. Here were strange, desolate valleys, with beds of +pure sulphur, torn and overhanging precipices, gigantic caverns, and +fountains of boiling water, which, mingled with flashing fires, soared up +into the air, amid the undergroans of earthquakes, and howlings and +hissings as of demons in torture. Subterranean fires, in terrific contest +with the wintry ocean, seemed to have made sport of rocks, mountains, and +rivers, tossing them into the most fantastic and appalling shapes. Yet +such was the fondness of the Scandinavian imagination for the wild and +desolate, and such their hatred of oppression, that they soon peopled this +chaotic island to an extent it has never since reached. In spite of the +rigor of the climate, where corn refused to ripen, and where the labors of +fishing and agriculture could only be pursued for four months of the year, +the people became attached to this wild country. They established a +republic which lasted four hundred years, and for ages it was destined to +be the sanctuary and preserver of the grand old literature of the North. +The people took with them their Scalds and their traditions, and for a +century after the peopling of the island, they retained their Pagan +belief. Ages rolled away; the religion of Odin had perished from the +mainland, and the very hymns and poems in which its doctrines were +recorded had perished with it, when, in the middle of the seventeenth +century, the Rhythmical Edda of Samund was discovered, followed by the +Prose Edda of Snorre Sturleson. These discoveries roused the zeal of the +Scandinavian literati, and led to further investigations, which resulted +in the discovery of a vast number of chronicles and sagas, and much has +since been done by the learned men of Iceland and Denmark to bring to +light the remote annals of northern Europe. + +These remains fall into the three divisions of Eddaic, Scaldic, and Saga +literature. Samund the Wise (1056-1131), a Christian priest of Iceland, +was the first to collect and commit to writing the oral traditions of the +mythology and poetry of the Scandinavians. His collection has been termed +the "Edda," a word by some supposed to signify grandmother, and by others +derived, with more probability, from the obsolete word _oeda_, to teach. +The elder or poetic Edda consists of thirty-eight poems, and is divided +into two parts. The first, or mythological cycle, contains everything +relating to the Scandinavian ideas of the creation of the world, the +origin of man, the morals taught by the priests, and stories of the gods; +the second, or heroic cycle, contains the original materials of the +"Nibelungen Lied" of Germany. The poems consist of strophes of six or +eight lines each, with little of the alliteration by which the Scalds were +afterwards distinguished. One of the oldest and most interesting is the +"Voluspa," or Song of the Prophetess, a kind of sibylline lay, which +contains an account of the creation, the origin of man and of evil, and +concludes with a prediction of the destruction and renovation of the +universe, and a description of the future abodes of happiness and misery. +"Vafthrudnir's Song" is in the form of a dialogue between Odin, disguised +as a mortal, and the giant Vafthrudnir, in which the same subjects are +discussed. "Grimner's Song" contains a description of twelve habitations +of the celestial deities, considered as symbolical of the signs of the +zodiac. "Rig's Song" explains, allegorically, the origin of the three +castes: the thrall, the churl, and the noble, which, at a very early +period, appear to have formed the framework of Scandinavian society. "The +Havamal," or the High Song of Odin, is the complete code of Scandinavian +ethics. The maxims here brought together more resemble the Proverbs of +Solomon than anything in human literature, but without the high religious +views of the Scripture maxims. It shows a worldly wisdom, experience, and +sagacity, to which modern life can add nothing. In the Havamal is included +the Rune Song. + +Runes, the primitive rudely-shaped letters of the Gothic race, appear +never to have been used to record their literature, which was committed to +the Scalds and Sagamen, but they were reserved for inscriptions on rocks +or memorial stones, or they were cut in staves of wood, as a rude calendar +to assist the memory. Odin was the great master of runes, but all the +gods, many of the giants, kings, queens, prophetesses, and poets possessed +the secret of their power. In the ballads of the Middle Ages, long after +the introduction of Christianity, we find everywhere the boast of Runic +knowledge and of its power. Queens and princesses cast the runic spell +over their enemies; ladies, by the use of runes, inspire warriors with +love; and weird women by their means perform witchcraft and sorcery. Some +of their rune songs taught the art of healing; others had power to stop +flying spears in battle, and to excite or extinguish hatred and love. +There were runes of victory inscribed on swords; storm runes, which gave +power over sails, inscribed on rudders of ships, drink runes, which gave +power over others, inscribed on drinking horns; and herb runes, cut in the +bark of trees which cured sickness and wounds. These awful characters, +which struck terror into the hearts of our heathen ancestors, and which +appalled and subdued alike kings, warriors, and peasants, were simple +letters of the alphabet; but they prove to what a stupenduous extent +knowledge was power in the dark ages of the earth. The poet who sings the +Rune Song in the Havamal does it with every combination of mystery, +calculated to inspire awe and wonder in the hearer. + +The two poems, "Odin's Raven Song" and the "Song of the Way-Tamer," are +among the most deeply poetical hymns of the Edda. They relate to the same +great event--the death of Balder--and are full of mystery and fear. A +strange trouble has fallen upon the gods, the oracles are silent, and a +dark, woeful foreboding seizes on all things living. Odin mounts his +steed, Sleipner, and descends to hell to consult the Vala there in her +tomb, and to extort from her, by runic incantations, the fate of his son. +This "Descent of Odin" is familiar to the English reader through Gray's +Ode. In all mythologies we have glimpses continually of the mere humanity +of the gods, we witness their limited powers and their consciousness of a +coming doom. In this respect every mythology is kept in infinite +subordination to the true faith, in which all is sublime, infinite, and +worthy of the Deity--in which God is represented as pure spirit, whom the +heaven of heavens cannot contain; and all assumption of divinity by false +gods is treated as a base superstition. + +The remaining songs of the first part of the Edda relate chiefly to the +exploits, wanderings, and love adventures of the gods. The "Sun Song," +with which it concludes, is believed to be the production of Samund, the +collector of the Edda, In this he retains some of the machinery of the old +creed, but introduces the Christian Deity and doctrines. + +The second part of the elder Edda contains the heroic cycle of Icelandic +poems, the first part of which is the Song of Voland. the renowned +northern smith. The story of Voland, or Wayland, the Vulcan of the North, +is of unknown antiquity; and his fame, which spread throughout Europe, +still lives in the traditions of all northern nations. The poems +concerning Sigurd and the Niflunga form a grand epic of the simplest +construction. The versification consists of strophes of six or eight +lines, without rhyme or alliteration. The sad and absorbing story here +narrated was wonderfully popular throughout the ancient Scandinavian and +Teutonic world, and it is impossible to say for how many centuries these +great tragic ballads had agitated the hearts of the warlike races of the +north. It is clear that Sigurd and Byrnhilda, with all their beauty, noble +endowment, and sorrowful history, were real personages, who had taken +powerful hold on the popular affections in the most ancient times, and had +come down from age to age, receiving fresh incarnations and embellishments +from the popular Scalds. There is a great and powerful nature living +through these poems. They are pictures of men and women of godlike beauty +and endowments, and full of the vigor of simple but impetuous natures. +Though fragmentary, they stand in all the essentials of poetry far beyond +the German Lied, and, in the tragic force of passion which they portray, +they are superior to any remains of ancient poetry except that of Greece. +Their greatness lies less in their language than their spirit, which is +sublime and colossal. Passion, tenderness, and sorrow are here depicted +with the most vivid power; and the noblest sentiments and the most heroic +actions are crossed by the foulest crimes and the most terrific tragedies. +They contain materials for a score of dramas of the most absorbing +character. + +The Prose or Younger Edda was the work of Snorre Sturleson (1178-1241), +who was born of a distinguished Icelandic family, and, after leading a +turbulent and ambitious life, and being twice supreme magistrate of the +republic, was at last assassinated. The younger Edda repeats in prose the +sublime poetry of the elder Edda, mixed with many extravagances and +absurdities; and in point of literary and philosophical value it bears no +comparison with it. It marks the transition from the art of the Scalds to +the prose relation of the Sagaman. This work concludes with a treatise on +the poetic phraseology of the Scalds, and a system of versification by +Snorre. + +The Bard, or Scald (literally smoothers of language, from _scaldre_, to +polish), formed an important feature of the courts of the princes and more +powerful nobles. They often acted, at the same time, as bard, councilor, +and warrior. Until the twelfth century, when the monks and the art of +writing put an end to the Scaldic art, this race of poets continued to +issue from Iceland, and to travel from country to country, welcomed as the +honored guests of kings, and receiving in return for their songs, rings +and jewels of great value, but never money. There is preserved a list of +two hundred and thirty scalds, who had distinguished themselves from the +time of Ragnor Lodbrok to that of Vladimir II., or from the latter end of +the eighth, to the beginning of the thirteenth century. Ragnor Lodbrok was +a Danish king, who, in one of his predatory excursions, was taken prisoner +in England and thrown into a dungeon, to be stung to death by serpents. +His celebrated death song is said to have been composed during his +torments. The best of the scaldic lays, however, are greatly inferior to +the Eddaic poems. Alliteration is the chief characteristic of the +versification. + +The word Saga means literally a tale or narrative, and is used in Iceland +to denote every species of tradition, whether fabulous or true. In amount, +the Saga literature of ancient Scandinavia is surprisingly extensive, +consisting of more than two hundred volumes. The Sagas are, for the most +part, unconnected biographies or narratives of greater or less length, +principally describing events which took place from the ninth to the +thirteenth century. They are historical, mythic, heroic, and romantic. + +The first annalist of Iceland of whom we have any remains was Ari the Wise +(b. 1067), the contemporary of Samund, and his annals, for the most part, +have been lost. Snorre Sturleson, already spoken of as the collector of +the Prose Edda, was the author of a great original work, the +"Heimskringla," or Home-Circle, so called from the first word of the +manuscript, a most admirable history of a great portion of northern Europe +from the period of the Christian Era to 1177, including every species of +Saga composition. It traces Odin and his followers from the East, from +Asaland and Asgard, its chief city, to their settlement in Scandinavia. It +narrates the contests of the kings, the establishment of the kingdoms of +Norway, Sweden, and Denmark, the Viking expeditions, the discovery and +settlement of Iceland and Greenland, the discovery of America, and the +conquests of England and Normandy. The stories are told with a life and +freshness that belong only to true genius, and a picture is given of human +life in all its reality, genuine, vivid, and true. Some of the Sagas of +the "Heimskringla" are grand romances, full of brilliant adventures, while +at the same time they lie so completely within the range of history that +they may be regarded as authentic. That of Harold Haardrada narrates his +expedition to the East, his brilliant exploits in Constantinople, Syria, +and Sicily, his scaldic accomplishments, and his battles in England +against Harold, the son of Earl Godwin, where he fell only a few days +before Godwin's son himself fell at the battle of Hastings. This Saga is a +splendid epic in prose, and is particularly interesting to the English +race. The first part of the "Heimskringla" is necessarily derived from +tradition; as it advances fable and fact all curiously intermingle, and it +terminates in authentic history. + +Among the most celebrated Sagas of the remaining divisions are the "Sagas +of Erik the Wanderer," who went in search of the Island of Immortality; +"Frithiof's Saga," made the subject of Tegnér's great poem; the Saga of +Ragnor Lodbrok, of Dietrich of Bern, and the Volsunga Saga, relating to +the ancestors of Sigurd or Siegfried, the hero of the Nibelungen Lied. +There are, besides, Sagas of all imaginable fictions of heroes, saints, +magicians, conquerors, and fair women. Almost every leading family of +Iceland had its written saga. The Sagamen, like the Scalds, traveled over +all Scandinavia, visited the courts and treasured up and transmitted to +posterity the whole history of the North. This wonderful activity of the +Scandinavian mind from the ninth to the thirteenth century, both in amount +and originality, throws completely into the shade the literary +achievements of the Anglo-Saxons during the same period. + +When Christianity superseded the ancient religion, the spirit and +traditions of the old mythology remained in the minds of the people, and +became their fireside literature under the name of "Folk Sagas." Their +legends and nursery tales are diffused over modern Scandinavia, and +appear, with many variations, through all the literature of Europe. Among +them are found the originals of "Jack the Giant Killer," "Cinderella," +"Blue Beard," the "Little Old Woman Cut Shorter," "The Giant who smelt the +Blood of an Englishman," and many others. + +The Folk Sagas have only recently been collected, but they are the true +productions of ancient Scandinavians. + +The art of the Scald and Sagaman, which was extinguished with the +introduction of Christianity, revived after a time in the Romances of +Chivalry and the popular ballads. These ballads are classified as heroic, +supernatural, historic, and ballads of love and romance; they successively +describe all the changes in the life and opinions of society, and closely +resemble those of England, Scotland, and Germany. They are the common +expression of the life and feelings of a common race, under the prevailing +influences of the same period, and the same stories often inspired the +nameless bards of both countries. They are composed in the same form and +possess the same curious characteristic of the refrain or chorus which +distinguishes this poetry in its transition from the epic to the lyric +form. They express a peculiar poetic feeling which is sought for in vain +in the epic age--a sentiment which, without art and without name, wanders +on until it is caught up by fresh lips, and becomes the regular +interpreter of the same feelings. Thus this simple voice of song travels +onward from mouth to month, from heart to heart, the language of the +general sorrows, hopes, and memories; strange, and yet near to every one, +centuries old, yet never growing older, since the human heart, whose +history it relates in so many changing images and notes, remains forever +the same. + +Though the great majority of the popular ballads of Scandinavia are +attributed to the twelfth, thirteenth, and fourteenth centuries, the +composition of them by no means ceased then. This voice of the people +continued more or less to find expression down to the close of the last +century, when it became the means of leading back its admirers to truth +and genuine feeling, and, more than anything else, contributed to the +revival of a new era in literature. + +5. DANISH LITERATURE--In taking leave of the splendid ancient literature +of Scandinavia, we find before us a waste of nearly four centuries from +the thirteenth, which presents scarcely a trace of intellectual +cultivation. The ballads and tales, indeed, lingered in the popular memory +and heart; fresh notes of genuine music were from time to time added to +them, and they form the connecting link between the ancient and modern +literature. Saxo Grammaticus and Theodoric the monk, in the thirteenth +century, adopted the Latin language in their chronicles of Denmark and +Norway, and from that time it usurped the place of the native tongue among +the educated. In the sixteenth century the spirit of the Reformation began +to exert an influence, and the Bible was translated into the popular +tongue. New fields of thought were opened, a passion for literature was +excited, and translations, chiefly from the German, were multiplied; a +knowledge of the classics was cultivated, and, in time, a noble harvest of +literature followed. + +The first author who marks the new era is Arreboe (1587-1637), who has +been called the Chaucer of Denmark. His chief work was the "Hexameron," or +"The World's First Week." It abounds with learning, and displays great +poetic beauty. The religious psalms and hymns of Kingo (1634-1703) are +characterized by a simple yet powerfully expressed spirit of piety, and +are still held in high esteem. His Morning and Evening Prayers, or, as he +beautifully terms them, "Sighs," are admirable. + +Many other names of note are found in the literature of this period, but +the only one who achieved a world-wide celebrity, was Tycho Brahe (1546- +1601), who, for a time, was the centre of a brilliant world of science and +literature. The learned and celebrated, from all countries, visited him, +and he was loaded with gifts and honors, in return for the honor which he +conferred upon his native land. But at length, through the machinations of +his enemies, he lost the favor of the king, and was forced to exile +himself forever from his country. The services rendered to astronomy by +Tycho Brahe were great, although his theory of the universe, in which our +own planet constituted the centre, has given way before the more profound +one of Copernicus. + +Holberg (1684-1754), a native of Norway, is commonly styled the creator of +the modern literature of Denmark, and would take a high place in that of +any country. In the field of satire and comedy he was a great and +unquestionable master. All his actors are types, and are as real and +existent at the present hour as they were actual when he sketched them. +Besides satires and numerous comedies, Holberg was the author of various +histories, several volumes of letters, and a book of fables. + +The principal names which appear in Danish literature, from Holberg to +Evald, are those of Stub, Sneedorf, Tullin, and Sheersen. Evald (1743- +1780) was the first who perceived the superb treasury of poetic wealth +which lay in the far antiquity of Scandinavia, among the gods of the +Odinic mythology, and who showed to his nation the grandeur and beauty +which the national history had reserved for the true poetic souls who +should dare to appropriate them. But the sound which he drew from the old +heroic harp startled his contemporaries, while it did not fascinate them. +The august figures which he brought before them seemed monstrous and +uncouth. Neglected in life, and doomed to an early death, the history of +this poet was painfully interesting; a strangely brilliant web of mingled +gold and ordinary thread--a strangely blended fabric of glory and of +grief. Solitary, poor, bowed down with physical and mental suffering, from +his heart's wound, as out of a dark cleft in a rock, swelled the clear +stream of song. The poem of "Adam and Eve," "Rolf Krage," the first +original Danish tragedy, "Balder's Death," and "The Fishermen," are his +principal productions. "Rolf Krage" is the outpouring of a noble heart, in +which the most generous and exalted sentiments revel in all the +inexperience of youth. "Balder's Death" is a masterpiece of beauty, +sentiment, and eloquence of diction. It is full of the passion of an +unhappy love, and thus expresses the burning emotions of the poet's own +heart. The old northern gods and mythic personages are introduced, and the +lyric element is blended with the dramatic. The lyrical drama of "The +Fishermen" is perhaps the most perfect and powerful of all Evald's works. +The intense interest it excites testifies to the power of the writer, +while the music of the versification delights the ear. His lyric of "King +Christian," now the national song of Denmark, is a masterly production of +its kind. + +During the forty years which succeeded the death of Evald, Denmark +produced a great number of poets and authors of various kinds, who +advanced the fame of their country; but the chief of those who closed the +eighteenth century are Baggesen (1764-1826) and Rahbek (1760-1830). Though +they still wrote in the nineteenth century, they belonged in spirit +essentially to the eighteenth. The life of Baggesen was a genuine romance, +with all its sunshine and shade. He was born in poverty and obscurity, and +when a child of seven years old, on one occasion, attracted the momentary +attention of the young and lovely Queen Caroline, who took him in her arms +and kissed him. "Still, after half a century," he writes, "glows the +memory of that kiss; to all eternity I shall never forget it. From that +kiss sprang the germ of my entire succeeding fate." After a long and +severe struggle with poverty, he suddenly found himself the most popular +poet of the country, and for a quarter of a century he was the petted +favorite of the nation. Supplanted in public favor by the rising glory of +Oehlenschläger, he had the misfortune to see the poetic crown of Denmark +placed on the head of his rival; and the last years of his life were +embittered by disappointment and care. The works of Baggesen fill twelve +volumes, and consist of comic stories, numerous letters, satires and +impassioned lyrics, songs and ballads, besides dramas and operas. His +"Poems to Nanna," who, in the northern mythology, is the bride of Balder, +are among the most beautiful in the Danish language, and no poet could +have written them until he had gone through the deep and ennobling baptism +of suffering. In these, Nanna is the symbol of the pure and eternal +principle of love, and Balder is the type of the human heart, perpetually +yearning after it in sorrow, yet in hope. Nanna appears lost--departed +into a higher and invisible world; and Balder, while forever seeking after +her, bears with him an internal consciousness that there he shall overtake +her, and possess her eternally. One of Baggesen's characteristics was the +projection of great schemes, which were never accomplished. He was too +fond of living in the present--in the charmed circle of admiring friends-- +to achieve works otherwise within the limit of his powers. Bat with all +his faults, his works will always remain brilliant and beautiful amid the +literary wealth of his country. + +In the early part of the nineteenth century the new light which radiated +from Germany found its way into Denmark, and in no country was the result +so rapid or so brilliant. There soon arose a school of poets who created +for themselves a reputation in all parts of Europe that would have done +honor to any age or country. A new epoch in the language began with +Oehlenschläger (1779-1856), the greatest poet of Denmark, and the +representative, not only of the North, but, like Scott, Byron, Goethe, and +Schiller, the outgrowth of a great era as well, and the incarnation of the +broader and more natural spirit of his time. In 1819 he published the +"Gods of the North," in which he combines all the legends of the Edda into +one connected whole. He entered fully into the spirit of these grand old +poems, and condensed and elaborated them into one. In the various regions +of gods, giants, dwarfs, and men, in the striking variety of characters, +the great and wise Odin, the mighty Thor, the good Balder, the malicious +Loke, the queenly Frigga, the genial Freya, the lovely Iduna, the gentle +Nanna--in all the magnificent scenery of Midgard, Asgard, and Nifelheim, +with the glorious tree Yggdrasil and the rainbow bridge, the poet found +inexhaustible scope for poetical embellishment, and he availed himself of +it all with a genuine poet's power. The dramas of Oehlenschläger are his +masterpieces, but they form only a small portion of his works. His prose +stories and romances fill several volumes, and his smaller poems would of +themselves have established almost a greater reputation than that of any +Danish poet who went before him. + +Grundtvig (b. 1783) is one of the most original and independent minds of +the North. As a preacher he was fervid and eloquent; as a writer on the +Scandinavian mythology and hero-life, he gave, perhaps, the truest idea of +the spirit of the northern myths. + +Blicher (1782-1868) was a stern realist, who made his native province of +Jutland the scene of his poems and stories, which in many respects +resemble those of Crabbe. + +Ingemann (1789-1862) is a voluminous writer in every department of +literature. His historical romances are the delight of the people, who, by +their winter firesides, forget their snow-barricaded woods and mountains +in listening to his pages. + +Heiberg (1791-1860) as a critic ruled the Danish world of taste for many +years, and by his writings did much to elevate dramatic art and public +sentiment. The greatest authoress that Denmark has produced is the +Countess Gyllenbourg (1773-1856). Her knowledge of life, sparkling wit, +and faultless style, make her stories, the authorship of which was unknown +before her death, masterpieces of their kind. + +The greatest pastoral lyrist of this country is Winther (1796-1876). His +descriptions of scenery and rural life have an extraordinary charm. Hertz +(1796-1870) is the most cosmopolitan Danish writer of his time. Müller +(1809-1876) is celebrated for his comedies, tragedies, lyrics, and +satires, all of which prove the immense breadth of his compass and the +inexhaustible riches of his imagination. + +Hans Christian Andersen (1805-1875) is known to the English reader by his +stories and legends for the young, his romances, and autobiography. He was +born of humble peasants, and early attracted the attention of persons in +power, who, with that liberality to youthful genius so characteristic of +Denmark, enabled him to enter the university, and afterwards to travel +over Europe. The "Improvisatore" is considered the best of his romances. + +Three writers connect the age of romanticism with the present day,--Plong +(b. 1812), a vigorous politician and poet; Goldschmidt (b. 1818), author +of novels and poems in the purest Danish; Hastrup (b. 1818), the author of +a series of comedies unrivaled in delicacy and wit. + +Among the names distinguished in science are those of Malte Brun in +geography; Rask, Grundtvig, Molbech, Warsaae, Rafn, Finn Magnusen and +others in philology and literary antiquities. Of the two brothers Oersted, +one, a lawyer and statesman, has done much to establish the principles of +state economy, while the discoveries of the other entitle him to the +highest rank in physical science. + +6. SWEDISH LITERATURE.--The first independent literature of modern +Scandinavia was, as we have seen, the popular songs and ballads which, +during the Middle Ages, kept alive the germ of intellectual life. The +effect of the Reformation was soon seen in the literature of Sweden, as of +other countries. The first intellectual development displayed itself in +the dramatic attempt of Messenius and his son, who changed and substituted +actual history for legendary and scriptural subjects. The genius of +Sweden, however, is essentially lyrical, rather than dramatic or epic. +Stjernhjelm (1598-1672) was a writer of great merit,--the author of many +dramas, lyrics, and epic and didactic poems. He so far surpassed his +contemporaries that he decided the character of his country's literature +for a century; but his influence was finally lost in the growing Italian +and German taste. The principal names of this period are those of Lucidor, +a wild, erratic genius; Mrs. Brenner, the first female writer of Sweden, +whose numerous poems are distinguished for their neat and easy style; and +Spegel (d. 1711), whose Psalms, full of the simplest beauty, give him a +lasting place in the literature of the country. The literary taste of +Sweden, in the seventeenth century, made great progress; native genius +awoke to conscious power, and the finest productions of Europe were quoted +and commented on. + +During the eighteenth century, French taste prevailed all over Europe; not +only the manners, etiquette, and toilets of France were imitated, the +fashion of its literature was also adopted. Corneille, Racine, Molière, +and Boileau stamped their peculiar philosophy of literature on the greater +portion of the civilized world. Imagination was frozen by these cold, +glittering models; life and originality became extinct, imitator followed +upon imitator, until there was a universal dearth of soul; and men gravely +asserted that everything had been said and done in poetry and literature +that could be said and done. What a glorious reply has since been given to +this utterance of inanity and formalism, in a countless host of great and +original names, all the world knows. But in no country was this Gallomania +more strongly and enduringly prevalent than in Sweden. The principal +writers of the early part of the Gallic period are Dalin, Nordenflycht, +Creutz, and Gyllenborg. As a prose writer, rather than a poet, Dalin +deserves remembrance. He established a periodical in imitation of the +"Spectator," and through this conferred the same benefits on Swedish +literature that Addison conferred on that of England,--a great improvement +in style, and the origination of a national periodical literature. +Charlotte Nordenflycht (b. 1718) is called the Swedish Sappho. Her poetry +is all love and sorrow, as her life was; in a better age she would have +been a better poetess, for she possessed great feeling, passion, and +imagination. She exerted a wide influence on the literary life of her +time, in the capital, where the coteries which sprung up about her +embraced all the poets of the day. Gyllenborg and Creutz were deficient in +lyric depth, and were neither of them poets of the first order. + +Of the midday of the Gallic era, the king, Gustavus III. (1771-1792), +Kellgren, Leopold, and Oxenstjerna are the chiefs. Gustavus was a master +of rhetoric, and in all his poetical tendencies fast bound to the French +system. He was, however, the true friend of literature, and did whatever +lay in his power to promote it, and to honor and reward literary men. In +1786 he established the Swedish Academy, which for a long time continued +to direct the public taste. As an orator, Gustavus has rarely found a +rival in the annals of Sweden, and his dramas in prose possess much merit, +and are still read with interest. + +Kellgren (1751-1795) was the principal lyric poet of this period. His +works betray a tendency to escape from the bondage of his age, and open a +new spring-time in Swedish poetry. For his own fame, and that of his age, +his early death was a serious loss. Leopold (1756-1829) continued to sway +the literary sceptre, after the death of Kellgren, for the remainder of +the century. He is best known by his dramas and miscellaneous poems. His +plays have the faults that belong to his school, but many of his poems +abound with striking thoughts, and are elastic and graceful in style. The +great writer of this period, however, was Oxenstjerna (1750-1818), a +descriptive poet, who, with all the faults of his age and school, displays +a deep feeling for nature. His pictures of simple life, amid the fields +and woods of Sweden, are full of idyllic beauty and attractive grace. + +As the French taste overspread Europe at very nearly the same time, so its +influence decayed and died out almost simultaneously. In France itself, +long before the close of the eighteenth century, elements were at work +destined to produce the most extraordinary changes in the political, +social, and literary condition of the world. Even those authors who were +most French were most concerned in preparing this astounding revolution. +In many countries it was not the French doctrines, but the French events, +that startled, dazzled, and excited the human heart and imagination, and +produced the greatest effects on literature. Those who sympathized least +with French views were often most influenced by the magnificence of the +scenes which swept over the face of the civilized world, and antagonism +was not less potent than sympathy to arouse the energies of mind. But even +before these movements had produced any marked effect, Gallic influence +began to give way, and genius began freely to range the earth and choose +its materials wherever God and man were to be found. + +The heralds of the new era in Sweden were Bellman, Hallman, Kexel, +Wallenberg, Lidner, Thorild, and Lengren. Bellman (1740-1795) is regarded +by the Swedes with great enthusiasm. There is something so perfectly +national in his spirit that he finds an echo of infinite delight in all +Swedish hearts. Everything patriotic, connected with home life and +feelings, home memories, the loves and pleasures of the past, all seem to +be associated with the songs of Bellman. Hallman, his friend, wrote +comedies and farces. His characters are drawn from the bacchanalian class +described in Bellman's lyrics, but they are not sufficiently varied in +their scope and sphere to create an actual Swedish drama. Kexel, the +friend of the two last named, lived a gay and vagabond life, and is +celebrated for his comedies. Wallenberg was a clergyman, full of the +enjoyment of life, and disposed to see the most amusing side of +everything. Lidner and Thorild, unlike the writers just named, were grave, +passionate, and sorrowful. Lidner was a nerve-sick, over-excited genius; +but many of his inspired thoughts struck deep into the heart of the time, +and Swedish literature is highly indebted to Thorild for the spirit of +manly freedom and the principles of sound reasoning and taste which he +introduced into it. + +One of the most interesting names of the transition period is that of Anna +Maria Lengren (1754-1811). She has depicted the scenes of domestic and +social life with a skill and firmness, yet a delicacy of touch that is +perhaps more difficult of attainment than the broad lines of a much more +ambitious style. Her scenes and personages are all types, and her heroes +and heroines continually present themselves in Swedish life in perpetual +and amusing reproduction. These poems will secure her a place among the +classical writers of her country. + +The political revolution of 1809 secured the freedom of the press, new men +arose for the new times, and a deadly war was waged between the old school +and the new, until the latter triumphed. The first distinguished names of +the new school are those of Franzén and Wallin. Franzén (1772-1847), a +bishop, was celebrated for his lyrics of social life, and in many points +resembles Wordsworth. The qualities of heart, the home affections, and the +gladsome and felicitous appreciation of the beauty of life and nature +found in his poems, give him his great charm. Archbishop Wallin (1779- +1839) is the great religious poet of Sweden. In his hymns there is a +strength and majesty, a solemn splendor and harmony of intonation, that +have no parallel in the Swedish language. + +Among other writers of the time are Atterbom, Hammarsköld, and Palmblad. +The works of Atterbom (b. 1790) indicate great lyrical talent, but they +have an airy unreality, which disappoints the healthy appetite of modern +readers. Hammarsköld (1785-1827) was an able critic and literary +historian, though his poems are of little value. Palmblad, besides being a +critic, is the author of several novels and translations from the Greek. +These three writers belonged to the Phosphoric School, so called from a +periodical called "The Phosphorus," which advocated their opinions. + +The most distinguished school in Swedish literature is the Gothic, which +took its rise in 1811, and which, aiming at a national spirit and +character, embraced in that nationality all the Gothic race as one +original family, possessing the same ancestry, original religion, +traditions, and even still the same spirit, predilections, and language, +although broken into several dialects. This new school had truth, nature, +and the spirit of the nation and the times with it, and it speedily +triumphed. First in the rank of its originators may be placed Geijer +(1783-1847), who was at once a poet, musician, and historian; his poems +are among the most precious treasures of Swedish literature. In his +"Chronicles of Sweden" he penetrates far into the mists and darkness of +antiquity, and brings thence magnificent traces of men and ages that point +still onward to the times and haunts of the world's youth. The work +presents all that belongs to the North, its gods, its mythic doctrines, +its grand traditions, its heroes, vikings, runes, and poets, carrying +whole ages of history in their trains. In his hands the dry bones of +history and chronology live like the actual flesh and blood of the present +time. As Geijer is the first historian of Sweden, so is Tegnér (1782-1848) +the first poet; and in his "Frithiof's Saga" he has made the nearest +approach to a successful epic writer. Although this poem has rather the +character of a series of lyrical poems woven into an epic cycle, it is +still a complete and great poem. It is characterized by tender, sensitive, +and delicate feeling rather than by deep and overwhelming passion. In the +story he has, for the most part, adhered to the ancient Saga. Tegner is as +yet only the most popular poet of Sweden; but the bold advance which he +has made beyond the established models of the country shows what Swedish +poets may yet accomplish by following on in the track of a higher and +freer enterprise. The other most prominent poets of the new school are +Stagnelius (1793-1828), who bears a strong resemblance to Shelley in his +tendency to the mythic and speculative, and in his wonderful power of +language and affluence of inspired phrase; Almquist (d. 1866), an able and +varied writer, who has written with great wit, brilliancy, and power in +almost every department; Vitalis (d. 1828), the author of some religious +poetry; Dahlgren, an amusing author, and Fahlcrantz, who wrote "Noah's +Ark," a celebrated humorous poem. Runeberg, one of the truest and greatest +poets of the North, is a Finn by birth, though he writes in Swedish; with +all the wild melancholy character of his country he mingles a deep feeling +of its sufferings and its wrongs. His verse is solemn and strong, like the +spirit of its subject. He brings before you the wild wastes and the dark +woods of his native land, and its brave, simple, enduring people. You feel +the wind blow fresh from the vast, dark woodlands; you follow the elk- +hunters through the pine forests or along the shores of remote lakes; you +lie in desert huts and hear the narratives of the struggles of the +inhabitants with the ungenial elements, or their contentions with more +ungenial men. Runeberg seizes on life wherever it presents itself in +strong and touching forms,--in the beggar, the gypsy, or the malefactor,-- +it is enough for him that it is human nature, doing and suffering, and in +these respects he stands preeminently above all the poets of Sweden. + +Besides the poets already spoken of, there are many others who cannot here +be even named. + +If the literature of Sweden is almost wholly modern, its romance +literature is especially so. Cederborg was not unlike Dickens in his +peculiar walk and character, and in all his burlesque there is something +kind, amiable, and excellent. He was followed by many others, who +displayed much talent, correct sketching of costumes and manners, and +touches of true descriptive nature. + +But an authoress now appeared who was to create a new era in Swedish +novel-writing, and to connect the literary name and interests of Sweden +more intimately with the whole civilized world. In 1828, Fredrika Bremer +(1802-1865) published her first works, which were soon followed by others, +all of which attracted immediate attention. Later they were made known to +the English and American public through the admirable translations of Mrs. +Howitt, and now they are as familiar as "Robinson Crusoe," or the "Vicar +of Wakefield," wherever the English language is spoken. Wherever these +works have been known they have awakened a more genial judgment of life, a +better view of the world and its destinies, a deeper trust in Providence, +and a persuasion that to enjoy existence truly ourselves is to spread that +enjoyment around us to our fellow-men, and especially by the daily +evidences of good-will, affection, cheerfulness, and graceful attention to +the feelings of others, which, in the social and domestic circle, are so +small in their appearance, but immense in their consequences. As a teacher +of this quiet, smiling, but deeply penetrating philosophy of life, no +writer has yet arisen superior to Fredrika Bremer, while she has all the +time not even professed to teach, but only to entertain. + +The success of Miss Bremer's writings produced two contemporaneous female +novelists of no ordinary merit--the Baroness Knorring (d. 1833) and Emily +Carlon (b. 1833). The works of the former are distinguished by a brilliant +wit and an extraordinary power of painting life and passion, while a kind +and amiable feeling pervades those of the latter. Among the later +novelists of Sweden are many names distinguished in other departments of +literature. + +In conclusion, there are in Sweden hosts of able authors in whose hands +all sciences, history, philology, antiquities, theology, every branch of +natural and moral philosophy and miscellaneous literature have been +elaborated with a talent and industry of which any nation might be proud. +Among the names of a world-wide fame are those, of Swedenborg (1688-1772), +not more remarkable for his peculiar religious ideas than for his profound +and varied acquirements in science; Linnaeus (1707-1778), the founder of +the established system of botany; and Scheele (1742-1786), eminent in +chemistry. + +If the literature of Scandinavia continues to develop during the present +century with the strength and rapidity it has manifested during the last, +it will present to the mind of the English race rich sources of enjoyment +of a more congenial spirit than that of any other part of the European +continent; and the more this literature Is cultivated the more it will be +perceived that we are less an Anglo-Saxon than a Scandinavian race. + +The last few years in Sweden have been a period of political rather than +literary activity, yielding comparatively few works of high aesthetic +value, Rydborg, a statesman and metaphysician, has produced a powerful +work of fiction, "The Last Athenian," and other works of minor importance +have been produced in various departments of literature. + +LITERATURE OF NORWAY.--Norway cannot be said to have had a literature +distinct from the Danish until after its union with Sweden in 1814. The +period from that time to the present has been one of great literary +activity in all departments, and many distinguished names might be +mentioned, among them that of Björnson (b. 1832), whose tales have been +extensively translated. Jonas Lie who enjoys a wide popularity, Camilla +Collett, and Magdalene Thoresen are also favorite writers. Wergeland and +Welhaven were two distinguished poets of the first half of the century. +Kielland is an able novelist of the realistic school, and Professor +Boyesen is well known in the United States for his tales and poems in +English. Henrick Ibsen is the most distinguished dramatic writer of Norway +and belongs to the realistic school. Among other writers of the present +time are Börjesson whose "Eric XIV." is a masterpiece of Swedish drama; +Tekla Knös, a poetess whose claims have been sanctioned by the Academy; +and Claude Gérard (_nom de plume_), very popular as a novelist. Charles +XV. and Oscar II. are poets of merit. + + + + +GERMAN LITERATURE. + +INTRODUCTION.--1. German Literature and its Divisions.--2. The Mythology. +--3. The Language. + +PERIOD FIRST.--1. Early Literature; Translation of the Bible by Ulphilas; +the Hildebrand Lied.--2. The Age of Charlemagne; his Successors; the +Ludwig's Lied; Roswitha; the Lombard Cycle.--3. The Suabian Age; the +Crusades; the Minnesingers; the Romances of Chivalry; the Heldenbuch; the +Nibelungen Lied.--4. The Fourteenth and Fifteenth Centuries; the +Mastersingers; Satires and Fables; Mysteries and Dramatic Representations; +the Mystics; the Universities; the Invention of Printing. + +PERIOD SECOND.--From 1517 to 1700.--1. The Lutheran Period: Luther, +Melanchthon.--2. Manuel, Zwingle, Fischart, Franck, Arnd, Boehm.--3. +Poetry, Satire, and Demonology; Paracelsus and Agrippa; the Thirty Years' +War.--4. The Seventeenth Century: Opitz, Leibnitz, Puffendorf, Kepler, +Wolf, Thomasius, Gerhard; Silesian Schools; Hoffmannswaldau, Lohenstein. + +PERIOD THIRD.--1. The Swiss and Saxon Schools: Gottsched, Bodmer, Rabener, +Gellert, Kästner, and others.--2. Klopstock, Lessing, Wieland, and Herder. +--3. Goethe and Schiller.--4. The Göttingen School: Voss, Stolberg, +Claudius, Bürger, and others.--5. The Romantic School: the Schlegels, +Novalis; Tieck, Körner, Arndt, Uhland, Heine, and others.--6. The Drama: +Goethe and Schiller; the _Power Men_; Müllner, Werner, Howald, and +Grillparzer.--7. Philosophy: Kant, Fichte, Schelling, Hegel, Schopenhauer, +and Hartmann; Science: Liebig, Du Bois-Raymond, Virchow, Helmholst, +Haeckel.--8. Miscellaneous Writings. + + +INTRODUCTION. + +1. GERMAN LITERATURE AND ITS DIVISIONS.--Central Europe, from the Adriatic +to the Baltic, is occupied by a people who, however politically divided as +respects language and race, form but one nation. The name _Germans_ is +that given to them by the Romans; the appellation which they apply to +themselves is _Deutsch_, a term derived from _Teutones_, by which they +were generally known, as also by the term Goths, in the early history of +Europe. + +In glancing at the various phases of German literature, we see the bards +at first uttering in primitive strains their war songs and traditions. The +introduction of Christianity brought with it the cultivation of the +classic languages, although the people had no part in this learned +literature, which was confined to the monasteries and schools. In the +twelfth and thirteenth centuries, letters, so long monopolized by the +clergy, passed from their hands to those of the princes and nobles; and in +the next century the songs of the minnesingers gave way to the pedantic +craft of the mastersingers. + +A great intellectual regeneration followed the Reformation, but it was of +brief duration. With the death of Luther and Melanchthon the lofty spirit +of reform degenerated into scholasticism, and the scholars were as +exclusive in their dispensation of intellectual light as the clergy had +been at an earlier period. While the priests, the minstrels, and the +bookmen had each enlarged the avenues to knowledge, they were still closed +and locked to the masses of the people; and so they remained, until +philosophy arose to break down all barriers and to throw open to humanity +at large the whole domain of knowledge and literature. + +In the midst of the convulsions which marked the close of the eighteenth +century, the leading minds of Germany sought a solution of the great +problems of civilization in the abysses of philosophy. Kant and his +compeers gave an electric impulse to the German mind, the effects of which +were manifest in the men who soon arose to apply the new discoveries of +philosophy to literature. In Lessing, Herder, Goethe, and Schiller, the +clergy, the minstrels, and the bookmen were each represented, but +philosophy had breathed into them an all-embracing, cosmical spirit of +humanity, and under their influence German literature soon lost its +exclusive and sectional character, and became cosmopolitan and universal. + +The long cycle of literary experiments, however, is not yet completed. +Since the philosophers have accomplished their mission by establishing +principles, and the poets have made themselves intelligible to the masses, +the German mind has entered upon the exploration of all spheres of +learning, and is making new and great advances in the solution of the +problems of humanity. The most eminent scholars, no longer pursuing their +studies as a matter of art or taste, are inspired by the noble desire of +diffusing knowledge and benefiting their fellow-beings; and to grapple +with the laws of nature, and to secure those conditions best adapted to +the highest human welfare, are their leading aims. The German explorers of +the universe have created a new school of natural philosophers; German +historians are sifting the records of the past and bringing forth great +political, social, and scientific revelations. In geography, ethnology, +philology, and in all branches of science, men of powerful minds are at +work, carrying the same enthusiasm into the world of fact that the poets +have shown in the fairy-land of the imagination. To these earnest +questioners, these untiring explorers, nature is reluctantly unveiling her +mysteries, and history is giving up the buried secrets of the ages. The +lyre of the bard may be silent for a time, but this mighty struggle with +the forces of nature and with the obscurities of the past will at last +inspire a new race of poets and open a new vein of poetry, far more rich +than the world of fancy has ever afforded. Science, regarded from this +lofty point of view, will gradually assume epic proportions, and other and +more powerful Schillers and Goethes will arise to illustrate its +achievements. + +The history of German literature may be divided into three periods. + +The first, extending from the earliest times to the beginning of the +Reformation, 1517, embraces the early literature; that of the reign of +Charlemagne and his successors; that of the Suabian age (1138-1272), and +of the first centuries of the reign of the House of Hapsburg. + +The second period, extending from 1517 to 1700, includes the literature of +the age of the Reformation, and of the Thirty Years' War. + +The third period, from 1700 to the present time, contains the development +of German literature in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. + +2. THE MYTHOLOGY.--The German mythology is almost identical with the +Scandinavian, and in it, as in all the legends of the North, women play an +important part. Indeed, they occupied a far higher position among these +ancient barbarians than in the polished nations of Greece and Rome. "It is +believed," says Tacitus, "that there is something holy and prophetic about +them, and therefore the warriors neither despise their counsels nor +disregard their responses." + +The Paganism of the North, less graceful and beautiful than that of +Greece, had still the same tendency to people earth, air, and water with +beings of its own creation. The rivers had their Undines, the ocean its +Nixes, the caverns their Gnomes, and the woods their Sprites. Christianity +did not deny the existence of these supernatural races, but it invested +them with a demoniac character. They were not regarded as immortal, +although permitted to attain an age far beyond that granted to mankind, +and they were denied the hope of salvation, unless purchased by a union +with creatures of an earthly mould. + +According to the Edda, the Dwarfs were formed by Odin from the dust. They +were either _Cobolds_--house spirits who attach themselves to the fortunes +of the family, and, if well fed and treated, nestle beside the domestic +hearth--or Gnomes, who haunt deserted mansions and deep caverns. The +mountain echoes are the mingled sounds of their voices as they mock the +cries of the wanderer, and the fissures of the rocks are the entrances to +their subterranean abodes. Here they have heaped up countless treasures of +gold, silver, and precious stones, and here they pass their time in +fabricating costly armor. The German Elves, like those of other climes, +have an irresistible propensity to dance and song, especially the Nixes, +who, rising from their river or ocean home, will seat themselves on the +shore and pour forth such sweet music as to enchant all who hear them, and +are ever ready to impart their wondrous skill for the hope or promise of +salvation. To secure this, they also lure young maidens to their watery +domains, and force or persuade them to become their brides. If they +submit, they are allowed to sit on the rocks and wreathe their tresses +with corals, sea-weeds, and shells; but if they manifest any desire to +return to their homes, a streak of blood on the surface of the waters +tells the dark story of their doom. + +The Walkyres are the youthful maidens who have died upon their bridal eve, +and who, unable to rest in their graves, return to earth and dance in the +silver rays of the moon; but if a mortal chances to meet them, they +surround and draw him within their magic ring, till, faint and exhausted, +he falls lifeless to the earth. Not less dangerous are the river-maids, +who, rising to the surface of the stream, lure the unwary traveler into +the depths below. There are also the White Women, who often appear at dawn +or evening, with their pale faces and shadowy forms; these are the +goddesses of ancient Paganism, condemned to wander through ages to expiate +the guilt of having received divine worship, and to suffer eternal +punishment if not redeemed by mortal aid. Among the goddesses who, in the +form of White Women, were long believed to exercise an influence for good +or ill on human affairs, Hertha and Frigga play the most conspicuous +parts, and figure in many wild legends; proving how strong was the hold +which the creed of their ancestors had on the minds of the Germans long +after its idols had been broken and its shrines destroyed. Hertha still +cherished the same beneficent disposition ascribed to her in the old +mythology, and continued to watch over and aid mankind until driven away +by the calumnies of which she was the victim, while Frigga appears as a +fearful ogress and sorceress. + +These popular superstitions, which retained their power over the minds of +the people during the Middle Ages, and which even now are not wholly +eradicated, have furnished a rich mine from which the poets and tale- +writers of Germany have derived that element of the supernatural by which +they are so often characterized. + +3. THE LANGUAGE.--The Teutonic languages, which belong to the Indo- +European stock, consist of two branches; the Northern or Scandinavian, and +the Southern or German of the continent. The latter has three +subdivisions; the Eastern or Gothic, with its kindred idioms, the high +German or German proper,--the literary idiom of Germany,--and the low +German, which includes the Frisian, old Saxon, Anglo-Saxon, Dutch, and +Flemish. The high German, or German proper, comprehends the language of +three periods: the old high German, which prevailed from the seventh to +the eleventh century; the middle high German, from the eleventh century to +the time of the Reformation; and the new high German, which dates from the +time of Luther, and is the present literary language of the country. + +No modern language equals the German in its productiveness and its +capacity of constant and homogeneous growth, in its aesthetical and +philosophical character, and in its originality and independence. Instead +of borrowing from the Greek, Latin, and other languages, to find +expressions for new combinations of ideas, it develops its own resources +by manifold compositions of its own roots, words, and particles. To +express one idea in its various modifications, the English requires +Teutonic, Greek, and Latin elements, while the German tongue unfolds all +the varieties of the same idea by a series of compositive words founded +upon one Gothic root. The German language, therefore, while it is far +superior in originality, flexibility, richness, and universality, does not +admit the varieties which distinguish the English. + + +PERIOD FIRST + +FROM THE EARLIEST TIMES TO THE REFORMATION (360-1517). + +1. EARLY LITERATURE.--Previous to the introduction of Christianity the +Germans had nothing worthy of the name of literature. The first monument +that has come down to us is the translation of the Bible into Moeso- +Gothic, by Ulphilas, bishop of the Goths (360-388), who thus anticipated +the work of Luther by a thousand years. + +As the art of writing was unknown to the Goths, Ulphilas formed an +alphabet by combining Runic, Greek, and Roman, letters, and down to the +ninth century this version was held in high esteem and seems to have been +in general use. For nearly four hundred years after Ulphilas, no trace of +literature is discovered among the Teutonic tribes. They, however, had +their war-songs, and minstrel skill seems to have been highly prized by +them. These lays were collected by Charlemagne, and are described by +Eginhardt as "ancient barbarous poems, celebrating the deeds and wars of +the men of old;" but they have nearly all disappeared, owing, probably, to +the refusal of the monks, then the only scribes, to transmit to paper +aught which tended to recall the rites and myths of Paganism. Only two +relics of this age, in their primitive form, remain; they are rhymeless, +but alliterated,--a kind of versification common to the German, Anglo- +Saxon, and Scandinavian poetry, and which, early in the ninth century, +gave place to rhyme. Of these two poems, the Hildebrand Lied Is probably a +fragment of the traditions which had circulated orally for centuries, and +which, with many modifications, were transcribed by the Scandinavians in +their sagas, and by Charlemagne in his collection. None of the other poems +which have come down to us from this period bear an earlier date than the +twelfth and thirteenth centuries, when they were remodeled and appeared in +the form of the Heldenbuch and Nibelungen Lied. The Hildebrand Lied +belongs to the cycle of Theodoric the Great, or _Dietrich of Bern_ or +Verona, as he is called in poetry, from that town being the seat of his +government after he had subdued the Empire of the West. This poem, though +rude and wild, is not without grandeur and dramatic effect. + +2. CHARLEMAGNE AND HIS SUCCESSORS.--The era of Charlemagne, in all +respects so memorable, could not be without influence on the literature of +Germany, then in a condition of almost primitive rudeness. The German, +language was taught by his command in the schools and academies which he +established in all parts of the empire; he caused the monks to preach in +the vernacular tongue, and he himself composed the elements of a grammar +for the use of his subjects. He recompensed with imperial munificence the +learned men who resorted to his court; Alcuin, Theodophilus, Paul +Winifred, and Eginhardt were honored with his peculiar confidence. Under +his influence the monasteries became literary as well as ecclesiastical +seminaries, which produced such men as Otfried (fl. 840), the author of +the rhymed Gospel-book, and Notker Teutonicus, the translator of the +Psalms. + +After the death of Charlemagne the intellectual prospects of Germany +darkened. The empire was threatened by the Normans from the west, and the +Hungarians from the east, and there were few places where the peaceful +pursuits of the monasteries and schools could be carried on without +interruption. + +The most important relic of the last part of the ninth century is the +"Ludwig's Lied," a hymn celebrating the victory of Louis over the Normans, +composed by a monk with whom that monarch was on terms of great intimacy. +The style is coarse and energetic, and blends the triumphant emotions of +the warrior with the pious devotion of the recluse. Towards the close of +the tenth century, Roswitha, a nun, composed several dramas in Latin, +characterized by true Christian feeling and feminine tenderness. + +The eleventh century presents almost an entire blank in the history of +German literature. The country was invaded by the Hungarian and Slavonic +armies from abroad, or was the scene of contest between the emperors and +their vassals at home, and in the struggle between Henry IV. and Pope +Gregory VII., the clergy, who had hitherto been the chief supporters of +their literature, became estranged from the German people. + +A series of lays or poems, however, known as the Lombard Cycle, belongs to +this age, among which are "Duke Ernest," "Count Rudolph," and others, +which combine the wild legends of Paganism with the more courtly style of +the next period. + +3. THE SUABIAN AGE.--A splendid epoch of belles-lettres dates from the +year 1138, when Conrad III., of the Hohenstauffen dynasty, ascended the +throne of the German Empire. The Crusades, which followed, filled Germany +with religious and martial excitement, and chivalry was soon in the height +of its splendor. The grand specimens of Gothic architecture produced +during this period, the cathedrals of Ulm, Strasbourg, and Cologne, in +which ponderous piles of matter were reduced to forms of beauty, speak of +the great ideas and the great powers called into exercise to fulfill them. +The commercial wealth of Germany was rapidly developed; thousands of serfs +became freemen; large cities arose, mines were discovered, and a taste for +luxury began to prevail. + +In 1149, when the emperor undertook a crusade in concert with Louis VII. +of France, the nobility of Germany were brought into habitual acquaintance +with the nobility of France, who at that time cultivated Provençal poetry, +and the result was quickly apparent in German literature. The poets began +to take their inspiration from real life, and though far from being +imitators, they borrowed their models from the romantic cycles of Brittany +and Provence. + +The emperors of the Suabian or Hohenstauffen dynasty formed a new +rallying-point for the national sympathies, and their courts and the +castles of their vassals proved a more genial home for the Muses than the +monasteries of Fulda and St. Gall. In the Crusades, the various divisions +of the German race, separated after their inroad into the seats of Roman +civilization, again met; no longer with the impetuosity of Franks and +Goths, but with the polished reserve of a Godfrey of Bouillon and the +chivalrous bearing of a Frederic Barbarossa. The German emperors and +nobles opened their courts and received their guests with brilliant +hospitality; the splendor of their tournaments and festivals attracted +crowds from great distances, and foremost among them poets and singers; +thus French and German poetry were brought face to face. While the +Hohenstauffen dynasty remained on the imperial throne (1138-1272) the +Suabian dialect prevailed, the literature of chivalry was patronized at +the court, and the Suabian minstrels were everywhere heard. These poets, +who sang their love-songs, or _minne songs_ (so called from an old German +word signifying love), have received the name of Minnesingers. During a +century and a half, from 1150 to 1300, emperors, princes, barons, priests, +and minstrels vied with each other in translating and producing lays of +love, satiric fables, sacred legends, _fabliaux_, and metrical romances. +Some of the bards were poor, and recited their songs from court to court; +but many of them sang merely for pleasure when their swords were +unemployed. This poetry was essentially chivalric; ideal love for a chosen +lady, the laments of disappointed affection, or the charms of spring, +formed the constant subjects of their verse. They generally sang their own +compositions, and accompanied themselves on the harp; yet some even among +the titled minstrels could neither read nor write, and it is related of of +one that he was forced to keep a letter from his lady-love in his bosom +for ten days until he could find some one to decipher it. + +Among the names of nearly two hundred Minnesingers that have come down to +us, the most celebrated are Wolfram of Eschenbach (fl. 1210), Henry of +Ofterdingen (fl. 1250), and Walter of the Vogel Weide (1170-1227). + +The numerous romances of chivalry which were translated into German rhyme +during the Suabian period have been divided into classes, or cycles. The +first and earliest cycle relates to Arthur and the Knights of the Round +Table; the are of Anglo-Norman origin, and were probably derived from +Welsh chronicles extant in Britain and Brittany before the poets on either +side of the Channel began to rhyme in the _Langue d'oui_. Of all the Round +Table traditions, none became so popular in Germany as that of the "San +Graal," or _"Sang Réal"_ (the real blood). By this was understood a cup or +charger, supposed to have served the Last Supper, and to have been +employed in receiving the precious blood of Christ from the side-wound +given on the cross. This relic is stated to have been brought by Joseph of +Arimathea into northern Europe, and to have been intrusted by him to the +custody of Sir Parsifal. Wolfram of Eschenbach, in his "Parsifal," relates +the adventures of the hero who passed may years of pilgrimage in search of +the sanctuary of the Graal. The second cycle of romance, respecting +Charlemagne and his twelve peers, was mostly translated from the +literature of France. The third cycle relates to the heroes of classical +antiquity, and exhibits them in the costume of chivalry. Among them are +the stories of Alexander the Great, and "Aeneid," and the "Trojan War." + +But the age of German chivalry and chivalric poetry soon passed away. +Toward the end of the thirteenth century the Crusades languished, and the +contest between the imperial and papal powers raged fiercely; with the +death of Frederic I. the star of the Suabian dynasty set, and the sweet +sounds of the Suabian lyre died away with the last breath of Conradin on +the scaffold at Naples, in 1268. + +During this period there was a wide difference between the minstrelsy +patronized by the nobility and the old ballads preserved by the popular +memory. These, however, were seized upon by certain poets of the time, +probably Henry of Ofterdingen, Wolfram of Eschenbach, and others, and +reduced to the epic form, in which they have come down to us under the +titles of the Heldenbuch and the Nibelungen Lied. They contain many +singular traits of a warlike age, and we have proof of their great +antiquity in the morals and manners which they describe. + +The Heldenbuch, or Book of Heroes, which, in its present form, belongs to +the close of the twelfth century, is a collection of poems, containing +traditions of events which happened in the time of Attila, and the +irruptions of the German nations into the Roman Empire. The principal +personages who figure in these tales of love and war are Etzel or Attila, +Dietrich or Theodoric the Great, Siegfried, the Achilles of the North, +Gudrune, Hagan, and others, who reappear in the Nibelungen Lied, and who +have been already alluded to in the heroic legends of the Scandinavian +Edda. The Nibelungen Lied (from _Nibelungen_, the name of an ancient +powerful Burgundian race, and _Lied_, a lay or song) occupies an important +place in German literature, and in grandeur of design and beauty of +execution it far surpasses any other poetical production of this period. +The "Horny Siegfried," one of the poems of the Heldenbuch, serves as a +sort of prelude to the Nibelungen. In that, Siegfried appears as the +personification of manly beauty, virtue, and prowess; invulnerable, from +having bathed in the blood of some dragons which he had slain, save in one +spot between his shoulders, upon which a leaf happened to fall. Having +rescued the beautiful Chriemhild from, the power of a giant or dragon, and +possessed himself of the treasures of the dwarfs, he restores her to her +father, the King of the ancient city of Worms, where he is received with +regal honors, and his marriage with Chriemhild celebrated with +unparalleled splendor. + +In the Nibelungen, Chriemhild is represented as the sister of Günther the +King of Burgundy; the gallant Siegfried having heard of her surpassing +beauty, resolves to woo her for his bride, but all his splendid +achievements fail to secure her favors. In the mean time tidings reach the +court of the fame of the beautiful Brunhild, queen of Isenland, of her +matchless courage and strength; every suitor for her hand being forced to +abide three combats with her, and if vanquished to suffer a cruel death. +Günther resolves to try his fortune, and to win her or perish, and +Siegfried accompanies him on condition that the hand of Chriemhild shall +be his reward if they succeed. + +At the court of Brunhild, Siegfried presents himself as the vassal of +Günther, to increase her sense of his friend's power, and this falsehood +is one cause of the subsequent calamities. In the combats, Siegfried, +becoming invisible by means of a magic cap he had obtained from the +dwarfs, seizes the arm of Günther and enables him to overcome the martial +maid in every feat of arms: and the vanquished Brunhild bids her vassals +do homage to him as their lord. A double union is now celebrated with the +utmost pomp and rejoicing. The proud Brunhild, however, is indignant at +her sister-in-law wedding a vassal. In vain Günther assures her that +Siegfried is a mighty prince in his own country; the offended queen +determines to punish his deception, and ties him hand and foot with her +magic girdle, and hangs him upon a nail; Siegfried pitying the condition +of the king, promises his aid in depriving the haughty queen of the +girdle, the source of all her magic strength. He successfully accomplishes +the feat, and in a luckless hour presents the trophy to Chriemhild, and +confides the tale to her ear. A dispute having afterwards arisen between +the two queens, Chriemhild, carried away by pride and passion, produces +the fatal girdle, a token which, if found in the possession of any save +the husband, was regarded as an almost irrefutable proof of guilt among +the nations of the North. At this Brunhild vows revenge, and is aided by +the fierce Hagan, Günther's most devoted follower, who, having induced +Chriemhild to confide to him the secret of the spot where Siegfried is +mortal, seizes the first occasion to plunge a lance between his shoulders, +and afterwards bears the body to the chamber door of Chriemhild, who is +overwhelmed with grief and burning with resentment. To secure her revenge +she at length marries Etzel, or Attila, king of the Huns, who invites the +Burgundians to his court, and at a grand festival Chriemhild involves them +in a bloody battle, in which thousands are slain on both sides. Günther +and Hagan are taken prisoners by Dietrich of Berne, and put to death by +Chriemhild, who in turn suffers death at the hands of one of the followers +of Dietrich. + +Such is an imperfect outline of this ancient poem, which, despite all its +horrors and improbabilities, has many passages of touching beauty, and +wonderful power. Siegfried, the hero, is one of the most charming +characters of romance or poetry. Chriemhild, at first all that the poet +could fancy of loveliness, becomes at last an avenging fury. Brunhild is +proud, haughty, stern, and vindictive, though not incapable of softer +emotions. + +In the Scandinavian legend we find the same personages in grander outlines +and more gigantic proportions. The mythological portion of the story +occupies the most prominent place, and Brunhild is there represented as a +Valkyriur. + +The time in which the scene of this historical tragedy is laid is about +430 A.D. From the thirteenth to the sixteenth century it was widely read, +and highly appreciated. But in the succeeding age it was almost entirely +forgotten. It was brought again to light in the beginning of the present +century, and since that time, it has been the subject of many learned +commentaries and researches. + +4. THE FOURTEENTH AND FIFTEENTH CENTURIES.--The period from the accession +of the House of Hapsburg to the beginning of the Reformation was crowded +with events of great social importance, but its literature was remarkably +poor. The palmy days of the minstrels and romancists had passed away. +Rudolph was an economical prince, who mended his own doublet to spare +money, and as he had no taste for minstrelsy, the composers of songs who +went to his court found no rewards there. The rank and influence of the +metropolis were transferred from Frankfort to Vienna, and the +communication with the southern and southwestern parts of Europe was +greatly impeded. The Germans were occupied in crusades against the Huns; +the court language was changed from west Gothic to an east Gothic dialect, +which was less national, and much of the southern culture and the European +sympathies which had characterized the reign of the Suabian emperors +disappeared. + +Some inferior princes, however, encouraged versification, but the prizes +were so reduced in value that the knights and noblemen left the field in +favor of inferior competitors. A versifying mania now began to pervade all +classes of society; chaplains, doctors, schoolmasters, weavers, +blacksmiths, shoemakers--all endeavored to mend their fortunes by rhyming. +Poetry sank rapidly into dullness and mediocrity, while the so-called +poets rose in conceit and arrogance. The spirit of the age soon embodied +these votaries of the muse in corporations, and the Emperor Charles IV. +(1346-1378) gave them a charter. They generally called twelve poets among +the minnesingers their masters, and hence their name Mastersingers. They +met on certain days and criticised each other's productions. Correctness +was their chief object, and they seemed to have little idea of the +difference between poetical and prosaic expressions. Every fault was +marked, and he who had fewest received the prize, and was allowed to take +apprentices in the art. At the expiration of his poetical apprenticeship +the young poet was admitted to the corporation and declared a master. + +Though the institution of the Mastersingers was established at the close +of the thirteenth century, it was not until the fifteenth and sixteenth +that it really flourished, particularly through the genius of Hans Sachs. +The institution, survived, however, though languishing, through the +seventeenth century, and the calamities of the Thirty Years' War. At Ulm +it outlasted even the changes which the French Revolution effected in +Europe, and as late as 1830 twelve old Mastersingers yet remained, who, +after being driven from one asylum to another, sang their ancient melodies +from memory in the little hostelry where the workmen used to meet in the +evening to drink together. In 1839 four only were living, and in that year +these veterans assembled with great solemnity, and declaring the society +of Mastersingers forever closed, presented their songs, hymns, books, and +pictures to a modern musical institution at Ulm. + +While the early Mastersingers were pouring forth their strains with +undiminished confidence in their own powers, a new species of poetic +literature was growing up beside them in the form of simple and humorous +fables, or daring satires, often directed against the clergy and nobility, +which were among the most popular productions of the Middle Ages. Such +were "Friar Amis" and the "Ship of Fools." Indeed, from the year 1300 to +the era of the Reformation, we may clearly trace the progress of a school +of lay doctrine which was opposed to a great part of the teaching of the +church, and which was yet allowed to prevail among the people. + +Among the fables, "Reynard the Fox" had a very early origin, and has +remained a favorite of the German people for several centuries. After many +transformations it reappeared as a popular work at the era of the +Reformation, and it was at last immortalized by the version of Goethe. + +5. THE DRAMA.--We find the first symptoms of a German drama as early as +the thirteenth century, in rude attempts to perform religious pieces like +the old Mysteries once so popular throughout Europe. At first these +dramatic readings were conducted in the churches and by the priests, but +when the people introduced burlesque digressions, they were banished to +the open fields, where they assumed still greater license. Students in the +universities delighted to take part in them, and these exhibitions were +continued after the Reformation. There is no reason to suppose that the +early Christians objected to these sacred dramas or mysteries when they +were compatible with their religion. They were imported into Europe from +Constantinople, by crusaders and pilgrims, and became favorite shows to an +illiterate populace. Indeed, Christianity was first taught throughout the +north of Europe by means of these Mysteries and miracle plays, and the +first missionaries had familiarized their rude audiences with the +prominent incidents of Biblical history, long before the art of reading +could have been called in to communicate the chronicles themselves. + +The most important writings of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries are +the works of the monks of the mystic school, which form the connecting +link between the great era of the Crusades and the greater era of the +Reformation. They kindled and kept alive a new religious fervor among the +inferior clergy and the middle and lower classes, and without the labors +of these reformers of the faith, the reformers of the church would never +have found a whole nation waiting to receive them, and ready to support +them. While the scholastic divines who wrote in Latin introduced abstruse +metaphysics into their theology, the mystics represented religion as +abiding in the sentiments of the heart, rather than in doctrines. Their +main principle was that piety depended not on ecclesiastical forms and +ceremonies, but that it consisted in the abandonment of all selfish +passions. The sentiments of the mystic writers were collected and arranged +by Tauler (1361), in a well-known work, entitled "German Theology." +Luther, in a preface to this book, expresses his admiration of its +contents, and asserts that he had found in it the doctrines of the +Reformation. + +Another celebrated work of this school is "The Imitation of Christ," +written in Latin, and generally attributed to Thomas à Kempis, a monk who +died 1471. It has passed through numberless editions, and still maintains +its place among the standard devotional works of Germany and other +countries. + +Two other events prepared the way for the German reformers of the +sixteenth century--the foundation of the universities, (1350), and the +invention of printing. The universities were national institutions, open +alike to rich and poor, to the knight, the clerk, and the citizen. The +nation itself called these schools into life, and in them the great men +who inaugurated the next period of literature were fostered and formed. + +The invention of printing (1438) admitted the middle classes, who had been +debarred from the use of books, to the privileges hitherto enjoyed almost +exclusively by the clergy and the nobility, and placed in their hands +weapons more powerful than the swords of the knights, or the thunderbolts +of the clergy. The years from 1450 to 1500 form a period of preparation +for the great struggle that was to signalize the coming age. + + +PERIOD SECOND. + +THE REFORMATION TO THE BEGINNING OF THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY (1517-1700). + +1. THE LUTHERAN PERIOD.--With the sixteenth century we enter upon the +modern history and modern literature of Germany. The language now becomes +settled, and the literature for a time becomes national. Luther and the +Reformers belonged to the people, who, through them, now for the first +time claimed an equality with the old estates of the realm, the two +representatives of which, the emperor and the pope, were never more +powerful than at this period. The armies of the emperor were recruited +from Spain, Austria, Naples, Sicily, and Burgundy while the pope, armed +with the weapons of the Inquisition, and the thunderbolts of +excommunication, levied his armies of priests and monks from all parts of +the Christian world. Against these formidable powers a poor Augustine monk +came forth from his study in the small university of Wittenberg, with no +armies, no treasures, with no weapon in his hand but the Bible, and in his +clear manly voice defied both emperor and pope, clergy and nobility. There +never was a more memorable spectacle. + +After the Reformation nearly all eminent men in Germany, poets, +philosophers, and historians, belonged to the Protestant party, and +resided chiefly in the universities, which were what the monasteries had +been under Charlemagne, and the castles under Frederic Barbarossa--the +centres of gravitation for the intellectual and political life of the +country. A new aristocracy now arose, founded on intellectual preëminence, +which counted among its members princes, nobles, divines, soldiers, +lawyers, and artists. But the danger which threatens all aristocracies was +not averted from the intellectual nobility of Germany; the spirit of +caste, which soon pervaded all their institutions, deprived the second +generation of that power which men like Luther had gained at the beginning +of the Reformation. The moral influence of the universities was great, but +it would have been far greater if the intellectual leaders of the realm +had not separated themselves from the ranks whence they themselves had +risen, and to which alone they owed their influence. This intellectual +aristocracy manifested a disregard of the real wants of the people, a +contempt of all knowledge which did not wear the academic garb, and the +same exclusive spirit of caste that characterizes all aristocracies. Latin +continued to be the literary medium of scholars, and at the close of the +seventeenth century German was only beginning to assert its capabilities +as a vehicle of elegant and refined literature. + +The sixteenth century may be called the Lutheran period, for Martin Luther +(1483-1546) was the most prominent character in the general literature as +well as in the theology of Germany. He was the exponent of the national +feeling, he gave shape and utterance to thoughts and sentiments which had +been before only obscurely expressed, and his influence was felt in almost +every department of life and literature. The remodeling of the German +tongue may be said to have gone hand in hand with the Reformation, and it +is to Luther more than to any other that it owes its rapid progress. His +translation of the Bible was the great work of the period, and gives to +him the deserved title of creator of German prose. The Scriptures were now +familiarly read by all classes, and never has their beautiful simplicity +been more admirably rendered. The hymns of Luther are no less remarkable +for their vigor of style, than for their high devotional feeling. His +prose works consist chiefly of twenty volumes of sermons, and eight +volumes of polemical writings, besides his "Letters" and "Table Talk," +which give us a view of the singular mixture of qualities which formed the +character of the great Reformer. + +The literature of that period also owes much to Melanchthon (1497-1560), +the author of the "Confession of Augsburg," who by his classical learning, +natural sagacity, simplicity and clearness of style, and above all by his +moderation and mildness, greatly contributed to the progress of the +Reformation. He devoted himself to the improvement of schools and the +diffusion of learning, and through his influence the Protestant princes of +Germany patronized native literature, established public libraries, and +promoted the general education of the people. + +The earnest polemical writings of the age must be passed over, as they +belong rather to ecclesiastical and political than to literary history. +Yet these are the most characteristic productions of the times, and +display the effects of controversy in a very unfavorable light. The +license, personality, acrimony, and grossness of the invectives published +by the controversial writers, particularly of the sixteenth century, can +hardly be imagined by a modern reader who has not read the originals. The +better specimens of this style of writing are found in the remains of +Manuel and Zwingle. Manuel (1484-1530), a native of Switzerland, is an +instance of the versatility of talent, which was not uncommon at this +time; he was a soldier, a poet, a painter, a sculptor, and a wood- +engraver. The boldness and license of his satires are far beyond modern +toleration. Zwingle (1484-1531), the leading reformer of Switzerland, was +a statesman, a theologian, a musician, and a soldier. His principal work +is the "Exposition of the Christian Faith." A celebrated writer of prose +satire was Fischart (1530-1590), whose numerous works, under the most +extravagant titles, are distinguished by wit and extensive learning. His +"Prophetic Almanac" was the selling book at all the fairs and markets of +the day, and was read with an excitement far exceeding that produced by +any modern novels. In his "Garagantua," he borrowed some of his +descriptions from Rabelais; and this extravagant, satirical, and humorous +book, though full of the uncouth and far-fetched combinations of words +found in his other writings, contains many ludicrous caricatures of the +follies of society in his age. + +Franck (fl. 1533), one of the best writers of German prose on history and +theology during the sixteenth century, was the representative of the +mystic school, and opposed Luther, whom he called the new pope. His +religious views in many respects correspond with those of the Society of +Friends. Rejecting all ecclesiastical authority, he maintained that there +is an internal light in man which is better fitted than even the +Scriptures to guide him aright in religious matters. He wrote with +bitterness and severity, though he seldom used the coarse style of +invective common to his age. + +Arnd (1555-1621) may be classed among the best theological writers of the +period. His treatise "On True Christianity" is still read and esteemed. He +belonged to the mystic school, and the pious and practical character of +his work made it a favorite among religious men of various sects. + +Jacob Boehm (1575-1624) was a poor shoemaker, who, without the advantages +of education, devoted his mind to the most abstruse studies, and professed +that his doctrines were derived from immediate revelation; his works +contain many profound and lofty ideas mingled with many confused notions. + +2. POETRY, SATIRE, AND DEMONOLOGY.--In the sixteenth century the old +poetry of Germany was in a great measure forgotten; the Nibelungen Lied +and the Heldenbuch were despised by the learned as relics of barbarian +life; classical studies engaged the attention of all who loved elegant +literature, and while Horace was admired, the title of German poet was +generally applied as a badge of ridicule. A propensity to satire of the +most violent and personal description seems to have been almost universal +in these excited times. Hutten (1488-1523) shared the general excitement +of the age, and warmly defended the views of Luther. He addressed many +satirical pamphlets in prose and verse to the people, and was compelled to +flee from one city to another, his life being always in danger from the +numerous enemies excited by his severity. Next to invectives and satires, +comic stories and fables were the characteristic productions of these +times. Hans Sachs (1494-1576), the most distinguished of the Mastersingers +of the sixteenth century, excelled in that kind of poetry as well as in +all other styles of composition, and following his business as shoemaker, +he made verses with equal assiduity. He employed his pen chiefly in +writing innumerable tales and fables containing common morality for common +people. In one of these he represents the Apostle St. Peter as being +greatly perplexed by the disorder and injustice prevailing in the world. +Peter longs to have the reins of government in his own hand, and believes +that he could soon reduce the world to order. While he is thinking thus, a +peasant girl comes to him and complains that she has to do a day's work in +the field, and at the same time to keep within bounds a frolicsome young +goat. Peter kindly takes the goat into custody, but it escapes into the +wood, and the apostle is so much fatigued by his efforts to recover the +animal that he is led to this conclusion: "If I am not competent to keep +even one young goat in my care, it cannot be my proper business to perplex +myself about the management of the whole world." + +The best lyrical poetry was devoted to the service of the church. Its +merit consists in its simple, energetic language. Hymns were the favorite +literature of the people; they were the cradle songs which lulled the +children to sleep, they were sung by mechanics and maid-servants engaged +in their work; and they were heard in the streets and market-places +instead of ballads. Luther, who loved music and psalmody, encouraged the +people to take a more prominent part in public worship, and wrote for them +several German hymns and psalms. + +The belief in demonology and witchcraft, which was universally diffused +through Europe in the Middle Ages, raged in Germany with fearful intensity +and fury. While in other countries persecution was limited to the old, the +ugly, and the poor, here neither rank nor age offered any exemption from +suspicion and torture. While this persecution was at its height, from 1580 +to 1680, more than one hundred thousand individuals, mostly women, were +consigned to the flames, or otherwise sacrificed to this blood-thirsty +insanity. Luther himself was a devout believer in witchcraft, and in the +bodily presence of the Spirit of Evil upon the earth; all his harassing +doubts and mental struggles he ascribes to his visible agency. Germany, +indeed, seemed to live and breathe in an atmosphere of mysticism. + +Among the mystic philosophers and speculators on natural history and the +occult sciences who flourished in this period are Paracelsus (1493-1546), +and Cornelius Agrippa (1486-1539). Camerarius was distinguished in the +classics and philosophy; Gesner in botany, zoölogy, and the classics; +Fuchs in botany and medicine; and Agricola in mineralogy. + +Among the legends of the period, that of Faust, or Dr. Faustus, has +obtained the most lasting popularity. There are good reasons for believing +that the hero of this tale was a real personage, who lived in Suabia in +the early part of the sixteenth century. He is frequently mentioned as a +well-known character who gained his celebrity by the profession of magic. +In the "History of Dr. Faustus," first published 1587, he is represented +as a magician, who gained by unlawful arts a mastery over nature. The +legend rapidly spread; It was versified by the English dramatist Marlowe, +it became the foundation of innumerable tales and dramas, until, +transformed by the genius of Goethe, it has acquired a prominent place in +German literature. + +At the conclusion of the sixteenth century, owing to the disturbed state +of religious, social, and political life, and to the fact that the best +minds of the age were occupied in Latin writings on theology, while a few, +devoted to quiet study, cultivated only the classics, the hopes which had +been raised of a national poetry and literature were blighted, and a +scholastic and polemical theology continued to prevail. The native tongue +was again neglected for the Latin; the national poems were translated into +Latin to induce the learned to read them; native poets composed their +verses in Latin, and all lectures at the universities were delivered in +that tongue. The work of Luther was undone: ambitious princes and +quarrelsome divines continued the rulers of Germany, and everything seemed +drifting back into the Middle Ages. Then came the Thirty Years' War (1618- +1648), with all its disastrous consequences. At the close of that war the +public mind was somewhat awakened, literary societies were organized, and +literature was fostered; but the nation was so completely demoralized that +it hardly cared for the liberty sanctioned by the treaty of Westphalia, or +for the efforts of a few princes and scholars to better its intellectual +condition. The population of Germany was reduced by one half; thousands of +villages and towns had been burnt to the ground; the schools, the +churches, the universities, were deserted; and a whole generation had +grown up during the war, particularly among the lower classes, with no +education at all. The once wealthy merchants were reduced to small +traders. The Hanse League was broken up; commerce was suspended, and +intellectual activity paralyzed. Where any national feeling was left, it +was a feeling of shame and despair. + +3. THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY.--During the seventeenth century the German +language was regarded by comparatively few writers as a fit vehicle for +polite literature, and was reserved almost exclusively for satires, +novels, and religious discourses. + +Opitz (1597-1639) attempted to introduce the use of his native tongue, +and, in a work on German poetry, explained the laws of poetic composition +and the mechanism of versification. + +Several scholars at length directed their attention to the grammar of the +language, which, through their influence, now began to be used in the +treatment of scientific subjects. Meantime great mathematical and physical +discoveries were made through the Academy of Berlin, which was founded +under the auspices of Leibnitz, and scientific and literary associations +were everywhere established. Books became a vast branch of commerce and +great philologists and archaeologists devoted themselves to the study of +classical antiquity. Puffendorf expounded his theories of political +history, Kepler, of astronomy, Arnold, of ecclesiastical history; and +Leibnitz laid a basis for the scientific study of philosophy in Germany. +Wolf shaped the views of Leibnitz into a comprehensive system, and +popularized them by publishing his works in the German language. +Thomasius, the able jurist and pietistic philosopher, was the first, in +1688, to substitute in the universities the German for the Latin language +as the medium of instruction. + +Satirical novels form a prominent feature in the prose literature of the +time, and took the place of the invectives and satires of the sixteenth +century. No work of fiction, however, produced such an excitement as the +translation of Defoe's "Robinson Crusoe." Soon after its publication more +than forty imitations appeared. + +During this century the Mastersingers went on composing, according to the +rules of their guilds, but we look in vain for the raciness and simplicity +of Hans Sachs. Some poets wrote plays in the style of Terence, or after +English models; and fables in the style of Phaedrus became fashionable. +But there was no trace anywhere of originality, truth, taste, or feeling, +except in sacred poetry. Paul Gerhard (1606-1696) is yet without an equal +in his sacred songs; many of the best hymns which are still heard in the +churches of Germany date from the age of this poet. Soon, however, even +this class of poetry degenerated on one side into dry theological +phraseology, on the other into sentimental affectation. + +This century saw the rise and the fall of the _first and the second +Silesian schools_. The first is represented by Opitz (1597-1639), Paul +Flemming, a writer of hymns (1609-1640), and a number of less gifted +poets. Its character is pseudo-classical. All these poets endeavored to +write correctly, sedately, and eloquently. Some of them aimed at a certain +simplicity and sincerity, particularly Flemming. But it would be difficult +to find in all their writings one single thought or expression that had +not been used before; although the works of Opitz and of his followers +were marked by a servile imitation of French and Dutch poets, they exerted +an influence on the literary taste of their country, enriched the German +language with new words and phrases, and established the rules of prosody. + +The second Silesian school is represented by Hoffmanswaldan (1618-1679) +and Lohenstein (1635-1683), who undertook to introduce into the German +poetry the bad taste of Marini which at that time so corrupted the +literature of Italy. Their compositions are bombastic and full of +metaphors,--the poetry of adjectives, without substance, truth, or taste. + +Dramatic writing rose little above the level of the first period, The +Mysteries and Moralities still continued popular, and some of them were +altered to suit the new doctrines. Opitz wrote some operas in imitation of +the Italian, and Gryphius acquired popularity by his translations from +Marini and his introduction of the pastoral drama. The theatrical +productions of Lohenstein, characterized by pedantry and bad taste, +together with the multitude of others belonging to this age, are curious +instances of the folly and degradation to which the stage may be reduced. + + +PERIOD THIRD. + +FROM THE BEGINNING OF THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY TO THE PRESENT TIME +(1700-1885.) + +1. THE SAXONIC AND SWISS SCHOOLS.--In contrast to the barrenness of the +last period, the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries present us with a +brilliant constellation of writers in every department of letters, whose +works form an era in the intellectual development of Germany unsurpassed +in many respects by any other in the history of literature. Gottsched and +Bodmer each succeeded in establishing schools of poetry which exerted +great influence on the literary taste of the country. Gottsched (1700- +1766), the founder of the Saxonic school, exercised the same dictatorship +as a poet and critic which Opitz had exercised at the beginning of the +seventeenth century. He was the advocate and copyist of French models in +art and poetry, and he used his widespread influence in favor of the +correct and so-called classical style. After having rendered good service +in putting down the senseless extravagance of the school of Lohenstein, he +became himself a pedantic and arrogant critic; then followed a long +literary warfare between him and Bodmer (1698-1783), the founder of the +Swiss school. Gottsched and his followers at Leipsic defended the French +and insisted on classical forms and traditional rules; Bodmer and his +friends in Switzerland defended the English style, and insisted on natural +sentiment and spontaneous expression. A paper war was carried on in their +respective journals, which at length ended favorably to the Swiss or +Bodmer's school, which, although the smaller party, obtained a splendid +victory over its antagonist. + +Many of the followers of Gottsched, disgusted with his pedantry, finally +separated themselves from him and formed a new poetical union, called the +Second Saxonic School. They established at the same time a periodical, +which was at once the channel of their communications and the point around +which they centred. The principal representatives of this school were +Rabener (1714-1771), very popular for the cheerful strain of wit that runs +through his satires, and for the correctness of his language and style; +Gellert (1715-1769), whose "Fables" contain great moral truth enlivened by +vivid pictures of life, full of sprightliness and humor, and expressed in +a style of extraordinary ease and clearness; Kästner (1719-1800), a +celebrated and acute mathematician, and the author of many epigrams, +elegies, odes, and songs; John Elias Schlegel (1718-1749), distinguished +for his dramatic compositions; and Zachariae (1726-1777), endowed with a +poetical and witty invention, which he displayed in his comic epopees and +descriptive poems. + +The following two poets were the most celebrated of them all: Hagedorn +(1708-1754), whose fables and poems are remarkable for their fancy and +wit; and Haller (1708-1777), who acquired an enduring fame as a poet, +anatomist, physiologist, botanist, and scholar. Of inferior powers, but +yet of great popularity, were: Gleim (1719-1803), upon whom the Germans +bestowed the title of "father," which shows at once how high he ranked +among the poets of his time; Kleist (1715-1759), whose poems are +characterized by pleasant portraitures, harmonious numbers, great ease, +and richness of thought, conciseness of expression, and a noble morality; +Ramler (1725-1798), who has been styled the German Horace, from his odes +in praise of Frederic the Great; Nicolai (1733-1811), who acquired +considerable fame, both for the promotion of literature and for the +correction of German taste particularly, through his critical reviews; and +Gessner (1730-1787), who gained a great reputation for his "Idyls," which +are distinguished by freshness of thought and grace and eloquence of +style. + +2. KLOPSTOCK, LESSING, WIELAND, AND HERDER.--Klopstock (1724-1803), +inspired by the purest enthusiasm for Christianity, and by an exalted love +for his fatherland, expressed his thoughts and feelings in eloquent but +somewhat mystic strains. He was hailed as the herald of a new school of +sacred and national literature, and his "Messiah" announced him in some +respects as the rival of Milton. In comparing the Messiah with the +"Paradise Lost," Herder says: "Milton's poem Is a building resting on +mighty pillars; Klopstock's, a magic picture hovering between heaven and +earth, amid the tenderest emotions and the most moving scenes of human +nature." + +Lessing (1729-1781) produced a reformation in German literature second +only to that effected by Luther in theology. He was equally eminent as a +dramatist, critic, and philosopher. His principal dramatic productions are +"Emilie Galotti" and "Nathan the Wise." As a critic he demanded creative +imagination from all who would claim the title of poet, and spared neither +friends nor foes in his efforts to maintain a high standard of literary +excellence. The writings of Lessing exerted a commanding influence on the +best minds of Germany in almost all departments of thought. They mark, and +in a great measure produced, the important change in the tone of German +literature, from the national and Christian character of Klopstock to the +cosmopolitan character which prevails in the writings of Goethe and +Schiller. + +Wieland (1733-1813) was, in his youth, the friend of Klopstock, and would +tolerate nothing but religious poetry; but he suddenly turned to the +opposite extreme, and began to write epicurean romances as vehicles of his +new views of human life and happiness. Among his tales are "Agathon," +"Musarion," and "Aristippus," which last is considered his best work. In +all these writings his purpose was to represent pleasure or utility as the +only criterion of truth. Although there is much in his prose writings to +subject him to severe censure, he maintains his place in the literature of +his native country as one of its most gay, witty, and graceful poets. His +"Oberon" is one of the most charming and attractive poems of modern times. + +Herder (1741-1803) was deeply versed in almost all branches of study, and +exercised great influence, not only as a poet, but as a theologian, +philosopher, critic, and philologist. He studied philosophy under Kant, +and, after filling the offices of teacher and clergyman, he was invited to +join the circle of poets and other literary men at Weimar, under the +patronage of the Grand Duke Karl August. Here he produced a series of +works on various subjects, all marked by a kindly and noble spirit of +humanity. Among them are a treatise "On the Origin of Language," an essay +on "Hebrew Poetry," and a work entitled "Ideas for the Philosophy of +Humanity," besides poetical and critical writings. In his collection of +popular ballads from various nations he showed his power of appreciating +the various national tomes of poetry. + +The most noble feature in Herder's character was his constant striving for +the highest interests of mankind. He did not employ literature as the +means of satisfying personal ambition, and the melancholy of his last days +arose from his lofty and unfulfilled aspirations. + +His friend Richter said of him: "Herder was no poet,--he was something far +more sublime and better than a poet,--he was himself a poem,--an Indian +Greek Epic composed by one of the purest of the gods." + +3. GOETHE AND SCHILLER.--The close of the eighteenth and the beginning of +the nineteenth century, the age of Herder, Goethe, and Schiller, was one +of remarkable intellectual excitement, and it has produced a literature +richer, more voluminous, and more important than that of all preceding +periods taken collectively. + +The time extending between 1150 and 1300 has been styled the _First +Classic Period_, and that we are now entering upon is regarded as the +second. These two epochs resemble each other not only in their +productiveness, but in the failure of both to maintain a distinct national +school of poetry. In the thirteenth century the national epic appeared, +but was soon neglected for the foreign legends and sentimental verses of +the romancists and minnesingers. In the eighteenth century, when Lessing +had made a path for original genius by clearing away French pedantry and +affectation, there appeared some hope of a revival of true national +literature. But Herder directed the literary enthusiasm of his time +towards foreign poetry and universal studies, and a cosmopolitan rather +than a national style has been the result; although for thoughtfuless and +sincerity, and for the number of important ideas which it has brought into +circulation, modern German literature may justly claim the highest honor. + +Goethe (1749-1832) was a man of universal genius; he was born at +Frankfort-on-the-Maine, and of his boyhood he gives a pleasant account in +his work entitled "Poetry and Truth." In 1773 the appearance of his "Götz +von Berlichingen," a drama founded upon the autobiography of that national +and popular hero, was regarded as the commencement of an entirely new +period in German dramatic literature. It was followed, in 1774, by the +sentimental novel, "The Sorrows of Werther," in which Goethe gave +expression to the morbid sentiments of many of his contemporaries. The +Grand Duke of Weimar invited him to his court, where he was elevated to an +honorable position. Here he produced his dramatic poems, "Iphigenia," +"Egmont," "Tasso," and "Faust," besides many occasional poems and other +works, and continued writing until his eighty-second year, while he varied +his literary life with the pleasures of society. + +As a poet, Goethe is chiefly known by his dramas, "Faust," "Tasso," and +"Egmont;" his lyrical and occasional poems, and his domestic epic, +entitled "Herman and Dorothea." The first part of "Faust" is the poem by +which the fame of this author has been most widely extended. Though +incomplete, it is remarkably original, and suggests important reflections +on human character and destiny. The narrative is partly founded on the old +legend of Faust, the magician. We are introduced to the hero at the moment +when he despairs of arriving at any valuable result, after years of +abstruse study, and is about to put the cup of poison to his lips. The +church bells of Easter Sunday recall to his mind the scenes of his +innocent childhood, and he puts aside the cup and resolves to commence a +new career of life. At this moment, his evil genius, Mephistopheles, +appears, and persuades him to abandon philosophy and to enjoy the +pleasures of the world. Faust yields to his advice, and after many +adventures ends his career in crime and in misery. Many parts of the poem +are written in a mystical vein, and intimate rather than express the +various reflections to be deduced from it. The second part of "Faust" is +remarkable for its varied and harmonious versification. + +Goethe was a voluminous writer, and much devoted to the fine arts and the +natural sciences, as is attested by his remarkable work on the theory of +colors. He extended his wide sympathies over almost every department of +literature. + +The great merit of Goethe lies not so much in his separate productions, as +in the philosophy of life and individual development which pervades his +works, all of which, from "Faust," his greatest achievement, to his songs, +elegies, and shorter poems, have the same peculiar character, and are +tinged with the same profound reflections. The service he rendered to the +German language was immense. The clearness and simplicity of his prose +style make the best model for the imitation of his countrymen. During his +lifetime, professors of various universities lectured on his works, and +other authors wrote commentaries on his productions, while his genius has +been amply recognized in foreign countries, especially within the last +thirty years. + +Schiller (1759-1805) was born at Marbach, a town of Wurtemberg. At the age +of fourteen he was admitted to the military academy at Stuttgart, where, +in spite of its dull routine, he secretly educated himself as a poet. At +the age of twenty-two, he gave to the world his tragedy of the "Robbers" +(composed when he was only seventeen), in which his own wild longings for +intellectual liberty found a turbulent and exaggerated expression. The +public received it with great enthusiasm, as the production of a vigorous +and revolutionary genius, and Schiller soon after escaped from the academy +to try his fortune as a theatrical author. Accompanied by a young +musician, with only twenty-three florins in his pocket, he set out for +Manheim, on the night when the Grand Duke Paul of Russia paid a visit to +Stuttgart, and all the people were too full of the excitement of the royal +preparations and illuminations to observe the departure of the young poet. +The good citizens did not dream that an obscure youth was leaving the city +gate, of whom they would one day be far more proud than of the glittering +visit of the Grand Duke. Yet the royal entrance is only now remembered +because on that night young Schiller ran away; and the people of +Stuttgart, when they would show a stranger their objects of interest, +point first of all to the statue of Friedrich Schiller. + +After many adventures, Schiller was appointed poet to the theatre at +Manheim. At a later period he was made Professor of History at the +University of Jena, a position for which his genius eminently fitted him, +and every prospect of happiness opened before him. But his health soon +failed, and, after a short illness, he expired at the early age of forty- +five. + +The principal works of Schiller are the dramas of "Wallenstein", "Marie +Stuart", "The Maid of Orleans", "The Bride of Messina", and the celebrated +ode called the "Song of the Bell". Besides these, he wrote many ballads, +didactic poems, and lyrical pieces. The "Song of the Bell" stands alone as +a successful attempt to unite poetry with the interests of daily life and +industry. In his lyrical ballads and romances, Schiller rises above the +didactic and descriptive style, and is inspired with noble purposes. The +"Cranes of Ibycus" and the "Fight with the Dragon" may be mentioned as +instances. Schiller was so interesting as a man, a philosopher, a +historian, and critic, as well as poet, that, as Carlyle observes, in the +general praise of his labors, his particular merits have been overlooked. +His aspirations in literature were noble and benevolent. He regarded +poetry especially as something other than a trivial amusement,--as the +companion and cherisher of the best hopes and affections that can be +developed in human life. + +While Goethe excels Schiller in completeness of aesthetical and +philosophical perception, and in the versatility of his world-embracing +and brilliant attainments, as a lover of his race, and as a poet who knew +how to embody that love in the most exquisite conceptions, Schiller far +surpassed him, and stands preeminent among all other poets. While Goethe +represented the actual thoughts and feelings of his age, Schiller +reflected its ideal yearnings; while the practical result of Goethe's +influence was to develop the capacities of each individual to their utmost +extent, Schiller's aim was to lead men to consecrate their gifts to _the +good, the beautiful, and the true_, the ethical trinity of the ages. The +one poet represents the majesty, and at the same time the tyranny of the +intellect; the other, the power and the loveliness of the affections; and +although Goethe will always receive the respect and admiration of the +world, Schiller will command its love. + +4. THE GÖTTINGEN SCHOOL.--This association was formed at the epoch of +Goethe and Schiller, when poets such as no other times had produced +started up in quick succession. The following are among the principal +members of this school: Voss (1756-1826) is distinguished by a classical +taste and great fluency of style. His "Louise" is a masterpiece of bucolic +poetry. His "Idyls" are the best of his minor poems. Christian Stolberg +(1748-1821) was the author of two dramas, many elegiac poems and +translations from the Greek. Leopold Stolberg (1750-1817), his brother, +was still more successful as a poet, and distinguished for his acute +observation of the beautiful in nature. Hoelty (1748-1776) was a poet of +the gentler affections, the eloquent advocate of love, friendship, and +benevolence. Claudius (1743-1815), in his poetical productions, ranges +through song, elegy, romance, and fable. Bürger (1748-1794) was remarkable +as the author of wild, picturesque ballads and songs. His most celebrated +poem is "Leonore", which was at one time known by heart all over Germany. +Schubart (1739-1791), though not belonging to the Göttingen association, +may be here referred to. His songs and poems evince a warm imagination, +and his descriptions are true and beautiful. One of the most powerful +writers of this period was Klinger (1753-1831), whose highly wrought +productions reflected most vividly the vehemence of thought and feeling of +his time, and whose drama, "Storm and Stress", gave the name to that +peculiar school known as the Storm and Stress literature. + +5. THE ROMANTIC SCHOOL.--The founders of the Romantic School, Novalis, the +two Schlegels, and Tieck, opposed the system which held up the great +masters of antiquity as exclusive models of excellence; they condemned +this theory as cold and narrow, and opposed alike to the true interests of +literature and progress. They pointed out the vast changes in religion, +morality, thought, habits, and manners which separated the ancient from +the modern world, and declared that to follow blindly the works of Virgil +and Cicero was to repress all originality and creative power. From the +times of Pericles or Augustus they turned to the Middle Ages, and, +forgetting their crimes and miseries, threw around them a halo of illusive +romance. It was not only in poetry that this reaction was visible--in art +and architecture the same tendency appeared. The stiff and quaint but +vigorous productions of the old German painters were drawn forth from the +obscurity where they had long mouldered; the glorious old cathedrals were +repaired and embellished; the lays of the minnesingers, collected by +Tieck, were on every lip, and the records of the olden times were +ransacked for historic and traditionary lore. + +Although the Romantic School soon fell into extravagances which did much +to diminish its influence, the whole of Germany was to some extent +affected by it. The love for particular epochs led to researches in the +language and antiquities, as such, as in Oriental studies, and during the +calamitous period of the French invasion the national feeling was revived +and kept alive by the stirring and patriotic songs which recalled the +glories of the past. + +The brothers Schlegel are more celebrated as philologists and critics than +as poets; although their metrical compositions are numerous, they are +wholly deficient in warmth, passion, and imagination. Tieck is more +distinguished as a novelist than a poet, but even his prose tales are so +pervaded by the spirit of poetry that they may be said to belong to this +department. + +Among other poets, Körner and Arndt are best remembered by their patriotic +songs, which once thrilled every German heart. + +Seldom in romance or history is there found a more noble or heroic +character than Theodore Körner (1791-1813). Short as was his existence, he +had already struck, with more or less success, almost every chord of the +poetic lyre. His dramas, with many faults, abound in scenes glowing with +power and passion, and prove what he might have achieved had life been +spared to him. But it is his patriotic poems, his "Lyre and Sword," which +have invested the name of Körner with the halo of fame and rendered his +memory sacred to his countrymen. + +The name of Arndt (1769-1860) is also associated in every German mind with +the cause of national liberty; and his poems have incited many German +hearts to the achievement of heroic deeds. His patriotic song, "Where is +the German's fatherland," is a universal favorite. Arndt is not less +celebrated for his historical and scientific works than for his poems. + +The Suabian School is represented by Uhland, Schwab, Kerner, and others +who have enriched German poetry with many original lyrics. Uhland (1787- +1862) is the most distinguished ballad writer of the present age in +Germany. The conceptions embodied in his poetry refer chiefly to the +Middle Ages, and his stories are many of them founded on well-known +legends. + +Kerner (b. 1786) is more intrinsically romantic than Uhland, but he is +equally at home in other species of composition. Schwab (1792-1850) is +distinguished among the lyric poets. An epic tendency, combined with great +facility in depicting scenery and describing events, is the main feature +of his metrical romances. + +Rückert (1789-1866), one of the most original lyric poets of Germany, is +distinguished for the versatility of his descriptive powers, the richness +of his imagination, and his bold, fiery spirit. He has been followed by +Daumer, Bodenstedt, and others. + +The most remarkable poet whom Germany has produced in the present century +is Heinrich Heine (1800-1856), and his poems are among the most +fascinating lyrics in European literature. The delicacy, wit, and humor of +his writings, their cruel and cynical laughter, and their tender pathos, +give him a unique place in the literature of his country. A school of +writers known as _Young Germany_ was deeply influenced by Heine. Their +object was to revolutionize the political, social, and religious +institutions of the country. Börne (d. 1837), the rival of Heine in the +leadership of the party, was inferior to him in poetical power, but his +superior in earnestness, moral beauty, and elevation. Börne was the +nightmare of the German princes, at whom he darted, from his place of +exile in Paris, the arrows of his bitter satire. Some of his writings are +among the most eloquent of modern German compositions. Prominent among the +followers of Heine and Börne are Gutzkow (b. 1811), a novelist, essayist, +and dramatist; Laube (b. 1806); and Mundt (b. 1808). + +From about 1830 a group of Austrian poets, more or less political in +tendency, commanded the respect of all Germans, the chief among them was +Count Auersperg, who, under the assumed name of Anastasius Grün, wrote +lyrical and other brilliant and effective poems. Of the writers who before +1848 attempted to force poetry into the service of freedom, the best known +is Herwegh, who advocated liberty with a vehemence that won for him +immense popularity. The poems of Freiligrath (1810-1876) have graphic +force, and possess merit of a high order. He has a rich imagination, great +power of language, and musical versification. Among the more distinguished +contemporary poets, Hamerling is remarkable for the boldness of his +conceptions, and the passionate vehemence of his expression. + +6. THE DRAMA.--At the beginning of the eighteenth century, Gottsched and +his followers had rendered good service to the stage, not so much by their +own productions as by driving from it the bombast of Lohenstein. Lessing +followed this movement by attacking the French dramas, which had hitherto +been esteemed the highest productions of human genius, and by bringing +forward Shakspeare as the true model of dramatic style. This attack was so +successful that the influence of the French drama soon declined, and in +the reaction, Greeks, Romans, kings and princesses were replaced by +honest, tiresome burghers, with their commonplace wives and daughters, and +the toga and tunic gave way to woolen petticoats and dress-coats. +Everything like poetry, either in language or sentiment, was banished from +the stage. Such was the state of things when Goethe appeared. His rapid +glance at once discerned the poverty of dramatic art, and his flexible and +many-sided genius set itself to supply the deficiency. His "Götz von +Berlichingen" illustrated the possibility of a dramatic literature founded +upon national history and national character. His "Egmont" is a highly +poetic and eloquent dramatization of that popular hero, and of the +struggles of the Netherlands against the tyranny of Spain. His "Tasso" is +a poem of psychological interest, illustrating a favorite maxim of the +author that a poet, like every other artist, for his true development, +needs education. "A hundred times," says Goethe, "have I heard artists +boast that they owed everything to themselves, and I am often provoked to +add, 'Yes, and the result is just what might be expected.' What, let me +ask, is a man in and of himself?" + +The lesson of the drama of "Tasso" is this--that the poet cannot fulfill +his duty by cultivating merely his imagination, however splendid and +powerful it may be. Like all other men who would be good and great, he +must exercise patience and moderation; must learn the value of self- +denial; must endure the hardships and contradictions of the real world; +contentedly occupy his place, with its pains and pleasures, as a part of +the great whole, and patiently wait to see the beauty and brightness which +flow from his soul, win their way through the obstacles presented by human +society. The singular merit of this dramatic poem is this: that it is the +fruit of genuine experience, adorned with the hues of a beautiful +imagination, and clothed in classical language; but it is a work written +for the few. + +"Iphigenia" is a fine imitation of the ancient Greek style, but not well +suited to the stage. + +In his dramatic, as in all his other works, the only end and aim of Goethe +was to carry to perfection the art in which he was so great a master. +Virtue and vice, truth and falsehood, are each portrayed with the same +graceful complacency and the same exquisite skill. His immense and wide- +spreading influence renders this singular indifference, which seems to +confound the very sense of right and wrong, doubly lamentable. + +In plastic skill and variety, the dramatic creations of Schiller are +regarded, in some respects, inferior to those of Goethe, but they all glow +with the love of true goodness and greatness, and with an enthusiasm for +virtue and liberty which communicates itself, as by an electric spark, to +his readers. The violent tone of Schiller's first tragedy, the "Robbers," +was suggested by other theatrical writers of the period, who esteemed +wildness and absurdity the chief characteristics of poetical genius. +Schiller gave to his dramatic works more movement and popular interest +than can be found in Goethe's dramas, but yielded in some instances to the +sentimental tone so prevalent in German poetry. "Fiesco" was written in a +better style than the "Robbers," though less suited to please the low +theatrical taste of the time. "Don Carlos" showed more maturity of +thought, and is pervaded by a coloring of poetic sentiment; "Wallenstein" +won for the poet a universal reputation in his native land, and was +translated into English by Coleridge. "Marie Stuart," the "Maid of +Orleans," and the "Bride of Messina," contributed still more to increase +the poet's fame. "Wilhelm Tell" was the most popular of Schiller's plays, +and is still esteemed by some as his best production. Here the love of +liberty, so wildly expressed in the "Robbers," appears in its true and +refined character. + +Kotzebue (1760-1819) was one of the most successful playwrights of +Germany. He composed an almost countless number of plays, and his plots +were equally versatile and amusing; but he was entirely destitute of +poetic and moral beauty. His opposition to liberal principles caused him +to be regarded as the enemy of liberty, and to be assassinated by an +enthusiastic student named George Sand, who, on obtaining admittance to +him under the pretense of business, stabbed him to the heart. + +While the influence of the Romantic School tended to invest all poetry +with a dreamy and transcendental character, in the drama it was mingled +with stormy and exciting incidents, often carried to the extreme of +exaggeration and absurdity. The Romancists dealt almost exclusively with +the perturbed elements of the human mind and the fearful secrets of the +heart. They called to their aid the mysteries of the dark side of nature, +and ransacked the supernatural world for its marvels and its horrors. The +principal of these "Power Men," as they were called, are Müllner, Werner, +Howald, and Grillparzer. + +Müllner (1774-1829) displayed no common order of poetic genius; but the +elements of crime, horror, and remorse often supply the place of +originality of thought and delineation of character. Werner (1768-1823), +after a youth of alternate profligacy and remorse, embraced the Catholic +faith and became a preacher. His dramas of "Martin Luther," "Attila," and +the "Twenty-ninth of February," have rendered him one of the most popular +authors in Germany. Grillparzer (b. 1790) is the author of a drama +entitled the "Ancestress." The wildest dreams of Müllner and Werner sink +into insignificance before the extravagance of this production, both in +language and sentiment. The "Sappho" of this author displays much lyric +beauty. Iffland (1759-1814) was a fertile but dull dramatist. One of the +best national tragedies was written by Münch Bellinghausen. Charlotte +Birchpfeifer has dramatized a great number of stories. Raupach (1784-1852) +was one of the most able of recent German writers of plays, Gutzkow is +distinguished among contemporary dramatists; and Freytag and Bauernfeld +are excellent writers of comedy. Kleist (d. 1811) was also a distinguished +writer of dramas of the Romantic School. Mosenthal, the author of +"Deborah," has achieved distinction by aiming at something higher than +stage effect. + +7. PHILOSOPHY.--The appearance of Kant (1724-1804) created a new era in +German philosophy. Previous to his time, the two systems most in vogue +were the sensualism of Locke and his followers and the idealism of +Leibnitz, Wolf, and others. Kant, in his endeavors to ascertain what we +can know and what we originally do know, was led to the fundamental laws +of the mind, and to investigate original or transcendental ideas, those +necessary and unchangeable forms of thought, without which we can perceive +nothing. For instance, our perceptions are submitted to the two forms of +time and space. Hence these two ideas must be within us, not in the +objects and not derived from experience, but the necessary and pure +intuitions of the internal sense. The work in which Kant endeavored to +ascertain those ideas, and the province of certain human knowledge, is +entitled the "Critique of Pure Reason," and the doctrines there expounded +have been called the Critical Philosophy and also the Transcendental. In +the "Critique of Practical Reason" the subject of morals is treated, and +that of aesthetics in the "Observations on the Sublime and Beautiful." + +The advent of Kant created a host of philosophical writers and critics, +and besides Lessing and Herder there were Moses Mendelssohn, Hamann (the +Magus of the North), Reinhold, Jacobi, and many others who speculated in +various directions upon the most momentous problems of humanity and of the +human soul. + +Fichte (1762-1814) carried the doctrine of Kant to its extreme point, and +represented all that the individual perceives without himself, or all that +is distinguished from the individual, as the creation of this _I_ or +_ego;_ that the life of the mind is the only real life, and that +everything else is a delusion. + +Schelling (1775-1854), in his "Philosophy of Identity," argues that the +same laws prevail throughout the material and the intellectual world. His +later writings contain theories in which the doctrines of Christianity are +united with philosophical speculations. The leading principle of Schelling +is found in a supposed intuition, which he describes as superior to all +reasoning, and admitting neither doubt nor explanation. Coleridge adopted +many views of this philosopher, and some of his ideas may be found in the +contemplative poems of Wordsworth. + +Hegel (1770-1831), in his numerous, profound, and abstruse writings, has +attempted to reduce all the departments of knowledge to one science, +founded on a method which is expounded in his work on Logic. The "Identity +System" of Schelling and the "Absolute Logic" of Hegel have already +produced an extensive library of philosophical controversy, and the +indirect influence of the German schools of philosophy has affected the +tone of the literature in France, England, America, Denmark, and Sweden. +The effect of German philosophy has been to develop intense intellectual +activity. The habit of searching into the hidden mysteries of being has +inclined the German mind to what is deepest, and sometimes to what is most +obscure in thought; and the tendency to rise to the absolute, which is +characteristic of this philosophy, manifests its influence not only in the +blending of poetry and metaphysics, but in every department of science, +literature, and art. The literary theory thus developed, that ideal beauty +and not the imitation of nature is the highest principle of art, is +everywhere applied even to the study of the great monuments of the past, +and in the writings of the German archaeologists new youth seems to spring +from the ruins of the ancient world. The physical sciences are also +introduced into that universal sphere of ideas where the most minute +observations, as well as the most important results, pertain to general +interests. + +From 1818 to the time of his death, in 1831, the influence of Hegel +dominated the highest thought. Later, his school broke into three +divisions; Ruge, one of the most brilliant writers of the school, led the +extreme radicals; Strauss resolved the narratives of the gospel into +myths, and found the vital elements of Christianity in its spiritual +teaching; while Feuerbach urged that all religion should be replaced by a +sentiment of humanity. Ulrici and the younger Fichte exercised +considerable influence as advocates of a pantheistic doctrine which aims +to reconcile religion and science. None of these names, however, have the +importance which attaches to that of Schopenhauer (d. 1860), who, at the +present day, stirs a deeper interest than any other thinker. His main +doctrine is that Will is the foundation principle of existence, the one +reality in the universe, and all else is mere appearance. History is a +record of turmoil and wretchedness, and the world and life essentially +evil. High moral earnestness and great literary genius are shown in his +graphic and scornful pictures of the darker aspects of the world. + +Van Hartmann, the most prominent leader of the Pessimistic School (1842- +1872), the latest original thinker of Germany, in his "Philosophy of the +Unconscious," follows essentially the same line of thought. He assumes +that there is in nature a blind, impersonal, unconscious, all-pervading +will and idea, a pure and spiritual activity, independent of brain and +nerve, and manifesting itself in thought, emotion, instinct, morals, +language, perception, and history. He teaches that this is the last +principle of philosophy, described by Spinoza as substance, by Fichte as +the absolute _I_, by Plato and Hegel as the absolute idea, and by +Schopenhauer as Will. He believes the world to be utterly and hopelessly +bad, and the height of wisdom to suppress the desire to live. At the same +time he believes that there is no peace for the heart and intellect until +religion, philosophy, and science are seen to be one, as root, stem, and +leaves are all organic expressions of one same living tree. + +8. MISCELLANEOUS WRITINGS.--The best German minds of the nineteenth +century have been absorbed by severe labor in all branches of learning and +the sciences. Many memoirs of eminent persons have appeared, and many +books of travel, since the days of George Forster (1754-1794), the teacher +of Humboldt and the inaugurator of a new scientific and picturesque school +of the literature of travel. Lichtenstein has written his travels in +Southern Africa; Prince Maximilian von Wied and Martius, in Brazil; +Pöppig, in Chili, Peru, etc.; Burmeister and Tschudi, in South America; +Lepsius and Brugsch, in Egypt; and more recently, Gützlaff, in China; +Siebold, in Japan; Barth and Vogel, in Africa; Leichhardt, in Australia; +the brothers Schlagintweit, one of whom fell a victim to his zeal, in +Asia; and Ida Pfeiffer (1797-1858), a woman of rare intrepidity, who +visited, mostly on foot, the most remote regions of the globe. Another +tourist and voluminous writer is Kohl (b. 1808). Qualities rarely united +in one individual met in the character of Alexander von Humboldt (1769- +1859), an enterprising traveler, a man of extensive science, and an +accomplished writer. Accompanied by his friend Bonpland, he visited South +America, and after five years of adventurous research among the wonders of +nature, he returned, and prepared for the press the results of his +travels--the "Aspects of Nature," "Picturesque Views of the Cordilleras," +and "Travels in the Equinoctial Regions of America." This veteran student +produced at an advanced age a remarkable work entitled "Cosmos," +containing the results of a long life of observation and contemplation. In +the first part he gives general views of the economy of nature, while in +the second we find ingenious speculations regarding the influence of +nature on human society, in its various stages of culture. + +The Chevalier Bunsen (d. 1860) celebrated by his theological and +historico-philosophical researches, has written, among other works, one on +the "Position of Egypt in the History of the World," which is a learned +dissertation on the antiquities and especially on the primitive language +of Egypt. + +In the periodicals of Germany every department of letters and science is +represented, and through the book-fairs of Leipsic all the literature of +the ancient and modern world passes. They are the magazines of the +productions of all nations. Every class of contending tastes and opinions +is represented and all the contrasts of thought which have been developed +in the course of ages meet in the Leipsic book-market. + +SCIENCE.--The growth of science has been one of the most powerful factors +in the recent development of Germany, and some of the best works present +in a popular form the results of scientific labor. Among these the first +place belongs to the "Cosmos" of Humboldt. Although no longer in +accordance with the best thought, it has enduring merit from the author's +power of handling vast masses of facts, his poetic feeling and purity and +nobility of style. + +In chemistry Liebig (d. 1873) is widely and popularly known; DuBois- +Raymond has made great researches in animal electricity, physics, and +physiology; Virchow in biology; Helmholtz in physiological optics and +sound; Haeckel has extended the theories and investigations of Darwin, and +all have made admirable attempts to render science intelligible to +ordinary readers. + +With the death of Goethe began a new era in German literature not yet +closed. The period has been one of intense political excitement, and while +much of the best of the nation has been devoted to politics there has also +been great literary activity deeply influenced by the practical struggles, +hopes, and fears of the time. There has been a tendency in German writers +hitherto to neglect the laws of expression, although their writings have +evinced great originality and power of imagination, owing doubtless to the +fact that they were addressed only to particular classes of readers. But +since the political unity of the country has been accomplished, increasing +numbers of thinkers and scholars have appealed to the whole nation, and, +in consequence, have cultivated more directness and force of style. + +NOVELS, ROMANCES, AND POPULAR LEGENDS.--Poetry and prose fiction form the +general literature of a nation, and are distinguished from the literature +of the study or from special literature, which consists chiefly of books +for the use of distinct classes or parties. Fiction borders closely on the +province of history, which, in its broad and comprehensive outlines, must +necessarily leave unnoticed many of the finer lights and shades of human +life, descriptions of motives, private characters, and domestic scenes. To +supply these in the picture of humanity is the distinct office of fiction, +which, while free in many respects, should still be essentially true. The +poetry and fiction of a country should be the worthy companion to its +history. The true poet should be the interpreter and illustrator of life. +While the historian describes events and the outward lives of men, the +poet penetrates into the inner life, and portrays the spirit that moves +them. The historian records facts; the poet records feelings, thoughts, +hopes, and desires; the historian keeps in view the actual man; the poet, +the ideal man; the historian tells us what man has been; the poet reminds +us either in his dreams of the past, or in his visions of the future, what +man can be; and the true poet who fulfills such a duty is as necessary to +the development and education of mankind as the historian. + +The numerous fictitious works of Germany may be arranged in four different +classes. The first, comprehending historical romances, affords few writers +who bear comparison with Scott. In the second class, containing novels +which describe characters and scenes in real life, German literature is +also comparatively poor. The third class comprises all the fictions marked +by particular tendencies respecting art, literature, or society. In the +fourth class, which includes imaginative tales, German literature is +especially rich. To this department of fiction, in which the imagination +is allowed to wander far beyond the bounds of real life and probability, +the Germans apply distinctively the term poetical. In these imaginative +and mystical fictions there is an important distinction between such tales +as convey moral truth and interest under an array of visionary adventures, +and those which are merely fantastic and almost destitute of meaning. + +Goethe's novel, "Wilhelm Meister's Apprenticeship," may be classed with +fictions intended to convey certain views of life; but its chief defect +is, that the object of the writer remains in a mist, even at the end of +the story. The "Elective Affinities," while it contains many beauties as a +work of art, is objectionable in a moral point of view. + +Jean Paul Richter (1763-1825) describes human life in all its aspects of +light and shade, and his voluminous works embrace all subjects, from the +highest problems of transcendental philosophy and the most passionate +poetical delineations to "Instructions in the Art of Falling Asleep;" but +his essential character, however disguised, is that of a philosopher and +moral poet, whose study has been human nature, and whose delight is in all +that is beautiful, tender, and mysteriously sublime in the fate or history +of man. Humor is the ruling quality of his mind, the central fire that +pervades and vivifies his whole being. The chief productions of Jean Paul +(the title under which he wrote) are novels, of which "Hesperus" and +"Titan" are considered his masterpieces. These and the charming prose +idyl, "The Years of Wild Oats," keep their place as works of permanent +excellence. In his famous "Dream," in which he describes a universe +without religion, he rises to the loftiest height of imagination. + +Tieck (1773-1853) was at once a novelist, poet, and critic; but his fairy +tales have perhaps rendered him most popular. His fancy was brilliant and +sportive, and his imagination varied and fantastic. The world of his +creation was peopled by demons who shed their malignant influence on +mankind, or by spirits such as the Rosicrucians had conjured up, nymphs of +the air, the woods, or waters. These airy visions he wove into form and +shape with a master hand, and he invested even the common objects of life +with a supernatural hue. At times he seems almost to have acquired a +closer intimacy with nature than that granted to common men, and to have +dived into the secret of her operations and the working of her laws. But +while Tieck is unrivaled in the world of phantasy, he becomes an ordinary +writer when he descends to that of daily life. + +Hardenberg, known by the assumed name of Novalis (1772-1801), by his +unsullied character, his early death, and the mystic tone of his +productions, was long regarded with an enthusiasm which has now greatly +declined. His romance, "Henry von Ofterdingen," contains elements of +beauty, but it deals too exclusively with the shadowy, the distant, and +the unreal. His "Aphorisms" are sometimes deep and original, but often +paradoxical and unintelligible. + +La Motte Fouqué (1777-1843) is best known by his charming story of +"Undine," founded on one of those traditions in which the ancient fairy +mythology of Germany abounded. Undine, a beautiful water-spirit, wins the +heart of a noble knight, and consents to be his bride. We have seen it was +only through the union with a being of mortal mould that the spirits of +air and water could obtain the gift of a soul. But before giving her hand +to her lover, Undine reminds him that the relentless laws of her race +condemn her to become herself the instrument of his destruction if he +should break his plighted vow. The knight accepts the conditions, and for +a time he remains true to his beautiful wife. But at length, weary of her +charms, he seeks the daughter of a neighboring baron for his bride, and in +the midst of the wedding festivities the faithless knight is suffocated by +an embrace from Undine, who is forced by the race of spirits thus to +destroy him. The sweetness and pathos of this tale and its dream-like +beauty have given it a place among those creations which appeal to all the +world, and do not depend for their popularity on the tendencies of any +particular age. + +Chamisso (1781-1836), one of the most popular poets of Germany, was the +author of "Peter Schlemihl," a well-known tale describing the adventures +of a man who sold his shadow for a large sum of money, and found afterward +that he had made a very bad bargain. The moral it seems to indicate is +that gold is dearly obtained at the sacrifice of any part, even of the +shadow, of our humanity. + +Hoffmann (1776-1822) surpassed all other imaginative writers in inventing +marvelous incidents, while he was inferior to many of them in poetical +genius. His stories mingle the circumstances of real life with grotesque +and visionary adventures. + +Zschokke (1771-1847) was remarkable as a man and an author. His literary +activity extended over more than half a century, and his tales and +miscellaneous writings have had extensive popularity. His studies were +generally directed toward human improvement, as in "The Goldmaker's +Village," where he describes the progress of industry and civilization +among a degraded population. + +Of the other numerous writers of fiction the names of a few only can be +mentioned. + +Theresa Huber (1764-1829) was the authoress of several popular novels. +Benedicte Naubert wrote several historical romances mentioned by Scott as +having afforded him some suggestions. Caroline Pichler's "Tales" were +accounted among the best fictions of her times. Henriette Hanke produced +eighty-eight volumes of domestic narratives and other writings of a moral +character; the Countess Hahn-Hahn follows the tendencies of Madame +Dudevant (George Sand), though with less genius. + +Brentano, the author of "Godiva," and Arnim, author of the "Countess +Dolores," may also be mentioned among the remarkable writers of fantastic +romances. + +Bettina (1785-1859), the sister of Brentano, and the wife of Arnim, who +resembles these authors in her imaginative character, wrote a singularly +enthusiastic book, entitled, "Goethe's Correspondence with a Child." +Imaginative pictures in words, interspersed with sentiments, characterize +the writings of Bettina and many other romancists, while they show little +power in the construction of plots and the development of character. + +Among the more renowned female writers are Auguste von Paalzow, Amalie +Schoppe, Johanna Schoppenhauer, Friederike Brun, Talvi (Mrs. Robinson). +Henriette Herz (1764-1841) and Rahel (1771-1844) also occupied a brilliant +position in the literary and social world. The latter was the wife of +Varnhagen von Ense (d. 1859), the most able and attractive biographical +writer of Germany. Wilhelm Häring (Wilibald Alexis) is particularly +eminent as a romance writer. + +The historical novelists of the early part of this century, as Van der +Velde, Spindler, Rellstab, Storch, and Rau, have been succeeded by König, +Heller, and several others. Good French and English novels are translated +into German, almost immediately after their appearance, and the +comparative scarcity of interesting German novels is accounted for by the +taste for this foreign literature, and also by the increasing absorption +of literary talent in the periodical press. Schucking is remarkable for +his power of vividly conceiving character. Fanny Lewald is artistic in her +methods and true and keen in her observation of life; and among novelists +of simple village life Auerbach (1812-1883) takes the first place. Gustave +Freytag (b. 1816), whose "Debit and Credit" is an intensely realistic +study of commercial life, is also one of the distinguished writers of +fiction. + +The popular legends of Germany are numerous and characteristic of the +country. These narratives are either legends of local interest, associated +with old castles, or other antiquities, or they are purely fabulous. +Though they are sometimes fantastic and in their incidents show little +respect to the laws of probability, they are genuine and fairly represent +the play of the popular imagination; while under their wild imagery they +often convey symbolically a deep and true meaning, + +LITERARY HISTORY AND CRITICISM.--Modern German literature is singularly +rich in this department. In the Republic of Letters, German students have +found the liberty they could not enjoy in actual life, and this cause has +promoted investigation in ancient and modern literature. Poets, +historians, philosophers, and other writers have been studied and +criticised, not merely as authors, but with especial reference to their +respective contributions to the progress of ideas and the movements of +society. Some of the most eminent German critical writers have already +been mentioned under various preceding heads. Winckelmann (1717-1768) +devoted himself with enthusiasm to the study of antique sculpture, and +wrote elegant dissertations on the grace and beauty of the works of +ancient art. His writings display true enthusiasm and refined taste. It +may be said that the school of art-criticism in Germany owes its origin to +the studies of Winckelmann. The critical writings of Herder were more +remarkable for the impulse which they gave to the studies of authors than +for their intrinsic merits. Goethe in his prose writings showed with what +grace and precision the German language might be written. The letters of +Schiller are pervaded by a lofty and ideal tone. William von Humboldt +(1762-1832) was the founder of the science of comparative philology, a +scholar of remarkable comprehensiveness and scientific knowledge, and the +author of several highly important works on language and literature. The +brothers Schlegel developed that taste for universal literature which had +been introduced by Herder. The mind of Augustus Schlegel (1767-1845) was +rather comprehensive than endowed with original and creative genius. His +poems are elegant, but not remarkable. Friedrich Schlegel (1772-1829), +like his brother, was opposed to the skeptical character of some of the +philosophical theories of his day, and after entering the Catholic Church +he expressed his religious and polemical opinions in his works on +literature. His lectures on "The Philosophy of History" were evidently +written with political and religious purposes. He participated with his +brother in the study of Oriental literature and language, but his lectures +on "The Literature of all Nations" have chiefly extended his fame for +great capacity, critical acumen, and extensive learning. The main purpose +of the author is to describe the development of literature in its +connection with the social and religious institutions of various nations +and periods. He thus elevates literature, and especially poetry, far above +the views of trivial and commonplace criticism, and regards it in its +highest aspect as the product of human life and genius in various stages +of cultivation. The history of the world of books is thus represented as +no dry and pedantic study, but as one intimately connected with the best +interests of humanity. In the establishment of this humanitarian style of +literature, the services of this author were of great value, although many +of his works, as well as those of others in this department, have been +written rather for the use of scholars than for the public. There still +remains in Germany that distinction between a popular and scholastic style +which characterized the Middle Ages, when the literati excluded their +thoughts from the people by writing in Latin. The literature of the past, +which is in itself too diffuse to be comprehended by men of scanty leisure +in modern times, is with most writers too often rather complicated and +extended than simplified and compressed into a readable form. If the +labors of learned historians and critics had been directed to popularize +the results of their extensive scholarship, readers without much time for +study might have acquired a fair general acquaintance with universal +literature. But while concise and masterly summaries are required, many +scholars love to wander in never-ending disquisitions, and the consequence +is that the greater number of readers acquire only a fragmentary and +accidental knowledge of books. + +While the brothers Schlegel, and many other writers, followed the +tendencies of Herder in universal literature, a national school of +criticism was founded and supported by the brothers Grimm, with many able +associates. Jacob, the eldest (d. 1863), devoted his researches to the +German literature of the Middle Ages, and collected the scattered remnants +of old popular legends. In conjunction with, his brother William (d. 1860) +he published his "Children's Fables," or "Household Tales," which are +marked by great simplicity, and often convey pleasing sentiments and good +morals mingled with fantastic and supernatural adventures. Later works on +the "German Language," "Legal Antiquities," and "German Mythology," have +secured for this author the highest position among national philologists +and antiquaries. The example of these brothers gave a strong impulse to +the study of German archaeology, and the results have been received with +great enthusiasm. Many relics of old literature have been recovered, and +these remains form a considerable library of literary antiquities. + +Menzel (d. 1855), well known as a critical and polemical writer of the +national school, has written the "History of German Literature," "The +Spirit of History," and other works, in which he has warmly opposed the +extreme revolutionary tendencies of recent political and social theorists. + +Gervinus (d. 1871) may be considered as a historian, politician, and +critic. In his "History of the Poetical National Literature of the +Germans," he traces the development of poetry in its relations to +civilization and society. He has also written a work on Shakspeare, and a +history of the nineteenth century, which is characterized by its liberal +tendencies. His views of literature are directly opposed to those of +Frederic Schlegel. + +As historians of ancient classical literature, German scholars have +maintained the highest position, and to them the world is prodigiously +indebted. Their works, however, are too comprehensive to be described +here, and too numerous even to be mentioned. The idea of classical +erudition, as maintained by them, is extended far beyond its common +limitation, and is connected with researches respecting not the language +only, but also the religion, philosophy, social economy, arts, and +sciences of ancient nations. + +Karl Ottfried Müller (d. 1840) must be mentioned as an accomplished +scholar and the author of a standard work, the "History of Greek +Literature." Among the other great writers on ancient history are Böckh, +Duncker, Droysen, Mommsen, and Kortüm. + +Several works on the modern literature of European nations have recently +been published in Germany; and much industry and research have been +displayed in numerous criticisms on the fine arts. The principles of +Winckelmann and Lessing have been developed by later authors who have +written excellent critical and historical works on the plastic arts, +sculpture, painting, and architecture. In general, the literary criticism +of Germany deserves the highest commendation for its candor, carefulness, +and philosophical consistency. + +HISTORY AND THEOLOGY.--The extensive historical works of the modern +writers of Germany form an important feature in the literature. The +political circumstances of the country have been in many respects +favorable to the progress of these studies. Professors and students, +excluded in a great measure from political life, have explored the +histories of ancient nations, and have given opinions in the form of +historical essays, which they could not venture to apply to the +institutions of Germany. While Prussia and Austria were perilous topics +for discussion, liberal and innovating doctrines might be promulgated in +lectures on the progress and decline of liberty in the ancient world. +Accordingly, the study of universal history, to which the philosophical +views of Herder gave the impulse, has been industriously prosecuted during +the last fifty years, and learned and diligent collectors of historical +material are more numerous in Germany than in any other country. + +Müller (d. 1804), a native of Switzerland, displayed true historical +genius and extended erudition in his "Lectures on Universal History." +Among other writers on the same subject are Rotteck, Becker, Böttiger, +Dittmar, and Vehse. Of the two last authors, the one wrote on this vast +subject especially in reference to Christianity, and the other describes +the progress of civilization and intellectual culture. + +Schlosser's (b. 1786) "History of the Ancient World and its Culture" holds +a prominent place among historical works. His writings are the result of +laborious and conscientious researches to which he has devoted his life. + +Heeren (d. 1842) opened a new vein of ancient history in his learned work +on the "Commercial Relations of Antiquity." While other historians have +been attracted by the sword of the conqueror, Heeren followed the +merchant's caravan laden with corn, wine, oils, silks, and spices. His +work is a valuable contribution to the true history of humanity. + +Carl Ritter (d. 1859) has united the studies of geography and history in +his "Geography viewed in its Relations to Nature and History." This great +work, the result of a life devoted to industrious research, has +established the science of comparative geography. + +Lepsius and Brugsch have rendered important services to Egyptology, and +Lachmann, K. O. Müller, Von der Hagen, Böckh, the brothers Grimm, Moritz +Haupt, and others, to ancient and German philology. + +In Roman history, Niebuhr (1776-1831), stands alone as the founder of a +new school of research, by which the fictions so long mingled with the +early history of Rome, and copied from book to book, and from century to +century, have been fully exploded. Through the labors of this historian, +modern readers know the ancient Romans far better than they were known by +nations who were in close contact with them. Niebuhr made great +preparations for his work, and took care not to dissipate his powers by +appearing too soon as an author. + +Besides many other histories relating to the Roman Empire, German +literature is especially rich in those relating to the Middle Ages. The +historical writings of Ranke (b. 1795) connect the events of that period +with modern times, and give valuable notices of the age of the +Reformation. "The History of Papacy in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth +Centuries" is highly esteemed, though Catholic critics have objected to +some of its statements. Histories of the German people, of the +Hohenstauffen Dynasty, of the Crusades; histories of nations, of cities, +of events, and of individuals, all have found their interpreters in German +genius. Schlosser (b. 1776), the vigorous and truthful historian of the +eighteenth century; Dahlmann (b. 1785) the German Guizot, and Raumer (b. +1781), the historian of the Hohenstauffens, deserve particular mention. +Nor is the department of ecclesiastical history and theology less +distinguished by its research. + +No writer of his time contributed more towards the formation of an +improved prose style than Mosbeim (1694-1755); although his +"Ecclesiastical History" is now superseded by works of deeper research. +His contemporary, Reimarus, wrote in favor of natural theology, and may be +considered the founder of the Rationalistic School. Neander (d. 1850) +wrote a history of the church, in ten volumes, distinguished for its +liberal views. The sermons of Reinhard (d. 1812), in thirty-nine volumes, +display earnestness and unaffected solemnity of style. Schleiermacher (d. +1834), celebrated as a preacher at Berlin, was the author of many works, +in which he attempted to reconcile the doctrines of Protestantism with +certain philosophical speculations. De Wette, the friend of +Schleiermacher, is one of the most learned and able representatives of the +Rationalistic School. Tholuck (b. 1799) is celebrated as a learned +exegetical writer. + +Mommsen (b. 1817) is the vigorous historian of ancient Rome, and Curtius +(b. 1819), the author of a history of Greece, not more remarkable for its +learning than for the clear and attractive arrangement of its material. In +histories of philosophy recent German literature is absolutely supreme. +Hegel still ranks as one of the greatest writers in this line, and +Ueberweg, Uedmann, and others are important workers in the same +department. Fischer writes the history of philosophy with sympathetic +appreciation and in a fascinating style, and Lange, in his "History of +Materialism," does full justice to the different phases of materialistic +philosophy. + +Since the time of Lessing, aesthetics have formed a prominent branch of +philosophy with the Germans, and they have been no less successful as +historians of art than of metaphysics. Among the most distinguished are +Kugler, Carrière, and Lübke. Biographers and historians of literature are +numerous. + + + + +ENGLISH LITERATURE. + +INTRODUCTION.--1. _English Literature_. Its Divisions.--2. _The Language_. + +PERIOD FIRST.--1. _Celtic Literature_. Irish, Scotch, and Cymric Celts; +the Chronicles of Ireland; Ossian's Poems; Traditions of Arthur; the +Triads; Tales.--2. _Latin Literature_, Bede; Alcuin; Erigena.--3. _Anglo- +Saxon Literature_. Poetry; Prose; Versions of Scripture: the Saxon +Chronicle; Alfred. + +PERIOD SECOND.--The Norman Age and the Fourteenth and Fifteenth +Centuries.--1. _Literature in the Latin Tongue_.--2. _Literature in +Norman-French_. Poetry; Romances of Chivalry.--3. _Saxon-English_. +Metrical Remains.--4. _Literature in the Fourteenth Century_.--Prose +Writers; Occam, Duns Scotus, Wickliffe, Mandeville, Chaucer. Poetry; +Langland, Gower, Chaucer.--5. _Literature in the Fifteenth Century_. +Ballads.--6. _Poets of the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Centuries in +Scotland_. Wyntoun, Barbour, and others. + +PERIOD THIRD.--1. _Age of the Reformation_ (1509-1558), Classical, +Theological, and Miscellaneous Literature: Sir Thomas More and others. +Poetry: Skelton, Surrey, and Sackville; the Drama.--2. _The Age of +Spenser, Shakspeare, Bacon, and Milton_ (1558-1660). Scholastic and +Ecclesiastical Literature. Translations of the Bible: Hooker, Andrews, +Donne, Hall, Taylor, Baxter: other Prose Writers: Fuller, Cudworth, Bacon, +Hobbes. Raleigh, Milton, Sidney, Selden, Burton, Browne and Cowley. +Dramatic Poetry: Marlowe and Greene, Shakspeare, Beaumont and Fletcher, +Ben Jonson, and others; Massinger, Ford, and Shirley; Decline of the +Drama. Non-dramatic Poetry: Spenser and the Minor Poets. Lyrical Poets; +Donne, Cowley, Denham, Waller, Milton.--3. _The Age of the Restoration and +Revolution_ (1660-1702). Prose: Leighton, Tilotson, Barrow, Bunyan, Locke +and others. The Drama: Dryden, Otway. Comedy; Didactic Poetry: Roscommon, +Marvell, Butler, Pryor, Dryden.--4. _The Eighteenth Century._ The _First_ +Generation (1702-1727): Pope, Swift, and others; the Periodical Essayists: +Addison, Steele. The _Second_ Generation (1727-1760); Theology; Warburton, +Butler, Watts, Doddridge. Philosophy: Hume. Miscellaneous Prose: Johnson; +the Novelists: Richardson, Fielding, Smollett and Sterne. The Drama; Non- +dramatic Poetry: Young, Blair, Akenside, Thomson, Gray, and Collins. The +_Third_ Generation (1780-1800); the Historians: Hume, Robertson, and +Gibbon. Miscellaneous Prose: Johnson, Goldsmith, "Junius," Pitt, Fox, +Sheridan, and Burke. Criticism: Burke, Reynolds, Campbell, Kames. +Political Economy: Adam Smith. Ethics: Paley, Smith, Tucker, Metaphysics: +Reid. Theological and Religious Writers: Campbell, Paley, Watson, Newton, +Hannah More, and Wilberforce. Poetry: Comedies of Goldsmith and Sheridan; +Minor Poets; Later Poems; Beattie's Minstrel; Cowper and Burns. 5. _The +Nineteenth Century_. The Poets: Campbell, Southey, Scott, Byron; Coleridge +and Wordsworth; Wilson, Shelley, Keats; Crabbe, Moore, and others; +Tennyson, Browning, Proctor, and others. Fiction: the Waverley and other +Novels; Dickens, Thackeray, and others. History: Arnold, Thirlwall, Grote, +Macaulay, Alison, Carlyle, Freeman, Buckle. Criticism: Hallam, De Quincey, +Macaulay, Carlyle, Wilson, Lamb, and others. Theology: Foster, Hall, +Chalmers. Philosophy: Stewart, Brown, Mackintosh, Bentham, Alison, and +others. Political Economy: Mill, Whewell, Whately, De Morgan, Hamilton. +Periodical Writings: the Edinburgh, Quarterly, and Westminster Reviews, +and Blackwood's Magazine. Physical Science: Brewster, Herschel, Playfair, +Miller, Buckland, Whewell.--Since 1860. 1. Poets: Matthew Arnold, Algernon +Swinburne, Dante Rossetti, Robert Buchanan, Edwin Arnold, "Owen Meredith," +William Morris, Jean Ingelow, Adelaide Procter, Christina Rossetti, +Augusta Webster, Mary Robinson, and others. 2. Fiction: "George Eliot," +MacDonald, Collins, Black, Blackmore, Mrs. Oliphant, Yates, McCarthy, +Trollope, and others. 3. Scientific Writers: Herbert Spencer, Charles +Darwin, Tyndall, Huxley, and others. 4. Miscellaneous. + + +INTRODUCTION. + +1. ENGLISH LITERATURE AND ITS DIVISIONS.--The original inhabitants of +England, belonging to the great race of Celts, were not the true founders +of the English nation; and their language, which is still spoken unchanged +in various parts of the kingdom, has exerted but an incredibly small +influence on the English tongue. During the period of the Roman domination +(55 B.C.-447 A.D.), the relations between the conquerors and the natives +did not materially alter the nationality of the people, nor did the Latin +language permanently displace or modify the native tongue. + +The great event of the Dark Ages which succeeded the fall of the Roman +empire was the vast series of emigrations which planted tribes of Gothic +blood over large tracts of Europe, and which was followed by the formation +of all the modern European languages, and by the general profession of +Christianity. The Anglo-Saxon invaders of England continued to emigrate +from the Continent for more than a hundred years, and before many +generations had passed away, their language, customs, and character +prevailed throughout the provinces they had seized. During the six hundred +years of their independence (448-1066), the nation made wonderful progress +in the arts of life and thought. The Pagans accepted the Christian faith; +the piratical sea-kings applied themselves to the tillage of the soil and +the practice of some of the ruder manufactures; the fierce soldiers +constructed, out of the materials of legislation common to the whole +Teutonic race, a manly political constitution. + +The few extant literary monuments of the Anglo-Saxons possess a singular +value as illustrations of the character of the people, and have the +additional attraction of being written in what was really our mother +tongue. + +In the Middle Ages (from the eleventh to the sixteenth centuries), the +painful convulsions of infant society gave way to the growing vigor of +healthy though undisciplined youth. All the relations of life were +modified, more or less, by the two influences predominant in the early +part of the period, but decaying in the latter,--Feudalism and the Church +of Rome,--and by the consolidation of the new languages, which were +successively developed in all European countries, and were soon qualified +as instruments for communicating the results of intellectual activity. The +Middle Ages closed by two events occurring nearly at the same time: the +erection of the great monarchies on the ruins of feudalism, and the +shattering of the sovereignty of the Romish Church by the Reformation. At +the same period, the invention of printing, the most important event in +the annals of literature, became available as a means of enlightenment. + +The Norman conquest of England (1066) subjected the nation at once to both +of the ruling mediaeval impulses: feudalism, which metamorphosed the +relative positions of the people and the nobles, and the recognition of +papal supremacy, which altered not less thoroughly the standing of the +church. While these changes were not unproductive of good at that time, +they were distasteful to the nation, and soon became injurious, both to +freedom and knowledge, until at length, under the dynasty of the Tudors, +the ecclesiastical shackles were cast off, and the feudal bonds began +gradually to be loosened. + +The Norman invaders of England took possession of the country as military +masters. They suppressed the native polity by overwhelming force, made +Norman-French the fashionable speech of the court and the aristocracy, and +imposed it on the tribunals. Their romantic literature soon weaned the +hearts of educated men from the ancient rudeness of taste, but the mass of +the English people clung so obstinately to their ancestral tongue, that +the Anglo-Saxon language kept its hold in substance until it was evolved +into modern English; and the Norman nobles were at length forced to learn +the dialect which had been preserved among their despised English vassals. + +Emerging from the Middle Ages into the illuminated vista of modern +history, we find the world of action much more powerfully influenced by +the world of letters than ever before. Among the causes which produced +this change are the invention of printing, the use of a cultivated living +language, and in England the vindication of freedom of thought and +constitutional liberty. + +The period from the accession of Elizabeth to the Restoration (1558-1660) +is the most brilliant in the literary history of England. The literature +assumes its most varied forms, expatiates over the most distant regions of +speculation and investigation; and its intellectual chiefs, while they +breathe the spirit of modern knowledge and freedom, speak to us in tones +which borrow an irregular stateliness from the chivalrous past. But this +magnificent panorama does not meet the eye at once; the unveiling of its +features is as gradual as the passing away of the mists that shroud the +landscape before the morning sun. + +The first quarter of the century was unproductive in all departments of +literature. Of the great writers who have immortalized the name of +Elizabeth, scarcely one was born five years before she ascended the +throne, and the immense and invaluable series of literary works which +embellished the period in question may be regarded as beginning only with +the earliest poem of Spenser, 1579. + +"There never was anywhere," says Lord Jeffrey, "anything like the sixty or +seventy years that elapsed from the middle of the reign of Elizabeth to +the Restoration. In point of real force and originality of genius, neither +the age of Pericles nor the age of Augustus, nor the times of Leo X., or +of Louis XIV., can come at all into comparison. In that short period we +shall find the names of almost all the very great men that this nation has +ever produced." + +Among the influences which made the last generation of the sixteenth +century so strong in itself, and capable of bequeathing so much strength +to those who took up its inheritance, was the expanding elasticity, the +growing freedom of thought and action. The chivalry of the Middle Ages +began to seek more useful fields of adventure in search of new worlds, and +fame, and gold. There was an increasing national prosperity, and a +corresponding advance of comfort and refinement, and mightier than all +these forces was the silent working of the Reformation on the hearts of +the people. + +The minor writers of this age deserve great honor, and may almost be +considered the builders of the structure of English literature, whose +intellectual chiefs were Spenser, Shakspeare, and Hooker. + +Spenser and Shakspeare were both possessed of thoughts, feelings, and +images, which they could not have had if they had lived a century later, +or much earlier; and, although their views were very dissimilar, they both +bear the characteristic features of the age in which they lived. Spenser +dwelt with animation on the gorgeous scenery which covered the elfin land +of knighthood and romance, and present realities were lost in his dream of +antique grandeur and ideal loveliness. He was the modern poet of the +remote past; the last minstrel of chivalry, though incomparably greater +than his forerunners. + +Shakspeare was the poet of the present and the future, and of universal +humanity. He saw in the past the fallen fragments on which men were to +build anew--august scenes of desolation, whose ruin taught men to work +more wisely. He painted them as the accessory features and distant +landscape of colossal pictures, in whose foreground stood figures soaring +beyond the limits of their place, instinct with the spirit of the time in +which the poet lived, yet lifted out of it and above it by the impulse of +potent genius prescient of momentous truths that lay slumbering in the +bosom of futurity. + +By the side of poetry contemporary prose shows poorly, with one great +exception. In respect to style, Hooker stands almost alone in his time, +and may be considered the first of the illustrious train of great prose +writers. His "Ecclesiastical Polity" appeared in 1594. Sir Philip Sidney's +"Arcadia" had been written before 1587. Bacon's Essays appeared in 1596, +and also Spenser's "View of Ireland," But none of these are comparable in +point of style to Hooker. + +The reign of Elizabeth gave the key-note to the literature of the two +succeeding reigns, that of James I. (1603-1625), and Charles (1625-1649), +and the literary works of this period were not only more numerous, but +stand higher in the mass than those which closed the sixteenth century. +But Spenser remained un-imitated and Shakspeare was inimitable; the drama, +however, which in this as in the last generation monopolized the best +minds, received new developments, poetry was enriched beyond precedent, +and prose writing blossomed into a harvest of unexampled eloquence. But +although, under the rule of James, learning did good service in theology +and the classics, English writing began to be infected with pedantic +affectations. The chivalrous temper of the preceding age was on the wane, +coarseness began to pass into licentiousness, and moral degeneracy began +to diffuse its poison widely over the lighter kinds of literature. Bacon, +the great pilot of modern science, gave to the world the rudiments of his +philosophy. Bishop Hall exemplified not only the eloquence and talent of +the clergy, but the beginning of that resistance to the tendencies by +which the church was to be soon overthrown. The drama was headed by Ben +Jonson, honorably severe in morals, and by Beaumont and Fletcher, who +heralded the licentiousness which soon corrupted the art generally, while +the poet Donne introduced fantastic eccentricities into poetical +composition. + +Some of the most eloquent prose writings of the English language had their +birth amidst the convulsions of the Civil War, or in the strangely +perplexed age of the Commonwealth and protectorate (1649-1660), that stern +era which moulded the mind of one poet gifted with extraordinary genius. +Although Milton would not, in all likelihood, have conceived the "Paradise +Lost" had he not felt and acted with the Puritans, yet it would have been +less the consummate work of art which it is, had he not fed his fancy with +the courtly pomp of the last days of the monarchy. + +The prose writers of this time are represented by Bishop Hall and Jeremy +Taylor, among the clergy, and Selden and Camden among the laymen. The +roughness of speech and manners of Elizabeth's time, followed, in the next +reign, by a real coarseness and lowness of sentiment, grew rapidly worse +under Charles, whose reign was especially prolific in poetry, the tone of +which varied from grave to gay, from devotion to licentiousness, from +severe solemnity to indecent levity; but no great poet appeared in the +crowd. The drama was still rich in genius, its most distinguished names +being those of Ford, Massinger, and Shirley; but here depravity had taken +a deeper root than elsewhere, and it was a blessing that, soon after the +breaking out of the war, the theatres were closed, and the poets left to +idleness or repentance. + +The Commonwealth and Protectorate, extending over eleven years (1649- +1660), made an epoch in literature, as well as in the state and church. +The old English drama was extinct, and poetry had few votaries. Cowley now +closed with great brilliancy the eccentric and artificial school of which +Donne had been the founder, and Milton was undergoing the last steps of +that mental discipline that was to qualify him for standing forth the last +and all but the greatest of the poetical ancients. At the same time, the +approach of a modern era was indicated by the frivolity of sentiment and +ease of versification which prevailed in the poems of Waller. + +In philosophy, Hobbes now uttered his defiance to constitutional freedom +and ecclesiastical independence; Henry More expounded his platonic dreams +in the cloisters of Cambridge; and Cudworth vindicated the belief in the +being of the Almighty and in the foundations of moral distinctions. The +Puritans, the ruling power in the state, became also a power in +literature, nobly represented by Richard Baxter. Milton, like many of his +remarkable contemporaries, lived into the succeeding generation, and he +may be accepted as the last representative of the eloquence of English +prose in that brilliant stage of its history which terminated about the +date of the Restoration. + +The aspect of the last forty years of the seventeenth century--the age of +the Restoration and the Revolution--is far from being encouraging, and +some features marking many of their literary works are positively +revolting. Of the social evils of the time, none infected literature so +deeply as the depravation of morals, into which the court and aristocracy +plunged, and many of the people followed. The drama sunk to a frightful +grossness, and the tone of all other poetry was lowered. The reinstated +courtiers imported a mania for foreign models, especially French, literary +works were anxiously moulded on the tastes of Paris, and this prevalence +of exotic predilections lasted for more than a century. But amidst these +and other weaknesses and blots there was not wanting either strength or +brightness. + +The literary career of Dryden covers the whole of this period and marks a +change which contained many improvements. Locke was the leader of +philosophical speculation; and mathematical and physical science had its +distinguished votaries, headed by Sir Isaac Newton, whose illustrious name +alone would have made the age immortal. + +The Nonconformists, forbidden to speak, wrote and printed. A younger +generation was growing up among them, and some of the elder race still +survived, such as Baxter, Owen, and Calamy. But greatest of all, and only +now reaching the climax of his strength, was Milton, in his neglected old +age consoling himself for the disappointments which had darkened a weary +life, by consecrating its waning years, with redoubled ardor of devotion, +to religion, to truth, and to the service of a remote posterity. + +In England, as elsewhere in Europe, the temper of the eighteenth century +was cold, dissatisfied, and hypercritical. Old principles were called in +question, and the literary man, the statesman, the philosopher, and the +theologian found their tasks to be mainly those of attack or defence. The +opinions of the nation and the sentiments which they prompted were neither +speculative nor heroic, and they received adequate literary expression in +a philosophy which acknowledged no higher motive than utility,--in a kind +of poetry which found its field in didactic discussion, and sunk in +narrative into the coarse and domestic. In all departments of literature, +the form had come to be more regarded than the matter; and melody of +rhythm, elegance of phrase, and symmetry of parts were held to be higher +excellences than rich fancy or fervid emotion. Such an age could not give +birth to a literature possessing the loftiest and most striking qualities +of poetry or of eloquence; but it increased the knowledge previously +possessed by mankind, swept away many wrong opinions, produced many +literary works, excellent in thought and expression, and exercised on the +English language an influence partly for good and partly for evil, which +is shown in every sentence which we now speak or write. + +The First Generation is named from Queen Anne (1702-1714), but it includes +also the reign of her successor. Our notion of its literary character is +derived from the poetry of Pope and the prose of Addison and his friends. +In its own region, which, though not low, is yet far from the highest, the +lighter and more popular literature of Queen Anne's time is valuable; its +lessons were full of good sense and correct taste, and as literary +artists, the writers of this age attained an excellence as eminent as can +be attained by art not inspired by the enthusiasm of genius nor employed +on majestic themes. In its moral tone, the early part of the eighteenth +century was much better than that of the age before it. + +The Second Generation of the century may be reckoned as contained in the +reign of George II. (1727-1760). It was more remarkable than the preceding +for vigor of thinking and often for genuine poetic fancy and +susceptibility, though inferior in the skill and details of literary +composition. Samuel Johnson produced his principal works before the close +of this period. Among the novelists, Richardson alone had anything in +common with him. Fielding, Smollett, and Sterne are equally distant from +the dignified pomp of his manner and the ascetic elevation of his +morality. In contrast to the looseness of the novels and the skepticism of +Hume, the reasoning of Butler was employed in defense of sacred truth, and +the stern dissent of Whitefield and Wesley was entered against religious +deadness. Poetry began to stir with new life; a noble ambition animated +Young and Akenside, and in Thomson, Gray, and Collins a finer poetic sense +was perceptible. + +The Third Generation of the eighteenth century, beginning with the +accession of George III. (1760), was by no means so fertile in literary +genius as either of the other two. But the earliest of its remarkable +writers, Hume, Robertson, and Gibbon, produced works which have rarely +been exceeded as literary compositions of their class. In ethics, there +were Paley and Adam Smith; in psychology and metaphysics, Reid and the +founders of the Scottish school; and in the list of poets who adorned +these forty years were Goldsmith, Cowper, and Burns. + +The nineteenth century, for us naturally more interesting than any other +period of English literature, is, in its intellectual character, +peculiarly difficult of analysis, from its variety and novelty. For the +reason that we have been moulded on its lessons, we are not favorably +placed for comprehending it profoundly, or for impartially estimating the +value of the monuments it has produced. + +It has been a time of extraordinary mental activity more widely diffused +than ever before throughout the nation at large. While books have been +multiplied beyond precedent, readers have increased in a yet greater +proportion, and the diffusion of enlightenment has been aimed at as +zealously as the discovery of new truths. While no other time has +exhibited so surprising a variety in the kinds of literature, none has +been so distinguished for the prevalence of enlightened and philanthropic +sentiment. + +In point of literary merit, the half century presents two successive and +dissimilar stages, of which the first or opening epoch of the century, +embraced in its first thirty years, was by far the most brilliant. The +animation and energy which characterized it arose from the universal +excitation of feeling and the mighty collision of opinions which broke out +over all Europe with the first French Revolution, and the fierce struggle +so long maintained almost single-handed by England against Napoleon I. The +strength of that age was greatest in poetry, but it gave birth to much +valuable speculation and eloquent writing. The poetical literature of that +time has no parallel in English literature, unless in the age of +Shakspeare. + +A marked feature in the English poetry of the nineteenth century is the +want of skill in execution. Most of the poets not only neglect polishing +in diction but also in symmetry of plan, and this fault is common to the +most reflective as well as the most passionate of them. Byron, in his +tales and sketches, is not more deficient in skill as an artist than +Wordsworth in his "Excursion," the huge fragment of an unfathomable +design, cherished throughout a long and thoughtful lifetime. + +Another feature is this, that the poems which made the strongest +impression were of the narrative kind. That and the drama may be said to +be the only forms of representation adequate to embody the spirit or to +interest the sympathies of an age and nation immersed in the turmoil of +energetic action. + +Among the prose writings of this period, two kinds of composition employed +a larger fund of literary genius than any other, and exercised a wider +influence; these were the novels and romances, and the reviews and other +periodicals. Novel-writing acquired an unusually high rank in the world of +letters, through its greatest master, and was remarkable for the high +character imprinted on it. By Scott and two or three precursors and some +not unworthy successors, the novel was made for us nearly all that the +drama in its palmy days had been for our fore-fathers, imbibing as much of +its poetic spirit as its form and purpose allowed, thoughtful in its views +of life, and presenting pictures faithful to nature. + +In the beginning of the present century was founded the dynasty of the +reviews, which now began to be chosen as the vehicles of the best prose +writing and the most energetic thinking that the nation could command. +Masses of valuable knowledge have been laid up, and streams of eloquence +have been poured out in the periodicals of our century by authors who have +often left their names to be guessed at. But the best writers have not +always escaped the dangers of this form of writing, which is unfavorable +to completeness and depth of knowledge, and strongly tempting to +exaggeration of style and sentiment. This evil has worked on the ranks of +inferior contributors with a force which has seriously injured the purity +of the public taste. The strong points of periodical writers are their +criticism of literary works and their speculation in social and political +philosophy, which have nowhere been handled so skillfully as in the +Reviews. After poetry, they are the most valuable departments in the +literature of the first age. + +Since the Anglo-Saxon period, English literature has derived much of its +materials and inspiration from the teaching of other countries. In the +Middle Ages, France furnished the models of chivalrous poetry and much of +the social system; the Augustan age of French letters, the reign of Louis +XIV., ruled the literary taste of England from the Restoration to the +middle of the eighteenth century; and from Germany, more than from any +other foreign nation, have come the influences by which the intellect of +Great Britain has been affected, especially during the last thirty years. +Within this time, the study and translation of German literature have +become fashionable pursuits, and on the whole, highly beneficial. The +philology of Germany and its profound poetical criticism have taught much: +the philosophical tendency of German theology has engaged the attention of +teachers of religion, and had its effect both for good and evil, and the +accurate study of the highest branches of German philosophy has tended +decidedly to elevate the standard of abstract speculation. + +The most hopeful symptom of English literature in the last thirty years is +to be found in the zeal and success with which its teachings have been +extended beyond the accustomed limits. Knowledge has been diffused with a +zeal and rapidity never before dreamed of, and the spirit which prompted +it has been worthily embodied in the enlarged and enlightened temper with +which it has been communicated. In the midst of much error, there are many +features prominent which presage the birth of a love of mankind more +expansive and generous than any that has ever yet pervaded society. + +The present age possesses no poetry comparable to that of the preceding, +and few men who unite remarkable eloquence with power of thought. Among +the thinkers, there is greater activity of speculation in regard to +questions affecting the nature and destiny of man; and problems have been +boldly propounded, but the solutions have not been found, and amidst much +doubt and dimness, the present generation seems to be struggling toward a +new organization of social and intellectual life. + +The literature of England may be divided into three periods: the first, +extending from the departure of the Romans to the Norman Conquest (448- +1066), comprises the literature in the Celtic, Latin, and Anglo-Saxon +tongues. + +The second period, extending from the Norman Conquest to the accession of +Henry VIII. (1066-1509), contains the literature of the Norman period from +1066 to 1307, in the Latin, Norman-French, and Anglo-Saxon tongues, the +transition of the Anglo-Saxon into English, and the literature of the +fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. + +The third period, extending from 1509 to 1884, includes the literature of +the age of the Reformation, that of the age of Spenser, Shakspeare, Bacon, +and Milton, of the Restoration and Revolution, and of the eighteenth and +nineteenth centuries. + +2. THE LANGUAGE.--The English language is directly descended from the +Anglo-Saxon, but derives much from the Norman-French, and from the Latin. +Although the Celtic in its branches of Cymric and Gaelic still continues +to be the speech of a portion of the inhabitants of Great Britain, it has +never exercised any influence on the language of the nation. + +The origin of the Anglo-Saxon tongue is involved in obscurity. It most +nearly resembles the Frisic, a Low German dialect once spoken between the +Rhine and the Elbe, and which is the parent of modern Dutch. + +Before the battle of Hastings, the Anglo-Saxon tongue had been spoken in +England for at least six hundred years, during which time it must have +undergone many changes and dialectic variations. On the subjugation of the +conflicting states by the kings of Wessex, the language of the West Saxons +came to be the ruling one, and its use was extended and confirmed by the +example of Alfred, himself a native of Berks. But it does not necessarily +follow that this dialect is the parent of the English language. We must +look for the probable ground-work of this in the gradual coalescence of +the leading dialects. + +The changes by which the Anglo-Saxon passed into the modern English +assumed in succession two distinct types, marking two eras quite +dissimilar. First came the Semi-Saxon, or transition period, throughout +which the old language was suffering disorganization and decay, a period +of confusion, perplexing alike to those who then used the tongue, and to +those who now endeavor to trace its vicissitudes. This chaotic state came +to an end about the middle of the thirteenth century, after a duration of +nearly two hundred years. The second era, or period of reconstruction, +follows, during which the language may be described as English. + +A late critic divides the Old English Period, extending from 1250 to 1500, +into the Early English (1250-1330) and the Middle English (1330-1500). The +latter was used by Chaucer and Wickliffe, and is in all essentials so like +the modern tongue, except in the spelling, that a tolerable English +scholar may easily understand it. A great change was effected in the +vocabulary by the introduction and naturalization of words from the +French. The poems of Chaucer and Gower are studded with them, and the +style of these favorite writers exercised a commanding influence ever +after. + +The grammar of the English language, in all points of importance, is a +simplification of the grammar of the Anglo-Saxon. In considering the +sources of the English vocabulary, we find that from the Anglo-Saxon are +derived first, almost all those words which import relations; secondly, +not only all the adjectives, but all the other words, nouns, and verbs +which grammarians call irregular; thirdly, the Saxon gives us in most +instances our only names, and in all instances those which suggest +themselves most readily for the objects perceived through the senses; +fourthly, all words, with a few exceptions, whose signification is +specific, are Anglo-Saxon. For instance, we use a foreign, naturalized +term when we speak of color, or motion, in general, but the Saxon in +speaking of the particular color or motion, and the style of a writer +becomes animated and suggestive in proportion to the frequency with which +he uses these specific terms; fifthly, it furnishes a rich fund of +expressions for the feelings and affections, for the persons who are the +earliest and most natural objects of our attachment, and for those +inanimate things whose names are figuratively significant of domestic +union; sixthly, the Anglo-Saxon is, for the most part, the language of +business; of the counting-house, the shop, the street, the market, the +farm. Among an eminently practical people it is eminently the organ of +practical action, and it retains this prerogative in defiance alike of the +necessary innovations caused by scientific discovery and of the +corruptions of ignorance and affectation. Seventhly, a very large +proportion of the language of invective, humor, satire, and colloquial +pleasantry is Anglo-Saxon. In short, the Teutonic elements of our +vocabulary are equally valuable in enabling us to speak and write +perspicuously and with animation; and besides dictating the laws which +connect our words, and furnishing the cement which binds them together, +they yield all our aptest means of describing imagination, feeling, and +the every-day facts of life. + +From the Latin the English has borrowed more or less for two thousand +years, and freely for more than six centuries; but from the time of the +Conquest it is difficult to distinguish words of Latin origin from those +of French. The Latinisms of the language have arisen chiefly in three +epochs. The first was the thirteenth century, which followed an age +devoted to classical studies, and its theological writers and poets coined +freely in the Roman mint. The second was the Elizabethan age, when, in the +enthusiasm of a new revival of admiration for antiquity, the privilege of +naturalization was used to an extent which threatened serious danger to +the purity and ease of speech. In the third epoch, the latter part of the +eighteenth century, Johnson was the dictator of form and style, and the +pompous rotundity that then prevailed has been permanently injurious, +although our Latin words, on the whole, have done much more good than +harm. + +The introduction of French words began with the Conquest, when the +political condition of the country made it imperative that many words +should be understood. The second stage began about a century later, when +the few native Englishmen who loved letters entered on the study of French +poetry. The third era of English Gallicisms opened in the fourteenth +century, when the French tastes of the nobles, and the zeal with which +Chaucer and other men of letters studied the poetry of France, greatly +contributed to introduce that tide of French diction which flowed on to +the close of the Middle Ages. By that time the new words were so numerous +and so strongly ingrafted on the native stock that all subsequent +additions are unimportant. The dictionaries of modern English are said to +contain about 38,000 words, of which about 23,000 or five eighths of the +whole number, come from the Anglo-Saxon. + +The English language, by its remarkable combination of strength, +precision, and copiousness, is worthy of being, as it already is, spoken +by many millions, and these the part of the human race that appear likely +to control, more than any others, the future destinies of the world. + + +PERIOD FIRST. + +FROM THE DEPARTURE OF THE ROMANS TO THE NORMAN CONQUEST (448-1066). + +1. CELTIC LITERATURE.--During this period four languages were used for +literary communication in the British Islands; two Celtic tongues spoken +by nations of that race, who still occupied large portions of the country; +Latin, as elsewhere the organ of the church and of learning; and Anglo- +Saxon. The first of the Celtic tongues, the Erse or Gaelic, was common +only to the Celts of Ireland and Scotland, where it is still spoken. The +second, that of the Cymrians or ancient Britons, has been preserved by the +Welsh. + +The literary remains of this period in Ireland consist of bardic songs and +historical legends, some of which are asserted to be older than the ninth +century, the date of the legendary collection called the "Psalter of +Cashel," which still survives. There exist, also, valuable prose +chronicles which are believed to contain the substance of others of a very +early date, and which furnish an authentic contemporary history of the +country in the language of the people from the fifth century. No other +modern nation of Europe is able to make a similar boast. + +All the earliest relics of the Scotch Celts are metrical. The poems which +bear the name of Ossian are professedly celebrations by an eye-witness of +events which occurred in the third century. They were first presented to +the world in 1762 by Macpherson, a Scotch poet, and represented by him to +be translations from the ancient Gaelic poetry handed down by tradition +through so many centuries and still found among the Highlands. The +question of their authenticity excited a fierce literary controversy which +still remains unsettled. By some recent English and German critics, +however, Ossian's poems are considered genuine. The existence of bards +among the Celtic nations is well established, and their songs were +preserved with pride. The name of Ossian is mentioned by Giraldus +Cambrensis in the twelfth century, and that of Fingal, the hero of the +legends, was so popular that in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries many +bishops complained that their people were more familiar with Fingal than +with the catechism. The Gaelic original of Ossian was published in 1807. + +The literature of the Cymric Celts is particularly interesting, as +affording those fragments of British poetry and history from which the +magnificent legends were built up to immortalize King Arthur and his +Knights of the Round Table. In the bardic songs and elsewhere, frequent +allusion is made to this heroic prince, who with his warriors resisted the +Saxon enemies of his country, and who, we are told, died by domestic +treason, the flower of the British nobles perishing with him. His deeds +were magnified among the Welsh Britons, and among those who sought refuge +on the banks of the Loire. The chroniclers wove these traditions into a +legendary history of Britain. From this compilation Geoffrey of Monmouth, +in the twelfth century, constructed a Latin historical work; and the poets +of chivalry, allured by the beauty and pathos of the tale, made it for +ages the centre of the most animated pictures of romance. + +Many ancient Welsh writings are extant which treat of a wonderful variety +of topics, both in prose and verse. The singular pieces called the Triads +show a marked character of primitive antiquity. They are collections of +historical facts, mythological doctrines, maxims, traditions, and rules +for the structure of verse, expressed with extreme brevity, and disposed +in groups of three. Among the Welsh metrical remains, some are plausibly +assigned to celebrated bards of the sixth century. There is also a +considerable stock of old Welsh romances, the most remarkable of which are +contained in a series called the "Mabinogi," or Tales of Youth, many of +which have been translated into English. Some of these stories are very +similar to the older Norse Sagas, and must have sprung from traditions of +a very rude and early generation. + +2. LATIN LITERATURE.--The Latin learning of the Dark Ages formed a point +of contact between instructed men of all countries. At first it was +necessarily adopted,--the native tongues being in their infancy; and it +was afterwards so tenaciously adhered to, that the Latin literature of the +Middle Ages far exceeds in amount all other. Its cultivation in England +arose out of the introduction of Christianity, and its most valued uses +related to the church. + +Almost all who cultivated Latin learning were ecclesiastics, and by far +the larger number of those who became eminent in it were natives of +Ireland. Amidst the convulsions which followed the fall of the Roman +empire, Ireland was a place of rest and safety to fugitives from England +and the Continent, and it contained for some centuries a larger amount of +learning than could have been collected in all Europe. + +With the introduction of the Christian faith each nation became a member +of the ecclesiastical community, and maintained its connection with other +nations and with Rome as the common centre; thus communication between +different countries received a new impulse. The churches and schools of +England received many distinguished foreigners, and many of the native +churchmen lived abroad. Of the three scholars who held the highest place +in the literature of this period--Bede (d. 735), Alcuin (d. 804), and +Erigena (d. 884), (celebrated for his original views in philosophy)--the +two last gave the benefit of their talents to France. The writings of the +Venerable Bede, as he is called, exhibit an extent of classical +scholarship surprising for his time, and his "Ecclesiastical History of +England" is to this day a leading authority not only for church annals, +but for all public events that occurred in the earlier part of the Saxon +period. + +3. LITERATURE IN THE ANGLO-SAXON TONGUE.--The remains of Anglo-Saxon +literature, both in prose and verse, differ essentially from the specimens +of a similar age which come down to us from other nations. The ancestral +legends, which were at once the poetry and history of their +contemporaries, the Anglo-Saxons entirely neglected; they even avoided the +choice of national themes for their poetry, which consisted of ethical +reflections and religious doctrines or narratives. They eschewed all +expression of impassioned fancy, and embodied in rough but lucid phrases +practical information and every-day shrewdness. + +Among the Anglo-Saxon metrical monuments three historical poems are still +preserved, which embody recollections of the Continent, and must have been +composed long before the emigrations to England; of these the most +important is the tale of "Beowulf," consisting of six thousand lines, +which is essentially a Norse Saga. + +After the introduction of Christianity there appeared many hymns, metrical +lives of the saints, and religious and reflective poems. The most +remarkable relics of this period are the works attributed to Caedmon (d. +680), whose narrative poems on scriptural events are inspired by a noble +tone of solemn imagination. + +The melody of the Saxon verse was regulated by syllabic accent or +emphasis, and not by quantity, like the classical metres. Alliteration, or +the use of several syllables in the same stanza beginning with the same +letter, takes the place of rhyme. The alliterative metres and the strained +and figurative diction common to the Anglo-Saxon poets was common to the +Northmen, and seems to have been derived from them. + +Anglo-Saxon prose was remarkable for its straightforward and perspicuous +simplicity, and, especially after the time of Alfred, it had a marked +preference over the Latin. Translations were early made from the Latin, +particularly versions of parts of the Scriptures, which come next, in +point of date, to the Moeso-Gothic translation of Ulphilas, and preceded +by several generations all similar attempts in any of the new languages of +Europe. + +The most important monument of Saxon prose literature is the series of +historical records arranged together under the name of "The Saxon +Chronicle," which is made up from records kept in the monasteries, +probably from the time of Alfred, and brought down to the year 1154. + +The illustrious name of Alfred (849-900) closes the record of Anglo-Saxon +literature. From him went forth a spirit of moral strength and a thirst +for enlightenment which worked marvels among an ignorant and half- +barbarous people. Besides his translations from the Scriptures, he made +selections from St. Augustine, Bede, and other writers; he translated "The +Consolations of Philosophy," by Boethius, and he incorporates his own +reflections with all these authors. It is impossible, at this time, to +estimate justly the labors of Alfred, since the obstacles which in his +time impeded the acquisition of knowledge cannot even now be conceived. "I +have wished to live worthily," said he, "while I lived, and after my life, +to leave to the men who should come after me, my remembrance in good +works." + + +PERIOD SECOND. + +FROM THE NORMAN CONQUEST TO THE ACCESSION OF HENRY VIII. (1066-1509). + +1. LITERATURE IN THE LATIN TONGUE.--The Norman Conquest introduced into +England a foreign race of kings and barons, with their military vassals, +and churchmen, who followed the conqueror and his successors. The +generation succeeding the Conquest gave birth to little that was +remarkable, but the twelfth century was particularly distinguished for its +classical scholarship, and Norman-French poetry began to find English +imitators. + +The thirteenth century was a decisive epoch in the constitutional as well +as in the intellectual history of England. The Great Charter was extorted +from John; the representation of the commons from his successors; the +universities were founded or organized; the romantic poetry of France +began to be transfused into a language intelligible throughout England; +and above all, the Anglo-Saxon tongue was in this century finally +transformed into English. Three of the Crusades had already taken place; +the other four fell within the next century; and these wars diffused +knowledge, and kindled a flame of zeal and devotion to the church. + +The only names which adorned the annals of erudition in England in the +latter half of the eleventh century were those of two Lombard priests-- +Lanfranc (d. 1089) and Anselm (d. 1109). They prepared the means for +diffusing classical learning among the ecclesiastics, and both acquired +high celebrity as theological writers. Their influence was visible on the +two most learned men whom the country produced in the next century--John +of Salisbury (d. 1181). befriended by Thomas à Becket, and Peter of Blois, +the king's secretary, and an active statesman. + +In the thirteenth century, when the teachings of Abelard and Rosellinus +had made philosophy the favorite pursuit of the scholars of Europe, +England possessed many names which, in this field, stood higher than any +others--among them Alexander de Hales, called "the Irrefragable Doctor," +and Johannes Duns Scotus, one of the most acute of thinkers. In the same +age, while Scotland sent Michael Scott into Germany, where he prosecuted +his studies with a success that earned for him the fame of a sorcerer, a +similar character was acquired by Roger Bacon (d. 1292), a Franciscan +friar, who made many curious conjectures on the possibility of discoveries +which have since been made. + +Very few of the historical works of this period possess any merit, except +as curious records of fact. Chronicles were kept in the various +monasteries, which furnish a series extending through the greater part of +the Middle Ages. Among these historians are William of Malmesbury, who +belonged properly to the twelfth century; Geoffrey of Monmouth, who +preserved for us the stories of Arthur, of Lear, and Cymbeline; Gerald de +Barri, or Giraldus Cambrensis; Matthew Paris, a Benedictine monk, of St. +Albans; Henry of Huntingdon; Gervase of Tilbury; and Roger de Hoveden. + +The spirit of resistance to secular and ecclesiastical tyranny, which now +began to show itself among the English people, found also a medium of +expression in the Latin tongue. The most biting satires against the +church, and the most lively political pasquinades, were thus expressed, +and written almost always by churchmen. To give these satires a wider +circulation, the Norman-French came to be frequently used, but at the +close of the period the English dialect was almost the only organ of this +satirical minstrelsy. + +The Latin tongue also became the means of preserving and transmitting an +immense stock of tales, by which the later poetry of Europe profited +largely. One of these legends, narrated by Gervase of Tilbury, suggested +to Scott the combat of Marmion with the spectre knight. + +A series of fictions called the "Gesta Romanorum" attained great +celebrity. It is composed of fables, traditions, and familiar pictures of +society, varying with the different countries it passed through. The +romance of Apollonius, in the Gesta, furnished the plot of two or three of +Chaucer's tales, and of Gower's most celebrated poem, which again gave the +ground-work of Pericles, Prince of Tyre. The Merchant of Venice, the Three +Black Crows, and Parnell's Hermit, are indebted also to the Gesta +Romanorum. + +4. LITERATURE IN NORMAN-FRENCH.--From the preference of the Norman kings +of England for the poets of their own country, the distinguished literary +names of the first two centuries after the Conquest are those of Norman +poets. One of the chief of these is Wace (fl. 1160), who composed in +French his "Brut d'Angleterre" (Brutus of England), the mythical son of +Aeneas and founder of Britain. The Britons settled in Cornwall, Wales, and +Bretagne had long been distinguished for their traditionary legends, which +were at length collected by Geoffrey of Monmouth (fl. 1138), and gravely +related by him in Latin as serious history. This production, composed of +incredible stories, furnished the ground-work for Wace's poem, and proved +an unfailing resource for writers of romantic narration for two centuries; +at a later period Shakspeare drew from it the story of Lear; Sackville +that of Ferrex and Porrex; Drayton reproduced it in his Poly-Olbion, and +Milton and other poets frequently draw allusions from it. The Romances of +chivalry, drawn from the same source, were composed for the English court +and nobles, and the translation of them was the most frequent use to which +the infant English was applied. They imprinted on English poetry +characteristics which it did not lose for centuries, if it can be said to +have lost them at all. + +A poetess known as Marie of France made copious use of British materials, +and addressed herself to a king, supposed to have been Henry VI. Her +twelve lays, which celebrate the marvels of the Round Table, are among the +most beautiful relics of the Middle Ages, and were freely used by Chaucer +and other English poets. + +The romances are, many of them, in parts at least, delightfully +imaginative, spirited, or pathetic, and their history is important as +illustrating mediaeval manners and customs, and for their connection with +early English literature. Among the oldest of these romances is "Havelok," +relating to the early Norse settlement in England, the "Gest of King +Horn," and "Guy of Warwick." + +But of all the French romances, the most interesting by far are those that +celebrate the glory and fall of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round +Table. The order in which they were composed seems to have been the same +with that of the events narrated. + +First comes the romance of "The Saint Graal," relating the history of this +sacred relic which was carried by Joseph of Arimathea or his descendants +into Britain, where it vanished for ages from the eyes of sinful men. + +Second, the romance of "Merlin," which derives its name from the fiend- +born prophet and magician, celebrates the birth and exploits of Arthur, +and the gathering round him of the Knights of the Round Table. The +historic origin of this story is from Geoffrey of Monmouth, though it is +disguised by its supernatural and chivalrous features. + +In the third romance, that of Launcelot, the hero nurtured by the Lady of +the Lake in her fairy realm beneath the waters, grows up the bravest +champion of chivalry, admired for all its virtues, although guilty of +treachery to Arthur, and from his guilt is to ensue the destruction of the +land. + +Fourth, the "Quest of the Saint Graal" relates the solitary wanderings of +the knights in this search, and how the adventure is at last achieved by +Sir Gallahad, who, while the vision passes before him, prays that he may +no longer live, and is immediately taken away from a world of calamity and +sin. + +Fifth, "The Mort Artus," or Death of Arthur, winds up with supernatural +horrors the tale into which the fall of the ancient Britons had been thus +transformed. Arthur, wounded and dying, is carried by the fairy of the +lake to the enchanted island of Avalon, there to dream away the ages that +must elapse before his return to reign over the perfected world of +chivalry. + +Sixth, "The Adventures of Tristram," or Tristan, is a repetition of those +which had been attributed to Launcelot of the Lake. + +These six romances of the British cycle, the originals of all others, were +written in the latter half of the twelfth century for the English court +and nobles, some of them at the suggestion of king Henry II. Although, +composed in French, the authors were Englishmen, and from these prose +romances the poets of France constructed many metrical romances which in +the fifteenth century reappeared as English metrical romances. + +5. SAXON ENGLISH.--The Saxon tongue of England decayed, but like the +healthy seed in the ground it germinated again. The Saxon Chronicle which +had been kept in the monasteries ceased abruptly on the accession of Henry +II., 1154, and at the same period the Saxon language began to take a form +in which the beginning of the present English is apparent. + +During the thirteenth century appeared a series of rhyming chroniclers, +the chief of whom were Layamon and Robert of Gloucester. All the remains +of the English tongue, in its transition state, are chiefly in verse; +among them are the "Ormulum" (so called from the name of the author, +Ormin), which is a metrical harmony of passages from the gospels contained +in the service of the mass, and the long fable of "The Owl and the +Nightingale," one of the most pleasing of these early relics. "The Land of +Cockayne," a satirical poem, said to have been written by Michael of +Kildare, belongs also to the thirteenth century, as well as many anonymous +poems, both amatory and religious. + +The old English drama was almost contemporaneous with the formation of the +Old English language; but all dramatic efforts previous to the sixteenth +century were so rude as to deserve little notice. + +6. LITERATURE IN THE FOURTEENTH CENTURY.--The fourteenth and fifteenth +centuries, the afternoon and evening of the Middle Ages, are the +picturesque period in English history. In the contemporary chronicle of +Froissart, the reign of Edward III. shines with a long array of knightly +pageants, and a loftier cast of imaginative adornment is imparted by the +historical dramas of Shakspeare to the troubled rule of the house of +Lancaster and the crimes and fall of the brief dynasty of York. + +The reign of Edward II. was as inglorious in literature as in the history +of the nation. That of his son was not more remarkable for the victories +of Poictiers and Cressy than for the triumphs in poetry and thought. The +Black Prince, the model of historic chivalry, and Occam, the last and +greatest of the English scholastic philosophers, lived in the same century +with Chaucer, the father of English poetry, and Wickliffe, the herald of +the Reformation. + +The earlier half of the fourteenth century, in its literary aspects, may +be regarded as a separate period from the later. The genius of the nation +seemed to sleep. England, indeed, was the birth-place of Occam (1300- +1347), but he neither remained in his own country, nor imparted any strong +impulse to his countrymen. Educated abroad, he lived chiefly In France, +and died in Munich. While the writings of his master, Duns Scotus (d. +1308), were the chief authorities of the metaphysical sect called +_Realists_, Occam himself was the ablest and one of the earliest writers +among the _Nominalists_. While the former of these sects was held +especially favorable to the Romish Church, the latter was discouraged as +heretical, and Occam was persecuted for enunciating those opinions which +are now held in one form or another by almost all metaphysicians. No +eminent names appear in the ecclesiastical literature of this period, nor +in that of the spoken tongue; but the dawn of English literature was close +at hand. + +The latter half of this century was a remarkable era in the ecclesiastical +and intellectual progress of England. Many colleges were founded, and +learning had munificent patrons. The increase of papal power led to claims +which were resisted by the clergy as well as by the parliament. Foremost +among those who called for reform was the celebrated John Wickliffe (1324- +1384). A priest of high fame for his knowledge and logical dexterity, he +was placed at the head of several of the colleges of Oxford, and there, +and from the country parsonages to which he was afterwards compelled to +retreat, he thundered forth his denunciations against the abuses of the +church, attacked the papal supremacy, and set forth doctrinal views of his +own nearly approaching to Calvinism. Although repeatedly called to account +for his opinions he was never even imprisoned, and he enjoyed his church- +livings to the last. But the church was weakened by the _Great Schism_, +and he was protected by powerful nobles. Soon after his death, however, a +storm of persecution burst on his disciples, which crushed dissent till +the sixteenth century. We owe to Wickliffe the earliest version of the +Scriptures into English, which is among the first prose writings in the +old tongue. + +The very oldest book in English prose, however, is the account given by +Sir John Mandeville of his thirty-three years' travel in the East, from +which he returned about 1355. It is an odd and amusing compound of facts +and marvelous stories. But the best specimens of English prose of this +period are Chaucer's translation of Boethius, his "Testament of Love," and +two of his Canterbury Tales. + +In poetical literature, "The Vision of Piers Plowman," written (1362) by a +priest named Robert Langland, is one of the highest works in point of +genius and one of the most curious as illustrating manners and opinions. +The poet supposes himself falling asleep on Malvern Hills, and in his +vision he describes the vices of the times in an allegorical form, which +has been compared to "The Pilgrim's Progress." The poetical vigor of many +passages is extraordinary. + +John Gower (d. 1408), a contemporary and friend of Chaucer, is chiefly +remembered for his "Confessio Amantis," or Lover's Confession, a long +English poem, containing physical, metaphysical, and ethical reflections +and stories taken from the common repertories of the Middle Ages. It is +tedious, and often feeble, but it has many excellences of language and +description. + +Geoffrey Chaucer (1328-1400) was born in London. He was early thrown into +public life and intimacy with men of high rank. John of Gaunt was his +chief patron, and he was several times employed in embassies to France and +Italy. A very large proportion of Chaucer's writings consists of free +versions from the Latin and French, and perhaps also from the Italian; but +in some of these he has incorporated so much that is his own as to make +them the most celebrated and valuable of his works. His originals were not +the chivalrous romances, but the comic Fabliaux, and the allegorical +poetry cultivated by the Trouvères and Troubadours. Three of his largest +minor works are thus borrowed; the "Romance of the Rose," from one of the +most popular French poems of the preceding century; "Troilus and +Cressida," a free translation, probably, from Boccaccio; and the "Legend +of Good Women," founded on Ovid's Epistles. The poetical immortality of +Chaucer rests on his "Canterbury Tales," a series of stories linked +together by an ingenious device. A party of about thirty persons, the poet +being one, are bound on a pilgrimage to the tomb of Thomas à Becket, at +Canterbury; each person is to tell two tales, one in going, and the other +in returning. Twenty-four only of the stories are related, but they extend +to more than 17,000 lines. In the prologue, itself a poem of great merit, +the poet draws up the curtain from a scene of life and manners which has +not been surpassed in subsequent literature, a picture whose figures have +been studied with the truest observation, and are outlined with the +firmest, yet most delicate pencil. The vein of sentiment in these tales is +always unaffected, cheerful, and manly, the most touching seriousness +varying with the keenest humor. In some the tone rises to the highest +flight of heroic, reflective, and even religious poetry; while in others +it sinks below coarseness into positive licentiousness of thought and +sentiment. + +LITERATURE IN THE FIFTEENTH CENTURY.--The fifteenth century, usually +marked in continental history as the epoch of the Revival of Classical +Learning, was not in England a period of erudition or of original +invention. The unwise and unjust wars with France, the revolts of the +populace, and the furious struggles between the partisans of the rival +houses desolated the country, and blighted and dwarfed all intellectual +growth. For more than a hundred years after the death of Chaucer, scarcely +any names of mark distinguish the literary annals of England, and the +poetical compositions of this period are principally valuable as specimens +of the rapid transition of the language into modern English. Almost all +the literary productions previous to the time of Chaucer were designed +only for a limited audience. Neither comprehensive observation of society +nor a wish to instruct or please a wide circle of readers was observable +before this period. Chaucer was indeed a national poet, an active and +enlightened teacher of all classes of men who were susceptible of literary +instruction. + +John Lydgate (d. 1430), a Benedictine monk, the best and most popular poet +of the fifteenth century, began to write before the death of Chaucer, but +in passing from the works of the latter to those of Lydgate, we seem to be +turning from the open highway into the dark, echoing cloisters. If he was +the pupil of Chaucer in manner and style, his masters in opinion and +sentiment were the compilers of the "Gesta Romanorum." + +Stephen Hawes, who wrote in the reign of Henry VII., is the author of "The +Pastime of Pleasure," an allegorical poem in the same taste as the +"Romance of the Rose." This allegorical school of poetry, so widely spread +through the Middle Ages, reappears in the Elizabethan age, where the same +turn of thought is seen in the immortal "Faerie Queene." + +In leaving this period we bid adieu to metrical romances, which, +introduced into English in the latter half of the thirteenth century, +continued to be composed until the middle of the fifteenth century, and +were to the last almost always translations or imitations. Chivalrous +stories next began to be related in prose. The most famous of these, one +of the best specimens of Old English, and the most delightful of all +repositories of romantic fiction is the "Mort Arthur," in which Sir Thomas +Mallory, a priest in the reign of Edward IV., combined into one narrative +the leading adventures of the Round Table. + +As the romances ceased to be produced, the ballads gradually took their +place, many of which indeed are either fragments or abridgments of them. +The ballad-poetry was to the popular audience what the recital of the +romances had been among the nobles. The latter half of the fifteenth +century appears to have been fertile in minstrels and minstrelsy. "Chevy +Chase," of which Sir Philip Sidney said it would move him like the blast +of a trumpet, is one of the most ancient; but, according to Hallam, it +relates to a totally fictitious event. The ballad of "Robin Hood" had +probably as little origin in fact. + +Towards the close of the fifteenth century, a mighty revolution took +place. William Caxton, a merchant of London residing abroad, became +acquainted with the recently invented art of printing, and embraced it as +a profession. He introduced it into England about 1474, and practiced it +for nearly twenty years. He printed sixty-four works in all, and the low +state of taste and information in the public for which they were +designated is indicated by the selection. But the enterprise and patience +of Caxton hastened the time when this mighty discovery became available in +England, and his name deserves to stand with honor at the close of the +survey of English literature in the Middle Ages. Thenceforth literary +works were to undergo a total change of character, brought about by many +causes, but none more active than the substitution of the printed book for +the manuscript. + +6. THE FOURTEENTH AND FIFTEENTH CENTURIES IN SCOTLAND.--From the twelfth +and thirteenth centuries there might be collected the names of a few +scholastic theologians of Scottish birth, whose works have survived; but +they spent their lives mostly on the continent, as was the case with +Michael Scott, who gained his fame as a wizard at the court of the Emperor +Frederic II. His extant writings are wholly inferior to those of Friar +Bacon, his contemporary. + +Two metrical romances of note belong to the fourteenth century, the +"Original Cronykil" of Andrew Wyntoun (d. 1420), a long history of +Scotland, and of the world at large; and "The Bruce" of John Barbour (d. +1396), a narrative of the adventures of King Robert in more than thirteen +thousand rhymed lines. Dramatic vigor and occasional breadth of sentiment +entitle this poem to a high rank. Sir Walter Scott, in his "Lord of the +Isles," owes much to "The Bruce." + +The earliest Scottish poem of the fifteenth century, "The King's Quair," +or Book, in which James I. (d. 1437) celebrates the lady whom he +afterwards married, presents no traces of a distinct Scottish dialect. But +James was educated in England, and probably wrote there, and his pleasing +poem exhibits the influence of those English writers whom he acknowledges +as his masters. From this time, however, the development of the language +of Scotland into a dialect went rapidly on. The "Wallace" of Henry the +Minstrel, or Blind Harry, rivaled the "Bruce" in popularity, on account of +the more picturesque character of the incidents, its passionate fervor, +and the wildness of fancy by which it is distinguished. + +Towards the close of this century, and in the beginning of the next, +Scottish poetry, now couched in a dialect decidedly peculiar, was +cultivated by men of high genius. Robert Henryson (d. 1400) wrote "The +Testament of the Faire Cresside," a continuation of Chaucer's poem, and +"Robin and Makyne," a beautiful pastoral, preserved in Percy's "Reliques." + +More vigorous in thought and fancy, though inferior in skill and +expression, was Gavin Douglas, Bishop of Dunkeld (d. 1522). His "King +Hart" and "Palace of Honor" are complex allegories; and his translation of +the Aeneid is the earliest attempt to render classical poetry into the +living language of the country. + +William Dunbar (d. 1520), the best British poet of his age, exhibits a +versatility of talent which has rarely been equaled; but in his comic and +familiar pieces, the grossness of language and sentiment destroys the +effect of their force and humor. Allegory is his favorite field. In his +"Golden Terge," the target is Reason, a protection against the assaults of +love. "The Dance of the Seven Deadly Sins" is wonderfully striking; but +the design even of this remarkable poem could not be decorously described. + +While Scotland thus redeemed the poetical character of the fifteenth +century, her living tongue was used only in versified compositions. +Scottish prose does not appear in any literary shape until the first +decade of the sixteenth century. + + +PERIOD THIRD. + +FROM THE ACCESSION or HENRY VIII. TO THE PRESENT TIME (1509-1884). + +1. AGE OF THE REFORMATION.--In the early part of the sixteenth century +human intellect began to be stirred by impulses altogether new, while +others, which had as yet been held in check, were allowed, one after +another, to work freely. But there was no sudden or universal +metamorphosis in literature, or in those phenomena by which its form and +spirit were determined. It was not until 1568, when the reign of Elizabeth +was within thirty years of its close, that English literature assumed a +character separating it decisively from that of the ages which had gone +before, and took its station as the worthy organ of a new epoch in the +history of civilization. But the literary poverty of the age of the +Reformation was the poverty which the settler in a new country +experiences, while he fells the woods and sows his half-tilled fields; a +poverty, in the bosom of which lay rich abundance. + +The students of classical learning profited at first more than others by +the diffusion of the art of printing, from the greater number of classical +works which, were given to the press. Foreign men of letters visited +England; Erasmus, especially, gave a strong impulse to study, and Greek +and Latin were learned with an accuracy never before attained. Among the +scholars of the time were Cardinals Pole and Wolsey, Ridley, Ascham, and +Sir Thomas More, the author of the "Utopia," a romance in the scholastic +garb. It describes an imaginary commonwealth, the chief feature of which +is a community of property, on an imaginary island, from which the book +takes its name. The epithet "Utopian" is still used as descriptive of +chimerical schemes. + +The most important works in the living tongue were those devoted to +theology, and first among them were the translations of the Scriptures +into English, none of which had been publicly attempted since that of +Wickliffe. In 1526, William Tyndale (afterwards strangled and burnt for +heresy, at Antwerp), translated the New Testament, and the five books of +Moses. In 1537, after the final breach of Henry VIII. with Rome, there was +published the first complete translation of the Bible, by Miles Coverdale. +Many others followed until the accession of Mary, when the circulation of +the translation was made in secrecy and fear. The theological writers of +this period are chiefly controversial. Among them are Ridley, famous as a +preacher; Cranmer, remarkable for his patronage of theological learning, +and Latimer (d. 1555), whose sermons and letters are highly instructive +and interesting. The "Book of Martyrs," by John Fox (d. 1527), was printed +towards the close of this period. + +The miscellaneous writings of this age in prose are most valuable as +specimens of the language in its earliest maturity. None of them are +entitled to high rank as monuments of English literature. The style of Sir +Thomas More (1480-1535) had great excellence; but his works were only the +recreation of an accomplished man in a learned age. The writings of the +learned Ascham (1515-1565) have a value not to be measured by their +inconsiderable bulk. Their language is pure, idiomatic, vigorous English; +and they exhibit a great variety of knowledge, remarkable sagacity, and +sound common sense. His most celebrated work, the "Schoolmaster," proposes +improvements in education for which there is still both room and need. +Thomas Wilson, who wrote a treatise on the "Art of Logic" and "Rhetoric," +may be considered the first critical writer in the living tongue. + +The poetry of England during the reigns of Henry VIII. and his immediate +successors is like the prose, valuable for its relation to other things, +rather than for its own merit. Yet it occupies a higher place than the +prose; it exhibits a decided contrast to that of the times past, and in +many points bears a close resemblance to the poetry of the energetic age +that was soon to open. + +The names of the poets of this age may be arrayed in three groups, headed +by Skelton, Surrey, and Sackville. The poems of Skelton (d. 1529) are +singularly though coarsely energetic. He was the tutor of Henry VIII., and +during the greater part of the reign of his pupil he continued to satirize +social and ecclesiastical abuses. His poems are exceedingly curious and +grotesque, and the volubility with which he vents his acrid humors is +truly surprising. Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey (1516-1547), opened a new +era in English poetry, and by his foreign studies, and his refinement of +taste and feeling, was enabled to turn poetical literature into a path as +yet untrodden, although in vigor and originality this ill-fated poet was +inferior to others who have been long forgotten. His works consist of +sonnets and poems of a lyrical and amatory cast, and a translation of the +Aeneid. He first introduced the sonnet, and the refined and sentimental +turn of thought borrowed from Petrarch and the other Italian masters. In +his Aeneid he introduced blank verse, a form of versification in which the +noblest English poetry has since been couched. This was also taken from +Italy, where it had appeared only in the century. Surrey's versions of +some of the Psalms, and those of his contemporary, Sir Thomas Wyatt, are +the most polished of the many similar attempts made at that time, among +which was the collection of Sternhold and Hopkins. + +Thomas Sackville, Lord Buckhurst (1686-1608) wrote those portions most +worthy of notice, of the "Mirror for Magistrates," a collection of poems +celebrating illustrious but unfortunate personages who figure in the +history of England. From his "Induction," or preparatory poem, later +writers have drawn many suggestions. + +The dramatic exhibitions of the Middle Ages, which originated in the +church, or were soon appropriated by the clergy, were of a religious cast, +often composed by priests and monks who were frequently the performers of +them in the convents. All the old religious plays called _Mysteries_ were +divided into _Miracles_, or _Miracle_ plays, founded on Bible narratives +or legends of the saints; and _Moralities_ or _Moral_ plays, which arose +out of the former by the introduction of imaginary features and +allegorical personages, the story being so constructed as to convey an +ethical or religious lesson. They became common in England about the time +of the reign of Henry VI. (1422-1461). Some of the Miracle plays treated +of all the events of Bible history, from the Creation to the Day of +Judgment; they were acted on festivals, and the performance often lasted +more than one day. The most sacred things are here treated with undue +freedom, and the broadest and coarsest mirth is introduced to keep the +attention of the rude audience. Many of them had a character called +_Iniquity_, whose avowed function was that of buffoonery. The Mysteries +were not entirely overthrown by the Reformation, the Protestant Bishop +Bale having composed several, intended to instruct the people in the +errors of popery. After the time of Henry VIII. these plays are known by +the name of _Interludes_, the most celebrated of which are those by John +Heywood (the epigrammatist). They deal largely in satire, and are not +devoid of spirit and humor. But they have little skill in character- +painting, and little interest in the story. + +About the middle of the century (sixteenth) the drama extricated itself +completely from its ancient fetters, and both comedy and tragedy began to +exist in a rude reality. The oldest known comedy was written by Nicholas +Udall (d. 1556); it has the title of "Ralph Roister Doister," a personage +whose misadventures are represented with much comic force. + +Ten years later the earliest tragedy, known by two names, "Gorboduc" and +"Ferrex and Porrex," was publicly played in the Lower Temple. It is +founded on the traditions of fabulous British history, and is believed to +have been written by Thomas Norton and Lord Buckhurst. The chief merit of +this earliest English tragedy lies in its stately language and solemnly +reflective tone of sentiment. + +2. THE AGE OF SPENSER, SHAKSPEARE, BACON, AND MILTON (1558-1660).--The +prose of this illustrious period is vast in amount and various in range. +The study of the Oriental languages and other pursuits bearing on theology +were prosecuted with success, and many of the philosophical and polemical +writings were composed in Latin. A second series of translations of the +Scriptures were among the most important works of the time. The first of +the three versions which now appeared (1560), came from a knot of English +and Scotch exiles who sought refuge in Geneva, and their work, known as +the Geneva Bible, though not adopted by the Church of England, long +continued in favor with the English Puritans and Scotch Presbyterians. +Cranmer's version was next revised (1568) under the superintendence of +Matthew Parker, archbishop of Canterbury, eminent among the fathers of the +English church, and called the Bishops' Bible, a majority of fifteen +translators having been selected from the bench. The Catholic version, +known as the Douay Bible, appeared in 1610. Our current translation, which +also appeared in 1610, during the reign of James I., occupied forty-seven +learned men, assisted by other eminent scholars, for a period of three +years. + +Among theological writings, the "Ecclesiastical Polity" of Hooker (1553- +1600) is a striking effort of philosophical thinking, and in point of +eloquence one of the noblest monuments of the language. More than +Ciceronian in its fullness and dignity of style, it wears with all its +richness a sober majesty which is equally admirable and rare. The sermons +of Bishop Andrews (1565-1626), though corrupt as models of style, made an +extraordinary impression, and contain more than any other works of the +kind the inwrought materials of oratory. The sermons of Donne (1573-1631), +while they are superior in style, are sometimes fantastic, like his +poetry, but they are never coarse, and they derive a touching interest +from his history. + +But the most eloquent of all the old English divines are the two +celebrated prelates of the reign of Charles I., Joseph Hall (1574-1656) +and Jeremy Taylor (1613-1671), alike eminent for Christian piety and +conscientious zeal. Besides his pulpit discourses, Bishop Hall has left a +series of "Contemplations" on passages of the Bible, and "Meditations," +which are particularly rich in beautiful descriptions. Among the most +practical and popular of Taylor's works are his "Holy Living" and "Holy +Dying," while his sermons distinguish him as one of the great ornaments of +the English pulpit. The chief theologian of the close of the period was +Richard Baxter (1615-1691). His works have great value for their +originality and acuteness of thought, and for their vigorous and +passionate though unpolished eloquence. His "Call to the Unconverted" and +"The Saint's Everlasting Rest" deserve their wide popularity. Among the +semi-theological writers of the time are Fuller, Cudworth, and Henry More, +Fuller (1608-1661) is most widely known through his "Worthies of England," +a book of lively and observant gossip. Cudworth and More, his +contemporaries, deviated in their philosophical writings from the +tendencies of Bacon and the sensualistlc doctrines of Hobbes, and regarded +existence rather from the spiritual point of view of Plato; in the +preceding generation, the skepticism of Lord Herbert of Cherbury taught a +different lesson from theirs. + +In this period we encounter in the philosophical field two of the +strongest thinkers who have appeared in modern Europe, Bacon and Hobbes. +Bacon (1561-1620) aimed at the solution of two great problems, the answers +to which were intended to constitute the "Instauratio Magna," the great +Restoration of Philosophy, that colossal work, towards which the chief +writings of this illustrious author were contributions. The first problem +was an Analytic Classification of all departments of Human Knowledge, +which occupies a portion of his treatise "On the Advancement of Learning." +Imperfect and erroneous as his scheme may be allowed to be, D'Alembert and +his coadjutors in the last century were able to do no more than to copy +and distort it. In his "Novum Organum" he undertakes to supply certain +deficiencies of the Aristotelian system of logic, and expounds his mode of +philosophizing; he was the first to unfold the inductive method, which he +did in so masterly a way, that he has earned, with posterity, the title of +the father of experimental science. His "Essays," from the excellence of +their style and the interesting nature of the subjects, are the most +generally read of all the author's productions. No English writer +surpasses Bacon in fervor and brilliancy of style, in force of expression, +or in richness and significance of imagery. His writings, though they +received during his lifetime the neglect for which he had proudly prepared +himself, gave a mighty impulse to scientific thought for at least a +century after his time. In his will, the following strikingly prophetic +passage is found: "My name and memory I leave to foreign nations, and to +mine own country, after some time is passed over." + +The influence of Hobbes on philosophy in England has been greater than +that of Bacon. In politics, his theory is that of uncontrolled absolutism, +subjecting religion and morality to the will of the sovereign; in ethics +he resolves all our impulses regarding right and wrong into self-love. His +reasoning is close and consistent, and if his premises are granted, it is +hardly possible to avoid his conclusions. Other departments in the prose +literature of this period were amply filled and richly adorned. +Speculations upon the Theory of Society and Civil Polity were frequent. +Among them are the Latin works of Bellenden "On the State," the "New +Atlantis," a romance by Lord Bacon, the "Oceana" of Harrington, and the +"Leviathan" of Hobbes. + +In the collection of materials for national history the period was +exceedingly active. Camden and Selden stand at the head of the band of +antiquaries. Hobbes wrote in his old age "Behemoth, or a History of the +Civil Wars," and the "Turkish History" of Knolles has been pronounced one +of the most spirited narratives in the language. + +Sir Walter Raleigh (1552-1618), while lying in the Tower under sentence of +death, wrote a "History of the World," from the Creation to the Republic +of Rome. The narrative is spirited and pervaded by a tone of devout +sentiment. + +The accomplished Sir Philip Sidney (1554-1586), in his "Defense of Poesy," +pays an eloquent tribute to the value of the most powerful of all the +literary arts. His "Arcadia" is a ponderous combination of romantic and +pastoral incidents, the unripe production of a young poet, but it abounds +in isolated passages beautiful alike in sentiment and language. + +Towards the close of the period, Milton manifested extraordinary power in +prose writing; his defense of the "Liberty of Unlicensed Printing" is one +of the most impressive pieces of eloquence in the English tongue. His +style is more Latinized than that of most of his contemporaries, and this +exotic infection pervades both his terms and his arrangement; yet he has +passages marvelously sweet, and others in which the grand sweep of his +sentences emulates the cathedral music of Hooker. + +The press now began to pour forth shoals of short novels, romances, and +essays, and pamphlets on various subjects. Among other productions is +Burton's "Anatomy of Melancholy," a storehouse of odd learning and +quaintly-original ideas; it is deficient, however, in style and power of +consecutive reasoning. Far above Burton in eloquence and strength of +thought is Sir Thomas Browne (1605-1682), whose writings have all the +characteristics of the age in a state of extravagant exaggeration. The +thoughtful melancholy, the singular mixture of skepticism and credulity, +and the brilliancy of imaginative illustration, give his essays a +peculiarity of character that renders them exceedingly fascinating. The +poet Cowley, in his prose writings, is distinguished for his undeviating +simplicity and perspicuity, and for smoothness and ease, of which hardly +another instance could be produced from any other book written before the +Restoration. + +The English drama has been called Irregular in contrast to the Regular +drama of Greece and that of modern France, founded upon the Greek, by the +French critics of the age of Louis XIV. The principal law of this system, +as we have seen, prescribed obedience to the Three Unities, of Time, of +Place, and of Action; the two first being founded on the desire to imitate +in the drama the series of events which it represents, the time of action +was allowed to extend to twenty-four hours, and the scene to change from +place to place in the same city. But by Shakspeare and his contemporaries +no fixed limits were acknowledged in regard either of time or place, the +action stretching through many years, and the scene changing to very wide +distances. The rule prescribing unity of action, that everything shall be +subordinate to the series of events which is taken as the guiding-thread, +is a much more sound one; and in most of Shakspeare's works, as well as +those of his contemporaries, this unity of impression, as it has been +called, is fully preserved. + +Before the year 1585 no perceptible advance had been made in the drama, +and for the period of sixty years, from that date to the closing of the +theatres in 1645, on the breaking out of the Civil War, the history of +Shakspeare's works forms the leading thread. Men of eminent genius lived +around and after him, but there were none who do not derive much of their +importance from the relation in which they stand to him, and hardly any +whose works do not owe much of their excellence to the influence of his. + +Thus considered, the stages through which the drama now passed may be said +to have been four, three of which occurred chiefly during the life of the +poet, the fourth after his death. The first of these periods witnessed the +early manhood of Shakspeare, and closes about 1593. Among his immediate +predecessors and coadjutors were Marlowe and Greene. The plays of Marlowe +(1562-1593) are stately tragedies, serious in purpose, energetic and often +extravagant in passion and in language, and richly and pompously +imaginative. His "Tragical History of Doctor Faustus" is one of the finest +poems in the language. The productions of Greene are loose, legendary +plays of a form exemplified in Cymbeline. + +To the first period of the dramatic life of Shakspeare (1564-1616) belong +the "Two Gentlemen of Verona," the "Comedy of Errors," and "Love's Labor's +Lost," which show that the mighty master, even in these juvenile essays, +had taken a wide step beyond the dramas of the time. Pure comedy had no +existence in England until he created it, and in these comedies it is +evident that everything is juvenile, unripe, and marvelously unlike the +grand pictures of life which he soon afterwards began to paint. But if he +was more than a student in this first stage of his progress, he was a +teacher and model ever after. The second period for Shakspeare and the +drama closes with the year 1600. During this most active part of his +literary life, he produced eight comedies, and re-wrote "Romeo and +Juliet." But the most elevated works of these six years were his +magnificent series of historical plays. The series after 1600 began with +the great tragedies, Othello, Hamlet (recomposed), Macbeth, and Lear, +followed by Henry VIII., the three tragedies on Roman subjects, and the +three singular pieces, "Timon of Athens," "Troilus and Cressida," and +"Measure for Measure," apparently of the same date. "Cymbeline" and the +"Winter's Tale" were probably composed after he had retired from the +turmoil of his profession to the repose of his early home. In the +"Tempest." doubtless his last work, he peopled his haunted island with a +group of beings whose conception indicates a greater variety of +imagination, and in some points a greater depth of thought than any others +which he has bequeathed to us. + +The name of Shakspeare is the greatest in all literature. No man ever came +near him in creative power--no man had ever such strength combined with +such variety of imagination. Of all authors, he is the most natural in his +style, and yet there is none whose words are so musical in arrangement, so +striking and picturesque in themselves, or contain so many thoughts. Every +page furnishes instances of that intensifying of expression, where some +happy word conveys a whole train of ideas condensed into a single luminous +point--words so new, so full of meaning, yet so unforced and natural, that +the rudest mind intuitively perceives their meaning, and yet which no +study could improve or imitate. This constitutes the most striking +peculiarity of the Shakspearean language, and while it justifies the +almost idolatrous veneration of his countrymen, renders him, of all +writers, the most untranslatable. Of all authors, Shakspeare has least +imitated or repeated himself. While he gives us, in many places, portraits +of the same passion, the delineations are as distinct and dissimilar as +they are in nature; all his personages involuntarily, and in spite of +themselves, express their own characters. From his works may be gleaned a +complete collection of precepts adapted to every condition of life and +every conceivable circumstance of human affairs. His wit is unbounded, his +passion inimitable, and over all he has thrown a halo of human sympathy no +less tender than his genius was immeasurable and profound. + +The effect of Shakspeare's influence on his contemporaries was +predominating in everything but the moral aspect of his plays. The +licentiousness, begun in the earlier years of the seventeenth century, +increased with accelerated speed down to the closing of the theatres by +the Civil War. + +Highest by far, in poetical and dramatic value, stand the works of +Beaumont (1586-1615) and Fletcher (1576-1625). Many of them are said to +have been written by the two jointly, a few by the former alone, and a +large number by the latter after he had lost his friend; such alliances in +dramatic poetry were common in England at this period. But the looseness +of fancy which deformed the drama, and which degenerated at last into +deliberate licentiousness, is nowhere so glaring as in these finest and +most imaginative productions of their day, and which are poetically +superior to all of the kind in the language, except those of Shakspeare. + +The classical model was closely approached by Ben Jonson (1574-1637) in +both tragedy and comedy, and he deserves immortality for other reasons +than his comparative purity of morals. He was the one man of his time +besides Shakspeare who deserves to be called a reflective artist, who +perceived the rules of art and worked in obedience to them. His tragedies +are stately, eloquent, and poetical; his comedies are more faithful poetic +portraits of contemporary English life than those of any other dramatist, +Shakspeare excepted. + +Jonson wrote for men of sense and knowledge; Beaumont and Fletcher for men +of fashion and the world. A similar audience to that of Jonson may have +been aimed at in the stately tragedies of Chapman, and the other class +would have relished the plays of Middleton and Webster. + +Among the dramatists of the commonalty may be named Thomas Heywood, one of +the most moral play writers of his time, who has sometimes been called the +prose Shakspeare, and Decker, a voluminous writer, who cooperated in +several plays of more celebrated men, especially those of Massinger. + +The closing period of the old English drama is represented by Massinger, +Ford, and Shirley. Massinger (1584-1640) is by some critics ranked next to +Shakspeare. The theatres have retained unaltered his "New Way to Pay Old +Debts," and his "Fatal Dowry" is preserved in Rowe's plagiarism from it, +in the "Fair Penitent." But the low moral tone of the time is indicated in +all these works, in which heroic sentiments, rising often even to +religious rapture, are mingled with scenes of the grossest ribaldry. + +By Ford, incidents of the most revolting kind are laid down as the +foundation of his plots, upon which he wastes a pathos and tenderness +deeper than is elsewhere found in the drama; and with Shirley vice is no +longer held up as a mere picture, but it is indicated, and sometimes +directly recommended, as a fit example. When the drama was at length +suppressed, the act destroyed a moral nuisance. + +Spenser (1553-1599), among the English poets, stands lower only than +Shakspeare, Chaucer, and Milton. His works unite rare genius with moral +purity, exquisite sweetness of language, luxuriant beauty of imagination, +and a tenderness of feeling rarely surpassed, and never elsewhere +conjoined with an imagination so vivid. His magnificent poem, the "Faerie +Queene," though it contains many thousand lines, is yet incomplete, no +more than half of the original design being executed. The diction is +studded purposely with forms of expression already become antiquated, and +many peculiarities are forced upon the author from the difficulties of the +complex measure which he was the first to adopt, and which still bears his +name. + +The Fairy Land of Spenser is rather the Land of Chivalry than the region +we are accustomed to understand by that term; a scene in which heroic +daring and ideal purity are the objects chiefly presented to our +imagination, in which the principal personages are knights achieving +perilous adventures, ladies rescued from frightful miseries, and good and +evil enchanters, whose spells affect the destiny of those human persons. +Spenser would probably not have written precisely as he did, if Ariosto +had not written before him; nor is it unlikely that he was also guided by +the later example of Tasso; but his design was in many features nobler and +more arduous than that of either. His deep seriousness is unlike the +mocking tone of the "Orlando Furioso," and in his moral enthusiasm he +rises higher than the "Jerusalem;" although the poetic effect of his work +is marred by his design of producing a series of ethical allegories. + +The hero is the chivalrous Arthur of the British legends, but wrapt in a +cloud of symbols. Gloriana, the Faërie Queene, who was to be the object of +the prince's warmest love, was herself an emblem of Virtuous Renown, and +designed also to represent the poet's queen, Elizabeth. All the incidents +are significant of moral truth, and all the personages are allegorical. +The adventures of the characters, connected by no tie, except the +occasional interposition of Arthur, form really six independent poetic +tales. The First Book, by far the finest of all, relates the Legend of the +Red Cross Knight, who is a type of Holiness, and who shadows forth the +history of the Church of England. In the second, which abounds in +exquisite painting of picturesque landscapes, we have the Legend of Sir +Guyon, illustrating the virtue of Temperance. The theme of the Third Book +is the Legend of Britomart, or of Chastity, in which we are introduced to +Belphoebe and Amoret, two of those beautiful female characters which the +poet takes such pleasure in delineating. Next comes the Legend of +Friendship, personified in the knights Cambel and Triamond. In the Fifth +Book, containing the Legends of Sir Artegal, the emblem of Justice, there +is a perceptible falling off. The Sixth Book, the Legend of Sir Calidore, +or Courtesy, though it lacks unity, is in some scenes inspired with the +warmest glow of fancy. + +The mind of Spenser embraced a vast range of imaginary creation, but the +interest of real life is wanting. His world is ideal, abstract, and +remote, yet affording in its multiplied scenes ample scope for those +nobler feelings and heroic virtues which we love to see even in transient +connection with human nature. + +The non-dramatic poets of this time begin with Spenser and end with +Milton, and between these two there were writers of great excellence. The +vice of the age was a laboring after conceits or novel turns of thought, +usually false, and resting upon some equivocation of language or remote +analogy. No poet of the time was free from it; Shakspeare indulged in it +occasionally, others incessantly, holding its manifestations to be their +finest strokes of art. + +The poetical works of this age were metrical translations from the +classics--narrative, historical, descriptive, didactic, pastoral, and +lyrical poems. One of the most beautiful religious poems in any language +is "Christ's Victory and Triumph," by Giles Fletcher (d. 1623): it is +animated in narrative, lively in fancy, and touching in feeling. Drayton +(d. 1631) was the author of the "Poly-Olbion," a topographical description +of England, and a signal instance of fine fancy and great command of +language, almost thrown away from its prosaic design. Fulke Greville (Lord +Brooke), the friend of Sir Philip Sidney, exhibits great powers of +philosophical thought, in pointed and energetic diction, in his poem on +"Human Learning." Among the religious poets are "Holy George Herbert" (d. +1632), who, by his life and writings, presented the belief and offices of +the church in their most amiable aspect, and Quarles (d. 1644), best known +by his "Divine Emblems," which abound in quaint and grotesque +illustrations. + +The lyrical poems of the time were numerous, and were written by almost +all the poets eminent in other departments. In those of Donne, in spite of +their conceits and affectations, are many passages wonderfully fine. Those +of Herrick (b. 1591), in graceful fancy and delicate expression, are many +of them unsurpassed; in subject and tone they vary from grossly licentious +expression to the utmost warmth of devout aspiration. Cowley (1618-1667), +the latest and most celebrated of the lyric poets, was gifted with +extraordinary poetic sensibility and fancy, but he was prone to strained +analogies and unreal refinements. Among the minor lyrical poets are Carew, +Ayton, Habington, Suckling, and Lovelace. Denham (1615-1668) and Waller +(1605-1687) form a sort of link between the time before the Restoration +and that which followed. The "Cooper's Hill" of the first is a reflective +and descriptive poem in heroic verse, and the diversified poems of the +last were remarkable advances in ease and correctness of diction and +versification. + +The poetry of that imaginative period which began with Spenser closes yet +more nobly with Milton (1608-1674). He, standing in some respects apart +from his stern contemporaries of the Commonwealth as from those who +debased literature in the age of the Restoration, yet belongs rather to +the older than the newer period. In the midst of evil men and the gloom of +evil days the brooding thought of a great poetical work was at length +matured, and the Christian epic, chanted at first when there were few +disposed to hear, became an enduring monument of genius, learning, and +art. His early poems alone would indicate his superiority to all the poets +of the period, except Shakspeare and Spenser. The most popular of them, +"L'Allegro" and "Il Penseroso," are the best of their kind in any +language. In the "Comus" there are passages exquisite for imagination, for +sentiment, and for the musical flow of the rhythm, in which the majestic +swell of the poet's later blank verse begins to be heard. The "Paradise +Regained" abounds with passages in themselves beautiful, but the plan is +poorly conceived, and the didactic tendency prevails to weariness as the +work proceeds. The theme of the "Paradise Lost" is the noblest of any ever +chosen. The stately march of its diction; the organ peal with which its +versification rolls on; the continual overflowing of beautiful +illustrations; the brightly-colored pictures of human happiness and +innocence; the melancholy grandeur with which angelic natures are clothed +in their fall, are features which give the mind images and feelings not +soon or easily effaced. + +3. THE AGE OF THE RESTORATION AND THE REVOLUTION (1660-1702).--Among the +able churchmen who passed from the troubles of the Commonwealth and +Protectorate to the Restoration were Jeremy Taylor, Archbishop Leighton, +and others of eminence. South, Tillotson, and Barrow were more able +theologians, but their writings lack the charm of sentiment which +Leighton's warmth of heart diffuses over all his works. South (d. 1716) +was a man of remarkable oratorical endowments, sarcastic, intolerant, and +fierce in polemical attacks. The writings of Tillotson (d. 1694) are +pervaded by a higher and better spirit, and the sermons of Barrow (d. +1677) combine comprehensiveness, sagacity, and clearness. Other divines, +such as Stillingfleet, Pearson, Burnet, Bull, hold a more prominent place +in the history of the church than in that of letters. But all the writers +of this age are wanting in that impressiveness and force of undisciplined +eloquence which distinguished the first half of the seventeenth century. +Among the nonconformist clergy, Howe (d. 1715) wrote the "Living Temple," +which is ranked among the religious classics. + +The great though untrained genius of John Bunyan (1628-1688) produced the +"Pilgrim's Progress," which holds a distinguished place in permanent +English literature. + +John Locke (1632-1704) may be taken as the representative of the English +Philosophy of the time, and his influence on the speculative opinions of +his day was second only to that of Hobbes. His "Essay on the +Understanding" contains the germ of utter skepticism and was the ground on +which Berkeley denied the existence of the material world, and Hume +involved all human knowledge in doubt. + +In classical learning the greatest of the scholars of this period was +Bentley (1662-1742). + +In history Lord Clarendon (1608-1774) wrote the "History of the +Rebellion," and Burnet (1643-1715) his "History of the Reformation," one +of the most thoroughly digested works of the century. His "History of his +own Times" is valuable for its facts, and for the shrewdness with which he +describes the state of things around him. + +In miscellaneous prose, John Evelyn wrote several useful and tasteful +works, and Izaak Walton (1593-1688), a London tradesman, wrote his +interesting Biographies and the quaint treatise "On Angling." Both in +diction and sentiment these works remind us of the preceding age; and +Walton, surviving Milton, closes the series of old English prose writers. + +Samuel Butler (1612-1680), the unfortunate, ill-requited laureate of the +Royalists, who satirized the Puritans and Republicans in his celebrated +"Hudibras," left some exceedingly witty and vigorous prose writings; and +Andrew Marvell (1620-1678), the friend and protector of Milton, was most +successful in sarcastic irony, and in his attacks on the High Church +opinions and doings. + +John Dryden (1631-1700) was the literary chief of the interval between +Cromwell and Queen Anne. His prose writings, besides comedies, are few, +but in these he taught principles of poetical art previously unknown to +his countrymen, and showed the capabilities of the tongue in a new light. +Inferior to Dryden in vigor of thought was Sir William Temple (1628-1698), +who may yet share with him the merit of having founded regular English +prose. His literary character rests chiefly on his "Miscellaneous Essays." + +The symmetrical structure and artificial polish of contemporaneous French +literature, while it was not without some good influence on English prose, +was less beneficial to poetry, and its worst effect was on the drama, +which soon ceased to be pictures of human beings in action and became only +descriptive of such pictures. In this walk as in others Dryden was the +literary chief, and of his plays it can truly be said that the serious +ones contain many striking and poetical pieces of declamation, finely +versified. His comedies are bad morally, and as dramas even worse than +those of his rival Shadwell. Lee was only a poor likeness of Dryden. + +In the "Orphan" and "Venice Preserved" of Otway we have southing of the +revival of the ancient strength of feeling though alloyed by false +sentiment and poetic poverty. + +Congreve showed great power of language in tragedy, and Southerne not a +little nature and pathos. + +In comedy the fame of these writers was eclipsed by a knot of dramatists +who adopted prose, but whose works are the foulest that ever disgraced the +literature of a nation. They are excellent specimens of that which has +been called the comedy of manners; vice is inextricably interwoven in the +texture of all alike, in the broad humor of Wycherly (the most vigorous of +the set), in the wit of Congreve, in the character painting of Vanbrugh, +and the lively invention of Farquhar. + +In other kinds of poetry we find similar changes of taste which affected +the art injuriously, although the increased attention paid to correctness +and refinement was a step in improvement. These mischievous changes +related both to the themes and forms of poetry, and in neither can the +true functions of art be forgotten without injury to the work. An age must +be held unpoetical, and cannot produce great poetical works, if its poetry +chooses insufficient topics; and the aims of the age of the Restoration +were low, producing only a constant crop of poems celebrating contemporary +events or incidents in the lives of individuals. The dramatic and +narrative forms of poetry are undoubtedly those in which that imaginative +excitement of pleasing emotion, which is the immediate and characteristic +end of the art, may be most powerfully worked out, and to one of these +forms all the greatest poems have belonged. But in the age of the +Restoration the drama had lost its elevation and poetic significance, and +original narrative poetry was hardly known. Almost all the poems of the +day were didactic, and the prevalence of this style of poetry is a +palpable symptom of an unpoetical age. The verse-making of these forty +years, after setting aside a very few works, maintains a dead level. Among +the dwarfish rhymers of the day there lingered some of the august shapes +of a former age. Milton still walked his solitary course, and Waller wrote +his occasional odes and verses, but of names not already given there are +no more than two or three that require commemoration. One of the famous +poems of the day was an "Essay on Translated Verse," by Lord Roscommon; +and the smaller poems of Marvell are felicitous in feeling and diction; +both writers are distinguished for their moral purity. + +The "Hudibras" of Butler, which properly belongs to the age before, is a +phenomenon in the history of English literature. His pungent wit, his +extraordinary ingenuity, and his command of words are rare endowments, but +he has no poetic vein that yields jewels of the first water, and his place +is not a high one in the path which leads upward to the ethereal regions +of the imagination. + +Pryor (1661-1721) in his lighter pieces shows wit of a less manly kind. +His serious poems have great facility of phrase and melody. + +Dryden was a man of high endowments as a poet and thinker, condemned to +labor for a corrupt generation, and he has received from posterity no +higher fame than that of having improved English prose style and +versification. His poems are rather essays couched in vigorous verse, with +here and there passages of great poetical beauty. His "Annus Mirabilis," +celebrating with great animation the year 1666, is an effusion of +historical panegyric. The "Absalom and Achitophel" is a satire on the +unfortunate Duke of Monmouth and his adviser Shaftesbury. "The Hind and +Panther," full of poetical and satirical force, was an argument to justify +the author's recent change of religion. One of the most thoroughly +sustained poems is the "Ode on Alexander's Feast." His translation of the +Aeneid, as imperfect a picture of the original as Pope's translation of +the Iliad, is yet full of vigor and one of his best specimens of the +heroic couplet, a measure never so well written in English as by Dryden. + +4. THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY.--The influence of the eighteenth century on +prose style has been great and permanent, and the two dissimilar manners +of writing which were then formed, have contributed to all that is +distinctive in our modern form of expression. The earlier of these is +found in the language of Addison and Swift, the later in that of Johnson. +The style of Addison and his friends reproduced those genuine idiomatic +peculiarities of our speech which had been received into the conversation +of intelligent men. The style of which Johnson was the characteristic +example abandons in part the native and familiar characteristics of the +Saxon for those expressions and forms common to the modern European +tongues. Large use was made of words derived from the Latin, which, in +addition to the effect of novelty, gave greater impressiveness and pomp to +the style. + +In the First Generation, named from Queen Anne, but including also the +reign of George I. (d. 1727), the drama scarcely deserves more than a +parenthesis. Although the moral tone had improved, it was still not high, +when Gray's "Beggar's Opera" and Cibber's "Careless Husband" were the most +famous works. The "Fair Penitent" has been noticed as a clever plagiarism +from Massinger; in Addison's "Cato" the strict rules of the French stage +were preserved, but its stately and impressive speeches cannot be called +dramatic. The "Revenge" of Young had more of tragic passion; but it wanted +the force of characterization which seemed to have been buried with the +old dramatists. + +The heroic measure, as it was now used, aimed at smoothness of melody and +pointedness of expression, and in this the great master was Pope. + +In the poems of Pope (1688-1744), we find passages beautifully poetical, +exquisite thoughts, vigorous portraits of character, shrewd observation, +and reflective good sense, but we are wafted into no bright world of +imagination, rapt in no dream of strong passion, and seldom raised into +any high region of moral thought. Like all the poets of his day, he set a +higher value on skill of execution than on originality of conception, and +systematically abstained from all attempts to excite imagination or +feeling. The taste of the poet and of his times is most clearly shown in +his "Essay on Criticism," published before his twenty-first year. None of +his works unites more happily, regularity of plan, shrewdness of thought, +and beauty of verse. His most successful effort, the "Rape of the Lock," +assumed its complete shape in his twenty-sixth year, and is the best of +all mock-heroic poems. The sharpest wit, the keenest dissection of the +follies of fashionable life, the finest grace of diction, and the softest +flow of melody, come appropriately to adorn a tale in which we learn how a +fine gentleman stole a lock of a lady's hair. In the "Epistle of Eloisa to +Abelard," and in the "Elegy on an Unfortunate Lady," he attempted the +pathetic not altogether in vain. The last work of his best years was his +"Translation of the Iliad;" of the Odyssey he translated only half. Both +misrepresent the natural and simple majesty of manner which the ancient +poet never lost; yet if we could forget Homer, we might be proud of them. +In the "Dunciad" he threw away an infinity of wit upon writers who would +not otherwise have been remembered. His "Essay on Man" contains much +exquisite poetry and finely solemn thought; it abounds in striking +passages which, by their felicities of fancy, good sense, music, and +extraordinary terseness of diction, have gained a place in the memory of +every one. + +Among the philosophical writers none holds so prominent a place as Bishop +Berkeley (1684-1753), whose refinement of style and subtlety of thought +have seldom been equaled. His philosophical Idealism exercised much +influence on the course of metaphysical inquiry. + +Lord Shaftesbury's brilliant but indistinct treatises have also been the +germ of many discussions in ethics. + +Bolingbroke wrote with great liveliness, but with equal shallowness of +thought and knowledge. + +Daniel Defoe (1661-1731) is not likely to be forgotten on account of one +of his many novels, "Robinson Crusoe." His idiomatic English style is not +one of the least of his merits. + +Among the prose writings of Swift (1667-1745) there is none that is not a +masterpiece of strong Saxon-English, and none quite destitute of his keen +wit or cutting sarcasm. His satirical romances are most pungent when human +nature is his victim, as in "Gulliver's Travels;" and not less amusing in +"The Battle of the Books," or where he treats of church disputes in the +"Tale of a Tub." The burlesque memoir of "Martinus Scriblerus" was the +joint production of Swift, Pope, and Arbuthnot. + +It contains more good criticism than any of the serious writings of the +generation, and it abounds in the most biting strokes of wit. Arbuthnot is +supposed to have been the sole author of the whimsical, national satire +called the "History of John Bull," the best work of the class produced in +that day. The "Letters of Lady Mary Wortley Montagu" belong to this age. + +Of all the popular writers, however, that adorned the reign of Queen Anne +and her successor, those whose influence has been the greatest and most +salutary are the Essayists, among whom Joseph Addison and Richard Steele +are preeminently distinguished. + +"The Tatler," begun in Ireland by Steele, aided first by Swift, and +afterwards by Addison, appeared three times a week from 1709 to 1711; "The +Spectator," in which Addison took the lead, from 1711 to 1712; and "The +Guardian," a part of the next year. Steele (1676-1729) had his merits +somewhat unfairly clouded by the fame of his coadjutor. The extraordinary +popularity of those periodicals, especially "The Spectator," was +creditable to the reading persons of the community, then much fewer than +now. The writers discarded from their papers all party-spirit, and +designed to make them the vehicle of judicious teaching in morals, +manners, and literary criticism. Thus they widened the circle of readers, +and raised the standard of taste and thinking. + +Of some of the more serious papers of the "Spectator," those of Addison +(1672-1719) on the "Immortality of the Soul" and the "Pleasures of the +Imagination" may be cited. + +Among the theological writers of the Second Generation of the eighteenth +century (the reign of George II., 1726-1760), one of the most famous in +his day, though not the most meritorious, was Bishop Warburton; Bishop +Butler (d. 1752), wrote his "Analogy of Religion, Natural and Revealed, to +the Constitution and Course of Nature," a work of extraordinary force of +thought; and there is much literary merit in the writings of the pious +Watts and the devout Doddridge. The increasing zeal both in the Church of +England and among the Dissenters, and the more cordial recognition of the +importance of religion, greatly affected the literature of the times. + +Philosophy had also its distinguished votaries. The philosophical works of +Hume (1711-1776) are allowed by those who dissent most strenuously from +their results to have constituted an epoch in the history of the science. +In accepting the principles which had been received before him, and +showing that they led to no conclusion but universal doubt, he laid bare +the flaws in the system, and prepared the way for the subtle speculations +of Kant and the more cautious systems of Reid and the Scottish school. + +The miscellaneous literature of this, the age of Johnson, cannot stand +comparison with that of the preceding, which was headed by Addison. + +Samuel Johnson (1709-1784), one of the most celebrated of the professional +authors of the eighteenth century, however, belongs to this period. +Compelled by poverty to leave his education uncompleted, he sought the +means of living in London, where, for a long time, unpatronized and +obscure, he labored with dogged perseverance, until at length he won a +fame which must have satisfied the most grasping ambition, but when, as he +says, "most of those whom he had wished to please had sunk into the grave, +and he had little to fear from censure or praise." That the reputation of +his writings was above their deserts, cannot be denied, though it must +also be admitted that the literature of our time is deficient in many of +their excellences, both of thought and expression. They are the fruit of a +strong and original mind, working with imperfect knowledge and an +inadequate scope for activity. The language of Johnson is superior to his +matter; he has striking force of diction, and many of his sentences roll +on the ear like the sound of the distant sea, while the thoughts they +convey impress us so vividly that we are slow to scrutinize them. His +great merit lies in the two departments of morals and criticism, but +everywhere he is inconsistent and unequal. His Dictionary occupied him for +eight years, but it is of little value now to the student of language, +being poor and incorrect in etymology and unsatisfactory though acute in +definition. His poems, which are of Pope's school, would scarcely have +preserved his name. The "Rambler," and "Rasselas," are characteristic of +his merits and defects. The "Tour to the Hebrides" is one of the most +pleasant and easy of his writings. His "Lives of the Poets" is admirable +for its skill of narration, but it is alternately enlightened and unsound +in criticism, and frequently marred by political prejudices and personal +jealousies. + +Of the novels of the time, the series begun by Richardson's (1689-1761) +"Pamela," "Clarissa Harlowe," and "Sir Charles Grandison" have a virtuous +aim, but they err by the plainness with which they describe vice. The +tediousness and overwrought sentimentality of these works go far towards +disqualifying the reader from appreciating their extraordinary skill in +invention and in the portraiture of character. + +Fielding (1707-1757) unites these qualities with greater knowledge of the +world, pungent wit, and idiomatic strength of style. His mastery in the +art of fictitious narrative has never been excelled; but his living +pictures of familiar life, as well as the whimsical caricatures of +Smollett and the humorous fantasies of Sterne, are disfigured by faults of +which the very smallest are coarseness of language and bareness of +licentious description, in which they outdid Richardson. Not only is their +standard of morality low, but they display indifference to the essential +distinctions of right and wrong, in regard to some of the cardinal +relations of society. + +The drama of the period has little literary importance. In non-dramatic +poetry, several men of distinguished genius appeared, and changes occurred +which indicated more just and comprehensive views of the art than those +that had been prevalent in the last generation. + +Young (1681-1765), in his "Night Thoughts," produced a work eloquent +rather than poetical, dissertative when true poetry would have been +imaginative, but suggesting much of imagery and feeling as well as +religious reflection. + +Resembling it in some points, but with more force of imagination, is the +train of gloomy scenes which appears in Blair's "Grave." In Akenside's +"Pleasures of Imagination," a vivid fancy and an alluring pomp of language +are lavished on a series of pictures illustrating the feelings of beauty +and sublimity; but, theorizing and poetizing by turns, the poet loses his +hold of the reader. + +The more direct and effective forms of poetry now came again into favor, +such as the Scottish pastoral drama of Ramsay, and Falconer's "Shipwreck." +But the most decisive instance of the growing insight into the true +functions of poetry is furnished by Thomson's (1700-1748) "Seasons." No +poet has ever been more inspired by the love of external nature, or felt +with more keenness and delicacy those analogies between the mind and the +things it looks upon, which are the fountains of poetic feeling. The +faults of Thomson are triteness of thought when he becomes argumentative +and a prevalent pomposity and pedantry of diction; though his later work, +"The Castle of Indolence," is surprisingly free from these blemishes. + +But the age was an unpoetical one, and two of the finest poetical minds of +the nation were so dwarfed and weakened by the ungenial atmosphere as to +bequeath to posterity nothing more than a few lyrical fragments. In the +age which admired the smooth feebleness of Shenstone's pastorals and +elegies, and which closed when the libels of Churchill were held to be +good examples of poetical satire, Gray turned aside from the unrequited +labors of verse to idle in his study, and Collins lived and died almost +unknown. Gray (1716-1771) was as consummate a poetical artist as Pope. His +fancy was less lively, but his sympathies were warmer and more expanded, +though the polished aptness of language and symmetry of construction which +give so classical an aspect to his Odes bring with them a tinge of +classical coldness. The "Ode on Eton College" is more genuinely lyrical +than "The Bards," and the "Elegy In a Country Churchyard" is perhaps +faultless. + +The Odes of Collins (1720-1759) have more of the fine and spontaneous +enthusiasm of genius than any other poems ever written by one who wrote so +little. We close his tiny volume with the same disappointed surprise which +overcomes us when a harmonious piece of music suddenly ceases unfinished. +His range of tones is very wide, and the delicacy of gradation with which +he passes from thought to thought has an indescribable charm. His most +popular poem, "The Passions," conveys no adequate idea of some of his most +marked characteristics. All can understand the beauty and simplicity of +his odes "To Pity," "To Simplicity," "To Mercy;" and the finely woven +harmonies and the sweetly romantic pictures in the "Ode to Evening" recall +the youthful poems of Milton. + +Between the period just reviewed and the reign of George III., or the +Third Generation of the eighteenth century, there were several connecting +links, one of which was formed by a group of historians whose works are +classical monuments of English literature. The publication of Hume's +"History of England" began in 1754. Robertson's "History of Scotland" +appeared in 1759, followed by his "Reign of Charles V." and his "History +of America;" Gibbon's "Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire" was completed +in twelve years from 1776. The narrative of Hume is told with great +clearness, good sense, and quiet force of representation, and if his +matter had been as carefully studied as his manner, if his social and +religious theories had been as sound as his theory of literary art, his +history would still hold a place from which no rival could hope to degrade +it. + +The style of Robertson and Gibbon is totally unlike that of Hume. They +want his seemingly unconscious ease, his delicate tact, and his calm yet +lively simplicity. Hume tells his tale to us as a friend to friends; his +successors always seem to hold that they are teachers and we pupils. This +change of tone had long been coming on, and was now very general in all +departments of prose. Very few writers of the last thirty years of +Johnson's life escaped this epidemic desire of dictatorship. Robertson +(1722-1793) is an excellent story-teller, perspicuous, lively, and +interesting. His opinions are wisely formed and temperately expressed, his +disquisitions able and instructive, and his research so accurate that he +is still a valuable historical authority. + +The learning of Gibbon (1737-1794), though not always exact, was +remarkably extensive, and sufficient to make him a trustworthy guide, +unless in those points where he was inclined to lead astray. There is a +patrician haughtiness in the stately march of his narrative and in the air +of careless superiority with which he treats his heroes and his audience. +He is a master in the art of painting and narration, nor is he less +skillful in indirect insinuation, which is, indeed, his favorite mode of +communicating his own opinions, but he is most striking in those passages +in his history of the church, where he covertly attacks a religion which +he neither believed nor understood. + +Other historians produced works useful in their day, but now, for the most +part, superseded; and in various other departments men of letters actively +exerted themselves. + +Johnson, seated at last in his easy-chair, talked for twenty years, the +oracle of the literary world, and Boswell, soon after his death, gave to +the world the clever record of these conversations, which has aided to +secure the place in literature he had obtained by his writings. Goldsmith +(1728-1774), had he never written poems, would stand among the classic +writers of English prose from the few trifles on which he was able, in the +intervals of literary drudgery, to exercise his powers of observation and +invention, and to exhibit his warm affections and purity of moral +sentiment. Such is his inimitable little novel, "The Vicar of Wakefield," +and that good-natured satire on society, the "Citizen of the World." + +Among the novelists, Mackenzie (1745-1831) wrote his "Man of Peeling," not +unworthy of the companionship of Goldsmith's masterpiece; and among later +novelists, Walpole, Moore, Cumberland, Mrs. Inchbald, and Charlotte Smith, +Miss Burney and Mrs. Radcliffe may also be named. + +In literary criticism, the authoritative book of the day was Johnson's +"Lives of the Poets." Percy's "Reliques of Ancient English Poetry" (1765) +was a delightful compilation, which, after being quite neglected for many +years, became the poetical text-book of Sir Walter Scott and the poets of +his time. A more scientific and ambitious effort was Warton's (1729-1790) +"History of English Poetry," which has so much of antiquarian learning, +poetical taste, and spirited writing, that it is not only an indispensable +and valuable authority, but an interesting book to the mere amateur. With +many errors and deficiencies, it has yet little chance of being ever +entirely superseded. + +In parliamentary eloquence, before the middle of the eighteenth century, +we have the commanding addresses of the elder Pitt (Lord Chatham), and at +the close, still leading the senate, are the younger Pitt, Fox, Sheridan, +and Burke. Burke (1730-1797) must be remembered not only for his speeches +but for his writing on political and social questions, as a great thinker +of comprehensive and versatile intellect, and extraordinary power of +eloquence. + +The letters of "Junius," a remarkable series of papers, the authorship of +which is still involved in mystery, appeared in a London daily journal +from 1769 to 1772. They were remarkable for the audacity of their attacks +upon the government, the court, and persons high in power, and from their +extraordinary ability and point they produced an indelible impression on +the public mind. The "Letters" of Walpole are poignantly satirical; those +of Cowper are models of easy writing, and lessons of rare dignity and +purity of sentiment. + +In the history of philosophy, the middle of the eighteenth century was a +very important epoch; before the close of the century, almost all of those +works had appeared which have had the greatest influence on more recent +thinking. These works may be divided into four classes. Under the first, +Philosophical Criticism, may be classed Burke's treatise "On the Sublime +and Beautiful," Sir Joshua Reynolds's "Discourse on Painting," Campbell's +"Philosophy of Rhetoric," Kames's "Elements of Criticism," Blair's +"Lectures on Rhetoric and Belles Lettres," and Horne Tooke's "Philosophy +of Language." + +In the second department, Political Economy, Adam Smith's great work, "The +Wealth of Nations," stands alone, and is still acknowledged as the +standard text-book of this science. + +In the third department, Ethics, are Smith's "Theory of Moral Sentiment," +Tucker's "Light of Nature," and Paley's "Moral and Political Philosophy." + +In the fourth or Metaphysical department, we have only to note the rise of +the Scottish School, under Thomas Reid (1710-1796), who combats each of +the three schools, the Sensualistic evolved from Locke, holding that our +ideas are all derived from sensation; the Idealistic, as proposed by +Berkeley, which, allowing the existence of mind, denies that of matter; +and the Skeptical, headed by Hume, which denies that we can know anything +at all. Reid is a bold, dry, but very clear and logical writer, a sincere +lover of truth, and a candid and honorable disputant; his system is +original and important in the history of philosophy. + +In the theological literature of this time are found Campbell's "Essay on +Miracles," Paley's "Evidences of Christianity" and "Natural Theology," and +Bishop Watson's "Apology for Christianity." + +Among the devout teachers of religion was John Newton of Olney, the +spiritual guide of Cowper; and of the moral writers, Hannah More and +Wilberforce may be mentioned. + +The only tragedy that has survived from these last forty years of the +eighteenth century is the "Douglas" of Home, whose melody and romantic +pathos lose much of their effect from its monotony of tone and feebleness +in the representation of character. Comedy was oftener successful. There +was little merit in the plays of the elder Colman or those of Mrs. Cowley, +or of Cumberland. The comedies of Goldsmith abound in humor and gayety, +and those of Sheridan have an unintermitted fire of epigrams, a keen +insight into the follies and weaknesses of society, and great ingenuity in +inventing whimsical situations. Of the verse-writers in the time of +Johnson's old age, Goldsmith has alone achieved immortality. "The +Traveller" and "The Deserted Village" cannot be forgotten while the +English tongue is remembered. + +The foundations of a new school of poetry were already laid. Percy's +"Reliques" and Macpherson's "Fingal" attracted great attention, and many +minor poets followed. + +The short career of the unhappy Chatterton (1752-1770) held out wonderful +promise of genius. + +Darwin, in his "Botanic Garden," went back to the mazes of didactic verse. +Seattle's (1735-1803) "Minstrel" is the outpouring of a mind exquisitely +poetical in feeling; it is a kind of autobiography or analytic narrative +of the early growth of a poet's mind and heart, and is one of the most +delightful poems in our language. + +Opening with Goldsmith, our period closes with Cowper and Burns. The +unequaled popularity of Cowper's (1731-1800) poems is owing, in part, to +the rarity of good religious poetry, and also to their genuine force and +originality. He unhesitatingly made poetry use, always when it was +convenient, the familiar forms of common conversation, and he showed yet +greater boldness by seeking to interest his readers in the scenes of +everyday life. In spite of great faults, the effect of his works is such +as only a genuine poet could have produced. His translation of the Iliad +has the simplicity of the original, though wanting its warlike fervor, and +portions of the Odyssey are rendered with exceeding felicity of poetic +effect. + +Our estimate of Cowper's poems is heightened by our love and pity for the +poet, writing not for fame but for consolation, and uttering from the +depths of a half-broken heart his reverent homage to the power of +religious truth. Our affection is not colder, and our compassion is more +profound, when we contemplate the agitated and erring life of Robert Burns +(1759-1796), the Scottish peasant, who has given to the literature of the +Anglo-Saxon race some of its most precious jewels, although all which this +extraordinary man achieved was inadequate to the power and the vast +variety of his endowments. It is on his songs that his fame rests most +firmly, and no lyrics in any tongue have a more wonderful union of +thrilling passion, melting tenderness, concentrated expressiveness of +language, and apt and natural poetic fancy. But neither the song nor the +higher kinds of lyrical verse could give scope to the qualities he has +elsewhere shown; his aptness in representing the phases of human +character, his genial breadth and keenness of humor, and his strength of +creative imagination, indicate that if born under a more benignant star he +might have been a second Chaucer. + +5. THE NINETEENTH CENTURY.--In the illustrious band of poets who enriched +the literature of England 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 Coleridge, +Wordsworth, Scott, and Byron, who, though unlike, yet in respect of their +ruling spirit and tendencies may be classed in pairs as they have been +named; and all whose works call for exact scrutiny may be distributed into +four groups. In the first of them stand Thomas Campbell and Robert +Southey, dissimilar to each other, and differing as widely from their +contemporaries. Campbell (1777-1844) employed an unusually delicate taste +in elaborating his verses both in diction and melody. His "Pleasures of +Hope" was written between youth and manhood, and "Gertrude of Wyoming," +the latest of his productions worthy of him, appeared soon after his +thirtieth year. His mind, deficient in manly vigor of thought, had worked +itself out in the few first bursts of youthful emotion, but no one has +clothed with more of romantic sweetness the feelings and fancies which +people the fairy-land of early dreams, or thrown around the enchanted +region a purer atmosphere of moral contemplation. + +Southey (1774-1843), with an ethical tone higher and sterner than +Campbell's, offers in other features a marked contrast to him. He is +careless in details, and indulges no poetical reveries; he scorns +sentimentalism, and throws off rapid sketches of human action with great +pomp of imagery, but he seldom touches the key of the pathetic. In much of +this he is the man of his age, but in other respects he is above it. He is +the only poet of his clay who strove to emulate the great masters of epic +song, and to give his works external symmetry of plan. He alone attempted +to give poetry internal union, by making it the representation of one +leading idea; a loftier theory of poetic art than that which ruled the +irregular outbursts of Scott and Byron. But the aspiration was above the +competency of the aspirer. He wanted spontaneous depth of sympathy; his +emotion has the measured flow of the artificial canal, not the leaping +gush of the river in its self-worn channel. In two of the three best poems +he has founded the interest on supernatural agency of a kind which cannot +command even momentary belief and the splendid panoramas of "Thalaba the +Destroyer" pass away like the shadows of a magic lantern. In the "Curse of +Kehama," he strives to interest us in the monstrous fables of the Hindoo +mythology, and in "Roderick, the Last of the Goths," the story contains +circumstances that deform the fairest proof the author gave of the +practicability of his poetic theory. + +The second group of poets, unless Moore find a place in it, will contain +only Scott and Byron, who were in succession the most popular of all, and +owed their popularity mainly to characteristics which they had in common. +They are distinctively the poets of active life. They portray idealized +resemblances of the scenes of reality, events which arise out of the +universal relations of society, hopes, fears, and wishes which are open to +the consciousness of all mankind. The originals of Scott were the romances +of chivalry, and this example was applied by Byron to the construction of +narratives founded on a different kind of sentiment. Scott, wearying of +the narrow round that afforded him no scope for some of his best and +strongest powers, turned aside to lavish them on his prose romances, and +Byron, as his knowledge grew and his meditations became deeper, rose from +Turkish tales to the later cantos of "Childe Harold." + +Scott (1771-1832), in his poetical narratives, appealed to national +sympathies through ennobling historic recollections. He painted the +externals of scenery and manners with unrivaled picturesqueness, and +embellished all that was generous and brave in the world of chivalry with +an infectious enthusiasm. "The Lay of the Last Minstrel," a romance of +border chivalry, has a more consistent unity than its successors, and is +more faithful to the ancient models. "Marmion" seeks to combine the +chivalrous romance with the metrical chronicle. "The Lady of the Lake" is +a kind of romantic pastoral, and "Rokeby" is a Waverley novel in verse. + +The moral faults of the poetry of Byron (1788-1824) became more glaring as +he grew older. Starting with the carelessness of ill-trained youth in +regard to most serious truths, he provoked censure without scruple, and +was censured not without caprice; thus placed in a dangerous and false +position, he hardened himself into a contempt for the most sacred laws of +society, and although the closing scenes of his life give reason for a +belief that purer and more elevated views were beginning to dawn upon his +mind, he died before the amendment had found its way into his writings. He +endeavored to inculcate lessons that are positively bad; his delinquency +did not consist in choosing for representation scenes of violent passion +and guilty horror, it lay deeper than in his theatrical fondness for +identifying himself with his misanthropes, pirates, and seducers. He +sinned more grievously still, against morality as against possibility, by +mixing up, in one and the same character, the utmost extremes of vice and +virtue, generosity and vindictiveness, of lofty heroism and actual +grossness. But with other and great faults, he far excelled all the poets +of his time in impassioned strength, varying from vehemence to pathos. He +was excelled by few of them in his fine sense of the beautiful, and his +combination of passion with beauty, standing unapproachable in his own +day, has hardly ever been surpassed. + +His tales, except "Parisina" and the "Prisoner of Chillon," rise less +often than his other poems into that flow of poetic imagery, prompted by +the loveliness of nature, which he had attempted in the two first cantos +of "Childe Harold," and poured forth with added fullness of thought and +emotion in the last two. "Manfred," with all its shortcomings, shows +perhaps most adequately his poetic temperament; and his tragedies, though +not worthy of the poet, are of all his works those which do most honor to +the man. + +The third section of this honored file of poets contains the names of +Coleridge and Wordsworth; they are characteristically the poets of +imagination, of reflection, and of a tone of sentiment that owes its +attraction to its ideal elevation. Admired and emulated by a few zealous +students, Coleridge became the poetical leader from the very beginning of +his age, and effects yet wider have since been worked by the extended +study of Wordsworth. + +Coleridge (1772-1834) is the most original of the poets of his very +original time, and among the most original of its thinkers. His most +frequent tone of feeling is a kind of romantic tenderness or melancholy, +often solemnized by an intense access of religious awe. This fine passion +is breathed out most finely when it is associated with some of his airy +glimpses of external nature, and his power of suggestive sketching is not +more extraordinary than his immaculate taste and nervous precision of +language. His images may be obscure, from the moonlight haze in which they +float, but they are rarely so through faults of diction. It is +disappointing to remember that this gifted man executed little more than +fragments; his life ebbed away in the contemplation of undertakings still +to be achieved, the result of weakness of will rather than of indolence. +The romance of "Christabel," the most powerful of all his works, and the +prompter of Scott and Byron, was thrown aside when scarce begun, and +stands as an interrupted vision of mysterious adventures clothed in the +most exquisite fancies. His tragedy of "Remorse" is full of poetic +pictures; the "Ode to the Departing Year" shows his force of thought and +moral earnestness; "Khubla Khan" represents in its gorgeous incoherence +his singular power of lighting up landscapes with thrilling fancies; and +"The Dark Ladye" is one of the most tender and romantic love-poems ever +written. + +The most obvious feature of Wordsworth (1770-1850) is the intense and +unwearied delight which he takes in all the shapes and appearances of +rural and mountain scenery. He is carried away by an almost passionate +rapture when he broods over the grandeur and loveliness of the earth and +air; his verse lingers with fond reluctance to depart on the wild flowers, +the misty lake, the sound of the wailing blast, or the gleam of sunshine +breaking through the passes among the hills, and the thoughts and feelings +these objects suggest flow forth with an enthusiasm of expression which in +a man less pious and rational might be interpreted as a raising of the +inanimate world to a level with human dignity and intelligence. The tone +which prevails in his contemplation of mortal act and suffering is a +serene seriousness, on which there never breaks in anything rightly to be +called passion; yet it often rises to an intensely solemn awe, and is not +less often relieved by touches of a quiet pathos. Almost all his poems may +be called poems of sentiment and reflection, and his own ambition was that +of being worthy to be honored as a philosophical poet. His theory that the +poet's function is limited to an exact representation of the real and the +natural, a heresy which his own best poems triumphantly refute, often led +him to triviality and meanness in the choice both of subjects and diction, +and marred the beauty of many otherwise fine poems. A fascinating airiness +and delicacy of conception prevail in these poems, and the tender +sweetness of expression is often wonderfully touching. They were the +effusions of early manhood, and the imperfect embodiments of a strength +which found a freer outlet in prose. "Laodamia" and "Dion" are classical +gems without a flaw; many of the sonnets unite original thought and poetic +vividness with a perfection hardly to be surpassed; above all, "The +Excursion" rolls on its thousands of blank verse lines with the soul-felt +harmony of a divine hymn pealed forth from a cathedral organ. We forget +the insignificance characterizing the plan, which embraces nothing but a +three days' walk among the mountains, and we refuse to be aroused from our +trance of meditative pleasure by the occasional tediousness of +dissertation. "The Excursion" abounds in verses and phrases once heard +never to be forgotten, and it contains trains of poetical musing through +which the poet moves with a majestic fullness of reflection and +imagination not paralleled, by very far, in anything else of which our +century can boast. + +Wilson, Shelley, and Keats make up the fourth poetical group. The +principal poems of Professor Wilson (1785-1854) are the "Isle of Palms," a +romance of shipwreck and solitude, full of rich pictures and delicate +pathos, and the "City of the Plague," a series of dramatic scenes, +representing with great depth of emotion a domestic tragedy from the +plague of London. + +Shelley was the pure apostle of a noble but ideal philanthropy; yet it is +easy to separate his poetry from his philosophy, which, though hostile to +existing conditions of society, is so ethereal, so imbued with love for +everything noble, and yet so abstract and impracticable, that it is not +likely to do much harm. + +Keats poured forth with great power the dreams of his immature youth, and +died in the belief that the radiant forms had been seen in vain. In native +felicity of poetic adornment these two were the first minds of their time, +but the inadequacy of their performance to their poetic faculties shows +how needful to the production of effective poetry is a substratum of solid +thought, of practical sense, and of manly and extensive sympathy. + +If we would apprehend the fullness and firmness of the powers of Shelley +(1792-1822) without remaining ignorant of his weakness, we might study the +lyrical drama of "Prometheus Unbound," a marvelous galaxy of dazzling +images and wildly touching sentiments, or the "Alastor," a scene in which +the melancholy quiet of solitude is visited but by the despairing poet who +lies down to die. We find here, instead of sympathy with ordinary and +universal feelings, warmth for the abstract and unreal, or, when the +poet's own unrest prompts, as in the "Stanzas Written in Dejection near +Naples," a strain of lamentation which sounds like a passionate sigh. +Instead of clearness of thinking, we find an indistinctness which +sometimes amounts to the unintelligible. In the "Revolt of Islam," his +most ambitious poem, it is often difficult to apprehend even the outlines +of the story. + +No youthful poet ever exhibited more thorough possession of those +faculties that are the foundation of genius than Keats (1798-1820), and it +is impossible to say what he might have been had he lived to become +acquainted with himself and with mankind. It was said of his "Endymion" +most truly, that no book could be more aptly used as a test to determine +whether a reader has a genuine love for poetry. His works have no interest +of story, no insight into human nature, no clear sequence of thought; they +are the rapturous voice of youthful fancy, luxuriating in a world of +beautiful unrealities. + +It may be questioned whether Crabbe and Moore are entitled to rank with +the poets already reviewed. + +Crabbe's (1754-1832) "Metrical Tales," describing everyday life, are +striking, natural, and sometimes very touching, but they are warmed by no +kindly thoughts and elevated by nothing of ideality. + +Moore (1780-1851), one of the most popular of English poets, will long be +remembered for his songs, so melodious and so elegant in phrase. His fund +of imagery is inexhaustible, but oftener ingenious than poetical. His +Eastern romances in "Lalla Rookh," with all their occasional felicities, +are not powerful poetic narratives. He was nowhere so successful as in his +satirical effusions of comic rhyme, in which his fanciful ideas are +prompted by a wit so gayly sharp, and expressed with a neatness and +pointedness so unusual, that it is to be regretted that these pieces +should be condemned to speedy forgetfulness, as they must be, from the +temporary interest of their topics. + +Among the works of the numerous minor poets, the tragedies of Joanna +Baillie, with all their faults as plays, are noble additions to the +literature, and the closest approach made in recent times to the merit of +the old English drama. After these may be named the stately and imposing +dramatic poems of Milman, Maturin's impassioned "Bertram," and the finely- +conceived "Julian" of Miss Mitford. + +Rogers and Bowles have given us much of pleasing and reflective sentiment, +accompanied with great refinement of taste. + +To another and more modern school belong Procter (Barry Cornwall) and +Leigh Hunt; the former the purer in taste, the latter the more original +and inventive. + +Some of the lyrical and meditative poems of Walter Savage Landor are very +beautiful; his longer poems sometimes delight but oftener puzzle us by +their obscurity of thought and want of constructive skill. + +The poems of Mrs. Hemans breathe a singularly attractive tone of romantic +and melancholy sweetness, and many of the ballads and songs of Hogg and +Cunningham will not soon be forgotten. + +The poems of Kirke White are more pleasing than original. Montgomery has +written, besides many other poems, not a few meditative and devotional +pieces among the best in the language. Pollok's "Course of Time" is the +immature work of a man of genius who possessed very imperfect cultivation. +It is clumsy in plan and tediously dissertative, but it has passages of +genuine poetry. The pleasing verses of Bishop Heber and the more recent +effusions of Keble may also be named. + +Of the Scotch poets, James Hogg (d. 1835) is distinguished for the beauty +and creative power of his fairy tales, and Allan Cunningham (d. 1842) for +the fervor, simplicity, and natural grace of his songs. + +Edward Lytton Bulwer (Lord Lytton) deserves honorable mention for his high +sense of the functions of poetic art; for the skill with which his dramas +are constructed, and for the overflowing picturesqueness which fills his +"King Arthur." Elliott, the Corn-Law Rhymer, is vigorous in conception, +and Hood has a remarkable union of grotesque humor with depth of serious +feeling. + +Henry Taylor (b. 1800) deserves notice for the fine meditativeness and +well-balanced judgment shown in his dramas and prose essays. "Philip Van +Artevelde" is his masterpiece. + +The poems of Arthur Hugh Clough (d. 1861) are worthy of attention, +although it may be doubted if his genius reached its full development; in +those of Milnes (Lord Houghton, b. 1809), emotion and intellect are +harmoniously blended. R.H. Horne (d. 1884) is the author of some noble +poems; Aytoun (d. 1865), of many ballads of note; and in Kingsley (d. +1875) the poetic faculty finds its best expression in his popular lyrics. + +Alfred Tennyson (b. 1810) is by eminence the representative poet of his +era. The central idea of his poetry is that of the dignity and efficiency +of law in its widest sense and of the progress of the race. The elements +which form his ideal of human character are self-reverence, self- +knowledge, self-control, the recognition of a divine order, of one's own +place in that order, and a faithful adhesion to the law of one's highest +life. "In Memoriam" is his most characteristic work, distinctly a poem of +this century, the great threnody of our language. The "Idylls of the King" +present in epic form the Christian ideal of chivalry. + +In Browning (b. 1812) the greatness and glory of man lie not in submission +to law, but in infinite aspiration towards something higher than himself. +He must perpetually grasp at things attainable by his highest striving, +and, finding them unsatisfactory, he is urged on by an endless series of +aspirations and endeavors. In his poetry strength of thought struggles +through obscurity of expression, and he is at once the most original and +unequal of living poets. + +Elizabeth Barrett Browning (d. 1861) may be regarded as the representative +of her sex in the present age. The instinct of worship, the religion of +humanity, and a spiritual unity of zeal, love, and worship preside over +her work. + +To this period belong the writings of Mrs. Norton, Mrs. Blackwood, Mrs. +Crosland, Mary Howitt, and Eliza Cook. + +FICTION.--Previous to the appearance of Scott's novels the department of +prose writing had undergone an elevating process in the hands of Godwin, +Miss Austen, Miss Porter, and Miss Edgeworth. "Waverley" appeared in 1814, +and the series which followed with surprising rapidity obtained universal +and unexampled popularity. The Waverley Novels are not merely love +stories, but pictures of human life animated by sentiments which are +cheerful and correct, and they exhibit history in a most effective light +without degrading facts or falsifying them beyond the lawful stretch of +poetical embellishment. These novels stand in literary value as far above +all other prose works of fiction as those of Fielding stand above all +others in the language except these. + +The novels of Lockhart are strong in the representation of tragic passion. +Wilson, in his "Lights and Shadows of Scottish Life," shows the visionary +loveliness and pathos which appear in his poems, though they give no scope +to those powers of sarcasm and humor which found expression elsewhere. +Extremes in the tone of thought and feeling are shown in the despondent +imagination of Mrs. Shelley and the coarse and shrewd humor of Galt. To +this time belong Hope's "Anastasius," which unites reflectiveness with +pathos, and the delightful scenes which Miss Mitford has constructed by +embellishing the facts of English rural life. + +Among the earlier novels of the time, those of Bulwer had more decidedly +than the others the stamp of native genius. Though not always morally +instructive, they have great force of serious passion, and show unusual +skill of design. In some of his later works he rises into a much higher +sphere of ethical contemplation. The novels of Theodore Hook, sparkling as +they are, have no substance to endure long continuance, nor is there much +promise of life in the showy and fluent tales of James, the sea-stories of +Marryat, or the gay scenes of Lever. The novels and sketches of Mrs. Marsh +and Mrs. Hall are pleasing and tasteful; Mrs. Trollope's portraits of +character are rough and clever caricatures. In describing the lower +departments of Irish life, Banim is the most original, Griffin weaker, and +Carleton better than either. The novels of Disraeli are remarkable for +their brilliant sketches of English life and their embodiment of political +and social theories. Miss Martineau's stories are full of the writer's +clearness and sagacity. Kingsley, the head of the Christian socialistic +school, is the author of many romances, and the eloquent preacher of a +more earnest and practical Christianity. The narrative sketches of Douglas +Jerrold deserve a place among the speculative fictions of the day. + +Charlotte Bronté (1816-1855) had consummate mastery of expression, and a +perception of the depth of human nature that is only revealed through +suffering experience. The works of her sister Emily show a powerful +imagination, regulated by no consideration of beauty of proportion, or of +artistic feeling. + +Among those writers who aim at making the novel illustrate questions that +agitate society most powerfully are the founders of a new school of +novelists, Thackeray and Dickens (1812-1870). The former has given his +pictures of society all that character they could receive from +extraordinary skill of mental analysis, acute observation, and strength of +sarcastic irony, but he has never been able to excite continuous and +lively sympathy either by interesting incidents or by deep passion. +Dickens has done more than all which Thackeray has left unattempted; while +his painting of character is as vigorous and natural, his power of +exciting emotion ranges with equal success from horror sometimes too +intense, to melting pathos, and thence to a breadth of humor which +degenerates into caricature. He cannot soar into the higher worlds of +imagination, but he becomes strong, inventive, and affecting the moment +his foot touches the firm ground of reality, and nowhere is he more at +ease, more sharply observant, or more warmly sympathetic, than in scenes +whose meanness might have disgusted, or whose moral foulness might have +appalled. Of the later novelists, the names of Mrs. Craik (Miss Muloch) +and Charles Reade (d. 1884) may be mentioned as having acquired a wide +popularity. + +HISTORY.--In history Niebuhr's masterly researches have communicated their +spirit to the "Roman History" of Arnold; the history of Greece has assumed +a new aspect in the hands of Thirlwall and Grote; and that of Grecian +literature has been In part excellently related by Muir (d. 1860). Modern +history has likewise been cultivated with great assiduity, and several +works of great literary merit have appeared which are valuable as +storehouses of research. Macaulay, in his great work, "The History of +England," showed that history might be written as it had not been before, +telling the national story with accuracy and force, making it as lively as +a novel, through touches of individual interest and teaching precious +truths with fascinating eloquence. Alison's "History of Europe" takes its +place among the highest works of its kind. Carlyle's "History of the +French Revolution" and "Life of Frederic the Great" are most picturesque, +attractive, and original works. The History of the Norman Conquest of +England is the most important work of Freeman. Buckle (d. 1882) in his +Introduction to the projected History of Civilization in Europe reiterated +the theory that all events depend upon the action of inevitable law. + +CRITICISM AND REVIEWS.--In the art of criticism, Hallam's (d. 1859) +"Introduction to the Literature of Europe in the Fifteenth, Sixteenth, and +Seventeenth Centuries" has taken its place as a classical standard. Among +the fragments of criticism, the most valuable are those of De Quincey (d. +1860). The essays of Macaulay (d. 1860) are among the most impressive of +all the periodical papers of our century. + +In Carlyle, a generous sentiment alternates with despondent gloom and +passionate restlessness and inconsistency. But it is impossible to hear, +without a deep sense of original power, the oracular voices that issue +from the cell; enigmatical, like the ancient responses, and like them +illuminating doubtful vaticination with flashes of wild and half poetic +fantasy. His language and thoughts alike set aside hereditary rules, and +are compounded of elements, English and German, and elements predominant +over all, which no name would fit except that of the author. + +Among numerous other writers may he mentioned the names of William and +Mary Howitt, Isaac Taylor, Arthur Helps, and the brothers Hare, and in +art-criticism the brilliant and paradoxical Ruskin (b. 1819) and the +accomplished Mrs. Jameson (d. 1860). + +The writings of Christopher North (Professor Wilson) are characterized by +the quaintest humor and the most practical shrewdness combined with tender +and passionate emotion (d. 1854). Those of Charles Lamb (d. 1835) it is +impossible to describe intelligibly to those who have not read them. Some +of his scenes are in sentiment, imagery, and style the most anomalous +medleys by which readers were ever alternately perplexed and amused, moved +and delighted. + +No man of his time influenced social science so much as Jeremy Bentham +(1748-1832). Of his immediate pupils James Mill is the ablest, Cobbett, a +vigorous and idiomatic writer of English, in the course of his long life +advocated all varieties of political principle. In political science we +have the accurate McCulloch; Malthus, known through his Theory of +Population; and Ricardo, the most original thinker in science since Adam +Smith. + +Foster (1770-1843) had originality and a wider grasp of mind than the +other two. Hall (1761-1831) is more eloquent, but in oratorical power +Chalmers (1780-1847) was one of the great men of our century, which has +produced few comparable to him in original keenness of intuition, and who +combined so much power of thought with so much power of impressive +communication. + +In philosophy, Dugald Stewart (1753-1828) is one of the most attractive +writers. Thomas Brown (1778-1820), his successor in the chair of +Edinburgh, exhibited a subtlety of thought hardly ever exceeded in the +history of philosophy; probably no writings on mental philosophy were ever +so popular. + +Equally worthy of a place in the annals of their era are those +dissertations on the History of Philosophy contributed to the +Encyclopaedia Britannica by Playfair, Leslie, and Mackintosh, and a system +of Ethics by Bentham. Among the speculations in mental philosophy must +also be placed a group of interesting treatises on the "Theory of the +Sublime and Beautiful," a matter deeply important to poetry and the other +fine arts, represented by Alison's essays on Taste, Jeffrey's on Beauty, +and by contributions from Stewart, Thomas Brown, and Payne Knight. + +In political economy John Mill is one of the most powerful and original +minds of the nineteenth century. The pure sciences of mind have been +enriched by important accessions; logic has been vigorously cultivated in +two departments; on the one hand by Mill and Whewell, the former following +the tendencies of Locke and Hobbes, the latter that of the German school; +on the other hand, Archbishop Whately has expounded the Aristotelian +system with clearness and sagacity, and De Morgan has attempted to supply +certain deficiencies in the old analysis. But by far the greatest +metaphysician who has appeared in the British empire during the present +century is Sir William Hamilton. In his union of powerful thinking with +profound and varied erudition, he stands higher, perhaps, than any other +man whose name is preserved in the annals of modern speculation. + +REVIEWS AND MAGAZINES.--A most curious and important fact in the literary +history of the age is the prominence acquired by the leading Reviews and +Magazines. Their high position was secured and their power founded beyond +the possibility of overturn by the earliest of the series, the "Edinburgh +Review." Commenced in 1802, it was placed immediately under the editorship +of Francis Jeffrey, who conducted it till 1829. In the earlier part of its +history there were not many distinguished men of letters in the empire who +did not furnish something to its contents; among others were Sir Walter +Scott, Lord Brougham, Malthus, Playfair, Mackintosh, and Sydney Smith. +Differences of political opinion led to the establishment of the "London +Quarterly," which advocated Tory principles, the Edinburgh being the organ +of the Whigs. Its editors were first Gifford and then Lockhart, and it +numbered among its contributors many of the most famous men of the time. +The "Westminster Review" was established in 1825 as the organ of Jeremy +Bentham and his disciples. + +"Blackwood's Magazine," begun 1817, has contained articles of the highest +literary merit. It was the unflinching and idolatrous advocate of +Wordsworth, and some of its writers were the first translators of German +poetry and the most active introducers of German taste and laws in +poetical criticism. + +The best efforts in literary criticism--the most brilliant department of +recent literature, have been with few exceptions essays in the +periodicals. Among the essayists the name of Francis Jeffrey (1773-1850) +stands highest. In his essays selected for republication we find hardly +any branch of general knowledge untouched, and while he treated none +without throwing on them some brilliant ray of light, he contributed to +many of them truths alike valuable and original. His criticisms on Poetry +are flowing and spirited, glittering with a gay wit and an ever-ready +fancy, and often blossoming into exquisite felicities of diction. While +Macaulay uses poets and their works as hints for constructing picturesque +dissertations on man and society, and while poetical reading prompts +Wilson to enthusiastic bursts of original poetry, Jeffrey, fervid in his +admiration of genius, but conscientiously stern in his respect for art, +tries poetry by its own laws, and his writings are invaluable to those who +desire to learn the principles of poetical criticism. A high place among +the critical essayists must also be assigned to William Hazlitt, who in +his lectures and elsewhere did manful service towards reviving the study +of ancient poetry, and who prompts to study and speculation all readers, +and not the least those who hesitate to accept his critical opinions. + +PHYSICAL SCIENCE.--The spirit of philosophical inquiry and discovery is +increasing in England, and is everywhere accompanied by a growing tendency +to popularize all branches of science, and to bring them before the +general mind in an attractive form. + +The physical sciences have made marvelous advances; many brilliant +discoveries have been made during the present and last generation, and +many scientific men have brought much power of mind to bear on questions +lying apart from their principal studies; among them are Sir David +Brewster, Sir John Herschel, Sir John Playfair, Sir Charles Lyell, Hugh +Miller, Buckland, and Professor Whewell. + + +SINCE 1860. + +1. POETRY.--Matthew Arnold (b. 1822) has written some of the most refined +verse of our day, and among critics holds the first rank. Algernon +Swinburne (b. 1837) excels all living poets in his marvelous gift of +rhythm and command over the resources of the language. Dante Rossetti (d. +1883) had great lyrical power; Robert Buchanan has large freedom and +originality of style; Edwin Arnold has extraordinary popularity in the +United States for his remarkable poem, "The Light of Asia," and for other +poems on Oriental subjects; Lord Lytton ("Owen Meredith") has a place of +honor among poets as the author of "Lucile" and other poems; William +Morris writes in the choicest fashion of romantic narrative verse. Among +other poets of the present generation whose writings are marked by +excellences of various kinds are Edmund Gosse, Austin Dobson, Cosmo +Monkhonse, Andrew Lang, Philip Marston, and Arthur O'Shaughnessy. + +The poems of Jean Ingelow have a merited popularity; those of Adelaide +Procter (d. 1864) are pervaded by a beautiful spirit of faith and hope; +Christina Rossetti shows great originality and deep and serious feeling. +The lyrics and dramas of Augusta Webster are marked by strength and +breadth of thought; the ballads, sonnets, and other poems of Mary Robinson +show that she possesses the true gift of song. + +2. FICTION.--The writings of Mrs. Lewes, "George Eliot" (1815-1880), are +the work of a woman of rare genius, and place her among the greatest +novelists England has produced. They are in sympathy with all the +varieties of human character, and written in a spirit of humanity that is +allied with every honest aspiration. + +Anthony Trollope (d. 1884) has produced many works remarkable for their +accurate pictures of English life and character. George Macdonald and +Wilkie Collins are novelists of great merit, as are William Black, Richard +Blackmore, Mrs. Oliphant, Edmund Yates, Justin McCarthy. + +3. SCIENCE.--Herbert Spencer (b. 1820) as early as 1852 advanced the +theory of the natural and gradual coalition of organic life upon this +globe. In 1855, in his "Principles of Psychology," he gave a new +exposition of the laws of mind, based upon this principle, and held that +it is by experience, registered in the slowly perfecting nervous system, +that the mental faculties have been gradually evolved through long courses +of descent, each generation inheriting all that had been previously +gained, and adding its own increment to the sum of progress; that all +knowledge, and even the faculties of knowing, originate in experience, but +that the primary elements of thought are _a priori_ intuitions to the +individual derived from ancestral experience. Thus the intuitional and +experience hypotheses, over which philosophers had so long disputed, were +here for the first time reconciled. This work, the first permanent +scientific result of the application of the law of evolution, formed a +turning-point in the thought of the scientific world. Spencer's prospectus +of a philosophical system, in which the principles of evolution were +applied to the subjects of life, mind, society, and morals, appeared in +1858, maturely elaborated in its scientific proofs and applications, thus +preceding the works of other evolutionary writers, the most distinguished +of whom, Charles Darwin (1809-1883), has been more identified in the +popular mind with the theories of evolution than Spencer himself. The +writings of Darwin have had a wider influence and have been the subject of +more controversy than those of any other contemporary writer. In his +"Origin of Species" he accounts for the diversities of life on our globe +by means of continuous development, without the intervention of special +creative fiats at the origin of each species, and to this organic +evolution he added the important principle of natural selection. He may be +regarded as the great reformer of biology and the most distinguished +naturalist of the age. Tyndall (b. 1810) has done more than any other +writer to popularize great scientific truths. Huxley (b. 1825) stands +foremost among physiologists and naturalists. + +Among numerous other writers distinguished in various branches of science +a few only can be here named. Walter Bagehot writes on Political Society; +Alexander Bain on Mind and Body; Henry Maudsley on Brain and Mind; Norman +Lockyer on Spectrum Analysis; and Sir John Lubbock on Natural History. + +4. MISCELLANEOUS.--The most distinguished historian of the times is James +Anthony Froude (b. 1818), who, in his "Short Studies," shows the same +vigor of thought and power of description that render his history so +fascinating. The histories of John Richard Green are valuable for their +original research, and have a wide celebrity. Max Müller has rendered +important services to the sciences of Philology and Ethnology, by his +researches in Oriental languages and literatures. Lecky is eminent for his +history of "Rationalism in Europe" and "History of Morals." Leslie +Stephen, John Morley, and Addington Symonds are distinguished in various +departments of criticism and history. Justin McCarthy, in his "History of +our own Times," has skillfully presented an intellectual panorama of the +period. + +Hamerton writes on Art and on general topics with keen and critical +observation. Lewes (d. 1878) is the able expounder of the philosophy of +Comte. Frances Power Cobbe, in her "Intuitive Morals" and other works, +shows strong reasoning powers and great earnestness of purpose. John +Stuart Mill (d. 1873) holds a high place as a writer on Political Economy, +Liberty, and on the Subjection of Women. The periodicals and newspapers of +the day show remarkable intellectual ability, and represent the best +contemporary thought in England in all departments. + + + + +AMERICAN LITERATURE. + +THE COLONIAL PERIOD.--1. The Seventeenth Century. George Sandys; The Bay +Psalm Book; Anne Bradstreet, John Eliot, and Cotton Mather.--2. From 1700 +to 1770; Jonathan Edwards, Benjamin Franklin, Cadwallader Colden. + +FIRST AMERICAN PERIOD FROM 1771 TO 1820.--1. Statesmen and Political +Writers: Washington, Jefferson, Hamilton. The Federalist: Jay, Madison, +Marshall, Fisher Ames, and others.--2. The Poets: Freneau, Trumbull, +Hopkinson, Barlow, Clifton, and Dwight.--3. Writers in other Departments: +Bellamy, Hopkins, Dwight, and Bishop White. Rush, McClurg, Lindley Murray, +Charles Brockden Brown. Ramsay, Graydon. Count Rumford, Wirt, Ledyard, +Pinkney, and Pike. + +SECOND AMERICAN PERIOD FROM 1820 TO 1860.--1. History, Biography, and +Travels: Bancroft, Prescott, Motley, Godwin, Ticknor, Schoolcraft, +Hildreth, Sparks, Irving, Headley, Stephens, Kane, Squier, Perry, Lynch, +Taylor, and others.--2. Oratory: Webster, Clay, Calhoun, Benton, Everett, +and others.--3. Fiction: Cooper, Irving, Willis, Hawthorne, Poe, Simms, +Mrs. Stowe, and others.--4. Poetry: Bryant, Dana, Halleck, Longfellow, +Willis, Lowell, Allston, Hillhouse, Drake, Whittier, Hoffman, and others. +--5. The Transcendental Movement in New England.--6. Miscellaneous +Writings: Whipple, Tuckerman, Curtis, Briggs, Prentice, and others.--7. +Encyclopedias, Dictionaries, and Educational Books. The Encyclopaedia +Americana. The New American Cyclopaedia. Allibone, Griswold, Duyckinck, +Webster, Worcester, Anthon, Felton, Barnard, and others.--8. Theology, +Philosophy, Economy, and Jurisprudence: Stuart, Robinson, Wayland, Barnes, +Channing, Parker. Tappan, Henry, Hickok, Haven. Carey, Kent, Wheaton, +Story, Livingston, Lawrence, Bouvier.--9. Natural Sciences: Franklin, +Morse, Fulton, Silliman, Dana, Hitchcock, Rogers, Bowditch, Peirce, Bache, +Holbrook, Audubon, Morton, Gliddon, Maury, and others.--10. Foreign +Writers: Paine, Witherspoon, Rowson, Priestley, Wilson, Agassiz, Guyot, +Mrs. Robinson, Gurowski, and others.--11. Newspapers and Periodicals. +--12. Since 1860. + + +THE COLONIAL PERIOD (1640-1770). + +1. THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY.--Of all the nations which have sprung into +existence through the medium of European colonization, since the discovery +of America, the United States is the only one having a literature of its +own creation, and containing original works of a high order. Its earliest +productions, however, are of little value; they belong not to a period of +literary leisure, but to one of trial and danger, when the colonist was +forced to contend with a savage enemy, a rude soil, and all the privations +of pioneer life. It was not until the spirit of freedom began to influence +the national character, that the literature of the colonies assumed a +distinctive form, although its earliest productions are not without value +as marking its subsequent development. + +Among the bold spirits who, with Captain John Smith, braved the +pestilential swamps and wily Indians of Virginia, there were some lovers +of literature, the most prominent of whom was George Sandys, who +translated Ovid's "Metamorphoses" on the banks of James River. The work, +published in London in 1620, was dedicated to Charles I. and received the +commendations of Pope and Dryden. The Puritans, too, carried a love of +letters with them to the shores of New England, and their literary +productions, like their colony, took a far more lasting root than did +those of their more southern brethren. The intellect of the colonies first +developed itself in a theological form, which was the natural consequence +of emigration, induced by difference of religious opinion, the free scope +afforded for discussion, and the variety of creeds represented by the +different races who thus met on a common soil. The clergy, also, were the +best educated and the most influential class, and the colonial era +therefore boasted chiefly a theological literature, though for the most +part controversial and fugitive. While there is no want of learning or +reasoning power in the tracts of many of the theologians of that day, they +are now chiefly referred to by the antiquarian or the curious student of +divinity. + +The first hook printed in the colonies was the "Bay Psalm Book," which +appeared in 1640; it was reprinted in England, where it passed through +seventy editions, and retained its popularity for more than a century, +although it was not strictly original, and was devoid of literary merit. + +This was followed by a volume of original poems, by Mrs. Anne Bradstreet +(d. 1672); though not above mediocrity, these effusions are chaste in +language and not altogether insipid in ideas. A few years later, John +Eliot (1604-1690), the famous Apostle to the Indians, published a version +of the Psalms and of the Old and New Testaments in the Indian tongue, +which was the first Bible printed in America. The next production of value +was a "Concordance of the Scriptures," by John Newman (d. 1663), compiled +by the light of pine knots in one of the frontier settlements of New +England; the first work of its kind, and for more than a century the most +perfect. Cotton Mather (d. 1728) was one of the most learned men of his +age, and one of its representative writers. His principal work is the +"Magnalia Christi Americana," an ecclesiastical history of New England, +from 1620 to 1698, including the civil history of the times, several +biographies, and an account of the Indian wars, and of New England +witchcraft. Eliot and Mather were the most prominent colonial writers down +to 1700. + +2. FROM 1700 TO 1770.--From the year 1700 to the breaking out of the +Revolution, it was the custom of many of the colonists to send their sons +to England to be educated. Yale College and other institutions of learning +were established at home, from which many eminent scholars graduated, and, +although it was the fashion of the day to imitate the writers of the time +of Queen Anne and the two Georges, the productions of this age exhibit a +manly vigor of thought, and mark a transition from the theological to the +more purely literary era of American authorship. + +Jonathan Edwards (1703-1785) was the first native writer who gave +unequivocal evidence of great reasoning power and originality of thought; +he may not unworthily be styled the first man of the world during the +second quarter of the eighteenth century; and as a theologian, Dr. +Chalmers and Robert Hall declare him to have been the greatest in all +Christian ages. Of the works of Edwards, consisting of diaries, +discourses, and treatises, that on "The Will" is the most celebrated. + +Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790) was equally illustrious in statesmanship and +philosophy. The style of his political and philosophical writings is +admirable for its simplicity, clearness, precision, and condensation; and +that of his letters and essays has all the wit and elegance that +characterize the best writers of Queen Anne's time. His autobiography is +one of the most pleasing compositions in the English language, and his +moral writings have had a powerful influence on the character of the +American people. + +From the early youth of Franklin until about the year 1770, general +literature received much attention, and numerous productions of merit both +in prose and verse appeared, which, if not decidedly great, were +interesting for the progress they displayed. Many practical minds devoted +themselves to colonial history, and their labors have been of great value +to subsequent historians. Among these historical writings, those of +Cadwallader Colden (1688-1776) take the first rank. As we approach the +exciting dawn of the Revolution, the growing independence of thought +becomes more and more manifest. + + +FIRST AMERICAN PERIOD (1770-1820). + +1. STATESMEN AND POLITICAL WRITERS.--Among the causes which rapidly +developed literature and eloquence in the colonies, the most important +were the oppressions of the mother country, at first silently endured, +then met with murmurs of dissatisfaction, and finally with manful and +boldly-expressed opposition. Speeches and pamphlets were the weapons of +attack, and treating as they did upon subjects affecting the individual +liberty of every citizen, they had a powerful influence on the public +mind, and went far towards severing that mental reliance upon Europe which +American authorship is now so rapidly consummating. The conventionalism of +European literature was cast aside, and the first fruits of native genius +appeared. The public documents of the principal statesmen of the age of +the Revolution were declared by Lord Chatham to equal the finest specimens +of Greek or Roman wisdom. The historical correspondence of this period +constitutes a remarkable portion of American literature, and is valuable +not only for its high qualities of wisdom and patriotism, but for its +graces of expression and felicitous illustration. The letters of +Washington, Adams, Jefferson, Franklin, Jay, Morris, Hamilton, and many of +their compatriots, possess a permanent literary value aside from that +which they derive from their authorship and the gravity of their subjects. + +The speeches of many of the great orators of the age of the Revolution are +not preserved, and are known only by tradition. Of the eloquence of Otis, +which was described as "flames of fire," there are but a few meagre +reports; the passionate appeals of Patrick Henry and of the elder Adams, +which "moved the hearers from their seats," and the resistless declamation +of Pinkney and Rutledge, are preserved only in the history of the effects +which these orators produced. + +The writings of Washington (1732-1799), produced chiefly in the camp +surrounded by the din of arms, are remarkable for clearness of expression, +force of language, and a tone of lofty patriotism. They are second to none +of similar character in any nation, and they display powers which, had +they been devoted to literature, would have achieved a position of no +secondary character. + +Jefferson (1743-1826) early published a "Summary View of the Rights of +British America," which passed through several editions in London, under +the supervision of Burke. His "Notes on Virginia" is still a standard +work, and his varied and extensive correspondence is a valuable +contribution to American political history. + +Hamilton (1757-1804) was one of the most remarkable men of the time, and +to his profound sagacity the country was chiefly indebted for a regulated +currency and an established credit after the conclusion of the war. During +a life of varied and absorbing occupation as a soldier, lawyer, and +statesman, he found time to record his principles; and his writings, full +of energy and sound sense, are noble in tone, and deep in wisdom and +insight. "The Federalist," a joint production of Hamilton, Madison, and +Jay, exhibits a profundity of research and an acuteness of understanding +which would do honor to the most illustrious statesmen of any age. The +name of Madison (1751-1836) is one of the most prominent in the history of +the country, and his writings, chiefly on political, constitutional, and +historical subjects, are of extraordinary value to the student in history +and political philosophy. + +Marshall (1755-1835) was for thirty-five years chief-justice of the +Supreme Court of the United States; a court, the powers of which are +greater than were ever before confided to a judicial tribunal. +Determining, without appeal, its own jurisdiction and that of the +legislative and executive departments, this court is not merely the +highest estate in the country, but it settles and continually moulds the +constitution of the government. To the duties of his office, Judge +Marshall brought a quickness of conception commensurate with their +difficulty, and the spirit and strength of one capable of ministering to +the development of a nation. The vessel of state, it has been said, was +launched by the patriotism of many; the chart of her course was designed +chiefly by Hamilton; but when the voyage was begun, the eye that observed, +the head that reckoned, and the hand that compelled the ship to keep her +course amid tempests without, and threats of mutiny within, were those of +the great chief-justice, whom posterity will reverence as one of the +founders of the nation. Marshall's "Life of Washington" is a faithful and +conscientious narrative, written in a clear, unpretending style, and +possesses much literary merit. + +Fisher Ames (1758-1808), one of the leaders of the federal party during +the administration of Washington, was equally admired for his learning and +eloquence; although, owing to the temporary interest of many of the +subjects on which he wrote, his reputation has somewhat declined. + +Among other writers and orators of the age of the Revolution were Warren, +Adams, and Otis, Patrick Henry, Rutledge, Livingston, Drayton, Quincy, +Dickinson, and numerous firm and gifted men, who, by their logical and +earnest appeals roused the country to the assertion of its rights and gave +a wise direction to the power they thus evoked. + +2. THE POETS.--One of the most distinguished poets of the Age of the +Revolution was Philip Freneau (1752-1832). Although many of his +compositions which had great political effect at the time they were +written have little merit, or relate to forgotten events, enough remains +to show that he was not wanting in genius and enthusiasm. + +John Trumbull (1750-1831) was the author of "McFingal," a humorous poem in +the style of Butler's Hudibras, the object of which was to render +ludicrous the zeal and logic of the tories. There is no contemporaneous +record which supplies so vivid a representation of the manners of the age, +and the habits and modes of thinking that then prevailed. The popularity +of McFingal was extraordinary, and it had an important influence on the +great events of the time. Trumbull was a tutor in Yale College, and +attempted to introduce an improved course of study and discipline into the +institution, which met with much opposition. His most finished poem, "The +Progress of Dullness," was hardly less serviceable to the cause of +education than his McFingal was to that of liberty. Francis Hopkinson +(1738-1791), another wit of the Revolution, may be ranked beside Trumbull +for his efficiency in the national cause. + +Joel Barlow (1755-1812) as an author was among the first of his time. His +principal work is the "Columbiad," an epic poem which, with many faults, +has occasional bursts of patriotism and true eloquence, which should +preserve it from oblivion. His pleasing poem celebrating "Hasty Pudding" +has gained a more extensive popularity. The few songs of William Clifton +(1772-1799), a more original and vigorous poet, are imbued with the true +spirit of lyric poetry. + +Timothy Dwight (1752-1819) was the author of "Greenfield Hill," the +"Conquest of Canaan," an epic poem, and several other productions; but his +fame rests chiefly on his merits as a theologian, in which department he +had few if any equals. Many other names might be cited, but none of +commanding excellence. + +3. WRITERS IN OTHER DEPARTMENTS.--Although in the period immediately +succeeding the Revolution there was a strong tendency to political +discussion, not a few writers found exercise in other departments. +Theology had its able expounders in Bellamy, Hopkins, Dwight, and Bishop +White. Barton merits especial notice for his work on botany, and for his +ethnological investigations concerning the Indian race, and Drs. Rush and +McClurg were eminent in various departments of medical science. In 1795, +Lindley Murray (1745-1826) published his English Grammar, which for a long +time held its place as the best work of the kind in the language. + +It should be borne in mind, however, that during this period very few +writers devoted themselves exclusively to literature. Charles Brockden +Brown (1771-1810) was the first purely professional author. His chief +productions are two works of fiction, "Wieland" and "Arthur Mervyn," which +from their merit, and as the first of American creations in the world of +romance, were favorably received, and early attracted attention in +England. + +One of the earliest laborers in the field of history was David Ramsay +(1749-1815), and his numerous works are monuments of his unwearied +research and patient labor for the public good and the honor of his +country. Graydon's (1742-1818) "Memoirs of his own Times, with +Reminiscences of Men and Events of the Revolution," illustrates the most +interesting and important period of our history, and combines the various +excellences of style, scholarship, and impartiality. + +Benjamin Thompson (1753-1814), better known by his title of Count Rumford, +acquired an extensive reputation in the scientific world for his various +philosophical improvements in private and political economy. William Wirt +was the author of the "Letters of the British Spy," which derives its +interest from its descriptions and notices of individuals. His "Life of +Patrick Henry" is a finished piece of biography, surpassed by few works of +its kind in elegance of style and force of narrative. + +John Ledyard (1751-1788), who died in Egypt while preparing for the +exploration of Central Africa, was the first important contributor to the +literature of travel, in America, and his journals, abounding in pleasing +description and truthful narratives, have become classic in this +department of letters, A captivating book of travels in France, by +Lieutenant Pinkney, which appeared in 1809, created such a sensation in +England, that Leigh Hunt tells us it set all the idle world going to +France. Zebulon Pike, under the auspices of the government, published the +first book ever written on the country between the Mississippi and the +Rocky Mountains. + + +SECOND AMERICAN PERIOD (1820-1860). + +1. HISTORY, BIOGRAPHY, AND TRAVELS.--From the year 1820, American +literature may be considered as fairly launched upon its national career. +The early laborers in the field had immense difficulties to encounter from +ridicule abroad and want of appreciation at home; but they at last +succeeded in dispelling all doubts as to the capability of the American +mind for the exercise of original power, and to some extent diverted +public thought from Europe as an exclusive source of mental supplies. The +era we are now to consider will be found prolific in works of merit, and +the expansion of mind will be seen to have kept pace with the political, +social, and commercial progress of the nation. No subject of human +knowledge has been overlooked; many European works have been elucidated by +the fresh light of the American mind; a new style of thought has been +developed; new scenes have been opened to the world, and Europe is +receiving compensation in kind for the intellectual treasures she has +heretofore sent to America. + +The marvelous growth of the United States, its relations to the past and +future, and to the great problem of humanity, render its history one of +the most suggestive episodes in the annals of the world, and give to it a +universal as well as a special dignity. Justly interpreted, it is the +practical demonstration of principles which the noblest spirits of England +advocated with their pens, and often sealed with their blood. The early +colonists were familiar with the responsibilities and progressive tendency +of liberal institutions, and in achieving the Revolution they only carried +out what had long existed in idea, and actualized the views of Sidney and +his illustrious compeers. Through this intimate relation with the past of +the Old World, and as initiative to its future self-enfranchisement, our +history daily unfolds new meaning and increases in importance and +interest. It is only within the last quarter of a century, however, that +this theme has found any adequate illustration. Before that time the +labors of American historians had been chiefly confined to the collection +of materials, the unadorned record of facts which rarely derived any charm +from the graces of style or the resources of philosophy. + +The most successful attempt to reduce the chaotic but rich materials of +American history to order, beauty, and moral significance has been made by +Bancroft (b. 1800), who has brought to the work not only talent and +scholarship of high order, but an earnest sympathy with the spirit of the +age he was to illustrate. In sentiment and principle his history is +thoroughly American, although in its style and philosophy it has that +broad and eclectic spirit appropriate to the general interest of the +subject, and the enlightened sympathies of the age. Unwearied and patient +in research, discriminating and judicious in the choice of authorities, +and possessed of all the qualities required to fuse into a vital unity the +narrative thus carefully gleaned, Bancroft has written the most accurate +and philosophical account that has been given of the United States. + +The works of Prescott (1796-1858) are among the finest models of +historical composition, and they breathe freely the spirit of our liberal +institutions. His "History of Ferdinand and Isabella," of the "Conquest of +Mexico," and the "Conquest of Peru," unite all the fascination of romantic +fiction with the grave interest of authentic events. The picturesque and +romantic character of his subjects, the harmony and beauty of his style, +the dramatic interest of his narrative, and the careful research which +renders his works as valuable for their accuracy as they are attractive +for their style, have given Prescott's histories a brilliant and extensive +reputation; and it is a matter of deep regret that his last and crowning +work, "The History of Philip II.," should remain uncompleted. Another +important contribution to the literature of the country is Motley's (1814- +1877) "History of the Rise of the Dutch Republic," a work distinguished +for its historical accuracy, philosophical breadth of treatment, and +clearness and vigor of style. The narrative proceeds with a steady and +easy flow, and the scenes it traces are portrayed with the hand of a +master; while the whole work is pervaded by a spirit of humanity and a +genuine sympathy with liberty. Parke Godwin's "History of France" is +remarkable for its combination of deep research, picturesqueness of style; +and John Poster Kirk is the author of a valuable history of Charles the +Bold. + +Ticknor's (1791-1871) "History of Spanish Literature," as an intellectual +achievement, ranks with the best productions of its kind, and is +everywhere regarded by scholars as a standard authority. It is thoroughly +penetrated with the true Castilian spirit, and is a complete record of +Spanish civilization, both social and intellectual, equally interesting to +the general reader and to the student of civil history. It has been +translated into several languages. + +Henry R. Schoolcraft has devoted much time to researches among the Indian +tribes of North America, and embodied the result of his labors in many +volumes, containing their traditions, and the most interesting facts of +their history. Catlin's "Notes on the Manners, Customs, and Conditions of +the North American Indians," though without literary pretensions or +literary merit; fills an important place in ethnological literature. +Another work of a more historical character is "The History of the Indian +Tribes of North America," the joint production of Hall and McKinney. +Bradford's "American Antiquities and Researches into the Origin of the Red +Race" is also an able and instructive work. In Hildreth's "History of the +United States," rhetorical grace and effect give way to a plain narrative +confined to facts gleaned with great care and conscientiousness. The +"Field-Book of the Revolution," by Lossing, who has visited all the scenes +of that memorable war, and delineated them with pen and pencil, is a work +which finds its way to all the school libraries of the country. Cooper's +"Naval History of the United States" abounds in picturesque and thrilling +descriptions of naval warfare, and is one of the most characteristic +histories, both in regard to style and subject, yet produced in America. + +S. G. Goodrich (1793-1860), who, under the name of Peter Parley, has +acquired an extensive popularity in England and the United States, was the +pioneer in the important reform of rendering historical school-books +attractive, and his numerous works occupy a prominent place in the +literature designed for the young. Two other able writers in this +department are John S.C. and Jacob Abbott. + +Among the numerous local and special histories, valuable for their +correctness and literary merit, are Brodhead's "History of New York," +Palfrey's and Elliott's Histories of New England, Trumbull's "History of +Connecticut," Hawks's "History of North Carolina," and Dr. Francis's +"Historical Sketches." + +To the department of Biography, Jared Sparks has made many valuable +contributions. Washington Irving's "Life and Voyages of Columbus" and +"Life of Washington" have gained a popularity as extensive as the fame of +this charming writer. Mrs. Kirkland, also, has written a popular "Life of +Washington." The biographies and histories of J.T. Headley are remarkable +for a vivacity and energy, which have given them great popularity. The +"Biographical and Historical Studies" of G.W. Greene, Randall's "Life of +Jefferson," Parton's Biographies of Aaron Burr and other celebrated men, +Mrs. Ellet's "Women of the Revolution" and "Women Artists in all Ages," +and Mrs. Hale's "Sketches of Distinguished Women in all Ages," are among +the numerous works belonging to this department. + +The restlessness of the American character finds a mode of expression in +the love of travel and adventure, and within the last thirty years no +nation has contributed to literature more interesting books of travel than +the United States. Flint's "Wanderings in the Valley of the Mississippi," +Schoolcraft's "Discoveries and Adventures in the Northwest," Irving's +"Astoria," and Fremont's Reports are instructive and entertaining accounts +of the West. The "Incidents of Travel" of John L. Stephens (1805-1857) has +had remarkable success in Europe as well as in this country. The +adventurous Arctic explorations of E.K. Kane (1822-1857) have elicited +universal admiration for the interest of their descriptions and for the +heroism and indomitable energy of the writer. These narratives have been +followed by those of Hayes in the same field of adventure. The scientific +explorations of E.G. Squier have thrown new light on the antiquities and +ethnology of the aboriginal tribes of America. Wilkes's "Narrative of the +United States Exploring Expedition" and Perry's "Narrative of an +Expedition to Japan" are full of scientific and general information. +Lynch's "Exploration of the Dead Sea" and Herndon's "Valley of the Amazon" +belong to the same class. Bartlett's "Explorations in Texas and New +Mexico" is interesting from the accuracy of its descriptions and the +novelty of the scenes it describes. Among the numerous other entertaining +books of travel in foreign countries are those of Bayard Taylor, who has +left few parts of the world unvisited; Dana's "Two Years Before the Mast;" +Curtis's "Nile Notes;" Norman's "Cities of Yucatan;" Dix's "Winter in +Madeira;" Brace's "Hungary," "Home Life in Germany," and "Norse Folk;" +Olmsted's "Travels in the Seaboard Slave States," and other works; Ross +Browne's "Notes," Prime's "Boat" and "Tent Life," and "Letters of +Irenaeus;" Slidell's "Year in Spain;" Willis's "Pencillings by the Way;" +Hillard's "Six Months in Italy" and "Letters;" "Memories" and "Souvenirs," +by Catherine M. Sedgwick, Sarah Haight, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Grace +Greenwood, and Octavia Walton Le Vert. + +2. ORATORY.--The public speeches of a nation's chief legislators are +shining landmarks of its policy and lucid developments of the character +and genius of its institutions. Of the statesmen of the present century, +the most eminent are Webster, Clay, and Calhoun. Daniel Webster (1782- +1852) is acknowledged to be one of the greatest men America has produced. +His speeches and forensic arguments constitute a characteristic as well as +an intrinsically valuable and interesting portion of our native +literature, and some of his orations on particular occasions are +everywhere recognized as among the greatest instances of genius in this +branch of letters to be met with in modern times. The style of Webster is +remarkable for its clearness and impressiveness, and rises occasionally to +absolute grandeur. His dignity of expression, breadth and force of thought +realize the ideal of a republican statesman; his writings, independent of +their literary merit, are invaluable for the nationality of their tone and +spirit. + +The speeches of Henry Clay (1777-1852) are distinguished by a sincerity +and warmth which were characteristic of the man, who united the gentlest +affections with the pride of the haughtiest manhood. His style of oratory, +full, flowing, and sensuous, was modulated by a voice of sustained power +and sweetness and a heart of chivalrous courtesy, and his eloquence +reached the heart of the whole nation. + +The style of John C. Calhoun (1782-1850) was terse and condensed, and his +eloquence, though sometimes impassioned, was always severe. He had great +skill as a dialectician and remarkable power of analysis, and his works +will have a permanent place in American literature. The writings and +speeches of John Quincy Adams (1769-1848) are distinguished by +universality of knowledge and independence of judgment, and they are +repositories of rich materials for the historian and political +philosopher. Benton's (1783-1858) "Thirty Years' View" of the working of +the American government is a succession of historical pictures which will +increase in value as the scenes they portray become more distant. Edward +Everett (1794-1865), as an orator, has few living equals, and his +occasional addresses and orations have become permanent memorials of many +important occasions of public interest. Of the numerous other orators, +eminent as rhetoricians or debaters, a few only can be named; among them +are Legaré, Randolph, Choate, Sumner, Phillips, Preston, and Prentiss. + +3. FICTION.--Romantic fiction found its first national development in the +writings of James Fenimore Cooper (1789-1851), and through his works +American literature first became widely known in Europe. His nautical and +Indian tales; his delineations of the American mind in its adventurous +character, and his vivid pictures of the aborigines, and of forest and +frontier life, from their freshness, power, and novelty, attracted +universal attention, and were translated into the principal European +languages as soon as they appeared. "The Spy," "The Pioneers," "The Last +of the Mohicans," and numerous other productions of Cooper, must hold a +lasting place in English literature. + +The genial and refined humor of Washington Irving (1783-1859), his lively +fancy and poetic imagination, have made his name a favorite wherever the +English language is known. He depicts a great variety of scenes and +character with singular skill and felicity, and his style has all the ease +and grace, the purity and charm, that distinguish that of Goldsmith, with +whom he may justly be compared. "The Sketch-Book" and "Knickerbocker's +History of New York" are among the most admired of his earlier writings, +and his later works have more than sustained his early fame. + +The tales and prose sketches of N.P. Willis are characterized by genial +wit, and a delicate rather than a powerful imagination, while beneath his +brilliant audacities of phrase there is a current of original thought and +genuine feeling. Commanding all the resources of passion, while he is at +the same time master of all the effects of manner, in the power of +ingenious and subtle comment on passing events, of sketching the lights +and shadows which flit over the surface of society, of playful and +felicitous portraiture of individual traits, and of investing his +descriptions with the glow of vitality, this writer is unsurpassed. + +Hawthorne is remarkable for the delicacy of his psychological insight, his +power of intense characterization, and for his mastery of the spiritual +and the supernatural. His genius is most at home when delineating the +darker passages of life and the enactions of guilt and pain. He does not +feel the necessity of time or space to realize his spells, and the early +history of New England and its stern people have found no more vivid +illustration than his pages afford. The style of Hawthorne is the pure +colorless medium of his thought; the plain current of his language is +always equable, full and unvarying, whether in the company of playful +children, among the ancestral associations of family or history, or in +grappling with the mysteries and terrors of the supernatural world. "The +Scarlet Letter" is a psychological romance, a study of character in which +the human heart is anatomized with striking poetic and dramatic power. +"The House of the Seven Gables" is a tale of retribution and expiation, +dating from the time of the Salem witchcraft. "The Marble Faun" is the +most elaborate and powerfully drawn of his later works. + +Edgar A. Poe (1811-1849) acquired much reputation as a writer of tales and +many of his productions exhibit extraordinary metaphysical acuteness, and +an imagination that delights to dwell in the shadowy confines of human +experience, among the abodes of crime and horror. A subtle power of +analysis, a minuteness of detail, a refinement of reasoning in the anatomy +of mystery, give to his most improbable inventions a wonderful reality. + +Of the numerous writings of William Gilmore Simms, historical or +imaginative romances form no inconsiderable part. As a novelist he is +vigorous in delineation, dramatic in action, poetic in description, and +skilled in the art of story-telling. His pictures of Southern border +scenery and life are vivid and natural. + +Harriet Beecher Stowe was well known as a writer before the appearance of +the work which has given her a world-wide reputation. No work of fiction +of any age ever attained so immediate and extensive a popularity as "Uncle +Tom's Cabin;" before the close of the first year after its publication it +had been translated into all the languages of Europe; many millions of +copies had been sold, and it had been dramatized in twenty different +forms, and performed in every capital of Europe. + +Besides the authors already named, there is a crowd of others of various +and high degrees of merit and reputation, but whose traits are chiefly +analogous to those already described. Paulding, in "Westward Ho" and "The +Dutchman's Fireside," has drawn admirable pictures of colonial life; Dana, +in "The Idle Man," has two or three remarkable tales; Flint, Hall, and +Webber have written graphic and spirited tales of Western life. Kennedy +has described Virginia life in olden times in "Swallow Barn;" and Fay has +described "Life in New York;" Hoffman has embodied the early history of +New York in a romantic form, and Dr. Bird, that of Mexico. William Ware's +"Probus" and "Letters from Palmyra" are classical romances, and Judd's +"Margaret" is a tragic story of New England life. Cornelius Mathews has +chosen new subjects, and treated them in an original way; John Neal has +written many novels full of power and incident. The "Hyperion" and +"Kavanagh" of Longfellow establish his success as a writer of fiction; and +in adventurous description, the "Omoo" and "Typee" of Melville, and the +"Kaloolah" and "Berber" of Mayo have gained an extensive popularity. + +This department of literature has been ably represented by the women of +the United States, and their contributions form an important part of our +national literature. Catharine M. Sedgwick has written the most pleasing +and graphic tales of New England life. Lydia M. Child is the author of +several fictions, as well as other prose works, which evince great vigor, +beauty, and grace. Maria J. McIntosh has written many charming tales; the +"New Home" of Mrs. Kirkland, an admirable picture of frontier life, was +brilliantly successful, and will be permanently valuable as representing +scenes most familiar to the early settlers of the Western States. The +works of the Misses Warner are equally popular in England and the United +States. Among numerous other names are those of Eliza Leslie, Lydia H. +Sigourney, Caroline Gilman, E. Oakes Smith, Alice and Phoebe Cary, +Elizabeth F. Ellet, Sarah J. Hale, Emma Willard, Caroline Lee Hentz, Alice +B. Neal, Caroline Chesebro, Emma Southworth, Ann S. Stephens, Maria +Cummings, Anna Mowatt Ritchie, Rose Terry Cooke, Harriet Prescott +Spofford, Augusta J. Evans, Catharine A. Warfield, and the writers under +the assumed names of Fanny Forrester, Grace Greenwood, Fanny Fern, Marion +Harland, and Mary Forrest, besides many anonymous writers. + +4. POETRY.--America has as yet produced no great epic poet, although the +existence of a high degree of poetical talent cannot be denied. Carrying +the same enthusiasm into the world of fancy that he does into the world of +fact, the American finds in the cultivation of the poetic faculty a +pleasant relief from the absorbing pursuits of daily life; hence, while +poetry is sometimes cultivated as an art, it is oftener resorted to as a +pastime; the number of writers is more numerous here than in any other +country, and the facility of poetical expression more universal. William +C. Bryant (1794-1878) is recognized as the best representative of American +poetry. He is extremely felicitous in the use of native materials, and he +has a profound love of nature and of freedom united with great artistic +skill. He is eminently a contemplative poet; in his writings there is a +remarkable absence of those bursts of tenderness and passion which +constitute the essence of a large portion of modern verse. His strength +lies in his descriptive power, in his serene and elevated philosophy, and +in his noble simplicity of language. Richard H. Dana (1787-1879) is the +most psychological of the American poets; the tragic and remorseful +elements of humanity exert a powerful influence over his imagination, +while the mysteries and aspirations of the human soul fill and elevate his +mind. His verse is sometimes abrupt, but never feeble, The poems of Fitz- +Greene Halleck are spirited and warm with emotion, or sparkling with +genuine wit. His humorous poems are marked by an uncommon ease of +versification, a natural flow of language, and a playful felicity of jest; +his serious poems are distinguished for manly vigor of thought and +language, and a beauty of imagery. The poems of Henry W. Longfellow (1807- +1882) are chiefly meditative, and often embody and illustrate significant +truths. They give little evidence of the power of overmastering passion, +but they are pervaded with an earnestness and beauty of sentiment, +expressed in a finished and artistic form, which at once wins the ear and +impresses the memory and heart. In "Evangeline" and "Hiawatha," the most +popular of his later productions, he has skillfully succeeded in the use +of metres unusual in English. The poems of N. P. Willis (1807-1867) are +characterized by a vivid imagination and a brilliant wit, combined with +grace of utterance and artistic finish. His picturesque elaborations of +some of the incidents recorded in the Bible are the best of his poetical +compositions. His dramas are delicate creations of sentiment and passion +with a relish of the Elizabethan age. J. R. Lowell (b. 1819) unites in his +most effective poems a philosophic simplicity with a transcendental +suggestiveness. Imagination and philanthropy are the dominant elements in +his writings, which are marked by a graceful flow and an earnest tone. His +satires contain many sharply-drawn portraits, and his humorous poems are +replete with wit. + +Washington Allston (1779-1843) owed his chief celebrity to his paintings, +but his literary works alone would have given him high rank among men of +genius. His poems are delicate, subtle, and philosophical, and though few +in number, they are exquisite in finish and in the thoughts which they +embody. + +James A. Hillhouse (1789-1841) excelled in what may be called the written +drama, which, though unsuited to representation, is characterized by noble +sentiment and imagery. His dramatic and other poems are the first +instances in this country of artistic skill in the higher and more +elaborate spheres of poetic writing, and have gained for him a permanent +place among the American poets. The "Culprit Fay" of Joseph Rodman Drake +(1795-1820) is a poem exhibiting a most delicate fancy and much artistic +skill. It was a sudden and brilliant flash of a highly poetical mind which +was extinguished before its powers were fully expanded. The poetry of John +G. Whittier (b. 1809) is characterized by boldness, energy, and +simplicity, often united with tenderness and grace; that of Oliver Wendell +Holmes, by humor and genial sentiment. In poetry, as in prose, Edgar A. +Poe was most successful in the metaphysical treatment of the passions. His +poems, which are constructed with great ingenuity, illustrate a morbid +sensitiveness and a shadowy and gloomy imagination. The poems of Henry T. +Tuckerman (1813-1871) are expressions of graceful and romantic sentiment +or the fruits of reflection, illustrated with a scholar's taste. + +Charles Fenno Hoffman (1806-1884) is the author of many admired convivial +and amatory poems, and George P. Morris is a recognized song-writer of +America. + +Of numerous other poets, whose names are familiar to all readers of +American literature, a few only can he named; among them are John G.C. +Brainerd, James G. Percival, Richard H. Wilde, James G. Brooks, Charles +Sprague, Alfred B. Street, T. Buchanan Read, T.B. Aldrich, William Allen +Butler, Albert G. Greene, George D. Prentice, William J. Pabodie, Park +Benjamin, William Gilmore Simms, John R. Thompson, William Ross Wallace, +Charles G. Leland, Thomas Dunn English, William D. Gallagher, Albert Pike, +John G, Saxe, James T. Fields, Arthur Cleveland Coxe, Cornelius Mathews, +John Neal, and Ralph Waldo Emerson. + +Among the literary women of the United States are many graceful writers +who possess true poetical genius, and enjoy a high local reputation. The +"Zophiel" of Maria Brooks (1795-1845) evinces an uncommon degree of power +in one of the most refined and difficult provinces of creative art. +Frances S. Osgood (1812-1850) was endowed with great playfulness of fancy, +and a facility of expression which rendered her almost an improvisatrice. +Her later poems are marked by great intensity of feeling and power of +expression. The "Sinless Child" of Elizabeth Oakes Smith is a melodious +and imaginative poem, with many passages of deep significance. Amelia B. +Welby's poems are distinguished for sentiment and melody. The "Passion +Flowers" and other poems of Julia Ward Howe are full of ardor and +earnestness. Mrs. Sigourney's metrical writings are cherished by a large +class of readers. Hannah F. Gould has written many pretty and fanciful +poems, and Grace Greenwood's "Ariadne" is a fine burst of womanly pride +and indignation. Among many other equally well known and honored names, +there are those of Elizabeth F. Ellet, Emma C. Embury, Sarah J. Hale, Anna +Mowatt Ritchie, Ann S. Stephens, Sarah H. Whitman, Catharine A. Warfield, +and Eleanor Lee, ("Two Sisters of the West") Alice and Phoebe Cary, "Edith +May," Caroline C. Marsh, Elizabeth C. Kinney, and Maria Lowell. + +Nothing of very decided mark has been contributed to dramatic literature +by American writers, though this branch of letters has been cultivated +with some success. John Howard Payne wrote several successful plays; +George H. Boker is the author of many dramatic works which establish his +claim to an honorable rank among the dramatic writers of the age. Single +dramas by Bird, Sargent, Conrad, and other writers still keep their place +upon the stage; with many faults, they abound in beauties, and they are +valuable as indications of awakening genius. + +5. THE TRANSCENDENTAL MOVEMENT IN NEW ENGLAND.--The Transcendental +Philosophy, so-called, had its distinct origin in the "Critique of Pure +Reason," the work of Immanuel Kant, which appeared in Germany in 1781, +although, under various forms, the questions it discussed are as old as +Plato and Aristotle, The first principle of this philosophy is that ideas +exist in the soul which transcend the senses, while that of the school of +Locke, or the School of Sensation, is that there is nothing in the +intellect that was not first in the senses. The Transcendentalist claimed +an intuitive knowledge of God, belief in immortality, and in man's ability +to apprehend absolute ideas of truth, justice, and rectitude. The one +regarded expediency, prudence, caution, and practical wisdom as the +highest of the virtues, and distrusted alike the seer, the prophet, and +the reformer. The other was by nature a reformer and dissatisfied with men +as they are, but with passionate aspirations for a pure social state, he +recognized, above all, the dignity of the individual man. + +These two schools of philosophy aimed at the same results, but by +different methods. The one worked up from beneath by material processes, +the other worked down from above by intellectual ones. There had been in +other countries a transcendental philosophy, but, in New England alone, +where the sense of individual freedom was active, and where there were no +fixed and unalterable social conditions, was this philosophy applied to +actual life. Of late the scientific method, so triumphant in the natural +world, has been applied to the spiritual, and the principles of the +sensational philosophy have been, re-stated by Bain, Mill, Spencer, and +other leaders of speculative opinion, who present it under the name of the +"Philosophy of Experience," and resolve the intuitions of the Ideal into +the results of experience and the processes of organic, life. Mill was the +first to organize the psychological side, while Lewes, Spencer, and +Tyndall have approached the same problem from the side of organization. +Should these analyses be accepted, Idealism as a philosophy must +disappear. There is, however, no cause to apprehend a return to the +demoralization which the sensualist doctrines of the last century were +accused of encouraging. The attitude of the human mind towards the great +problems of destiny has so far altered, and the problems themselves have +so far changed their face, that no shock will be felt in the passage from +the philosophy of intuition to that of experience. + +Early in the second quarter of our century the doctrines of Kant and of +his German followers, Jacobi, Fichte, and Schelling, found their way into +New England, and their influence on thought and life was immediate and +powerful, affecting religion, literature, laws, and institutions. As an +episode or special phase of thought, it was of necessity transient, but +had it bequeathed nothing more than the literature that sprang from it and +the lives of the men and women who had their intellectual roots in it, it +would have conferred a lasting benefit on America. + +Among the first to plant the seeds of the Transcendental Philosophy in New +England was George Ripley (1802-1880), a philanthropist on ideal +principles, whose faith blossomed into works, and whose well known attempt +to create a new earth in preparation for a new heaven, although it ended +in failure, commanded sympathy and respect. Later, as a critic, he aided +the development of literature in America by erecting a high standard of +judgment and by his just estimation of the rights and duties of literary +men. + +Theodore Parker (d. 1860) owed his great power as a preacher to his faith +in the Transcendental philosophy. The Absolute God, the Moral Law, and the +Immortal Life he held to be the three cardinal attestations of the +universal consciousness. The authority of the "higher law," the absolute +necessity of religion for safely conducting the life of the individual and +the life of the state, he asseverated with all the earnestness of an +enthusiastic believer. + +A. Bronson Alcott (b. 1799) is a philosopher of the Mystic school. Seeking +wisdom, not through books, but by intellectual processes, he appeals at +once to consciousness, claims immediate insight, and contemplates ultimate +laws in his own soul. His "Orphic Sayings" amused and perplexed the +critics, who made them an excuse for assailing the entire Transcendental +school. + +Margaret Fuller (1810-1850) adopted the spiritual philosophy, and had the +subtlest perception of its bearings. Her vigorous and original writings +possess a lasting value, although they imperfectly represent her +remarkable powers. + +Among the representatives of the Spiritual Philosophy the first place +belongs to Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882), who lighted up its doctrines +with the rays of ethical and poetical imagination. Without the formality +of dogma, he was a teacher of vigorous morality in line with the ruling +tendencies of the age, and bringing all the aid of abstract teaching +towards the solution of the moral problems of society. + +The first article of his faith is the primacy of Mind; that Mind is +supreme, eternal, absolute, one, manifold, subtle, living, immanent in all +things, permanent, flowing, self-manifesting; that the universe is the +result of mind; that nature is the symbol of mind; that finite minds live +and act through concurrence with infinite mind. His second is the +connection of the individual intellect with the primal mind and its +ability to draw thence wisdom, will, virtue, prudence, heroism, all active +and passive qualities. + +In his essays, which are prose poems, he lays incessant emphasis on the +cardinal virtues of humility, sincerity, obedience, aspiration, and +acquiescence to the will of the Supreme Power, and he sustains the mind at +an elevation that makes the heights of accepted morality disappear in the +level of the plain. With many inconsistencies to be allowed for, Emerson +still remains the highest mind that the world of letters has produced in +America, inspiring men by word and example, rebuking their despondency, +awakening them from the slumber of conformity and convention, and lifting +them from low thoughts and sullen moods of helplessness and impiety. + +Among other writers identified with the Transcendental movement in New +England are O. B. Frothingham, Orestes A. Brownson, James Freeman Clarke, +William H. Channing, Henry Thoreau, John S. Dwight, C. P. Cranch, W. E. +Channing, T. W. Higginson, C. A. Bartol, D. A. Wasson, John Weiss, and +Samuel Longfellow. + +6. MISCELLANEOUS WRITINGS.--Of the essayists, critics, and miscellaneous +writers of the United States, a few only may be here characterized. + +Parke Godwin is a brilliant political essayist. E. P. Whipple is an able +critic and an essayist of great acuteness, insight, and logical power. H. +T. Tuckerman is a genial and appreciative writer, combining extensive +scholarship with elevated sentiment and feeling. Richard Grant White's +"Commentaries on Shakspeare" have met with a cordial reception from all +Shakspearean scholars. + +Oliver Wendell Holmes conceals under the garb of wit and humor an earnest +sympathy and a deep knowledge of human nature; George W. Curtis combines +fine powers of observation and satire with delicacy of taste and +refinement of feeling; and Donald G. Mitchell gives to the world his +"Reveries" in a pleasing and attractive manner. The writings of A. J. +Downing, on subjects relating to rural life and architecture, have +exercised a wide and salutary influence on the taste of the country. +Willis Gaylord Clark (1810-1841) is best remembered by his "Ollapodiana" +and his occasional poems, in which humor and pathos alternately prevail. +The "Charcoal Sketches" of Joseph C. Neal (1807-1847) exhibit a genial +humor, and will be remembered for the curious specimens of character they +embody. + +Seba Smith has been most successful in adapting the Yankee dialect to the +purposes of humorous writing in his "Jack Downing's Letters" and other +productions. The writings of Henry D. Thoreau, combining essay and +description, are quaint and humorous, while those of "Timothy Titcomb" +(J.G. Holland) are addressed to the practical common sense of the American +people. + +Charles T. Brooks (d. 1883) is distinguished for his felicitous +translations from the German poets and writers. + +The writings of George D. Prentice abound in wit and humor. W.H. Hurlburt +is an able expositor of political affairs and a brilliant descriptive +writer. + +7. ENCYCLOPAEDIAS, DICTIONARIES, AND EDUCATIONAL BOOKS. The Encyclopaedia +Americana, the first work of the kind undertaken in America, appeared in +1829, under the auspices of Dr. Lieber, and contains articles on almost +every subject of human knowledge. The New American Cyclopaedia, edited by +George Ripley and Charles A. Dana, is a work on a larger and more original +plan, and is particularly valuable as the repository of all knowledge +bearing upon American civilization, while at the same time it embodies a +great amount of interesting and valuable information on all subjects. +Allibone's "Dictionary of English Authors," completed in four large +volumes, exceeds all similar works in the number of authors it describes +and the details it contains. Among the works containing abundant materials +for the history of American literature are the several volumes of Rufus W. +Griswold, the "Cyclopaedia of American Literature," by G.L. and E.A. +Duyckinck, and other collections or sketches by Hart, Cleveland, +Tuckerman, Everest, and Caroline May. + +The Dictionary of Noah Webster (1778-1843), an elaborate and successful +undertaking, has exercised an influence over the English language which +will probably endure for generations. The more recent publication of +Worcester's Dictionary, which adds many thousand words to the registered +English vocabulary, marks an epoch in the history of the language. It is +regarded by competent critics as the first of all English dictionaries in +point of merit, and as the fitting representative of the language of the +two great branches of the Anglican stock. The "Lectures on the English +Language," by George P. Marsh, exhibit a thorough knowledge of the +subject, and are admirably designed to render the study attractive to all +persons of taste and culture. + +The scholars of Europe are much indebted to those of America for their +investigations of the Karen, the Siamese, Asamese, Chinese, and numerous +African languages; and for grammars and dictionaries of the Burmese, +Chinese, the Hawaiian, and the modern Armenian, Syrian, and Chaldee +tongues. Foreign and comparatively unknown languages have thus been +reduced to a system and grammar by which they can readily be acquired by +Europeans. Many valuable works have also appeared on the language of the +American Indians. + +The text-books of the United States are unsurpassed by those of any +country, and many of them are in use in England. Among them are Anthon's +admirable series of Latin and Greek Classics and Classical Dictionary, +Robinson's Hebrew and English Dictionary of Gesenius, and the Latin and +English Dictionary of Andrews, founded on the celebrated work of Freund. + +Felton's "Classical Studies," and his various editions of the classics, +have been ably prepared and evince a scholar's enthusiasm. Henry Barnard, +by his "Journal of Education" and numerous other writings, is identified +with the cause of popular education and has acquired an extensive +reputation in Europe and the United States. Horace Mann is also widely +known through his "Reports" on education; and in the practical carrying +out of profound liberal and national views in our colleges, Presidents +Nott, Tappan, Wayland, Sears, King, and Barnard have been eminently +successful. + +8. THEOLOGY, PHILOSOPHY, ECONOMY, ASD JURISPRUDENCE. It is generally +conceded that the theological writers of this country are among the ablest +of modern times, and the diversity of sects, a curious and striking fact +in our social history, is fully illustrated by the literary organs of each +denomination, from the spiritual commentaries of Bush to the ardent +Catholicism of Brownson. The works of Moses Stuart (1780-1852), Edward +Robinson, Francis Wayland, and Albert Barnes are standard authorities with +all classes of Protestant Christians. + +William Ellery Channing (1780-1842) achieved a wide reputation for genius +in ethical literature, and as a moral essayist will hold a permanent place +in English letters. Among other members of the clerical profession who +have had a marked influence on the mind of the age by their scholarship or +eloquence are Drs. Hickok, C.S. Henry, Tappan, H.B. Smith, Hitchcock, W.R. +Williams, Alexander, Bethune, Hawks, Sprague, Bushnell, Thompson, Tyng, +Bartol, Dewey, Norton, Frothingham, Osgood, Chapin, Bellows, Furness, +Livermore, Ware, Peabody, and Henry Ward Beecher. + +The philosophical writings of Dr. Tappan, the author of a "Treatise on the +Will" and a work on the "Elements of Logic," those of C.S. Henry, Wayland, +Hickok, and Haven have an extensive reputation; and of the various works +on political economy those of Henry C. Carey are most widely known. + +Most prominent among the writings of American jurists are those of Kent, +Wheaton, Story, Livingston, Lawrence, and Bouvier. Kent's (1768-1847) +"Commentaries" on American Law at once took a prominent place in legal +literature, and are now universally considered of the highest authority. +Of Wheaton's (1785-1848) great works on International Law, it is +sufficient to say that one has been formally adopted by the University of +Cambridge, England, as the best work of its kind extant, and as a manual +for tuition by the professors of legal science. Among modern legal +writers, Story (1779-1845) occupies a distinguished position. His +"Commentaries" have acquired a European reputation, and have been +translated into French and German. Livingston's (1764-1833) "System of +Penal Laws for the United States," since its publication in 1828, has +materially modified the penal laws of the world, and may be considered the +first complete penal system based upon philanthropy, and designed to +substitute mildness for severity in the punishment of criminals. Bouvier's +"Institutes of American Law" and "Dictionary of Law" are considered as +among the best works of their kind, both in the United States and Europe. +Other branches of legal research have been treated in a masterly manner by +American writers, and many authors might be named whose works take a high +rank in both hemispheres. + +9. NATURAL SCIENCES.--The physical sciences, from an early period, have +found able investigators in the United States. Benjamin Thompson (Count +Rumford) successfully applied his knowledge to increase the convenience, +economy, and comfort of mankind. Franklin's discoveries in electricity, +the most brilliant which had yet been made, have been followed by those of +Morse, whose application of that power to the telegraphic wire is one of +the most wonderful achievements of modern science. Fitch and Fulton were +the first to apply steam to navigation, a force which has become one of +the most powerful levers of civilization. In chemistry the works of Hare, +Silliman, Henry, Hunt, and Morfit are equally honorable to themselves and +the country. The names of Dana, Hitchcock, Hall, the brothers Rogers, +Eaton, Hodge, Owen, and Whitney are identified with the science of geology +in the United States. The names of Torrey and Gray are eminent in botany, +and the writings of the latter especially rank among the most valuable +botanical works of the age. The mathematical sciences have found able +expounders. The merits of Dr. Bowditch (1773-1838) entitle him to a high +rank among the mathematicians of the world. His Commentary on the +"Mécanique Céleste" of La Place, which he translated, is an original work, +and contains many discoveries of his own. His "Practical Navigator" is the +universally adopted guide in the American marine, and to a great extent in +the naval service of England and France. + +In mathematics as well as astronomy, Peirce and Hill have shown themselves +able investigators. Bache, of the United States Coast Survey, has made +many valuable contributions to physical science. The astronomical works of +Professors Loowis, Gould, Norton, Olmsted, and Mitchell hold a high +position in the United States and Europe; and valuable astronomical +observations have been made by Lieutenants Maury and Gillies, and Maria +Mitchell. + +In natural history, Holbrook's "North American Herpetology," or a +description of the reptiles of the United States, is a work of great +magnitude, and sustains a high scientific reputation. Audubon's (1780- +1851) "Birds of America" is the most magnificent work on ornithology ever +published. Since the death of Audubon, the subject to which he devoted his +life has been pursued by Cassin and Girard, who rank with him as +naturalists. Goodrich's "Animal Kingdom" is a recent popular work in this +department. + +The "Crania Americana" of Dr. Morton, the "Crania Egyptiaca" of Gliddon, +and the "Types of Mankind," the joint production of the above writers and +Dr. Nott, are important contributions to the department of ethnology. + +De Vere and Dwight are eminent writers on philology; Jarvis, Hough, +Tucker, De Bow, Kennedy, and Wynne, on statistics. + +Medical literature has been ably illustrated, and American writers on +naval and military affairs have contributed largely to the effectiveness +of modern warfare. Geographical knowledge has been greatly increased. Many +explorations and publications have been made under the patronage of the +government, and many excellent maps and charts have been executed from +actual surveys. The Wind Charts and other works of Lieutenant Maury have +greatly advanced the science of navigation, and his "Physical Geography of +the Sea" has revealed the mysteries of the submarine world with graphic +power. + +10. FOREIGN WRITERS.--Many foreign writers in the United States, some of +whom have had their tastes formed here, and are essentially American in +principle and feeling, have contributed to the literature of the country. +The celebrated Bishop Berkeley (1684-1753), whose prophetic verses on +America are so often quoted, brought with him the prestige which attached +to high literary reputation, and had an influence on the progress of +literature in the colonies. His "Minute Philosopher" contains many +passages descriptive of the scene at Newport, in the midst of which it was +written. Thomas Paine (1736-1809) wrote his pamphlet entitled "Common +Sense," and his "Crisis," in America, the former of which, especially, +powerfully affected the political condition of the country. John +Witherspoon (1722-1794), lineal descendant of John Knox, was the author of +many religious works, and of some valuable political essays. Susanna +Rowson (1762-1824) was the author of "Charlotte Temple," a novel which had +extraordinary success in its day, and of many books of less fame. Joseph +Priestley (1733-1804) wrote and published many of his most valuable works +in the United States. His friend Thomas Cooper (1759-1840) was one of the +most active minds of the age, and his religious, political, and scientific +writings were not without their influence on the national literature. "The +American Ornithology" of Alexander Wilson (1766-1813), a native of +Scotland, is second only to the great work of Audubon. The names of +Matthew Carey, Peter Duponceau, and Albert Gallatin are also honorably +associated with American letters. + +Of the more recent writers, Dr. Lieber has done much for the advancement +of political and philosophical science in the United States. The names of +Agassiz, father and son, and Guyot, prominent among the scientific +investigators of the age, are indissolubly connected with science in +America; and Drs. Draper and Dunglison have made valuable contributions to +the medical literature of the world. Count A. de Gurowski, an able +scholar, has published a work on "Russia as it is," and another on +"America and Europe." Mrs. Robinson's various works entitle her to high +distinction in the more grave as well as the lighter departments of +literature. Professor Koeppen has written two valuable works on the "World +in the Middle Ages." Dr. Brunow has brought a European reputation to the +aid of one of our Western universities. Henry Giles has gained distinction +by his essays and criticisms, and Henry William Herbert by his novels and +miscellaneous writings. Many other foreign men of letters might be named, +who, in various ways, aid the development of the national literature. + +11. NEWSPAPERS AND PERIODICALS.--One of the most powerful engines in +creating a taste for literature among the people of the United States is +the newspaper and periodical press. Every interest, every social and +political doctrine has its organ, and every village has its newspaper; not +devoted solely to special, local, or even to national topics, but +registering the principal passing events of the actual as well as of the +intellectual world, and in this respect differing essentially from the +press of all other countries. These papers are offered at so small a price +as to place them within the reach of all; and in a country where every one +reads, the influence of such a power as a public educator, in stimulating +and diffusing mental activity, and in creating cosmopolitan interests, can +scarcely be comprehended in its full significance. While there is much in +these publications that is necessarily of an evanescent character, and +much that might perhaps be better excluded, it cannot be denied that the +best of our daily and weekly papers often contain literary matter which in +a less fugitive form would become a permanent and valuable contribution to +the national literature. + +The magazines and reviews of the United States take a worthy place beside +those of Great Britain, and present a variety of reading which exhibits at +once the versatility of the people and the cosmopolitan tendency of the +literature which addresses itself to the sympathies of the most +diversified classes of readers. Among the quarterly reviews, the North +American occupies a prominent position. It is associated with the earliest +dawnings of the national literature, and in the list of its contributors +is found almost every name of note in American letters. The Scientific +American and the Popular Science Monthly are the most eminent of the +scientific periodicals; the Bibliotheca Sacra, the Andover and Princeton +Reviews, the Christian Union, the Independent, the Churchman are among the +ablest religious journals. + +With the decease of H.S. Legaré, one of the most finished scholars of the +South, the Southern Quarterly, which had been indebted to his pen for many +of its ablest articles, ceased its existence. Putnam's Magazine was long +the medium of the most valuable and interesting fugitive literature; and +the Atlantic Monthly, which has succeeded it, is under the auspices of the +most eminent men of letters in New England, and has become the nucleus of +a number of young and able writers. The Magazine of American History is +the repository of much valuable information and many curious incidents in +the history of the country. Harper's Magazine and the Century are +periodicals of high literary character and of wide circulation both in +this country and in England. They have by means of their illustrations +done much to advance and develop the art of engraving. + +The language of American literature being that of England, its early +productions were naturally modeled after those of the mother-country. But +the cosmopolitan elements of which the nation is composed, and the +peculiar influences of American civilization in holding out to the human +race opportunities and destinies unparalleled in history, are rapidly +developing a distinct national character which in the future must be +reflected in American literature, and cannot fail to produce great +results. This at least is the belief of all those who have faith in +humanity and in the spirit which laid the foundation of our Republic. + +12. SINCE 1800.--The period intervening between 1860 and 1885 has not been +marked by any important literary development. In the great war for the +support of the institution of slavery on one hand and for national +existence on the other, history was enacted rather than written, and the +sudden and rapid development of material interests succeeding the war have +absorbed, to a great extent, the energies of the people. + +Many histories of special occurrences of the war have since appeared, and +many biographies of those who played prominent parts in it, and when time +shall have given these, and the great events they commemorate, their true +perspective, the poet, novelist, and historian of the future will find in +them ample material for a truly national literature. + +Among the poets of the time only a few of the more prominent can be named. +Bayard Taylor (1825-1878) is equally distinguished as a poet and prose +writer of fiction and travels. His translation of Faust in the original +metre is accepted as the best representation of the German master in the +English tongue, and apart from its merits as a translation, it has added +to the literature by the beauty and power of its versification. His poem +of "Deukalion" shows great originality and power of imagination. Richard +H. Stoddard (b. 1825) is a poet and critic, equally distinguished in both +departments. Edmund C. Stedman (b. 1833) is known by his translations from +the Greek poets and his original poems marked by vigor and spontaneity of +thought, poetic power, and precision in art. His critical volume on the +Victorian poets is notable for dispassionate, conscientious, and skillful +and sympathetic criticism. + +Walt Whitman (b. 1819) writes with great force, originality, and sympathy +with all forms of struggle and suffering, but with utter contempt for +conventionalities and for the acknowledged limits of true art. Richard W. +Gilder has a delicate fancy and power of poetic expression. William +Winter, as a writer of occasional verses, has rare felicity of thought and +execution. William W. Story adds to his many other gifts those of a true +poet. Charles De Kay is the author of many poems original in conception +and execution. Thomas Bailey Aldrich has written much dainty and musical +verse and several successful novels. Will Carleton, the author of "Farm +Ballads," displays a keen sympathy for the harder phases of common life. +Charles G. Leland, in prose and humorous poetry, is widely read, and known +also by his efforts to introduce industrial art into schools. Henry Howard +Brownell is the author of "War Lyrics," among the best of their kind. +Edgar Fawcett is equally known as a poet and novelist. Joaquin Miller, in +his poems, gives pictures of lawless and adventurous life. + +Of the many distinguished women in contemporary American literature only a +few can here be named. Helen Jackson (H. H.) is a brilliant prose writer +and a poet of originality and power. She is the author of many essays and +works of fiction, and of an exhaustive work on the Indian question. Emma +Lazarus has written many poems of a high order. Annie Fields recalls the +spirit and imagination of the Greek mythology. Edith M. Thomas, in her +poems, shows high culture, originality, and imagination. Those of Lucy +Larcom belong to every-day life, and are truthful and pathetic. Mary Mapes +Dodge is a charming writer of tales and poems for children, and of other +poems, Celia Thaxter dwells on the picturesque features of nature on sea +and land. Julia Dorr in her novels and poems gives proof of great +versatility of talents. Ellen Hutchinson is a writer of imaginative and +musical verses. Elizabeth Stoddard is the author of several powerful +novels and of some fine poems. Of equal merit are the productions of +Louise Chandler Moulton, Nora Perry, Edna Dean Proctor, S. M. B. Piatt, +Margaret Preston, Harriet Preston, Elizabeth Akers Allen, Sarah Woolsey +(Susan Coolidge), Laura Johnson, Mary Clemmer, Mary C. Bradley, Kate +Putnam Osgood, Harriet Kimball, Marian Douglas, Mary Prescott, Laura C. +Redden. + +In prose Frances Hodgson Burnett is the author of many interesting novels +and stories; Harriet Spofford, of original tales; Elizabeth Stuart Phelps, +of popular and highly wrought novels; Adeline Whitney, of entertaining +novels of every-day life; Rebecca Harding Davis, of powerful though sombre +novels, of pictures of contemporary life, society, and thought; Louisa +Alcott, of a series of charming New England stories for the young. Rose +Terry Cooke, in her short stories, has presented many striking studies of +New England life and character; and Sarah Orne Jewett deals with the same +material in a manner both strong and refined. Julia Fletcher and Blanche +Willis Howard have each written successful novels, and Constance Fenimore +Woolson is the author of many vivid and well written tales. Mary A. Dadge +(Gail Hamilton) is a writer on many subjects, sparkling, witty, +aggressive; Clara Erskine Waters writes ably on art; Kate Field is a +vigorous and brilliant writer in journalism, travels, and criticism. + +FICTION.--Theodore Winthrop (1828-1861) fell an early sacrifice in the +war. His descriptions of prairie life, his fresh and vigorous +individualization of character and power of narrative indicate a vein of +original genius which was foil of promise. William Dean Howells and Henry +James are foremost as writers of the analytic and realistic school. Their +studies of character are life-like and finished, their satire keen and +good-natured. The romances of Julian Hawthorne deal with the marvelous and +unreal. Bret Harte (b. 1839) presents us with vivid and lifelike pictures +of wild Californian life, of the rude hate and love which prevail in an +atmosphere of lawlessness, redeemed by touching exhibitions of gratitude +and magnanimity. His dialect poems and those of John Hay enjoy a wide +popularity. The latter will also be remembered for his "Castilian Days," a +volume of fascinating studies of Spanish subjects. George W. Cable is +known for his pictures of Creole life; Edward Eggleston, for his sketches +of the shrewd and kindly humorous Western life. Albion Tourgée has been +the first to avail himself in fiction of the political conditions growing +out of the war. Joel Chandler Harris delineates the character, dialect, +and peculiarities of the negro race in his "Sketches in Black and White," +and Richard Malcolm Johnston has graphically described phases of Southern +life which have almost passed away. F. Marion Crawford shows originality +and promise in the novels he has so far given to the public; the same may +be said of Arthur S. Hardy, George P. Lathrop, W.H. Bishop, Frank R. +Stockton, and F.J. Stinson. + +SCIENCE.--In astronomy, Young, Henry Draper, and Langley may be named; in +geology, Dana and Leconte; in physiology, Flint and Dalton; Marsh, in +palaeontology, and Leidy, in zöology; Professor Whitney is an able writer +on philology and Oriental literature. Professor E.L. Youmans has organized +the simultaneous publication, in this country, England, France, Germany, +Italy, and Russia, of an international series of scientific works by the +ablest living writers, which has proved eminently successful. Among the +theologians representing various schools may be named, Philip Schaff, +Roswell D. Hitchcock, Samuel Osgood, Henry W. Bellows, Frederick H. Hedge, +Edward E. Hale, Newman Smyth, William R. Alger, and Octavius B. +Frothingham. + +MISCELLANEOUS.--John Fiske is an able and versatile thinker and an +expounder of the philosophy of Herbert Spencer, and a writer on American +history, and on the leading subjects of scientific thought. Charles Brace +is the author of many volumes on various social problems. Moses Coit Tyler +is a writer on American literature and history; Andrew D. White, on French +history, and on science and religion. Professor McMaster's "History of the +People of the United States" is considered a scholarly and picturesque +work. Professor Lounsbury has written, in his "Cooper," one of the best of +modern biographies. Charles Dudley Warner is distinguished by the great +geniality and humor of his writings, alternately quaint, delicate, and +pungent. The charm and purity of his diction recall the best school of +English essayists. Paul Du Chaillu is widely known for his accounts of +travel in Africa and elsewhere; Moncure D. Conway, as a writer on social, +literary, and artistic themes. John Burroughs is a close observer of +nature; Eugene Schuyler is the author of a history of Peter the Great; +Parkman throws much light on early American history; Parton is the author +of many attractive biographies; Samuel Clemens (Mark Twain) is known for +his humorous writings. + + + + +CONCLUSION. + + +In the preceding pages the progress of literature has been briefly traced +through its various periods--from the time when its meagre records were +confined to inscriptions engraved on stone, or inscribed on clay tablets +or papyrus leaves, or in its later and more perfect development when, +written on parchment, it was the possession of the learned few, hidden in +libraries and so precious that a book was sometimes the ransom of a city-- +till the invention of printing gave to the world the accumulated treasures +of the past; and from that time to the present, when the press has poured +forth from year to year an ever increasing succession of books, the +records of human thought, achievement, and emotion which constitute +literature. + +The question here naturally arises as to whether the human mind has now +reached its highest development in this direction, whether it is +henceforth to retrograde or to advance. It was only towards the close of +the last century that the idea of human progress gained ground, after the +American and French revolutions had broken down old barriers, inaugurated +new systems, inspired new hopes, and revealed new possibilities. What was +then but a feeble sentiment, later advances in the direction of science +have confirmed. Among them are the discovery of the correlation and +conservation of force, according to Faraday the highest law which our +faculties permit us to perceive; the spectroscope, that gives the chemist +power to analyze the stars; the microscope, that lays bare great secrets +of nature, and almost penetrates the mystery of life itself; the +application of steam and electricity, that puts all nations into +communication and binds mankind together with nerves of steel; above all, +the theory of evolution, which opens to man an almost illimitable vista of +progress and development. It is true that these great intellectual +triumphs of the nineteenth century are all in the direction of science; +but literature in its true sense embraces both science and art; science +which discovers through the intellect, and art which transmutes, through +the imagination, knowledge and emotion into beauty. When the stupendous +discoveries of our time have been fully recognized and appreciated and +followed, as they doubtless will be, by a long series of others equally +great, a higher order of thought must follow, and literature, which, is +but the reflection of the thought of any age, cannot but be in harmony +with it. + +This consummation more than one poet, with the prescience of genius, has +already foretold. "Poetry," says Wordsworth, "is the first and last of all +knowledge, immortal as the heart of man. If the labors of men of science +should ever create any material revolution, direct or indirect, in our +condition and in the impressions we habitually receive, the poet will +sleep no more then than at present; he will be ready to follow the steps +of the man of science, and if the time should ever come when what is now +called science shall be ready to put on, as it were, a form of flesh and +blood, the poet will lend his divine spirit to aid the transfiguration." +"The sublime and all reconciling revelations of nature," writes Emerson, +"will exact of poetry a corresponding height and scope, or put an end to +it." George Eliot says,-- + + "Presentiment of better things on earth + Sweeps in with every force that stirs our souls." + +Throughout the verse of Tennyson the idea of progress is variously +expressed. He dreams of a future + + "When the war-drum throbs no longer and the battle-flags are furled." + "When comes the statelier Eden back to man." + "When springs the crowning race of human kind." + +Thus the inspirations of poetry not less than the conclusions of science +indicate that we must look for the Golden Age, not in a mythical past, but +in an actual though far-off future. + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Handbook of Universal Literature +by Anne C. Lynch Botta + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HANDBOOK OF UNIVERSAL LITERATURE *** + +This file should be named 8163-8.txt or 8un8163-8lt10.zip + +Produced by Anne Soulard, Tiffany Vergon +and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team. + +Project Gutenberg eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the US +unless a copyright notice is included. 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