tude during the long struggle with the American Colonies, his impeachment of Warren Hastings, and the kindling eloquence with which from first to last he denounced the French Revolution. His encyclopædic knowledge and his rhetorical supremacy are also historical. 'Burke understands everything,' said 'Single-speech' Hamilton, to whom he was at one time private secretary, 'but gaming and music.' 'He is the only man,' said Johnson, whose common conversation corresponds with the fame he has in the world.' The name of Burke,' said another contemporary (Lord Thurlow), 'will be remembered with admiration when those of Pitt and Fox will be comparatively forgotten.'

96. The Historians.-In an age of which prose composition is held to be the foremost form of literature, it might be anticipated that historians would be active. Accordingly we find that Hume's History of England, 1754-61; Robertson's Charles V., 1769; and Gibbon's Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, 1776-88, all belong to this time. David Hume (1711-76) comes first of these, his Treatise on Human Nature appearing in 1738. His other works are Essays Moral and Political, 1741-42; Enquiry concerning Human Understanding, 1748; Enquiry concerning the Principles of Morals, 1751; and the posthumous Dialogues on Natural Religion, 1779. In addition to the history mentioned above, William Robertson (1721-93) wrote a History of Scotland, 1759; a History of America, 1777; and a Disquisition on Ancient India, 1791; and Edward Gibbon (1737-94), besides his magnum opus, is the author of a short Essai sur l'Étude de la Littérature, published in 1761. The style of Hume, both in his philosophic essays and history, is brilliant and perspicuous, and by incorporating chapters on the people with his work, he added a new feature to historical writing. Robertson's style lacks what Gibbon has called the 'careless inimitable graces of his predecessor, and his writing, though correct, is colourless and unidiomatic. The style of Gibbon himself, on the other hand, is proverbial for its ornate splendour and sumptuous, albeit somewhat overpowering, Orientalism.

97. Wilkes, 'Junius.'-Political writing during this period was made notorious by two authors, John Wilkes (1727-97) and the celebrated Junius ;'-the former of whom, however, is scarcely to be named with the latter. Wilkes attacked the Government in the North Briton, a weekly newspaper which came out from June 1762, to April 1763, when the appearance of its famous 'No. 45' caused the authorities to take decisive steps for its suppression. Wilkes was arrested; but, being member for Buckinghamshire, his

arrest was pronounced illegal. He was expelled from Parliament, re-elected, and his re-election reversed. For a time he became a popular idol, but ultimately sank into insignificance. As the result of a quarrel with Hogarth, not very creditable to either party, his by no means prepossessing features have been perpetuated in a print, well known to all collectors of that artist's works. Five years after the cessation of the North Briton, there appeared in the Public Advertiser, from January 21, 1769, to January 21, 1772, a series of letters criticising and attacking the Duke of Grafton and other leaders of public affairs, in a style which, for its merciless invective and biting sarcasm, has long been regarded as a model for party writing. The authorship of these letters, much debated, is still sub judice. A variety of claimants have been set up during the intervening century, but of none can it be unanswerably affirmed that he composed them. The bulk of the evidence tends to indicate Sir Philip Francis (1740-1818), Clerk in the War Office, 1762-72, and member of the Supreme Council of Bengal in 1773, as the probable author. A recent scientific comparison of the Junian MSS. with some of the letters of Francis still extant, goes far to show that they were the work of one person. But it nevertheless remains open to the opponents of the so-called 'Franciscan' theory to contend that Francis was only the scribe and not the author of these mysterious epistles.*

98. Adam Smith, Blackstone.-Two writers of this period deserve a longer notice than our space will admit. One is Adam Smith (1723-93), successively Professor of Logic and Moral Philosophy in the University of Glasgow and founder of the science of political economy;' the other Sir William Blackstone (1723-80), the elucidator of

"That codeless myriad of precedent,
That wilderness of single instances,-

English law. His Commentaries on the Laws of England were published in 1765–68; Smith's Theory of Moral Sentiments in 1759, and his Enquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations in 1776. Both authors wrote other books; but those cited are their masterpieces, and, progress in law and political economy notwithstanding, neither of these great works can safely be neglected by modern students. For the principal works of Reid, Priestley, Tucker, and some other philosophic writers of this era, the reader is referred to our Dictionary Appendix (E).

The Handwriting of Junius Professionally Investigated. By Mr. Ch. Chabot, Expert. With Preface and Collateral Evidence. By the Hon. E. Tuisleton, 1871. Mr. W. F. Rae's five articles in the Athenaeum, 1889-90, should be consulted.

99. The Theologians.—From the many theologians of this epoch three names must be selected, viz., those of Atterbury, Butler and Warburton. The first, Francis Atterbury (1662–1732), Bishop of Rochester, was a brilliant and active controversialist (indeed he, too, was engaged on Boyle's side in that famous battle about the Letters of Phalaris-see p. 99, s. 69), and a kind and amiable man. The second Joseph Butler (1692–1752), Bishop of Bristol and Dean of St. Paul's, was author of the Analogy of Religion, Natural and Revealed, to the Constitution and Course of Nature, 1736, a work which Lord Brougham has styled the most argumentative and philosophical defence of Christianity ever submitted to the world,' and of which the excellent matter has overcome the abstruseness of the manner. William Warburton, the last (1698-1779), was Bishop of Gloucester, and author of the Divine Legation of Moses, 1738. But a more signal work (in the opinion of many) is his adroit apology for the Essay on Mun (see p. 120, s. 79), against the charges of Deism advanced by M. Crousaz in his Examen de l'Essai de M. Pope, 1737. For the Hoadleys and Lowths, Watts and Doddridges, Wesleys, Whitefields, and other theologians of this chapter, the reader is referred to our Dictionary Appendix.

100. The Dramatic Writers.-The list of dramatic writers of eminence during this period is not a long one. Authors there were in abundance, but masterpieces are few. Vanbrugh and Farquhar belong to the early part of the century by several works already enumerated (see p. 111, s. 77). The comedies of Goldsmith, still popular as ever, have also been mentioned (see p. 145, s. 93). Besides the unacted tragedy of the Regicide, 1749, Smollett wrote a play called the Reprisal, or the Tars of Old England, 1757,-of average excellence; and, of the many works of Fielding, but few deserve remembrance. Walpole, too, comes among the playwrights by the Mysterious Mother; which, however, was never acted. Thə chief tragic writers were-Nicholas Rowe (1673-1718), author of Jane Shore, 1714, the Fair Penitent, 1703, and other plays; and John Home (1724-1808), author of Douglas, 1757. Home wrote five other tragedies of indifferent merit. Colley Cibber (16711757), David Garrick (1716-79), Charles Macklin (16901797), Arthur Murphy (1730-1805), Richard Cumberland (1732–1811), and George Colman, the Elder (1733–94), also produced anumber of comedies and farces. But the plays of Samuel Foote (1720-77) and Richard Brinsley Sheridan (1751-1816) deserve more than a passing mention. The comedies of the Minor,

1760; the Lyar, 1761; and the Mayor of Garrett, 1763, are the best of the twenty-four pieces of the former.* Sheridan's principal plays, all written before the date fixed for the conclusion of this chapter, were produced in the following order: the Rivals, St. Patrick's Day, and the Duenna, 1755; A Trip to Scarborough (altered from Vanbrugh's Relapse), and the School for Scandal, 1777; and the Critic, 1779. The remainder of the writer's life belongs to political history. That he has laid previous authorsFielding and Smollett for instance-under contribution for some of his characters has not been held to detract from the merit of his dramatic productions, of which the only fault is uniformity of brilliancy. There are no delicate touches, no hues imperceptibly fading into each other: the whole is lighted up with an universal glare. Every fop, every boor, every valet, is a man of wit. The very butts and dupes, Tattle, Witwould, Puff, Acres, outshine the whole Hotel of Rambouillet.' †

For a valuable essay on Foote, v. Forster's Biographical Essays, 1860. † Macaulay's Essays, 1860, i. 40: Machiavelli.

CHAPTER VII.

THE AGE OF WORDSWORTH, BYRON,

AND SCOTT.

1785-1835.

101. SUMMARY OF THE PERIOD.--102. THE POETS: COWPER.-103. CRABBE104. DARWIN.-105. THE DELLA-CRUSCANS.-106. BURNS.-107. ROGERS, BOWLES. 108. WORDSWORTH.-109. SOUTHEY.-110. COLERIDGE. - 111. LAMB.-112. CAMPBELL.-113. HOGG, BLOOMFIELD. 114. MOORE.—115, BYRON.-116. SHELLEY.-117. KEATS.-118. LEIGH HUNT, LANDOR.-119. OTHER POETS.-120. THE NOVELISTS: MRS. RADCLIFFE.-121. LEWIS, GODWIN, -122. MISS EDGEWORTH, MISS AUSTEN.-123. SCOTT.-124. OTHER NOVELISTS, -125. THE PHILOSOPHERS.-126. THE HISTORIANS.-127. THE THEOLOGIANS. -128. HAZLITT, COBBETT.-129. THE 'QUARTERLIES.'-130. THE DRAMATIC WRITERS.

101. Summary of the Period.—Within a short space of time from the date at which the foregoing chapter concluded, the destruction of the Bastille announced the upheaval of that great democratic volcano, whereof the premonitory rumblings and hoarse underground agitations had long been threatening on the Continent. That a social disturbance so widespread in its extent, however apparently confined and local in its issue, should be without its effect upon the minds and opinions of surrounding nations, is not to be expected; and it is accordingly to the increased mental activity brought about by the first French Revolution, and the simultaneous appearance in Germany of the transcendental philosophy, that we must look for two powerful influences over forthcoming English literature.

Yet to attribute the magnificent second-growth of English Poets belonging to the end of the eighteenth century and the first thirty years of the nineteenth, entirely to these two causes, as some have done, would be probably to unduly ignore other influences, not less potent, if more obscure. Thus much may be conceded-that the marked manifestation of poetical genius in the one case was deeply affected by the surging aspirations and enthusiasms set free by the great social outbreak in the other; and to this extent, if only to this