1802, having been compiled in that language from the author's MSS. Other philosophical writers of eminence of the period are T. R. Malthus (1766-1834), author of the well-known Essay on the Principles of Population as it affects the Future Improvement of Society, 1798, and David Ricardo (1772-1823), whose chief work was the Principles of Political Economy and Taxation, 1817. This book, in Lord Brougham's opinion, divided with Malthus's Essay the claim to the second place among the books produced in this country upon the science of economics.

126. The Historians.-The History of Greece, 1784-1810, by William Mitford (1744-1827), although disfigured by peculiarities of style, and now, to a great extent, superseded by more recent works on the subject, has nevertheless a just claim to be considered the most important historical work of the early part of the nineteenth century. James Mill (1773-1836), a distinguished philosophical and political writer, was the author of an admirable History of British India, 1818; and Henry Hallam (1777-1859) produced successively his View of the State of Europe during the Middle Ages, 1818; Constitutional History of England (from Henry VII. to George II.), 1827; and Introduction to the Literature of Europe (i.e. during the XV.th, XVI.th, and XVII.th centuries), 1837-9, a book which has been frequently consulted in the course of these pages. That so vast a field should have been successfully occupied by one man is a matter for admiration.* Lastly must be mentioned Sir James Mackintosh (1765-1832), whose Vindicia Gallica appeared in 1791, and whose Review of the Causes of the Revolution of 1688, being a fragment of a twenty years' meditated History of England, was published after his death, in 1834. With this must not be confused the abridged History, prepared by him for Lardner's Cyclopædia, 1830-1, and completed after his death by other hands.

127. The Theologians.-From the numerous writers under this head we select three only:-William Paley (1743-1805), Robert Hall (1764-1831), and Thomas Chalmers (17801817). The first was the author of the following well-known works:Moral and Political Philosophy, 1785; Hora Pauline; or, The Truth of the Scripture History of St. Paul, etc., evinced, 1790; Evidences of Christianity, 1794; and Natural Theology, 1802-works still remaining, for their happy expository power and clear style, undimmed in their popularity. Hall, a Baptist minister, was one of

The historian's son, Arthur Henry Hallam, 1811-33, by whose early death the In Memoriam of Tennyson was prompted, was a most gifted and promising poet.

the most eloquent of modern preachers, and the few sermons he published are highly prized. Chalmers was a voluminous writer, and also a preacher of great reputation. Fervit immensusque ruit,' says one of his admirers, speaking of his eloquence. It 'rose like a tide, a sea, setting in, bearing down upon you, lifting up all its waves,-"deep calling unto deep; " there was no doing anything but giving yourself for the time to its will.' *

128. Hazlitt, Cobbett.-The first-named of these writers, William Hazlitt, 1778-1830, was one of the most sympathetic and enthusiastic, albeit partial and paradoxical, of modern critics. His chief works are his Principles of Human Action, 1805; Characters of Shakespeare's Plays, 1817; Lectures on English Poetry, 1818; On the English Comic Writers, 1819; On the Dramatic Literature of the Age of Elizabeth, 1821; Spirit of the Age, 1825; Life of Napoleon, 1828-30, &c. William Cobbett, 1762-1835, was a sturdy example of the 'John Bull' breed, who raised himself from a comparatively obscure position to a seat in the House of Commons. As a political writer he was violent and an agitator; but his Rural Rides, his English Grammar, &c., are distinguished by their common-sense style and idiomatic language.

129. TheQuarterlies.'-The foundation of the Edinburgh Review in 1802 and the Quarterly Review in 1808 effected so important an advance in critical literature that they cannot be passed over in silence. The first was projected in Edinburgh by a knot of young men, the eldest of whom was only thirty, when society was still violently agitated by the French revolution. Sydney Smith (1771-1845), Francis Jeffrey (1773-1850), Henry Brougham (1778-1868), were the most celebrated of this little coterie. Smith is said to have originated the idea, and indeed edited the first number, but the management afterwards fell into the hands of Jeffrey, perhaps one of the ablest editors that ever lived. From 1803 to 1829 he conducted the Edinburgh solely, and only ceased to contribute to it in 1840.

The influence over public opinion obtained by the Edinburgh gave rise, in 1808, to the projection by John Murray, the publisher, with the assistance of Scott, Canning, and others, of a grand scheme of opposition to the proud critics of Edinburgh-the Quarterly Review, the editorship of which was confided to William Gifford, already noticed as the critic of the Della Cruscans (see p. 160, s. 105), and who held the editorial reins from 1808 to 1824. The most distinguished of his successors was John Gibson Lockhart (1794* Iloræ Subsecivæ, 1862, 133; Dr. Chalmers.

1854), an admirable biographer—witness his lives of Scott, 1836-8, Burns, 1828, and Napoleon, 1829.

Previous to his assumption of the editorship of the Quarterly, Lockhart had been one of the chief writers in Blackwood's Magazine (established in 1817), a periodical which may fairly claim to be the ancestor of all the shoal of modern monthlies. Galt, Mrs. Hemans, Michael Scott, and some other writers already mentioned contributed to its pages. But the soul of 'Maga,' as it was familiarly termed, was the famous author of the Isle of Palms, 1812, the City of the Plague, 1816, and the Christopher North' of the Noctes Ambrosiane (1822–35), John Wilson (1785–1854), a writer of strange eloquence and dominant power. In mentioning these works of Professor Wilson, it may be noted that some of the writers named above are also celebrated by works other than those contributed to the foregoing periodicals. Sydney Smith, one of the keenest and frankest of English wits, wrote an admirable book on the Catholics, entitled Peter Plymley's Letters, 1808. Brougham, a Hercules of versatility, was the author of a long list of political, biographical, and scientific works, and Gifford edited some of the Elizabethan playwrights. Lockhart and Wilson both wrote novels of Scottish life and manners.

130. The Dramatic Writers.-The most illustrious names in this branch of literature during the period under review are those of Joanna Baillie (1762–1851), J. Sheridan Knowles (1784-1862), and Thomas Noon Talfourd (1795-1854). Only two of Miss Baillie's plays on the passions, De Montfort and Hatred, were produced on the stage-a fact which points to their suitability for the cabinet rather than the footlights. On the contrary, Virginius, 1820, The Hunchback, 1832, The Wife, 1833, The Lovechase, 1837, and others by Knowles still hold the boards. Of the plays of Talfourd, Ion, a tragedy upon the Greek models, is the best. Reference has already been made to the Remorse of Coleridge. Mrs. Cowley ('Anna Maria') is the author of a sprightly comedy, the Belle's Stratagem; Miss Mitford and Miss Edgeworth both produced plays; and Monk Lewis was a fertile dramatist, whose Rolla is his best remembered work. One play of John Tobin (1770-1804), the Honeymoon, 1805, must not be forgotten. But the dramatic growths of this chapter are barren as compared with some of those which precede it--a circumstance as significant as it is regrottable.

CHAPTER VIII.

THE MODERN AGE.

[DECEASED AUTHORS.]

1835-1875.

181. SUMMARY OF THE PERIOD.-132. THE POETS: HOOD.-133. MRS. BROWNING. -134. OTHER POETS: MISS PROCTER, AYTOUN, SMITH, CLOUGH.-135. THE NOVELISTS: LYTTON, DICKENS, THACKERAY, LEVER, MRS. NICHOLLS, MRS. GASKELL, ETC.-136. THE HISTORIANS: MACAULAY, G. C. LEWIS, GROTE, ALISON, MILMAN, BUCKLE.-137. THE PHILOSOPHERS: HAMILTON, J. 8. MILL. 138. THE THEOLOGIANS.-139. THE SCIENTIFIC WRITERS.-140. OTHER PROSE WRITERS: DE QUINCEY.-141. THE DRAMATIC WRITERS.

131. Summary of the Period.-Upon the threshold of these, our concluding chapters, it will perhaps be judicious at the outset to direct the reader's attention to the limitation of their range expressed by the words placed in brackets under the title. Most of the distinguished writers of this fast-waning century have already gone over to the great majority, although some, we hasten to add, still remain with us. Dealing, for divers reasonss-of which it is sufficient to indicate the poverty of biographical material and the difficulties of contemporary criticism-with deceased' authors only, it will be obvious that the sketch of the 'Modern Age' comprised in these chapters must of necessity be inadequate and imperfect. And, even with regard to deceased authors, it is not always possible to separate the measured utterance of just criticism from that full voice which circles round the grave,' or to select only those estimates which are unbiassed by community of opinion or uncoloured by personal enthusiasm. In the systematic labours of intelligent German and French critics, who, it has often been observed, regard our contemporaries with something of the eyes with which they will be regarded by our descendants, we might perhaps trace out the germs of the judgment which is ultimately to be passed upon the Wordsworths and Shelleys, the Smolletts and Fieldings of our day. But an investigation such as this would involve is wholly beyond the province of the present work; and, in the succeeding pages, we shall confine ourselves to reproducing the

views and opinions of native critics, at the same time taking a somewhat larger license of quotation than we have permitted ourselves when dealing with remoter periods.

The consideration of the works of two of the greatest poets of the Victorian age, Alfred Tennyson and Robert Browning, is reserved for our concluding chapter, for we rejoice to recall that it is only during the last decade that their names have been among those of which this volume treats. So, too, with Dante Gabriel Rossetti and Christina, his sister; while William Morris and Coventry Patmore have still more recently passed from us. The poets, therefore, who fall within the scope of the present chapter are but few, the chief among them being Thomas Hood and Mrs. Browning.

In the department of prose fiction-a department in which this age rivals the great masterpieces of the eighteenth century-the losses have been more considerable. Although in 1875 the British Novelist was still represented by more than one eminent writer and a host of minor authors, we had no longer the keen satire and polished style of Thackeray, the exuberant vivacity and sentiment of Dickens, the scholarly versatility of Lytton, or the dashing narrative of Lever. Nor had we the fervid imagination of Charlotte Brontë, or the delightful domestic painting of Elizabeth Gaskell.

In History, too, our wealth had been great, and our losses also great. Macaulay, Grote, Cornewall Lewis, Alison, Milman, Buckle, had already gone from among us, and come, therefore, within the range of this chapter. In two of these cases the loss was heightened by the fact that death cut short the cherished labour of the author's life. The great Histories of Macaulay and Buckle are fragments, though fragments from which, as from the ruined arc of some uncompleted Cyclopean wall, the extent of the ground it was intended to enclose may still be conjectured.

In the ranks of the Philosophers a great breach had been made by the disappearance of one of the foremost of modern teachers, John Stuart Mill. But we must abridge a catalogue which would grow too long. The names of Hamilton and Maurice-of Whewell, Murchison and Herschel-of Hugh Miller, of Mrs. Somervilleof De Quincey and Mrs. Jameson, are but a few of those deceased authors who are included in these forty years of the 'Modern Age.'

132. The Poets: Hood.-Some of the drollest and most mirthprovoking verse of this century, and some of the most touching and pathetic poetry ever written, proceeded from the pen of the author of the Song of the Shirt (which first appeared in Punch in 1843) and the Dream of Eugene Aram, 1829. Thomas Hood (1799-1845) was at once an engaging writer and a genial and lovable man. His chief