CHAPTER LVIII. ENGLISH LITERATURE OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. The Scientific Writers. The Historians. Essayists. The great Novelists. THE literature of the present century has been of vast bulk, covering an unprecedented variety of subjects, and of the greatest importance to human welfare. It has been the most fruitful period in the world's history. Most of the great inventions which have facilitated the work of mankind, and which have made the luxuries of princes in former ages the necessaries of every-day life in this, have sprung from the labors of chemists and other scientific explorers. All the laws of nature have a bearing more or less direct upon our well-being. The highest genius of the present age has been devoted to studying the relations of man to nature. The labors of Darwin have occupied the attention of thoughtful minds throughout the world; and his works form the most valuable contribution to the study of natural science ever made by one man. Huxley and Tyndall have been strong auxiliaries to their great master, and either of them would have been considered great in any time preceding. Huxley is probably the abler man, but Tyndall has a more vivid imagination, and makes a scientific treatise sparkle with poetic illustrations. Max Müller has won renown by the study of races through the medium of language. Sir Charles Lyell has shown the antiquity of man by the testimony of geology. Sir John Lubbock and E. B. Tylor have given accounts of the primitive life of mankind in the period before written history. Sir David Brewster developed the science of optics and the theory of colors. Herbert Spencer has endeavored to sepa rate the provinces of the known and unknown in practical and in speculative science, and has formulated a theory of progressive development or evolution intended to embrace all human knowledge. Henry Thomas Buckle undertook to account for the whole activity of man by general laws, holding that the differences in intellectual and moral character were principally dependent upon material things, such as climate, soil, food, and scenery. He had but just unfolded his plan in two volumes called the "History of Civilization," when he died, at the age of thirty-six. William E. H. Lecky is a historian of ideas, and has used the history of nations to set forth his views upon the progress of men in morals and in political and social science. His works are of the highest value to thoughtful readers. John Stuart Mill was a philosopher of the utilitarian school, who treated of logical methods, political economy, the theory of morals, the source of ideas, and other kindred topics, upon the most of which the best thinkers have been and remain at variance. There is no room to give even titles of the works of applied science, by means of which the studies and labors of men are aided. We are concerned in this rapid survey only with original minds. The great bulk of reading, even of good reading, comes from the labors of a praiseworthy second class, who interpret, explain, and illustrate, and so bring high thoughts to the comprehension of men. The period we are considering is rich in historical works. There has been no single work comparable to Gibbon's "Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire;" but the general method and tone of history has been far higher than in former centuries, and the preliminary studies have been more thorough, so that the history has rested on solid foundations. Thomas Carlyle was far from being an ideal historian, for his defects were inborn, and they grew with his growth. He believed in the subordination of classes and the government of the able few. He was impatient, prejudiced, and unfair. His style is as unnatural as the voice of Irving. Yet he was the possessor of genius seldom equalled in its way, and never surpassed. His descriptions of battles are so vivid that the reader seems to be transported to the actual scenes. Any narrative which he gives is interesting if only because he wrote it. His "French Revolution" is a series of sketches done with phosphorescent lines. There is nothing like it in literature, and the memory of it is indestructible. His essays, such as those upon Voltaire, Burns, and Johnson, are altogether the best in modern literature. In "Past and Present" he showed that he could have written mediæval romances, like Scott. His dyspeptic temper often makes him rude and captious, and he received the homage of admirers with grunts, as if he were a Hottentot king. But probably he was far from malevolent, and, in view of the incomparable products of his busy pen, we can afford to forget many things that are deplorable. Whoever reads his "Correspondence with Emerson will see how far above him in serene moral elevation was the New England philosopher. Thomas Babington Macaulay was a variously accomplished man, and succeeded in almost all his undertakings. His resources were ample, his style was splendidly ornate, and his writings are so full of energy that the reader has hardly breath to criticise. His great work, "The History of Eng land," was left incomplete; but it is a glowing picture of the time, and, in spite of some inaccuracies, will long be admired. His essays were read forty years ago with avidity by all students, and they were the means of leading many into the delights of intellectual life. They have a permanent value, like those of Carlyle, while amost all contemporary essays are already forgotten. George Grote's "History of Greece" is a monumental work, complete in design and in execution, leaving little of value to be done by any successor. Alexander Kinglake has published four volumes of a "History of the Crimean War." He is a brilliant writer, with unequalled power of sarcasm, and is sure of public attention. His "Eothen," a small book of Eastern travels, is full of life-like pictures. James Anthony Froude has written a history of the reigns of Henry VIII. and Queen Elizabeth, protracted into twelve volumes. His ability is beyond question, but he is a strong partisan, and his defence of the many-wived king is the plausible work of an advocate rather than the impartial summing up of a judge. Edward A. Freeman, among other works, has written an elaborate history of the Norman Conquest, indispensable to any who would become familiar with the subject. John Richard Green, a professor at Oxford, is the author of two valuable works, "History of the English People" and "The Making of England." He has gone into the remote history of the Saxons and Angles in their native country, relating their customs and mode of life and their political ideas. There is no history of England extant which is based upon such thorough foundations as to the beginnings. He gives life and individuality to each of the invading tribes. The Saxon period is also fully treated. If a reader can have time but for one history of England, he should take Green's. It should be added that no other historian has taken so much pains with the account of authors and literature. The sketches of Shakespeare and Chaucer, and of all the long line of great names, down to Dickens and Thackeray, are perfect in style and are the best (considering their compass) ever printed. Mr. Guest, the author of the history on which this present work is founded, was a pupil and admirer of Green. We should mention some authors of ability who have treated of various topics in historical form or in the shape of essays. Dean Stanley has written many volumes marked by a style of singular beauty, among them the "History of Westminster Abbey." John Ruskin, who disputes with Carlyle the first place among writers, is the author of several magnificent works. "The Stones of Venice" first made him famous. "Modern Painters" is his most important work. Ruskin is pre-eminently an eloquent writer, full of impassioned outbursts and gorgeous pictorial effects. But he is like a monarch who tolerates no difference of opinion, however his own course of thought may have changed. His attitude towards the common classes has been curiously like Carlyle's. If it were not that the word has been vulgarized, we might call him a royal crank,- a man of sublime ideas, with a mental twist. Thomas DeQuincey, the opium-eater, was a compound of genius with degrading frailty, and his works naturally resemble their author. His essays, which fill ten volumes, abound in splendid passages. But they are more agreeable to literary epicures than nourishing to sincere students. Matthew Arnold furnishes an instance of literary success without the production of any work of the first order. Genius produces its incomparable works, and Talent writes about them. Arnold is a charming writer, with rare tact and a command of scholarly English, and with a refined taste formed by the study of classic models; and so perfect is his art, both in prose and verse, that he almost makes one forget that he is not a creator. Charles Lamb has long enjoyed the reputation of a de lightful humorist, and, though his essays are of the thinnest substance, yet by their easy and natural style the fresh charm continues. Dr. John Brown of Edinburgh gave his hours of leisure to anecdotes and reminiscences, and by these slight efforts showed remarkable power. Nothing in modern literature is more pathetic or more absorbing than his "Marjorie Fleming" and "Rab and his Friends." Wilson, editor of "Blackwood's Magazine," and Jeffrey, editor of "The Edinburgh Review," were leaders in their day, their names on every lip, but they will not outlast their century. For the literature of theology we have no room, but we may refer to the rude strength and homely wit of Spurgeon's sermons, and to the pure and exquisite English of Cardinal Newman. John Forster has written some delightful biographical essays, better even then his full and completed lives. David Masson's "Life of Milton" is an almost ideally perfect work. The series now in course of publication, "English Men of Letters," embraces many fresh and able books. The novel has obtained its development in the present century, and it has borrowed from history, science, the drama, and poetry, much of their characteristic excellence and charm. In fact, a novel of the highest rank is one of the most difficult and most splendid of creative works. The novelist is now bound to do more than to amuse a reader's leisure. His best thoughts are none too good to be interspersed as epigrams in the narrative. His pictures of scenery are studied like the matchless descriptions of Ruskin. His views of human nature must be carefully studied. His illustrations must have the glancing lights of poetry, and his style must be brilliant and unborrowed. A great novel is the supreme effort of genius in prose. Some beautiful and touching novels and romances were written in the preceding century, but none at all comparable to the masterpieces of our own. The first great romancer was Scott, whose stock of legends and border tales was as inexhaustible as his poetic fancy and natural eloquence. For maturer readers, the "Waverley Novels " retain their charm, and demand a complete perusal at least every five years. The idol of the public is Dickens, a prolific creator of |