martial ballads, and for his _History of England_. His first important
work, the _Essay on Milton_ (1825), is worthy of study not only for itself,
as a critical estimate of the Puritan poet, but as a key to all Macaulay's
writings. Here, first of all, is an interesting work, which, however much
we differ from the author's opinion, holds our attention and generally
makes us regret that the end comes so soon. The second thing to note is the
historical flavor of the essay. We study not only Milton, but also the
times in which he lived, and the great movements of which he was a part.
History and literature properly belong together, and Macaulay was one of
the first writers to explain the historical conditions which partly account
for a writer's work and influence. The third thing to note is Macaulay's
enthusiasm for his subject,--an enthusiasm which is often partisan, but
which we gladly share for the moment as we follow the breathless narrative.
Macaulay generally makes a hero of his man, shows him battling against
odds, and the heroic side of our own nature awakens and responds to the
author's plea. The fourth, and perhaps most characteristic thing in the
essay is the style, which is remarkably clear, forceful, and convincing.
Jeffrey, the editor of the _Edinburgh Review_, wrote enthusiastically when
he received the manuscript, "The more I think, the less I can conceive
where you picked up that style." We still share in the editor's wonder; but
the more we think, the less we conceive that such a style could be picked
up. It was partly the result of a well-stored mind, partly of unconscious
imitation of other writers, and partly of that natural talent for clear
speaking and writing which is manifest in all Macaulay's work.
In the remaining essays we find the same general qualities which
characterize Macaulay's first attempt. They cover a wide range of subjects,
but they may be divided into two general classes, the literary or critical,
and the historical. Of the literary essays the best are those on Milton,
Addison, Goldsmith, Byron, Dryden, Leigh Hunt, Bunyan, Bacon, and Johnson.
Among the best known of the historical essays are those on Lord Clive,
Chatham, Warren Hastings, Hallam's Constitutional History, Von Ranke's
History of the Papacy, Frederick the Great, Horace Walpole, William Pitt,
Sir William Temple, Machiavelli, and Mirabeau. Most of these were produced
in the vigor of young manhood, between 1825 and 1845, while the writer was
busy with practical affairs of state. They are often one-sided and
inaccurate, but always interesting, and from them a large number of busy
people have derived their first knowledge of history and literature.
The best of Macaulay's poetical work is found in the _Lays of Ancient Rome_
(1842), a collection of ballads in the style of Scott, which sing of the
old heroic days of the Rome Roman republic. The ballad does not require
much thought or emotion. It demands clearness, vigor, enthusiasm, action;
and it suited Macaulay's genius perfectly. He was, however, much more
careful than other ballad writers in making his narrative true to
tradition. The stirring martial spirit of these ballads, their fine
workmanship, and their appeal to courage and patriotism made them instantly
popular. Even to-day, after more than fifty years, such ballads as those on
Virginius and Horatius at the Bridge are favorite pieces in many school
readers.
The _History of England_, Macaulay's masterpiece, is still one of the most
popular historical works in the English language. Originally it was
intended to cover the period from the accession of James II, in 1685, to
the death of George IV, in 1830. Only five volumes of the work were
finished, and so thoroughly did Macaulay go into details that these five
volumes cover only sixteen years. It has been estimated that to complete
the work on the same scale would require some fifty volumes and the labor
of one man for over a century.
In his historical method Macaulay suggests Gibbon. His own knowledge of
history was very great, but before writing he read numberless pages,
consulted original documents, and visited the scenes which he intended to
describe. Thackeray's remark, that "Macaulay reads twenty books to write a
sentence and travels one hundred miles to make a line of description," is,
in view of his industry, a well-warranted exaggeration.
As in his literary essays, he is fond of making heroes, and he throws
himself so heartily into the spirit of the scene he is describing that his
word pictures almost startle us by their vivid reality. The story of
Monmouth's rebellion, for instance, or the trial of the seven bishops, is
as fascinating as the best chapters of Scott's historical novels.
While Macaulay's search for original sources of information suggests the
scientific historian, his use of his material is much more like that of a
novelist or playwright. In his essay on Machiavelli he writes: "The best
portraits are perhaps those in which there is a slight mixture of
caricature, and we are not certain that the best histories are not those in
which a little of the exaggeration of fictitious narrative is judiciously
employed. Something is lost in accuracy, but much is gained in
effect."[243] Whether this estimate of historical writing be true or false,
Macaulay employed it in his own work and made his narrative as absorbing as
a novel. To all his characters he gives the reality of flesh and blood, and
in his own words he "shows us over their houses and seats us at their
tables." All that is excellent, but it has its disadvantages. In his
admiration for heroism, Macaulay makes some of his characters too good and
others too bad. In his zeal for details he misses the importance of great
movements, and of great leaders who are accustomed to ignore details; and
in his joy of describing events he often loses sight of underlying causes.
In a word, he is without historical insight, and his work, though
fascinating, is seldom placed among the reliable histories of England.
GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS. To the reader who studies Macaulay's brilliant
essays and a few chosen chapters of his _History_, three things soon become
manifest. First, Macaulay's art is that of a public speaker rather than
that of a literary man. He has a wonderful command of language, and he
makes his meaning clear by striking phrases, vigorous antitheses,
anecdotes, and illustrations. His style is so clear that "he who runs may
read," and from beginning to end he never loses the attention of his
readers. Second, Macaulay's good spirits and enthusiasm are contagious. As
he said himself, he wrote "out of a full head," chiefly for his own
pleasure or recreation; and one who writes joyously generally awakens a
sense of pleasure in his readers. Third, Macaulay has "the defect of his
qualities." He reads and remembers so much that he has no time to think or
to form settled opinions. As Gladstone said, Macaulay is "always conversing
or recollecting or reading or composing, but reflecting never." So he wrote
his brilliant _Essay on Milton_, which took all England by storm, and said
of it afterward that it contained "scarcely a paragraph which his mature
judgment approved." Whether he speaks or writes, he has always before him
an eager audience, and he feels within him the born orator's power to hold
and fascinate. So he gives loose rein to his enthusiasm, quotes from a
hundred books, and in his delight at entertaining us forgets that the first
quality of a critical or historical work is to be accurate, and the second
to be interesting.
THOMAS CARLYLE (1795-1881)
In marked contrast with Macaulay, the brilliant and cheerful essayist, is
Thomas Carlyle, the prophet and censor of the nineteenth century. Macaulay
is the practical man of affairs, helping and rejoicing in the progress of
his beloved England. Carlyle lives apart from all practical interests,
looks with distrust on the progress of his age, and tells men that truth,
justice, and immortality are the only worthy objects of human endeavor.
Macaulay is delighted with material comforts; he is most at home in
brilliant and fashionable company; and he writes, even when ill and
suffering, with unfailing hopefulness and good nature. Carlyle is like a
Hebrew prophet just in from the desert, and the burden of his message is,
"Woe to them that are at ease in Zion!" Both men are, in different ways,
typical of the century, and somewhere between the two extremes--the
practical, helpful activity of Macaulay and the spiritual agony and
conflict of Carlyle--we shall find the measure of an age which has left the
deepest impress upon our own.
LIFE OF CARLYLE. Carlyle was born at Ecclefechan, Dumfriesshire, in 1795, a
few months before Burns's death, and before Scott had published his first
work. Like Burns, he came of peasant stock,--strong, simple, God-fearing
folk, whose influence in Carlyle's later life is beyond calculation. Of his
mother he says, "She was too mild and peaceful for the planet she lived
in"; and of his father, a stone mason, he writes, "Could I write my books
as he built his houses, walk my way so manfully through this shadow world,
and leave it with so little blame, it were more than all my hopes."
Of Carlyle's early school life we have some interesting glimpses in _Sartor
Resartus_. At nine years he entered the Annan grammar school, where he was
bullied by the older boys, who nicknamed him Tom the Tearful. For the
teachers of those days he has only ridicule, calling them "hide-bound
pedants," and he calls the school by the suggestive German name of
_Hinterschlag Gymnasium_. At the wish of his parents, who intended Carlyle
for the ministry, he endured this hateful school life till 1809, when he
entered Edinburgh University. There he spent five miserable years, of which
his own record is: "I was without friends, experience, or connection in the
sphere of human business, was of sly humor, proud enough and to spare, and
had begun my long curriculum of dyspepsia." This nagging illness was the
cause of much of that irritability of temper which frequently led him to
scold the public, and for which he has been harshly handled by unfriendly
critics.
The period following his university course was one of storm and stress for
Carlyle. Much to the grief of the father whom he loved, he had given up the
idea of entering the ministry. Wherever he turned, doubts like a thick fog
surrounded him,--doubts of God, of his fellow-men, of human progress, of
himself. He was poor, and to earn an honest living was his first problem.
He tried successively teaching school, tutoring, the study of law, and
writing miscellaneous articles for the _Edinburgh Encyclopedia_. All the
while he was fighting his doubts, living, as he says, "in a continual,
indefinite, pining fear." After six or seven years of mental agony, which
has at times a suggestion of Bunyan's spiritual struggle, the crisis came
in 1821, when Carlyle suddenly shook off his doubts and found himself. "All
at once," he says in _Sartor_, "there arose a thought in me, and I asked
myself: 'What _Art_ thou afraid of? Wherefore like a coward dost thou
forever pip and whimper, and go cowering and trembling? Despicable biped!
What is the sum total of the worst that lies before thee? Death? Well,
Death; and say the pangs of Tophet too, and all that the Devil and Man may,
will, or can do against thee! Hast thou not a heart; canst thou not suffer
whatsoever it be; and, as a Child of Freedom, though outcast, trample
Tophet itself under thy feet, while it consumes thee? Let it come then; I
will meet it and defy it!' And as I so thought, there rushed like a stream
of fire over my whole soul; and I shook base Fear away from me forever."
This struggle between fear and faith, and the triumph of the latter, is
recorded in two remarkable chapters, "The Everlasting No" and "The
Everlasting Yea," of _Sartor Resartus_.
Carlyle now definitely resolved on a literary life, and began with any work
that offered a bare livelihood. He translated Legendre's _Geometry_ from
the French, wrote numerous essays for the magazines, and continued his
study of German while making translations from that language. His
translation of Goethe's _Wilhelm Meister_ Appeared in 1824, his _Life of
Schiller_ in 1825, and his _Specimens of German Romance_ in 1827. He began
at this time a correspondence with Goethe, his literary hero, which lasted
till the German poet's death in 1832. While still busy with "hack work,"
Carlyle, in 1826, married Jane Welsh, a brilliant and beautiful woman,
whose literary genius almost equaled that of her husband. Soon afterwards,
influenced chiefly by poverty, the Carlyles retired to a farm, at Craigen-
puttoch (Hawks' Hill), a dreary and lonely spot, far from friends and even
neighbors. They remained here six years, during which time Carlyle wrote
many of his best essays, and _Sartor Resartus_, his most original work. The
latter went begging among publishers for two years, and was finally
published serially in _Fraser's Magazine_, in 1833-1834. By this time
Carlyle had begun to attract attention as a writer, and, thinking that one
who made his living by the magazines should be in close touch with the
editors, took his wife's advice and moved to London "to seek work and
bread." He settled in Cheyne Row, Chelsea,--a place made famous by More,
Erasmus, Bolingbroke, Smollett, Leigh Hunt, and many lesser lights of
literature,--and began to enjoy the first real peace he had known since
childhood. In 1837 appeared _The French Revolution_, which first made
Carlyle famous; and in the same year, led by the necessity of earning
money, he began the series of lectures--_German. Literature_ (1837),
_Periods of European Culture_ (1838), _Revolutions of Modern Europe_
(1839), _Heroes and Hero Worship_ (1841)--which created a sensation in
London. "It was," says Leigh Hunt, "as if some Puritan had come to life
again, liberalized by German philosophy and his own intense reflection and
experience."
Though Carlyle set himself against the spirit of his age, calling the
famous Reform Bill a "progress into darkness," and democracy "the rule of
the worst rather than the best," his rough sincerity was unquestioned, and
his remarks were more quoted than those of any other living man. He was
supported, moreover, by a rare circle of friends,--Edward Irving, Southey,
Sterling, Landor, Leigh Hunt, Dickens, Mill, Tennyson, Browning, and, most
helpful of all, Emerson, who had visited Carlyle at Craigenputtoch in 1833.
It was due largely to Emerson's influence that Carlyle's works were better
appreciated, and brought better financial rewards, in America than in
England.
Carlyle's fame reached its climax in the monumental _History of Frederick
the Great_ (1858-1865), published after thirteen years of solitary toil,
which, in his own words, "made entire devastation of home life and
happiness." The proudest moment of his life was when he was elected to
succeed Gladstone as lord rector of Edinburgh University, in 1865, the year
in which _Frederick the Great_ was finished. In the midst of his triumph,
and while he was in Scotland to deliver his inaugural address, his
happiness was suddenly destroyed by the death of his wife,--a terrible
blow, from which he never recovered. He lived on for fifteen years, shorn
of his strength and interest in life; and his closing hours were like the
dull sunset of a November day. Only as we remember his grief and remorse at
the death of the companion who had shared his toil but not his triumph, can
we understand the sorrow that pervades the pages of his _Reminiscences_. He
died in 1881, and at his own wish was buried, not in Westminster Abbey, but
among his humble kinsfolk in Ecclefechan. However much we may differ from
his philosophy or regret the harshness of his minor works, we shall
probably all agree in this sentiment from one of his own letters,--that the
object of all his struggle and writing was "that men should find out and
believe the truth, and match their lives to it."
WORKS OF CARLYLE. There are two widely different judgments of Carlyle as a
man and a writer. The first, which is founded largely on his minor
writings, like _Chartism, Latter-Day Pamphlets_, and _Shooting Niagara_,
declares that he is a misanthrope and dyspeptic with a barbarous style of
writing; that he denounces progress, democracy, science, America, Darwin,
--everybody and everything that he does not understand; that his literary
opinions are largely prejudices; that he began as a prophet and ended as a
scold; and that in denouncing shams of every sort he was something of a
sham himself, since his practice was not in accord with his own preaching.
The second judgment, which is founded upon _Heroes and Hero Worship,
Cromwell_, and _Sartor Resartus_, declares that these works are the supreme
manifestation of genius; that their rugged, picturesque style makes others
look feeble or colorless by comparison; and that the author is the greatest
teacher, leader, and prophet of the nineteenth century.
Somewhere between these two extremes will be found the truth about Carlyle.
We only note here that, while there are some grounds for the first
unfavorable criticism, we are to judge an author by his best rather than by
his worst work; and that a man's aims as well as his accomplishments must
be taken into consideration. As it is written, "Whereas it was in thine
heart to build an house unto my name, thou didst well that it was in thine
heart." Whatever the defects of Carlyle and his work, in his heart he was
always planning a house or temple to the God of truth and justice.
Carlyle's important works may be divided into three general classes,--
critical and literary essays, historical works, and _Sartor Resartus_, the
last being in a class by itself, since there is nothing like it in
literature. To these should be added a biography, the admirable _Life of
John Sterling_, and Carlyle's _Letters_ and _Reminiscences_, which are more
interesting and suggestive than some of his better known works. We omit
here all consideration of translations, and his intemperate denunciations
of men and institutions in _Chartism, Latter-Day Pamphlets_, and other
essays, which add nothing to the author's fame or influence.
Of the essays, which are all characterized by Carlyle's zeal to get at the
heart of things, and to reveal the soul rather than the works of a writer,
the best are those on "Burns," "Scott," "Novalis," "Goethe,"
"Characteristics," "Signs of the Times," and "Boswell's Life of
Johnson."[244] In the famous _Essay on Burns_, which is generally selected
for special study, we note four significant things: (1) Carlyle is
peculiarly well fitted for his task, having many points in common with his
hero. (2) In most of his work Carlyle, by his style and mannerisms and
positive opinions, generally attracts our attention away from his subject;
but in this essay he shows himself capable of forgetting himself for a
moment. To an unusual extent he sticks to his subject, and makes us think
of Burns rather than of Carlyle. The style, though unpolished, is fairly
simple and readable, and is free from the breaks, crudities, ejaculations,
and general "nodulosities" which disfigure much of his work. (3) Carlyle
has an original and interesting theory of biography and criticism. The
object of criticism is to show the man himself, his aims, ideals, and
outlook on the universe; the object of biography is "to show what and how
produced was the effect of society upon him; what and how produced was his
effect on society." (4) Carlyle is often severe, even harsh, in his
estimates of other men, but in this case the tragedy of Burns's "life of
fragments" attracts and softens him. He grows enthusiastic and--a rare
thing for Carlyle--apologizes for his enthusiasm in the striking sentence,
"We love Burns, and we pity him; and love and pity are prone to magnify."
So he gives us the most tender and appreciative of his essays, and one of
the most illuminating criticisms of Burns that has appeared in our
language.
The central idea of Carlyle's historical works is found in his _Heroes and
Hero Worship_ (1841), his most widely read book. "Universal history," he
says, "is at bottom the history of the great men who have worked here." To
get at the truth of history we must study not movements but men, and read
not state papers but the biographies of heroes. His summary of history as
presented in this work has six divisions: (1) The Hero as Divinity, having
for its general subject Odin, the "type Norseman," who, Carlyle thinks, was
some old heroic chief, afterwards deified by his countrymen; (2) The Hero
as Prophet, treating of Mahomet and the rise of Islam; (3) The Hero as
Poet, in which Dante and Shakespeare are taken as types; (4) The Hero as
Priest, or religious leader, in which Luther appears as the hero of the
Reformation, and Knox as the hero of Puritanism; (5) The Hero as Man of
Letters, in which we have the curious choice of Johnson, Rousseau, and
Burns; (6) The Hero as King, in which Cromwell and Napoleon appear as the
heroes of reform by revolution.
It is needless to say that _Heroes_ is not a book of history; neither is it
scientifically written in the manner of Gibbon. With science in any form
Carlyle had no patience; and he miscalculated the value of that patient
search for facts and evidence which science undertakes before building any
theories, either of kings or cabbages. The book, therefore, abounds in
errors; but they are the errors of carelessness and are perhaps of small
consequence. His misconception of history, however, is more serious. With
the modern idea of history, as the growth of freedom among all classes, he
has no sympathy. The progress of democracy was to him an evil thing, a
"turning of the face towards darkness and anarchy." At certain periods,
according to Carlyle, God sends us geniuses, sometimes as priests or poets,
sometimes as soldiers or statesmen; but in whatever guise they appear,
these are our real rulers. He shows, moreover, that whenever such men
appear, multitudes follow them, and that a man's following is a sure index
of his heroism and kingship.
Whether we agree with Carlyle or not, we must accept for the moment his
peculiar view of history, else _Heroes_ can never open its treasures to us.
The book abounds in startling ideas, expressed with originality and power,
and is pervaded throughout by an atmosphere of intense moral earnestness.
The more we read it, the more we find to admire and to remember.
Carlyle's _French Revolution_ (1837) is to be taken more seriously as a
historical work; but here again his hero worship comes to the front, and
his book is a series of flashlights thrown upon men in dramatic situations,
rather than a tracing of causes to their consequences. The very titles of
his chapters--"Astraea Redux," "Windbags," "Broglie the War God"--do
violence to our conception of history, and are more suggestive of Carlyle's
individualism than of French history. He is here the preacher rather than
the historian; his text is the eternal justice; and his message is that all
wrongdoing is inevitably followed by vengeance. His method is intensely
dramatic. From a mass of historical details he selects a few picturesque
incidents and striking figures, and his vivid pictures of the storming of
the Bastille, the rush of the mob to Versailles, the death of Louis XVI,
and the Reign of Terror, seem like the work of an eyewitness describing
some terrible catastrophe. At times, as it portrays Danton, Robespierre,
and the great characters of the tragedy, Carlyle's work is suggestive of an
historical play of Shakespeare; and again, as it describes the rush and
riot of men led by elemental passion, it is more like a great prose epic.
Though not a reliable history in any sense, it is one of the most dramatic
and stirring narratives in our language.
Two other historical works deserve at least a passing notice. The _History
of Frederick the Great_ (1858-1865), in six volumes, is a colossal picture
of the life and times of the hero of the Prussian Empire. _Oliver
Cromwell's Letters and Speeches_ is, in our personal judgment, Carlyle's
best historical work. His idea is to present the very soul of the great
Puritan leader. He gives us, as of first importance, Cromwell's own words,
and connects them by a commentary in which other men and events are
described with vigor and vividness. Cromwell was one of Carlyle's greatest
heroes, and in this case he is most careful to present the facts which
occasion his own enthusiasm. The result is, on the whole, the most lifelike
picture of a great historical character that we possess. Other historians
had heaped calumny upon Cromwell till the English public regarded him with
prejudice and horror; and it is an indication of Carlyle's power that by a
single book he revolutionized England's opinion of one of her greatest men.
Carlyle's _Sartor Resartus_ (1834), his only creative work, is a mixture of
philosophy and romance, of wisdom and nonsense,--a chaotic jumble of the
author's thoughts, feelings, and experiences during the first thirty-five
years of his life. The title, which means "The Tailor Patched-up," is taken
from an old Scotch song. The hero is Diogenes Teufelsdroeckh, a German
professor at the University of Weissnichtwo (don't know where); the
narrative concerns this queer professor's life and opinions; and the
central thought of the book is the philosophy of clothes, which are
considered symbolically as the outward expression of spirit. Thus, man's
body is the outward garment of his soul, and the universe is the visible
garment of the invisible God. The arrangement of _Sartor_ is clumsy and
hard to follow. In order to leave himself free to bring in everything he
thought about, Carlyle assumed the position of one who was translating and
editing the old professor's manuscripts, which are supposed to consist of
numerous sheets stuffed into twelve paper bags, each labeled with a sign of
the zodiac. The editor pretends to make order out of this chaos; but he is
free to jump from one subject to another and to state the most startling
opinion by simply using quotation marks and adding a note that he is not
responsible for Teufelsdroeckh's crazy notions,--which are in reality
Carlyle's own dreams and ideals. Partly because of the matter, which is
sometimes incoherent, partly because of the style, which, though
picturesque, is sometimes confused and ungrammatical, _Sartor_ is not easy
reading; but it amply repays whatever time and study we give to it. Many of
its passages are more like poetry than prose; and one cannot read such
chapters as "The Everlasting No," "The Everlasting Yea," "Reminiscences,"
and "Natural Supernaturalism," and be quite the same man afterwards; for
Carlyle's thought has entered into him, and he walks henceforth more
gently, more reverently through the world, as in the presence of the
Eternal.
GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS. Concerning Carlyle's style there are almost as
many opinions as there are readers. This is partly because he impresses
different people in widely different ways, and partly because his
expression varies greatly. At times he is calm, persuasive, grimly
humorous, as if conversing; at other times, wildly exclamatory, as if he
were shouting and waving his arms at the reader. We have spoken of
Macaulay's style as that of the finished orator, and we might reasonably
speak of Carlyle's as that of the exhorter, who cares little for methods so
long as he makes a strong impression on his hearers. "Every sentence is
alive to its finger tips," writes a modern critic; and though Carlyle often
violates the rules of grammar and rhetoric, we can well afford to let an
original genius express his own intense conviction in his own vivid and
picturesque way.
Carlyle's message may be summed up in two imperatives,--labor, and be
sincere. He lectured and wrote chiefly for the upper classes who had begun
to think, somewhat sentimentally, of the conditions of the laboring men of
the world; and he demanded for the latter, not charity or pity, but justice
and honor. All labor, whether of head or hand, is divine; and labor alone
justifies a man as a son of earth and heaven. To society, which Carlyle
thought to be occupied wholly with conventional affairs, he came with the
stamp of sincerity, calling upon men to lay aside hypocrisy and to think
and speak and live the truth. He had none of Addison's delicate satire and
humor, and in his fury at what he thought was false he was generally
unsympathetic and often harsh; but we must not forget that Thackeray--who
knew society much better than did Carlyle--gave a very unflattering picture
of it in _Vanity Fair_ and _The Book of Snobs_. Apparently the age needed
plain speaking, and Carlyle furnished it in scripture measure. Harriet
Martineau, who knew the world for which Carlyle wrote, summed up his
influence when she said that he had "infused into the mind of the English
nation ... sincerity, earnestness, healthfulness, and courage." If we add
to the above message Carlyle's conceptions of the world as governed by a
God of justice who never forgets, and of human history as "an inarticulate
Bible," slowly revealing the divine purpose, we shall understand better the
force of his ethical appeal and the profound influence he exercised on the
moral and intellectual life of the past century.
JOHN RUSKIN (1819-1900)
In approaching the study of Ruskin we are to remember, first of all, that
we are dealing with a great and good man, who is himself more inspiring
than any of his books. In some respects he is like his friend Carlyle,
whose disciple he acknowledged himself to be; but he is broader in his
sympathies, and in every way more hopeful, helpful, and humane. Thus, in
the face of the drudgery and poverty of the competitive system, Carlyle
proposed, with the grim satire of Swift's "Modest Proposal," to organize an
annual hunt in which successful people should shoot the unfortunate, and to
use the game for the support of the army and navy. Ruskin, facing the same
problem, wrote: "I will endure it no longer quietly; but henceforward, with
any few or many who will help, do my best to abate this misery." Then,
leaving the field of art criticism, where he was the acknowledged leader,
he begins to write of labor and justice; gives his fortune in charity, in
establishing schools and libraries; and founds his St. George's Guild of
workingmen, to put in practice the principles of brotherhood and
cooperation for which he and Carlyle contended. Though his style marks him
as one of the masters of English prose, he is generally studied not as a
literary man but as an ethical teacher, and we shall hardly appreciate his
works unless we see behind every book the figure of the heroically sincere
man who wrote it.
LIFE. Ruskin was born in London, in 1819. His father was a prosperous wine
merchant who gained a fortune in trade, and who spent his leisure hours in
the company of good books and pictures. On his tombstone one may still read
this inscription written by Ruskin: "He was an entirely honest merchant and
his memory is to all who keep it dear and helpful. His son, whom he loved
to the uttermost and taught to speak truth, says this of him." Ruskin's
mother, a devout and somewhat austere woman, brought her son up with
Puritanical strictness, not forgetting Solomon's injunction that "the rod
and reproof give wisdom."
Of Ruskin's early years at Herne Hill, on the outskirts of London, it is
better to read his own interesting record in _Praeterita_. It was in some
respects a cramped and lonely childhood, but certain things which strongly
molded his character are worthy of mention. First, he was taught by word
and example in all things to speak the truth, and he never forgot the
lesson. Second, he had few toys, and spent much time in studying the
leaves, the flowers, the grass, the clouds, even the figures and colors of
the carpet, and so laid the foundation for that minute and accurate
observation which is manifest in all his writings. Third, he was educated
first by his mother, then by private tutors, and so missed the discipline
of the public schools. The influence of this lonely training is evident in
all his work. Like Carlyle, he is often too positive and dogmatic,--the
result of failing to test his work by the standards of other men of his
age. Fourth, he was obliged to read the Bible every day and to learn long
passages verbatim. The result of this training was, he says, "to make every
word of the Scriptures familiar to my ear in habitual music." We can hardly
read a page of his later work without finding some reflection of the noble
simplicity or vivid imagery of the sacred records. Fifth, he traveled much
with his father and mother, and his innate love of nature was intensified
by what he saw on his leisurely journeys through the most beautiful parts
of England and the Continent.
Ruskin entered Christ Church College, Oxford, in 1836, when only seventeen
years old. He was at this time a shy, sensitive boy, a lover of nature and
of every art which reflects nature, but almost entirely ignorant of the
ways of boys and men. An attack of consumption, with which he had long been
threatened, caused him to leave Oxford in 1840, and for nearly two years he
wandered over Italy searching for health and cheerfulness, and gathering
materials for the first volume of _Modern Painters_, the book that made him
famous.
Ruskin's literary work began in childhood, when he was encouraged to write
freely in prose and poetry. A volume of poems illustrated by his own
drawings was published in 1859, after he had won fame as a prose writer,
but, save for the drawings, it is of small importance. The first volume of
_Modern Painters_ (1843) was begun as a heated defense of the artist
Turner, but it developed into an essay on art as a true picture of nature,
"not only in her outward aspect but in her inward spirit." The work, which
was signed simply "Oxford Graduate," aroused a storm of mingled approval
and protest; but however much critics warred over its theories of art, all
were agreed that the unknown author was a master of descriptive prose.
Ruskin now made frequent trips to the art galleries of the Continent, and
produced four more volumes of _Modern Painters_ during the next seventeen
years. Meanwhile he wrote other books,--_Seven Lamps of Architecture_
(1849), _Stones of Venice_ (1851-1853), _Pre-Raphaelitism_, and numerous
lectures and essays, which gave him a place in the world of art similar to
that held by Matthew Arnold in the world of letters. In 1869 he was
appointed professor of art at Oxford, a position which greatly increased
his prestige and influence, not only among students but among a great
variety of people who heard his lectures and read his published works.
_Lectures on Art, Aratra Pentelici_ (lectures on sculpture), _Ariadne
Florentina_ (lectures on engraving), _Michael Angela and Tintoret, The Art
of England, Val d'Arno_ (lectures on Tuscan art), _St. Mark's Rest_ (a
history of Venice), _Mornings in Florence_ (studies in Christian art, now
much used as a guidebook to the picture galleries of Florence), _The Laws
of Fiesole_ (a treatise on drawing and painting for schools), _Academy of
Fine Arts in Venice, Pleasures of England_,--all these works on art show
Ruskin's literary industry. And we must also record _Love's Meinie_ (a
study of birds), _Proserpina_ (a study of flowers), _Deucalion_ (a study of
waves and stones), besides various essays on political economy which
indicate that Ruskin, like Arnold, had begun to consider the practical
problems of his age.
At the height of his fame, in 1860, Ruskin turned for a time from art, to
consider questions of wealth and labor,--terms which were used glibly by
the economists of the age without much thought for their fundamental
meaning. "There is no wealth but life," announced Ruskin,--"life, including
all its powers of love, of joy, and of admiration. That country is the
richest which nourishes the greatest number of noble and happy human
beings." Such a doctrine, proclaimed by Goldsmith in his _Deserted
Village_, was regarded as a pretty sentiment, but coming from one of the
greatest leaders and teachers of England it was like a bombshell. Ruskin
wrote four essays establishing this doctrine and pleading for a more
socialistic form of government in which reform might be possible. The
essays were published in the _Cornhill Magazine_, of which Thackeray was
editor, and they aroused such a storm that the publication was
discontinued. Ruskin then published the essays in book form, with the title
_Unto This Last_, in 1862. _Munera Pulveris_ (1862) was another work in
which the principles of capital and labor and the evils of the competitive
system were discussed in such a way that the author was denounced as a
visionary or a madman. Other works of this practical period are _Time and
Tide, Fors Clavigera, Sesame and Lilies_, and the _Crown of Wild Olive_.
The latter part of Ruskin's life was a time of increasing sadness, due
partly to the failure of his plans, and partly to public attacks upon his
motives or upon his sanity. He grew bitter at first, as his critics
ridiculed or denounced his principles, and at times his voice is as
querulous as that of Carlyle. We are to remember, however, the conditions
under which he struggled. His health had been shattered by successive
attacks of disease; he had been disappointed in love; his marriage was
unhappy; and his work seemed a failure. He had given nearly all his fortune
in charity, and the poor were more numerous than ever before. His famous
St. George's Guild was not successful, and the tyranny of the competitive
system seemed too deeply rooted to be overthrown. On the death of his
mother he left London and, in 1879, retired to Brantwood, on Coniston Lake,
in the beautiful region beloved of Wordsworth. Here he passed the last
quiet years of his life under the care of his cousin, Mrs. Severn, the
"angel of the house," and wrote, at Professor Norton's suggestion,
_Praeterita_, one of his most interesting books, in which he describes the
events of his youth from his own view point. He died quietly in 1900, and
was buried, as he wished, without funeral pomp or public ceremony, in the
little churchyard at Coniston.
WORKS OF RUSKIN. There are three little books which, in popular favor,
stand first on the list of Ruskin's numerous works,--_Ethics-of-the-Dust_,
a series of Lectures to Little Housewives, which appeals most to women;
_Crown of Wild Olive_, three lectures on Work, Traffic, and War, which
appeals to thoughtful men facing the problems of work and duty; and _Sesame
and Lilies_, which appeals to men and women alike. The last is the most
widely known of Ruskin's works and the best with which to begin our
reading.
The first thing we notice in _Sesame and Lilies_ is the symbolical title.
"Sesame," taken from the story of the robbers' cave in the _Arabian
Nights_, means a secret word or talisman which unlocks a treasure house. It
was intended, no doubt, to introduce the first part of the work, called "Of
Kings' Treasuries," which treats of books and reading. "Lilies," taken from
Isaiah as a symbol of beauty, purity, and peace, introduces the second
lecture, "Of Queens' Gardens," which is an exquisite study of woman's life
and education. These two lectures properly constitute the book, but a third
is added, on "The Mystery of Life." The last begins in a monologue upon his
own failures in life, and is pervaded by an atmosphere of sadness,
sometimes of pessimism, quite different from the spirit of the other two
lectures.
Though the theme of the first lecture is books, Ruskin manages to present
to his audience his whole philosophy of life. He gives us, with a wealth of
detail, a description of what constitutes a real book; he looks into the
meaning of words, and teaches us how to read, using a selection from
Milton's _Lycidas_ as an illustration. This study of words gives us the key
with which we are to unlock "Kings' Treasuries," that is, the books which
contain the precious thoughts of the kingly minds of all ages. He shows the
real meaning and end of education, the value of labor and of a purpose in
life; he treats of nature, science, art, literature, religion; he defines
the purpose of government, showing that soul-life, not money or trade, is
the measure of national greatness; and he criticises the general injustice
of his age, quoting a heartrending story of toil and suffering from the
newspapers to show how close his theory is to daily needs. Here is an
astonishing variety in a small compass; but there is no confusion. Ruskin's
mind was wonderfully analytical, and one subject develops naturally from
the other.
In the second lecture, "Of Queens' Gardens," he considers the question of
woman's place and education, which Tennyson had attempted to answer in _The
Princess_. Ruskin's theory is that the purpose of all education is to
acquire power to bless and to redeem human society; and that in this noble
work woman must always play the leading part. He searches all literature
for illustrations, and his description of literary heroines, especially of
Shakespeare's perfect women, is unrivaled. Ruskin is always at his best in
writing of women or for women, and the lofty idealism of this essay,
together with its rare beauty of expression, makes it, on the whole, the
most delightful and inspiring of his works.
Among Ruskin's practical works the reader will find in _Fors Clavigera_, a
series of letters to workingmen, and _Unto This Last_, four essays on the
principles of political economy, the substance of his economic teachings.
In the latter work, starting with the proposition that our present
competitive system centers about the idea of wealth, Ruskin tries to find
out what wealth is; and the pith of his teaching is this,--that men are of
more account than money; that a man's real wealth is found in his soul; not
in his pocket; and that the prime object of life and labor is "the
producing of as many as possible full-breathed, bright-eyed, and happy-
hearted human creatures." To make this ideal practical, Ruskin makes four
suggestions: (1) that training schools be established to teach young men
and women three things,--the laws and practice of health, habits of
gentleness and justice, and the trade or calling by which they are to live;
(2) that the government establish farms and workshops for the production of
all the necessaries of life, where only good and honest work shall be
tolerated and where a standard of work and wages shall be maintained; (3)
that any person out of employment shall be received at the nearest
government school: if ignorant he shall be educated, and if competent to do
any work he shall have the opportunity to do it; (4) that comfortable homes
be provided for the sick and for the aged, and that this be done in
justice, not in charity. A laborer serves his country as truly as does a
soldier or a statesman, and a pension should be no more disgraceful in one
case than in the other.
Among Ruskin's numerous books treating of art, we recommend the _Seven
Lamps of Architecture_ (1849), _Stones of Venice_ (1851-1853), and the
first two volumes of _Modern Painters_ (1843-1846). With Ruskin's art
theories, which, as Sydney Smith prophesied, "worked a complete revolution
in the world of taste," we need not concern ourselves here. We simply point
out four principles that are manifest in all his work: (1) that the object
of art, as of every other human endeavor, is to find and to express the
truth; (2) that art, in order to be true, must break away from
conventionalities and copy nature; (3) that morality is closely allied with
art, and that a careful study of any art reveals the moral strength or
weakness of the people that produced it; (4) that the main purpose of art
is not to delight a few cultured people but to serve the daily uses of
common life. "The giving brightness to pictures is much," he says, "but the
giving brightness to life is more." In this attempt to make art serve the
practical ends of life, Ruskin is allied with all the great writers of the
period, who use literature as the instrument of human progress.
GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS. One who reads Ruskin is in a state of mind
analogous to that of a man who goes through a picture gallery, pausing now
to admire a face or a landscape for its own sake, and again to marvel at
the technical skill of the artist, without regard to his subject. For
Ruskin is a great literary artist and a great ethical teacher, and we
admire one page for its style, and the next for its message to humanity.
The best of his prose, which one may find in the descriptive passages of
_Præterita_ and _Modern Painters_, is written in a richly ornate style,
with a wealth of figures and allusions, and at times a rhythmic, melodious
quality which makes it almost equal to poetry. Ruskin had a rare
sensitiveness to beauty in every form, and more, perhaps, than any other
writer in our language, he has helped us to see and appreciate the beauty
of the world around us.
As for Ruskin's ethical teaching, it appears in so many forms and in so
many different works that any summary must appear inadequate. For a full
half century he was "the apostle of beauty" in England, and the beauty for
which he pleaded was never sensuous or pagan, as in the Renaissance, but
always spiritual, appealing to the soul of man rather than to his eyes,
leading to better work and better living. In his economic essays Ruskin is
even more directly and positively ethical. To mitigate the evils of the
unreasonable competitive system under which we labor and sorrow; to bring
master and man together in mutual trust and helpfulness; to seek beauty,
truth, goodness as the chief ends of life, and, having found them, to make
our characters correspond; to share the best treasures of art and
literature with rich and poor alike; to labor always, and, whether we work
with hand or head, to do our work in praise of something that we love,--
this sums up Ruskin's purpose and message. And the best of it is that, like
Chaucer's country parson, he practiced his doctrine before he preached it.
MATTHEW ARNOLD (1822-1888)
In the world of literature Arnold has occupied for many years an
authoritative position as critic and teacher, similar to that held by
Ruskin in the world of art. In his literary work two very different moods
are manifest. In his poetry he reflects the doubt of an age which witnessed
the conflict between science and revealed religion. Apparently he never
passed through any such decisive personal struggle as is recorded in
_Sartor Resartus_, and he has no positive conviction such as is voiced in
"The Everlasting Yea." He is beset by doubts which he never settles, and
his poems generally express sorrow or regret or resignation. In his prose
he shows the cavalier spirit,--aggressive, light-hearted, self-confident.
Like Carlyle, he dislikes shams, and protests against what he calls the
barbarisms of society; but he writes with a light touch, using satire and
banter as the better part of his argument. Carlyle denounces with the zeal
of a Hebrew prophet, and lets you know that you are hopelessly lost if you
reject his message. Arnold is more like the cultivated Greek; his voice is
soft, his speech suave, but he leaves the impression, if you happen to
differ with him, that you must be deficient in culture. Both these men, so
different in spirit and methods, confronted the same problems, sought the
same ends, and were dominated by the same moral sincerity.
LIFE. Arnold was born in Laleham, in the valley of the Thames, in 1822. His
father was Dr. Thomas Arnold, head master of Rugby, with whom many of us
have grown familiar by reading _Tom Brown's School Days_. After fitting for
the university at Winchester and at Rugby, Arnold entered Balliol College,
Oxford, where he was distinguished by winning prizes in poetry and by
general excellence in the classics. More than any other poet Arnold
reflects the spirit of his university. "The Scholar-Gipsy" and "Thyrsis"
contain many references to Oxford and the surrounding country, but they are
more noticeable for their spirit of aloofness,--as if Oxford men were too
much occupied with classic dreams and ideals to concern themselves with the
practical affairs of life.
After leaving the university Arnold first taught the classics at Rugby;
then, in 1847, he became private secretary to Lord Lansdowne, who appointed
the young poet to the position of inspector of schools under the
government. In this position Arnold worked patiently for the next thirty-
five years, traveling about the country, examining teachers, and correcting
endless examination papers. For ten years (1857-1867) he was professor of
poetry at Oxford, where his famous lectures _On Translating Homer_ were
given. He made numerous reports on English and foreign schools, and was
three times sent abroad to study educational methods on the Continent. From
this it will be seen that Arnold led a busy, often a laborious life, and we
can appreciate his statement that all his best literary work was done late
at night, after a day of drudgery. It is well to remember that, while
Carlyle was preaching about labor, Arnold labored daily; that his work was
cheerfully and patiently done; and that after the day's work he hurried
away, like Lamb, to the Elysian fields of literature. He was happily
married, loved his home, and especially loved children, was free from all
bitterness and envy, and, notwithstanding his cold manner, was at heart
sincere, generous, and true. We shall appreciate his work better if we can
see the man himself behind all that he has written.
Arnold's literary work divides itself into three periods, which we may call
the poetical, the critical, and the practical. He had written poetry since
his school days, and his first volume, _The Strayed Reveller and Other
Poems_, appeared anonymously in 1849. Three years later he published
_Empedocles on Etna and other Poems;_ but only a few copies of these
volumes were sold, and presently both were withdrawn from circulation. In
1853-1855 he published his signed _Poems_, and twelve years later appeared
his last volume of poetry. Compared with the early work of Tennyson, these
works met with little favor, and Arnold practically abandoned poetry in
favor of critical writing.
The chief works of his critical period are the lectures _On Translating
Homer_ (1861) and the two volumes of _Essays in Criticism_ (1865-1888),
which made Arnold one of the best known literary men in England. Then, like
Ruskin, he turned to practical questions, and his _Friendship's Garland_
(1871) was intended to satirize and perhaps reform the great middle class
of England, whom he called the Philistines. _Culture and Anarchy_, the most
characteristic work of his practical period, appeared in 1869. These were
followed by four books on religious subjects,--_St. Paul and Protestantism_
(1870), _Literature and Dogma_ (1873), _God and the Bible_ (1875), and
_Last Essays on Church and Religion_ (1877). The _Discourses in America_
(1885) completes the list of his important works. At the height of his fame
and influence he died suddenly, in 1888, and was buried in the churchyard
at Laleham. The spirit of his whole life is well expressed in a few lines
of one of his own early sonnets:
One lesson, Nature, let me learn of thee,
One lesson which in every wind is blown,
One lesson of two duties kept at one
Though the loud world proclaim their enmity--
Of toil unsever'd from tranquillity;
Of labour, that in lasting fruit outgrows
Far noisier schemes, accomplish'd in repose,
Too great for haste, too high for rivalry.
WORKS OF MATTHEW ARNOLD. We shall better appreciate Arnold's poetry if we
remember two things: First, he had been taught in his home a simple and
devout faith in revealed religion, and in college he was thrown into a
world of doubt and questioning. He faced these doubts honestly,
reverently,--in his heart longing to accept the faith of his fathers, but
in his head demanding proof and scientific exactness. The same struggle
between head and heart, between reason and intuition, goes on to-day, and
that is one reason why Arnold's poetry, which wavers on the borderland
between doubt and faith, is a favorite with many readers. Second, Arnold,
as shown in his essay on _The Study of Poetry_, regarded poetry as "a
criticism of life under the conditions fixed for such criticism by the laws
of poetic truth and poetic beauty." Naturally, one who regards poetry as a
"criticism" will write very differently from one who regards poetry as the
natural language of the soul. He will write for the head rather than for
the heart, and will be cold and critical rather than enthusiastic.
According to Arnold, each poem should be a unit, and he protested against
the tendency of English poets to use brilliant phrases and figures of
speech which only detract attention from the poem as a whole. For his
models he went to Greek poetry, which he regarded as "the only sure
guidance to what is sound and true in poetical art." Arnold is, however,
more indebted than he thinks to English masters, especially to Wordsworth
and Milton, whose influence is noticeable in a large part of his poetry.
Of Arnold's narrative poems the two best known are _Balder Dead_ (1855), an
incursion into the field of Norse mythology which is suggestive of Gray,
and _Sohrab and Rustum_ (1853), which takes us into the field of legendary
Persian history. The theme of the latter poem is taken from the _Shah-
Namah_ (Book of Kings) of the Persian poet Firdausi, who lived and wrote in
the eleventh century.
Briefly, the story is of one Rustem or Rustum, a Persian Achilles, who fell
asleep one day when he had grown weary of hunting. While he slept a band of
robbers stole his favorite horse, Ruksh. In trailing the robbers Rustum
came to the palace of the king of Samengan, where he was royally welcomed,
and where he fell in love with the king's daughter, Temineh, and married
her. But he was of a roving, adventurous disposition, and soon went back to
fight among his own people, the Persians. While he was gone his son Sohrab
was born, grew to manhood, and became the hero of the Turan army. War arose
between the two peoples, and two hostile armies were encamped by the Oxus.
Each army chose a champion, and Rustum and Sohrab found themselves matched
in mortal combat between the lines. At this point Sohrab, whose chief
interest in life was to find his father, demanded to know if his enemy were
not Rustum; but the latter was disguised and denied his identity. On the
first day of the fight Rustum was overcome, but his life was spared by a
trick and by the generosity of Sohrab. On the second day Rustum prevailed,
and mortally wounded his antagonist. Then he recognized his own son by a
gold bracelet which he had long ago given to his wife Temineh. The two
armies, rushing into battle, were stopped by the sight of father and son
weeping in each other's arms. Sohrab died, the war ceased, and Rustum went
home to a life of sorrow and remorse.
Using this interesting material, Arnold produced a poem which has the rare
and difficult combination of classic reserve and romantic feeling. It is
written in blank verse, and one has only to read the first few lines to see
that the poet is not a master of his instrument. The lines are seldom
harmonious, and we must frequently change the accent of common words, or
lay stress on unimportant particles, to show the rhythm. Arnold frequently
copies Milton, especially in his repetition of ideas and phrases; but the
poem as a whole is lacking in Milton's wonderful melody.
The classic influence on _Sohrab and Rustum_ is especially noticeable in
Arnold's use of materials. Fights are short; grief is long; therefore the
poet gives few lines to the combat, but lingers over the son's joy at
finding his father, and the father's quenchless sorrow at the death of his
son. The last lines especially, with their "passionate grief set to solemn
music," make this poem one of the best, on the whole, that Arnold has
written. And the exquisite ending, where the Oxus, unmindful of the trivial
strifes of men, flows on sedately to join "his luminous home of waters" is
most suggestive of the poet's conception of the orderly life of nature, in
contrast with the doubt and restlessness of human life.
Next in importance to the narrative poems are the elegies, "Thyrsis," "The
Scholar-Gipsy," "Memorial Verses," "A Southern Night," "Obermann," "Stanzas
from the Grande Chartreuse," and "Rugby Chapel." All these are worthy of
careful reading, but the best is "Thyrsis," a lament for the poet Clough,
which is sometimes classed with Milton's _Lycidas_ and Shelley's _Adonais_.
Among the minor poems the reader will find the best expression of Arnold's
ideals and methods in "Dover Beach," the love lyrics entitled
"Switzerland," "Requiescat," "Shakespeare," "The Future," "Kensington
Gardens," "Philomela," "Human Life," "Callicles's Song," "Morality," and
"Geist's Grave."--the last being an exquisite tribute to a little dog
which, like all his kind, had repaid our scant crumbs of affection with a
whole life's devotion.
The first place among Arnold's prose works must be given to the _Essays in
Criticism_, which raised the author to the front rank of living critics.
His fundamental idea of criticism appeals to us strongly. The business of
criticism, he says, is neither to find fault nor to display the critic's
own learning or influence; it is to know "the best which has been thought
and said in the world," and by using this knowledge to create a current of
fresh and free thought. If a choice must be made among these essays, which
are all worthy of study, we would suggest "The Study of Poetry,"
"Wordsworth," "Byron," and "Emerson." The last-named essay, which is found
in the _Discourses in America_, is hardly a satisfactory estimate of
Emerson, but its singular charm of manner and its atmosphere of
intellectual culture make it perhaps the most characteristic of Arnold's
prose writings.
Among the works of Arnold's practical period there are two which may be
taken as typical of all the rest. _Literature and Dogma_ (1873) is, in
general, a plea for liberality in religion. Arnold would have us read the
Bible, for instance, as we would read any other great work, and apply to it
the ordinary standards of literary criticism.
_Culture and Anarchy_ (1869) contains most of the terms--culture, sweetness
and light, Barbarian, Philistine, Hebraism, and many others--which are now
associated with Arnold's work and influence. The term "Barbarian" refers to
the aristocratic classes, whom Arnold thought to be essentially crude in
soul, notwithstanding their good clothes and superficial graces.
"Philistine" refers to the middle classes,--narrow-minded and
self-satisfied people, according to Arnold, whom he satirizes with the idea
of opening their minds to new ideas. "Hebraism" is Arnold's term for moral
education. Carlyle had emphasized the Hebraic or moral element in life, and
Arnold undertook to preach the Hellenic or intellectual element, which
welcomes new ideas, and delights in the arts that reflect the beauty of the
world. "The uppermost idea with. Hellenism," he says, "is to see things as
they are; the uppermost idea with Hebraism is conduct and obedience." With
great clearness, sometimes with great force, and always with a play of
humor and raillery aimed at the "Philistines," Arnold pleads for both these
elements in life which together aim at "Culture," that is, at moral and
intellectual perfection.
GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS. Arnold's influence in our literature may be summed
up, in a word, as intellectual rather than inspirational. One cannot be
enthusiastic over his poetry, for the simple reason that he himself lacked
enthusiasm. He is, however, a true reflection of a very real mood of the
past century, the mood of doubt and sorrow; and a future generation may
give him a higher place than he now holds as a poet. Though marked by "the
elemental note of sadness," all Arnold's poems are distinguished by
clearness, simplicity, and the restrained emotion of his classic models.
As a prose writer the cold intellectual quality, which mars his poetry by
restraining romantic feeling, is of first importance, since it leads him to
approach literature with an open mind and with the single desire to find
"the best which has been thought and said in the world." We cannot yet
speak with confidence of his rank in literature; but by his crystal-clear
style, his scientific spirit of inquiry and comparison, illumined here and
there by the play of humor, and especially by his broad sympathy and
intellectual culture, he seems destined to occupy a very high place among
the masters of literary criticism.
JOHN HENRY NEWMAN (1801-1890)
Any record of the prose literature of the Victorian era, which includes the
historical essays of Macaulay and the art criticism of Ruskin, should
contain also some notice of its spiritual leaders. For there was never a
time when the religious ideals that inspire the race were kept more
constantly before men's minds through the medium of literature.
Among the religious writers of the age the first place belongs
unquestionably to Cardinal Newman. Whether we consider him as a man, with
his powerful yet gracious personality, or as a religious reformer, who did
much to break down old religious prejudices by showing the underlying
beauty and consistency of the Roman church, or as a prose writer whose
style is as near perfection as we have ever reached, Newman is one of the
most interesting figures of the whole nineteenth century.
LIFE. Three things stand out clearly in Newman's life: first, his unshaken
faith in the divine companionship and guidance; second, his desire to find
and to teach the truth of revealed religion; third, his quest of an
authoritative standard of faith, which should remain steadfast through the
changing centuries and amid all sorts and conditions of men. The first led
to that rare and beautiful spiritual quality which shines in all his work;
the second to his frequent doctrinal and controversial essays; the third to
his conversion to the Catholic church, which he served as priest and
teacher for the last forty-five years of his life. Perhaps we should add
one more characteristic,--the practical bent of his religion; for he was
never so busy with study or controversy that he neglected to give a large
part of his time to gentle ministration among the poor and needy.
He was born in London, in 1801. His father was an English banker; his
mother, a member of a French Huguenot family, was a thoughtful, devout
woman, who brought up her son in a way which suggests the mother of Ruskin.
Of his early training, his reading of doctrinal and argumentative works,
and of his isolation from material things in the thought that there were
"two and only two absolute and luminously self-evident beings in the
world," himself and his Creator, it is better to read his own record in the
_Apologia_, which is a kind of spiritual biography.
At the age of fifteen Newman had begun his profound study of theological
subjects. For science, literature, art, nature,--all the broad interests
which attracted other literary men of his age,--he cared little, his mind
being wholly occupied with the history and doctrines of the Christian
church, to which he had already devoted his life. He was educated first at
the school in Ealing, then at Oxford, taking his degree in the latter place
in 1820. Though his college career was not more brilliant than that of many
unknown men, his unusual ability was recognized and he was made a fellow of
Oriel College, retaining the fellowship, and leading a scholarly life for
over twenty years. In 1824 he was ordained in the Anglican church, and four
years later was chosen vicar of St. Mary's, at Oxford, where his sermons
made a deep impression on the cultivated audiences that gathered from far
and near to hear him.
A change is noticeable in Newman's life after his trip to the Mediterranean
in 1832. He had begun his life as a Calvinist, but while in Oxford, then
the center of religious unrest, he described himself as "drifting in the
direction of Liberalism." Then study and bereavement and an innate
mysticism led him to a profound sympathy with the mediæval Church. He had
from the beginning opposed Catholicism; but during his visit to Italy,
where he saw the Roman church at the center of Its power and splendor, many
of his prejudices were overcome. In this enlargement of his spiritual
horizon Newman was greatly influenced by his friend Hurrell Froude, with
whom he made the first part of the journey. His poems of this period
(afterwards collected in the _Lyra Apostolica_), among which is the famous
"Lead, Kindly Light," are noticeable for their radiant spirituality; but
one who reads them carefully sees the beginning of that mental struggle
which ended in his leaving the church in which he was born. Thus he writes
of the Catholic church, whose services he had attended as "one who in a
foreign land receives the gifts of a good Samaritan":
O that thy creed were sound!
For thou dost soothe the heart, thou church of Rome,
By thy unwearied watch and varied round
Of service, in thy Saviour's holy home.
I cannot walk the city's sultry streets,
But the wide porch invites to still retreats,
Where passion's thirst is calmed, and care's unthankful gloom.
On his return to England, in 1833, he entered into the religious struggle
known as the Oxford or Tractarian Movement,[245] and speedily became its
acknowledged leader. Those who wish to follow this attempt at religious
reform, which profoundly affected the life of the whole English church,
will find it recorded in the _Tracts for the Times_, twenty-nine of which
were written by Newman, and in his _Parochial and Plain Sermons_ (1837-
1843). After nine years of spiritual conflict Newman retired to Littlemore,
where, with a few followers, he led a life of almost monastic seclusion,
still striving to reconcile his changing belief with the doctrines of his
own church. Two years later he resigned his charge at St. Mary's and left
the Anglican communion,--not bitterly, but with a deep and tender regret.
His last sermon at Littlemore on "The Parting of Friends" still moves us
profoundly, like the cry of a prophet torn by personal anguish in the face
of duty. In 1845 he was received into the Catholic church, and the
following year, at Rome, he joined the community of St. Philip Neri, "the
saint of gentleness and kindness," as Newman describes him, and was
ordained to the Roman priesthood.
By his preaching and writing Newman had exercised a strong influence over
his cultivated English hearers, and the effect of his conversion was
tremendous. Into the theological controversy of the next twenty years we
have no mind to enter. Through it all Newman retained his serenity, and,
though a master of irony and satire, kept his literary power always
subordinate to his chief aim, which was to establish the truth as he saw
it. Whether or not we agree with his conclusions, we must all admire the
spirit of the man, which is above praise or criticism. His most widely read
work, _Apologia Pro Vita Sua_ (1864), was written in answer to an
unfortunate attack by Charles Kingsley, which would long since have been
forgotten had it not led to this remarkable book. In 1854 Newman was
appointed rector of the Catholic University in Dublin, but after four years
returned to England and founded a Catholic school at Edgbaston. In 1879 he
was made cardinal by Pope Leo XIII. The grace and dignity of his life,
quite as much as the sincerity of his _Apologia_, had long since disarmed
criticism, and at his death, in 1890, the thought of all England might well
be expressed by his own lines in "The Dream of Gerontius":
I had a dream. Yes, some one softly said,
"He's gone," and then a sigh went round the room;
And then I surely heard a priestly voice
Cry _Subvenite_; and they knelt in prayer.
WORKS OF NEWMAN. Readers approach Newman from so many different motives,
some for doctrine, some for argument, some for a pure prose style, that it
is difficult to recommend the best works for the beginner's use. As an
expression of Newman's spiritual struggle the _Apologia Pro Vita Sua_ is
perhaps the most significant. This book is not light reading and one who
opens it should understand clearly the reasons for which it was written.
Newman had been accused of insincerity, not only by Kingsley but by many
other men, in the public press. His retirement to solitude and meditation
at Littlemore had been outrageously misunderstood, and it was openly
charged that his conversion was a cunningly devised plot to win a large
number of his followers to the Catholic church. This charge involved
others, and it was to defend them, as well as to vindicate himself, that
Newman wrote the _Apologia_. The perfect sincerity with which he traced his
religious history, showing that his conversion was only the final step in a
course he had been following since boyhood, silenced his critics and
revolutionized public opinion concerning himself and the church which he
had joined. As the revelation of a soul's history, and as a model of pure,
simple, unaffected English, this book, entirely apart from its doctrinal
teaching, deserves a high place in our prose literature.
In Newman's doctrinal works, the _Via Media_, the _Grammar of Assent_, and
in numerous controversial essays the student of literature will have little
interest. Much more significant are his sermons, the unconscious reflection
of a rare spiritual nature, of which Professor Shairp said: "His power
shows itself clearly in the new and unlooked-for way in which he touched
into life old truths, moral or spiritual.... And as he spoke, how the old
truth became new! and how it came home with a meaning never felt before! He
laid his finger how gently yet how powerfully on some inner place in the
hearer's heart, and told him things about himself he had never known till
then. Subtlest truths, which would have taken philosophers pages of
circumlocution and big words to state, were dropped out by the way in a
sentence or two of the most transparent Saxon." Of greater interest to the
general reader are _The Idea of a University_, discourses delivered at
Dublin, and his two works of fiction, _Loss and Gain_, treating of a man's
conversion to Catholicism, and _Callista_, which is, in his own words, "an
attempt to express the feelings and mutual relations of Christians and
heathens in the middle of the third century." The latter is, in our
judgment, the most readable and interesting of Newman's works. The
character of Callista, a beautiful Greek sculptor of idols, is powerfully
delineated; the style is clear and transparent as air, and the story of the
heroine's conversion and death makes one of the most fascinating chapters
in fiction, though it is not the story so much as the author's unconscious
revelation of himself that charms us. It would be well to read this novel
in connection with Kingsley's _Hypatia_, which attempts to reconstruct the
life and ideals of the same period.
Newman's poems are not so well known as his prose, but the reader who
examines the _Lyra Apostolica_ and _Verses on Various Occasions_ will find
many short poems that stir a religious nature profoundly by their pure and
lofty imagination; and future generations may pronounce one of these poems,
"The Dream of Gerontius," to be Newman's most enduring work. This poem aims
to reproduce the thoughts and feelings of a man whose soul is just quitting
the body, and who is just beginning a new and greater life. Both in style
and in thought "The Dream" is a powerful and original poem and is worthy of
attention not only for itself but, as a modern critic suggests, "as a
revelation of that high spiritual purpose which animated Newman's life from
beginning to end."
Of Newman's style it is as difficult to write as it would be to describe
the dress of a gentleman we had met, who was so perfectly dressed that we
paid no attention to his clothes. His style is called transparent, because
at first we are not conscious of his manner; and unobtrusive, because we
never think of Newman himself, but only of the subject he is discussing. He
is like the best French prose writers in expressing his thought with such
naturalness and apparent ease that, without thinking of style, we receive
exactly the impression which he means to convey. In his sermons and essays
he is wonderfully simple and direct; in his controversial writings, gently
ironical and satiric, and the satire is pervaded by a delicate humor; but
when his feelings are aroused he speaks with poetic images and symbols, and
his eloquence is like that of the Old Testament prophets. Like Ruskin's,
his style is modeled largely on that of the Bible, but not even Ruskin
equals him in the poetic beauty and melody of his sentences. On the whole
he comes nearer than any other of his age to our ideal of a perfect prose
writer.
OTHER ESSAYISTS OF THE VICTORIAN AGE. We have selected the above five
essayists, Macaulay, Carlyle, Arnold, Newman, and Ruskin, as representative
writers of the Victorian Age; but there are many others who well repay our
study. Notable among these are John Addington Symonds, author of _The
Renaissance in Italy_, undoubtedly his greatest work, and of many critical
essays; Walter Pater, whose _Appreciations_ and numerous other works mark
him as one of our best literary critics; and Leslie Stephen, famous for his
work on the monumental _Dictionary of National Biography_, and for his
_Hours in a Library_, a series of impartial and excellent criticisms,
brightened by the play of an original and delightful humor.
Among the most famous writers of the age are the scientists, Lyell, Darwin,
Huxley, Spencer, Tyndall, and Wallace,--a wonderful group of men whose
works, though they hardly belong to our present study, have exercised an
incalculable influence on our life and literature. Darwin's _Origin of
Species_ (1859), which apparently established the theory of evolution, was
an epoch-making book. It revolutionized not only our conceptions of natural
history, but also our methods of thinking on all the problems of human
society. Those who would read a summary of the greatest scientific
discovery of the age will find it in Wallace's _Darwinism_,--a most
interesting book, written by the man who claims, with Darwin, the honor of
first announcing the principle of evolution. And, from a multitude of
scientific works, we recommend also to the general reader Huxley's
_Autobiography_ and his _Lay Sermons, Addresses, and Reviews_, partly
because they are excellent expressions of the spirit and methods of
science, and partly because Huxley as a writer is perhaps the clearest and
the most readable of the scientists.
THE SPIRIT OF MODERN LITERATURE. As we reflect on the varied work of the
Victorian writers, three marked characteristics invite our attention.
First, our great literary men, no less than our great scientists, have made
truth the supreme object of human endeavor. All these eager poets,
novelists, and essayists, questing over so many different ways, are equally
intent on discovering the truth of life. Men as far apart as Darwin and
Newman are strangely alike in spirit, one seeking truth in the natural, the
other in the spiritual history of the race. Second, literature has become
the mirror of truth; and the first requirement of every serious novel or
essay is to be true to the life or the facts which it represents. Third,
literature has become animated by a definite moral purpose. It is not
enough for the Victorian writers to create or attempt an artistic work for
its own sake; the work must have a definite lesson for humanity. The poets
are not only singers, but leaders; they hold up an ideal, and they compel
men to recognize and follow it. The novelists tell a story which pictures
human life, and at the same time call us to the work Of social reform, or
drive home a moral lesson. The essayists are nearly all prophets or
teachers, and use literature as the chief instrument of progress and
education. Among them all we find comparatively little of the exuberant
fancy, the romantic ardor, and the boyish gladness of the Elizabethans.
They write books not primarily to delight the artistic sense, but to give
bread to the hungry and water to the thirsty in soul. Milton's famous
sentence, "A good book is the precious life-blood of a master spirit,"
might be written across the whole Victorian era. We are still too near
these writers to judge how far their work suffers artistically from their
practical purpose; but this much is certain,--that whether or not they
created immortal works, their books have made the present world a better
and a happier place to live in. And that is perhaps the best that can be
said of the work of any artist or artisan.
SUMMARY OF THE VICTORIAN AGE. The year 1830 is generally placed at the
beginning of this period, but its limits are very indefinite. In general we
may think of it as covering the reign of Victoria (1837-1901). Historically
the age is remarkable for the growth of democracy following the Reform Bill
of 1832; for the spread of education among all classes; for the rapid
development of the arts and sciences; for important mechanical inventions;
and for the enormous extension of the bounds of human knowledge by the
discoveries of science.
At the accession of Victoria the romantic movement had spent its force;
Wordsworth had written his best work; the other romantic poets, Coleridge,
Shelley, Keats, and Byron, had passed away; and for a time no new
development was apparent in English poetry. Though the Victorian Age
produced two great poets, Tennyson and Browning, the age, as a whole, is
remarkable for the variety and excellence of its prose. A study of all the
great writers of the period reveals four general characteristics: (1)
Literature in this Age has come very close to daily life, reflecting its
practical problems and interests, and is a powerful instrument of human
progress. (2) The tendency of literature is strongly ethical; all the great
poets, novelists, and essayists of the age are moral teachers. (3) Science
in this age exercises an incalculable influence. On the one hand it
emphasizes truth as the sole object of human endeavor; it has established
the principle of law throughout the universe; and it has given us an
entirely new view of life, as summed up in the word "evolution," that is,
the principle of growth or development from simple to complex forms. On the
other hand, its first effect seems to be to discourage works of the
imagination. Though the age produced an incredible number of books, very
few of them belong among the great creative works of literature. (4) Though
the age is generally characterized as practical and materialistic, it is
significant that nearly all the writers whom the nation delights to honor
vigorously attack materialism, and exalt a purely ideal conception of life.
On the whole, we are inclined to call this an idealistic age fundamentally,
since love, truth, justice, brotherhood--all great ideals--are emphasized
as the chief ends of life, not only by its poets but also by its novelists
and essayists.
In our study we have considered: (1) The Poets; the life and works of
Tennyson and Browning; and the chief characteristics of the minor poets,
Elizabeth Barrett (Mrs. Browning), Rossetti, Morris, and Swinburne. (2) The
Novelists; the life and works of Dickens, Thackeray, and George Eliot; and
the chief works of Charles Reade, Anthony Trollope, Charlotte Brontë,
Bulwer-Lytton, Kingsley, Mrs. Gaskell, Blackmore, George Meredith, Hardy,
and Stevenson. (3) The Essayists; the life and works of Macaulay, Matthew
Arnold, Carlyle, Newman, and Ruskin. These were selected, from among many
essayists and miscellaneous writers, as most typical of the Victorian Age.
The great scientists, like Lyell, Darwin, Huxley, Wallace, Tyndall, and
Spencer, hardly belong to our study of literature, though their works are
of vast importance; and we omit the works of living writers who belong to
the present rather than to the past century.
SELECTIONS FOR READING. Manly's English Poetry and Manly's English Prose
(Ginn and Company) contain excellent selections from all authors of this
period. Many other collections, like Ward's English Poets, Garnett's
English Prose from Elizabeth to Victoria, Page's British Poets of the
Nineteenth Century, and Stedman's A Victorian Anthology, may be used to
advantage. All important works may be found in the convenient and
inexpensive school editions given below. (For full titles and publishers
see the General Bibliography.)
_Tennyson_. Short poems, and selections from Idylls of the King, In
Memoriam, Enoch Arden, and The Princess. These are found in various school
editions, Standard English Classics, Pocket Classics, Riverside Literature
Series, etc. Poems by Tennyson, selected and edited with notes by Henry Van
Dyke (Athenaeum Press Series), is an excellent little volume for beginners.
_Browning_. Selections, edited by R.M. Lovett, in Standard English
Classics. Other school editions in Everyman's Library, Belles Lettres
Series, etc.
_Elizabeth Barrett Browning_. Selections, edited by Elizabeth Lee, in
Standard English Classics. Selections also in Pocket Classics, etc.
_Matthew Arnold_. Sohrab and Rustum, edited by Trent and Brewster, in
Standard English Classics. The same poem in Riverside Literature Series,
etc. Selections in Golden Treasury Series, etc. Poems, students' edition
(Crowell). Essays in Everyman's Library, etc. Prose selections (Holt, Allyn
& Bacon, etc.).
_Dickens_. Tale of Two Cities, edited by J.W. Linn, in Standard English
Classics. A Christmas Carol, David Copperfield, and Pickwick Papers.
Various good school editions of these novels in Everyman's Library, etc.
_Thackeray_. Henry Esmond, edited by H.B. Moore, in Standard English
Classics. The same novel, in Everyman's Library, Pocket Classics, etc.
_George Eliot_. Silas Marner, edited by R. Adelaide Witham, in Standard
English Classics. The same novel, in Pocket Classics, etc.
_Carlyle_. Essay on Burns, edited by C.L. Hanson, in Standard English
Classics, and Heroes and Hero Worship, edited by A. MacMechan, in Athenaeum
Press Series. Selections, edited by H.W. Boynton (Allyn & Bacon). Various
other inexpensive editions, in Pocket Classics, Eclectic English Classics,
etc.
_Ruskin_. Sesame and Lilies, edited by Lois G. Hufford, in Standard English
Classics. Other editions in Riverside Literature, Everyman's Library, etc.
Selected Essays and Letters, edited by Hufford, in Standard English
Classics. Selections, edited by Vida D. Scudder (Sibley); edited by C.B.
Tinker, in Riverside Literature.
_Macaulay_. Essays on Addison and Milton, edited by H.A. Smith, in Standard
English Classics. Same essays, in Cassell's National Library, Riverside
Literature, etc. Lays of Ancient Rome, in Standard English Classics, Pocket
Classics, etc.
_Newman_. Selections, with introduction by L.E. Gates (Holt); Selections
from prose and poetry, in Riverside Literature. The Idea of a University,
in Manly's English Prose.
BIBLIOGRAPHY. (note. For full titles and publishers of general reference
books, see General Bibliography.) _HISTORY. Text-book_, Montgomery, pp.
357-383; Cheyney, pp. 632-643. _General Works_. Gardiner, and Traill.
_Special Works_. McCarthy's History of Our Own Times; Bright's History of
England, vols. 4-5; Lee's Queen Victoria; Bryce's Studies in Contemporary
Biography.
_LITERATURE. General Works_. Garnett and Gosse, Taine. _Special Works_.
Harrison's Early Victorian Literature; Saintsbury's A History of Nineteenth
Century Literature; Walker's The Age of Tennyson; same author's The Greater
Victorian Poets; Morley's Literature of the Age of Victoria; Stedman's
Victorian Poets; Mrs. Oliphant's Literary History of England in the
Nineteenth Century; Beers's English Romanticism in the Nineteenth Century;
Dowden's Victorian Literature, in Transcripts and Studies; Brownell's
Victorian Prose Masters.
_Tennyson_. Texts: Cabinet edition (London, 1897) is the standard. Various
good editions, Globe, Cambridge Poets, etc. Selections in Athenaeum Press
(Ginn and Company).
Life: Alfred Lord Tennyson, a Memoir by his son, is the standard; by Lyall
(in English Men of Letters); by Horton; by Waugh. See also Anne T.
Ritchie's Tennyson and His Friends; Napier's The Homes and Haunts of
Tennyson; Rawnsley's Memories of the Tennysons.
Criticism: Brooke's Tennyson, his Art and his Relation to Modern Life; A.
Lang's Alfred Tennyson; Van Dyke's The Poetry of Tennyson; Sneath's The
Mind of Tennyson; Gwynn's A Critical Study of Tennyson's Works; Luce's
Handbook to Tennyson's Works; Dixon's A Tennyson Primer; Masterman's
Tennyson as a Religious Teacher; Collins's The Early Poems of Tennyson;
Macallum's Tennyson's Idylls of the King and the Arthurian Story; Bradley's
Commentary on In Memoriam; Bagehot's Literary Studies, vol. 2; Brightwell's
Concordance; Shepherd's Bibliography.
Essays: By F. Harrison, in Tennyson, Ruskin, Mill, and Other Literary
Estimates; by Stedman, in Victorian Poets; by Hutton, in Literary Essays;
by Dowden, in Studies in Literature; by Gates, in Studies and
Appreciations; by Forster, in Great Teachers; by Forman, in Our Living
Poets. See also Myers's Science and a Future Life.
_Browning_. Texts: Cambridge and Globe editions, etc. Various editions of
selections. (See Selections for Reading, above.)
Life: by W. Sharp (Great Writers); by Chesterton (English Men of Letters);
Life and Letters, by Mrs. Sutherland Orr; by Waugh, in Westminster
Biographies (Small & Maynard).
Criticism: Symons's An Introduction to the Study of Browning; same title,
by Corson; Mrs. Orr's Handbook to the Works of Browning; Nettleship's
Robert Browning; Brooke's The Poetry of Robert Browning; Cooke's Browning
Guide Book; Revell's Browning's Criticism of Life; Berdoe's Browning's
Message to his Times; Berdoe's Browning Cyclopedia.
Essays: by Hutton, Stedman, Dowden, Forster (for titles, see Tennyson,
above); by Jacobs, in Literary Studies; by Chapman, in Emerson and Other
Essays; by Cooke, in Poets and Problems; by Birrell, in Obiter Dicta.
_Elizabeth Barrett Browning_. Texts: Globe and Cambridge editions, etc.;
various editions of selections. Life: by J. H. Ingram; see also Bayne's Two
Great Englishmen. Kenyon's Letters of E. B. Browning.
Criticism: Essays, by Stedman, in Victorian Poets; by Benson, in Essays.
_Matthew Arnold_. Texts: Poems, Globe edition, etc. See Selections for
Reading, above. Life: by Russell; by Saintsbury; by Paul (English Men of
Letters); Letters, by Russell.
Criticism: Essays by Woodberry, in Makers of Literature; by Gates, in Three
Studies in Literature; by Hutton, in Modern Guides of English Thought; by
Brownell, in Victorian Prose Masters; by F. Harrison (see Tennyson, above).
_Dickens_. Texts: numerous good editions of novels. Life: by J. Forster; by
Marzials (Great Writers); by Ward (English Men of Letters); Langton's The
Childhood and Youth of Dickens.
Criticism: Gissing's Charles Dickens; Chesterton's Charles Dickens;
Kitten's The Novels of Charles Dickens; Fitzgerald's The History of
Pickwick. Essays: by F. Harrison (see above); by Bagehot, in Literary
Studies; by Lilly, in Four English Humorists; by A. Lang, in Gadshill
edition of Dickens's works.
_Thackeray_. Texts: numerous good editions of novels and essays. Life: by
Melville; by Merivale and Marzials (Great Writers); by A. Trollope (English
Men of Letters); by L. Stephen, in Dictionary of National Biography. See
also Crowe's Homes and Haunts of Thackeray; Wilson's Thackeray in the
United States.
Criticism: Essays, by Lilly, in Four English Humorists; by Harrison, in
Studies in Early Victorian Literature; by Scudder, in Social Ideals in
English Letters; by Brownell, in Victorian Prose Masters.
_George Eliot_. Texts: numerous editions. Life: by L. Stephen (English Men
of Letters); by O. Browning (Great Writers); by her husband, J.W. Cross.
Criticism: Cooke's George Eliot, a Critical Study of her Life and Writings.
Essays: by J. Jacobs, in Literary Studies; by H. James, in Partial
Portraits; by Dowden, in Studies in Literature; by Hutton, Harrison,
Brownell, Lilly (see above). See also Parkinson's Scenes from the George
Eliot Country.
_Carlyle_. Texts: various editions of works. Heroes, and Sartor Resartus,
in Athenaeum Press (Ginn and Company); Sartor, and Past and Present, 1 vol.
(Harper); Critical and Miscellaneous Essays, 1 vol. (Appleton); Letters and
Reminiscences, edited by C. E. Norton, 6 vols. (Macmillan).
Life: by Garnett (Great Writers); by Nichol (English Men of Letters); by
Froude, 2 vols. (very full, but not trustworthy). See also Carlyle's
Reminiscences and Correspondence, and Craig's The Making of Carlyle.
Criticism: Masson's Carlyle Personally and in his Writings. Essays: by
Lowell, in My Study Windows; by Harrison, Brownell, Hutton, Lilly (see
above).
_Ruskin_. Texts: Brantwood edition, edited by C.E. Norton; various editions
of separate works. Life: by Harrison (English Men of Letters); by
Collingwood, 2 vols.; see also Ruskin's Praeterita.
Criticism: Mather's Ruskin, his Life and Teaching; Cooke's Studies in
Ruskin; Waldstein's The Work of John Ruskin; Hobson's John Ruskin, Social
Reformer; Mrs. Meynell's John Ruskin; Sizeranne's Ruskin and the Religion
of Beauty, translated from the French; White's Principles of Art; W. M.
Rossetti's Ruskin, Rossetti, and Pre-Raphaelitism.
Essays: by Robertson, in Modern Humanists; by Saintsbury, in Corrected
Impressions; by Brownell, Harrison, Forster (see above).
_Macaulay_. Texts: Complete works, edited by his sister, Lady Trevelyan
(London, 1866); various editions of separate works (see Selections for
Reading, above). Life: Life and Letters, by Trevelyan, 2 vols.; by Morrison
(English Men of Letters).
Criticism: Essays, by Bagehot, in Literary Studies; by L. Stephen, in Hours
in a Library; by Saintsbury, in Corrected Impressions; by Harrison, in
Studies in Early Victorian Literature; by Matthew Arnold.
_Newman_. Texts: Uniform edition of important works (London, 1868-1881);
Apologia (Longmans); Selections (Holt, Riverside Literature, etc.). Life:
Jennings's Cardinal Newman; Button's Cardinal Newman; Early Life, by F.
Newman; by Waller and Barrow, in Westminster Biographies. See also Church's
The Oxford Movement; Fitzgerald's Fifty Years of Catholic Life and
Progress.
Criticism: Essays, by Donaldson, in Five Great Oxford Leaders; by Church,
in Occasional Papers, vol. 2; by Gates, in Three Studies in Literature; by
Jacobs, in Literary Studies; by Hutton, in Modern Guides of English
Thought; by Lilly, in Essays and Speeches; by Shairp, in Studies in Poetry
and Philosophy. See also Button's Cardinal Newman.
_Rossetti_. Works, 2 vols. (London, 1901). Selections, in Golden Treasury
Series. Life: by Knight (Great Writers); by Sharp; Hall Caine's
Recollections of Dante Gabriel Rossetti; Gary's The Rossettis; Marillier's
Rossetti; Wood's Rossetti and the Pre-Raphaelite Movement; W.M. Hunt's
Pre-Raphaelitism and the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood.
Criticism: Tirebuck's Rossetti, his Work and Influence. Essays: by
Swinburne, in Essays and Studies; by Forman, in Our Living Poets; by Pater,
in Ward's English Poets; by F.W.H. Myers, in Essays Modern.
_Morris_. Texts: Story of the Glittering Plain, House of the Wolfings, etc.
(Reeves & Turner); Early Romances, in Everyman's Library; Sigurd the
Volsung, in Camelot Series; Socialistic writings (Humboldt Publishing Co.).
Life: by Mackail; by Cary; by Vallance.
Criticism: Essays, by Symons, in Studies in Two Literatures; by Dawson, in
Makers of Modern English; by Saintsbury, in Corrected Impressions. See also
Nordby's Influence of Old Norse Literature.
_Swinburne_. Texts: Complete works (Chatto and Windus); Poems and Ballads
(Lovell); Selections (Rivington, Belles Lettres Series, etc.). Life:
Wratislaw's Algernon Charles Swinburne, a Study.
Criticism: Essays, by Forman, Saintsbury (see above); by Lowell, in My
Study Windows; see also Stedman's Victorian Poets.
_Charles Keade_. Texts: Cloister and the Hearth, in Everyman's Library;
various editions of separate novels. Life: by C. Reade.
Criticism: Essay, by Swinburne, in Miscellanies.
_Anthony Trollope_. Texts: Royal edition of principal novels (Philadelphia,
1900); Barchester Towers, etc., in Everyman's Library. Life: Autobiography
(Harper, 1883).
Criticism: H.T. Peck's Introduction to Royal edition, vol. 1. Essays: by H.
James, in Partial Portraits; by Harrison, in Early Victorian Literature.
See also Cross, The Development of the English Novel.
_Charlotte and Emily Brontë_. Texts: Works, Haworth edition, edited by Mrs.
H. Ward (Harper); Complete works (Dent, 1893); Jane Eyre, Shirley, and
Wuthering Heights, in Everyman's Library. Life of Charlotte Brontë: by Mrs.
Gaskell; by Shorter; by Birrell (Great Writers). Life of Emily Brontë: by
Robinson. See also Leyland's The Brontë Family.
Criticism: Essays, by L. Stephen, in Hours in a Library; by Gates, in
Studies and Appreciations; by Harrison, in Early Victorian Literature; by
G.B. Smith, in Poets and Novelists. See also Swinburne's A Note on
Charlotte Brontë.
_Bulwer-Lytton_. Texts: Works, Knebsworth edition (Routledge); various
editions of separate works; Last Days of Pompeii, etc., in Everyman's
Library. Life: by his son, the Earl of Lytton; by Cooper; by Ten Brink.
Criticism: Essay, by W. Senior, in Essays in Fiction.
_Mrs. Gaskell_. Various editions of separate works; Cranford, in Standard
English Classics, etc. Life: see Dictionary of National Biography.
Criticism: see Saintsbury's Nineteenth-Century Literature.
_Kingsley_. Texts: Works, Chester edition; Hypatia, Westward Ho! etc., in
Everyman's Library. Life: Letters and Memories, by his wife; by Kaufmann.
Criticism: Essays, by Harrison, in Early Victorian Literature; by L.
Stephen, in Hours in a Library.
_Stevenson_. Texts: Works (Scribner); Treasure Island, in Everyman's
Library; Master of Ballantrae, in Pocket Classics; Letters, edited by
Colvin (Scribner). Life: by Balfour; by Baildon; by Black; by Cornford. See
also Simpson's Edinburgh Days; Eraser's In Stevenson's Samoa; Osborne and
Strong's Memories of Vailima.
Criticism: Raleigh's Stevenson; Alice Brown's Stevenson. Essays: by H.
James, in Partial Portraits; by Chapman, in Emerson and Other Essays.
_Hardy_. Texts: Works (Harper). Criticism: Macdonnell's Thomas Hardy;
Johnson's The Art of Thomas Hardy. See also Windle's The Wessex of Thomas
Hardy; and Dawson's Makers of English Fiction.
_George Meredith_. Texts: Novels and Selected Poems (Scribner).
Criticism: Le Gallienne's George Meredith; Hannah Lynch's George Meredith.
Essays: by Henley, in Views and Reviews; by Brownell, in Victorian Prose
Masters; by Monkhouse, in Books and Plays. See also Bailey's The Novels of
George Meredith; Curie's Aspects of George Meredith; and Cross's The
Development of the English Novel.
SUGGESTIVE QUESTIONS. (NOTE. The best questions are those which are based
upon the books, essays, and poems read by the pupil. As the works chosen
for special study vary greatly with different teachers and classes, we
insert here only a few questions of general interest.) 1. What are the
chief characteristics of Victorian literature? Name the chief writers of
the period in prose and poetry. What books of this period are, in your
judgment, worthy to be placed among the great works of literature? What
effect did the discoveries of science have upon the literature of the age?
What poet reflects the new conception of law and evolution? What historical
conditions account for the fact that most of the Victorian writers are
ethical teachers?
2. _Tennyson_. Give a brief sketch of Tennyson's life, and name his chief
works. Why is he, like Chaucer, a national poet? Is your pleasure in
reading Tennyson due chiefly to the thought or the melody of expression?
Note this figure in "The Lotos Eaters":
Music that gentlier on the spirit lies
Than tired eyelids upon tired eyes.
What does this suggest concerning Tennyson's figures of speech in general?
Compare "Locksley Hall" with "Locksley Hall Sixty Years After." What
differences do you find in thought, in workmanship, and in poetic
enthusiasm? What is Tennyson's idea of faith and immortality as expressed
in _In Memoriam_?
3. _Browning_. In what respects is Browning like Shakespeare? What is meant
by the optimism of his poetry? Can you explain why many thoughtful persons
prefer him to Tennyson? What is Browning's creed as expressed in "Rabbi Ben
Ezra"? Read "Fra Lippo Lippi" or "Andrea del Sarto," and tell what is meant
by a dramatic monologue. In "Andrea" what is meant by the lines,
Ah, but a man's reach should exceed his grasp,
Or what's a heaven for?
4. _Dickens_. What experiences in Dickens's life are reflected in his
novels? What are his favorite types of character? What is meant by the
exaggeration of Dickens? What was the serious purpose of his novels? Make a
brief analysis of the _Tale of Two Cities_, having in mind the plot, the
characters, and the style, as compared with Dickens's other novels.
5. _Thackeray_. Read _Henry Esmond_ and explain Thackeray's realism. What
is there remarkable in the style of this novel? Compare it with _Ivanhoe_
as a historical novel. What is the general character of Thackeray's satire?
What are the chief characteristics of his novels? Describe briefly the
works which show his great skill as a critical writer.
6. _George Eliot_. Read _Silas Marner_ and make a brief analysis, having in
mind the plot, the characters, the style, and the ethical teaching of the
novel. Is the moral teaching of George Eliot convincing; that is, does it
suggest itself from the story, or is it added for effect? What is the
general impression left by her books? How do her characters compare with
those of Dickens and Thackeray?
7. _Carlyle_. Why is Carlyle called a prophet, and why a censor? Read the
_Essay on Burns_ and make an analysis, having in mind the style, the idea
of criticism, and the picture which this essay presents of the Scotch poet.
Is Carlyle chiefly interested in Burns or in his poetry? Does he show any
marked appreciation of Burns's power as a lyric poet? What is Carlyle's
idea of history as shown in _Heroes and Hero Worship_? What experiences of
his own life are reflected in _Sartor Resartus_? What was Carlyle's message
to his age? What is meant by a "Carlylese" style?
8. _Macaulay_. In what respects is Macaulay typical of his age? Compare his
view of life with that of Carlyle. Read one of the essays, on Milton or
Addison, and make an analysis, having in mind the style, the interest, and
the accuracy of the essay. What useful purpose does Macaulay's historical
knowledge serve in writing his literary essays? What is the general
character of Macaulay's _History of England_? Rqad a chapter from
Macaulay's _History_, another from Carlyle's _French Revolution_, and
compare the two. How does each writer regard history and historical
writing? What differences do you note in their methods? What are the best
qualities of each work? Why are both unreliable?
9. _Arnold_. What elements of Victorian life are reflected in Arnold's
poetry? How do you account for the coldness and sadness of his verses? Read
_Sohrab and Rustum_ and write an account of it, having in mind the story,
Arnold's use of his material, the style, and the classic elements in the
poem. How does it compare in melody with the blank verse of Milton or
Tennyson? What marked contrasts do you find between the poetry and the
prose of Arnold?
10. _Ruskin_. In what respects is Ruskin "the prophet of modern society"?
Read the first two lectures in _Sesame and Lilies_ and then give Ruskin's
views of labor, wealth, books, education, woman's sphere, and human
society. How does he regard the commercialism of his age? What elements of
style do you find in these lectures? Give the chief resemblances and
differences between Carlyle and Ruskin.
11. Read Mrs. Gaskell's _Cranford_ and describe it, having in mind the
style, the interest, and the characters of the story. How does it compare,
as a picture of country life, with George Eliot's novels?
12. Read Blackmore's _Lorna Doone_ and describe it (as in the question
above). What are the romantic elements in the story? How does it compare
with Scott's romances in style, in plot, in interest, and in truthfulness
to life?
CHRONOLOGY
_Nineteenth Century_
============================================================================
HISTORY | LITERATURE
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
| 1825. Macaulay's Essay on Milton
| 1826. Mrs. Browning's early poems
1830. William IV | 1830. Tennyson's Poems, Chiefly Lyrical
1832. Reform Bill |
| 1833. Browning's Pauline
| 1833-1834. Carlyle's Sartor Resartus
| 1836-1865. Dickens's novels
1837. Victoria (_d_. 1901) | 1837. Carlyle's French Revolution
| 1843. Macaulay's essays
1844. Morse's Telegraph | 1843-1860. Ruskin's Modern Painters
1846. Repeal of Corn Laws |
| 1847-1859. Thackeray's important novels
| 1847-1857. Charlotte Brontë's novels
| 1848-1861. Macaulay's History
| 1853. Kingsley's Hypatia
| Mrs. Gaskell's Cranford
1854. Crimean War |
| 1853-1855. Matthew Arnold's poems
| 1856. Mrs. Browning's Aurora Leigh
1857. Indian Mutiny |
| 1858-1876. George Eliot's novels
| 1859-1888. Tennyson's Idylls of the King
| 1859. Darwin's Origin of Species
| 1864. Newman's Apologia
| Tennyson's Enoch Arden
| 1865-1888. Arnold's Essays in Criticism
1867. Dominion of Canada |
established | 1868. Browning's Ring and the Book
| 1869. Blackmore's Lorna Doone
1870. Government schools |
established |
| 1879. Meredith's The Egoist
1880. Gladstone prime minister |
| 1883. Stevenson's Treasure Island
| 1885. Ruskin's Praeterita begun
1887. Queen's jubilee |
| 1889. Browning's last work, Asolando
| 1892. Death of Tennyson
1901. Edward VII |
============================================================================
* * * * *
GENERAL BIBLIOGRAPHY
Every chapter in this book includes two lists, one of selected readings,
the other of special works treating of the history and literature of the
period under consideration. The following lists include the books most
useful for general reference work and for supplementary reading.
A knowledge of history is of great advantage in the study of literature. In
each of the preceding chapters we have given a brief summary of historical
events and social conditions, but the student should do more than simply
read these summaries. He should review rapidly the whole history of each
period by means of a good textbook. Montgomery's _English History_ and
Cheyney's _Short History of England_ are recommended, but any other
reliable text-book will serve the purpose.
For literary texts and selections for reading a few general collections,
such as are given below, are useful; but the important works of each author
may now be obtained in excellent and inexpensive school editions. At the
beginning of the course the teacher, or the home student, should write for
the latest catalogue of such publications as the Standard English Classics,
Everyman's Library, etc., which offer a very wide range of reading at small
cost. Nearly every publishing house issues a series of good English books
for school use, and the list is constantly increasing.
_HISTORY_
_Text-books:_ Montgomery's English History; Cheyney's Short History of
England (Ginn and Company).
_General Works:_ Green's Short History of the English People, 1 vol., or A
History of the English People, 4 vols. (American Book Co.).
Traill's Social England, 6 vols. (Putnam).
Bright's History, of England, 5 vols., and Gardiner's Students' History of
England (Longmans).
Gibbins's Industrial History of England, and Mitchell's English Lands,
Letters, and Kings, 5 vols. (Scribner).
Oxford Manuals of English History, Handbooks of English History, and
Kendall's Source Book of English History (Macmillan).
Lingard's History of England until 1688 (revised, 10 vols., 1855) is the
standard Catholic history.
Other histories of England are by Knight, Froude, Macaulay, etc. Special
works on the history of each period are recommended in the preceding
chapters.
_HISTORY OF LITERATURE_
Jusserand's Literary History of the English People, 2 vols. (Putnam).
Ten Brink's Early English Literature, 3 vols. (Holt).
Courthope's History of English Poetry (Macmillan).
The Cambridge History of English Literature, many vols., incomplete
(Putnam).
Handbooks of English Literature, 9 vols. (Macmillan).
Garnett and Gosse's Illustrated History of English Literature, 4 vols.
(Macmillan).
Morley's English Writers, 11 vols. (Cassell), extends through Elizabethan
literature. It is rather complex and not up to date, but has many
quotations from authors studied.
Taine's English Literature (many editions), is brilliant and interesting,
but unreliable.
_LITERARY CRITICISM_
Lowell's Literary Essays.
Hazlitt's Lectures on the English Poets.
Mackail's The Springs of Helicon (a study of English poetry from Chaucer to
Milton).
Dowden's Studies in Literature, and Dowden's Transcripts and Studies.
Minto's Characteristics of English Poets.
Matthew Arnold's Essays in Criticism.
Stevenson's Familiar Studies in Men and Books.
Leslie Stephen's Hours in a Library.
Birrell's Obiter Dicta.
Hales's Folia Litteraria.
Pater's Appreciations.
NOTE. Special works on criticism, the drama, the novel, etc., will be found
in the Bibliographies on pp. 9, 181, etc.
_TEXTS AND HELPS_ (inexpensive school editions).
Standard English Classics, and Athenaeum Press Series (Ginn and Company).
Everyman's Library (Dutton).
Pocket Classics, Golden Treasury Series, etc. (Macmillan).
Belles Lettres Series (Heath).
English Readings Series (Holt).
Riverside Literature Series (Houghton, Mifflin).
Canterbury Classics (Rand, McNally).
Academy Classics (Allyn & Bacon).
Cambridge Literature Series (Sanborn).
Silver Series (Silver, Burdett).
Student's Series (Sibley).
Lakeside Classics (Ainsworth).
Lake English Classics (Scott, Foresman).
Maynard's English Classics (Merrill).
Eclectic English Classics (American Book Co.).
Caxton Classics (Scribner).
The King's Classics (Luce).
The World's Classics (Clarendon Press).
Little Masterpieces Series (Doubleday, Page).
Arber's English Reprints (Macmillan).
New Mediaeval Library (Duffield).
Arthurian Romances Series (Nutt).
Morley's Universal Library (Routledge).
Cassell's National Library (Cassell).
Bohn Libraries (Macmillan).
Temple Dramatists (Macmillan).
Mermaid Series of English Dramatists (Scribner).
NOTE. We have included in the above list all the editions of which we have
any personal knowledge, but there are doubtless others that have escaped
attention.
* * * * *
Biography
Dictionary of National Biography, 63 vols. (Macmillan), is the standard.
English Men of Letters Series (Macmillan).
Great Writers Series (Scribner).
Beacon Biographies (Houghton, Mifflin).
Westminster Biographies (Small, Maynard).
Hinchman and Gummere's Lives of Great English Writers (Houghton, Mifflin)
is a good single volume, containing thirty-eight biographies.
NOTE. For the best biographies of individual writers, see the
Bibliographies at the ends of the preceding chapters.
_SELECTIONS_
Manly's English Poetry and Manly's English Prose (Ginn and Company) are the
best single-volume collections, covering the whole field of English
literature.
Pancoast's Standard English Poetry, and Pancoast's Standard English Prose
(Holt).
Oxford Book of English Verse, and Oxford Treasury of English Literature, 3
vols. (Clarendon Press).
Page's British Poets of the Nineteenth Century (Sanborn).
Stedman's Victorian Anthology (Houghton, Mifflin).
Ward's English Poets, 4 vols.; Craik's English Prose Selections, 5 vols.;
Chambers's Encyclopedia of English Literature, etc.
_MISCELLANEOUS_
The Classic Myths in English Literature (Ginn and Company).
Adams's Dictionary of English Literature.
Ryland's Chronological Outlines of English Literature.
Brewer's Reader's Handbook.
Botta's Handbook of Universal Literature.
Ploetz's Epitome of Universal History.
Hutton's Literary Landmarks of London.
Heydrick's How to Study Literature.
For works on the English language see Bibliography of the Norman period, p.
65.
* * * * *
INDEX
KEY TO PRONUNCIATION
[=a], as in fate; [)a], as in fat; ä, as in arm; [a:], as in all; [a.], as
in what; â, as in care
[=e], as in mete; [)e], as in met; ê, as in there
[=i], as in ice; [)i], as in it; ï, as in machine
[=o], as in old; [)o], as in not; [o:], as in move; [.o], as in son; ô, as
in horse; [=oo] as in food; [)oo], as in foot
[=u], as in use; [)u], as in up; û, as in fur; [:u], as in rule; [.u], as
in pull
[=y], as in fly; [)y], as in baby
c, as in call; ç, as in mice; ch, as in child; [-c]h, as in school
g, as in go; [.g], as in cage
s, as in saw; [s=], as in is
th, as in thin; th, as in then
x, as in vex; [x=], as in exact.
NOTE. Titles of books, poems, essays, etc., are in _italics_.