of governments into Monarchies, Aristocracies, and Democracies, showed no small power of looking beneath the surface to the underlying distinctions: his more accurate division was unheeded until revived and made precise by recent authorities. Many examples might be quoted of his steady superiority to plausible appearances and irrelevant disputes. The beginning of his essay on Poetry is not perhaps the best, but here it is :

"The two common shrines, to which most offer up the application of their thoughts and their lives, are profit and pleasure; and by their devotions to either of these they are vulgarly distinguished into two sects, and called either busy or idle men. Whether these terms differ in meaning or only in sound, I know very well may be disputed, and with appearance enough, since the covetous man takes perhaps as much pleasure in his gains as the voluptuous does in his luxury, and would not pursue his business, unless he were pleased with it, upon the last account of what he most wishes and desires, nor would care for the increase of his fortunes, unless he thereby proposed that of his pleasures too, in one kind or other; so that pleasure may be said to be his end, whether he will allow to find it in his pursuit or no. Much ado there has been, many words spent, or (to speak with more respect to the ancient philosophers) many disputes have been raised upon this argument, I think to little purpose, and that all has been rather an exercise of wit, than enquiry after truth; and all controversies, that can never end, had better perhaps never begin. The best perhaps is to take words as they are most commonly spoken and meant, like coin, as it most currently passes, without raising scruples upon the weight of the alloy, unless the cheat or the defect be gross and evident. Few things in the world, or none, will bear too much refining; a thread too fine spun will easily break, and the point of a needle too finely filed. The usual acceptation takes profit and pleasure for two different things, and not only calls the followers or votaries of them by several names of busy and of idle men, but distinguishes the faculties of the mind that are conversant about them, calling the operations of the first wisdom, and of the other wit. To the first of these are attributed the inventions or productions of things generally esteemed the most necessary, useful, or profitable to human life, either in private possessions or public institutions: to the other, those writings or discourses which are the most pleasing or entertaining to all that read or hear them."

The following passage may be contrasted with Carlyle's theory of laughter :

"If it" (laughter) "were always an expression of good-humour or being pleased, we should have reason to value ourselves more upon it; but 'tis moved by such different and contrary objects and affections, that it has gained little esteem, since we laugh at folly as well as wit, at accidents that Vex us sometimes, as well as others that please us, and at the malice of apes, as well as the innocence of children; and the things that please us most, are apt to make other sorts of motions both in our faces and hearts, and very different from those of laughter."

Strength. Our author's style has a certain animation, arising chiefly from brevity and point. This is less felt in the severely didactic works, partly because the reader's attention is more heavily taxed, and partly because the writer, having an eye to

the main object of presenting the facts, is less able to attend to charms of expression. It is more decidedly pleasing in his Letters, and in the lively essay on the "Cure of the Gout," which also is in the form of a letter.

Not animation, however, but dignity, is the ruling characteristic. Of the general composure and elevation of his tone, the reader will judge best from passages quoted without an eye to this particular quality. When the subject requires a more intense or a loftier tone, he answers easily to the call, providing harmonions language and imagery without any appearance of straining. Thus

"I have sometimes thought, how it should have come to pass, that the infinite swarm of that vast northern hive, which so often shook the world like a great tempest, and overflowed it like a torrent; changing names, and customs, and government, and language, and the very face of nature, wherever they seated themselves; which, upon record of story, under the name of Gauls, pierced into Greece and Italy, sacking Rome, and besieging the Capitol in Camillus's time; under that of the Cimbers, marched through France to the very confines of Italy, defended by Marius; under that of Huns or Lombards, Visigoths, Goths, and Vandals, conquered the whole forces of the Roman empire, sacked Rome thrice in a small compass of years, seated three kingdoms in Spain and Afric, as well as Lombardy; and under that of Danes or Normans, possessed themselves of England, a great part of France, and even of Naples and Sicily: how (I say) these nations, which seemed to spawn in every age, and at some intervals of time discharged their own native countries of so vast numbers, and with such terror to the world, should, about seven or eight hundred years ago, leave off the use of these furious expeditions, as if on a sudden they should have grown barren, or tame, or better contented with their own ill climates."

Again, describing the spread of Mohammedanism :—

"To be short, this contagion was so violent, that it spread from Arabia into Egypt and Syria, and his power increased with such a sudden growth as well as his doctrine, that he lived to see them overspread both those countries, and a great part of Persia; the decline of the old Roman empire making easy way for the powerful ascent of this new comet, that appeared with such wonder and terror in the world, and with a flaming sword, made way wherever it came, or laid all desolate that opposed it."

The following long sentence may be quoted as an example of sustained strength. No ordinary resources of language are needed to prevent a break-down in the conclusion of what opens with such grandeur. He is moralising on the victorious invasion of the Netherlands by Louis XIV. :

"When we consider such a power and wealth, as was related in the last chapter, to have fallen in a manner prostrate within the space of one month; so many frontier towns, renowned in the sieges and actions of the Spanish wars, entered like open villages by the French troops, without defence or almost denial; most of them without any blows at all, and all of them with so few; their great rivers that were esteemed an invincible security to the provinces of Holland and Utrecht, passed with as much ease, and as small

resistance, as little fords; and in short, the very heart of a nation, so valiant of old against Rome, so obstinate against Spain, now subdued, and in a manner abandoning all before their danger appeared: we may justly have our recourse to the secret and fixed periods of all human greatness, for the account of such a revolution; or rather to the unsearchable decrees and irresistible force of divine Providence; though it seems not more impious to question it, than to measure it by our scale; or reduce the issues and motions of that eternal will and power to a conformity with what is esteemed just, or wise, or good, by the usual consent or the narrow comprehension of poor mortal men.

Pathos. In his grave treatises he is too composed and stately for the lively expression of affection, sorrow, or a fresh sense of beauty. Yet he never passes by a touching occasion without some sign of feeling. The mood of the writer appears in the temperate and refined mournfulness of the language. Thus―

"The noblest spirit of genius in the world, if it falls, though never so bravely, in its first enterprises, cannot deserve enough of mankind to pretend to so great a reward as the esteem of heroic virtue. And yet perhaps many a person has died in the first battle or adventure he achieved, and lies buried in silence and oblivion; who, had he outlived as many dangers as Alexander did, might have shined as bright in honour and fame."

"When all is done, human life is, at the greatest and the best, but like a froward child, that must be played with and humoured a little to keep it quiet till it falls asleep, and then the care is over.'

Wit. As under Strength passages may be singled out where the grave vigour and dignity of his style gains the ascendancy, and soars into a loftier strain, so under Wit we may single out passages where his pointed animation gains the ascendancy, and becomes keener and more sparkling.

He is too grave and temperate to turn anybody or anything into violent ridicule. The fine flavour of polished wit is always uppermost. The following is an example:

"A man that tells me my opinions are absurd or ridiculous, impertinent or unreasonable, because they differ from his, seems to intend a quarrel instead of a dispute, and cal's me fool or madman with a little more circumstance, though, perhaps, I pass for one as well in my senses as he, as pertinent in talk, and as prudent in life; yet these are the common civilities, in religious argument, of sufficient and conceited men, who talk much of right reason, and mean always their own; and make their private imag ination the measure of general truth. But such language determines all between us, and the dispute comes to end in three words at last, which it might as well have ended in at first, That he is in the right, and I am in the wrong."

Examples of his more genial point are to be found chiefly in his letters. The essay on the "Cure of the Gout" is written in a sprightly vein. For example:

"All these things put together, with what a great physician writes of cures by whipping with rods, and another with holly, and by other cruel

ties of cutting and burning, made me certainly conclude, that the gout was a companion that ought to be treated like an enemy, and by no means like a friend, and that grew troublesome chiefly by good usage; and this was confirmed to me by considering that it haunted usually the easy and the rich, the nice and the lazy, who grow to endure much, because they can endure little; that make much of it as soon as it comes, and yet leave not making much of themselves too; that take care to carry it presently to bed, and keep it safe and warm, and indeed lay up the gout for two or three months, while they give out that the gout lays up them. On the other side it hardly approaches the rough and the poor, such as labour for meat, and eat only for hunger; that drink water, either pure or but discoloured with malt; that know no use of wine, but for a cordial, as it is, and perhaps was only intended: or if such men happen by their native constitutions to fall into the gont, either they mind it not at all, having no leisure to be sick; or they use it like a dog, they walk on, or they toil and work as they did before, they keep it wet and cold; or if they are laid up, they are perhaps forced by that to fast more than before, and if it lasts, they grow impatient, and fall to beat it, or whip it, or cut it, or burn it; and all this while, perhaps, never know the very name of gout."

If

Taste. As might be inferred from his character, our author's style is very highly refined. Affectation of terms or phrases, abruptness, extravagance, maudlin sentimentality, coarse invective, are as foreign as may be to his characteristic manner. the standard of a good English style is the style that shall please the majority of educated Englishmen, he errs on the side of too great refinement. In many respects he is a contrast to Macaulay, still more to Carlyle.

KINDS OF COMPOSITION

Narrative. In a preface to the third part of Temple's 'Memoirs,' Swift claims him as the first Englishman "(at least of any consequence) who ever attempted that manner of writing." Though it is a personal record, the style, as already noticed, is not gossipping and diffuse, but on the contrary compact and brief to the verge of abstruseness. As the principal actor in some of the transactions, he had exceptional advantages for knowing the hid den springs of events.

At one time he intended to write a History of England, having often felt the want of a good general history, and being far from satisfied with the Chroniclers. Obliged by pressure of other employments to abandon this design, he completed an Introduction to the History of England,' "from the first originals, as far as he could find any ground of probable story, or of fair conjecture," "through the great and memorable changes of names, people, customs, and laws that passed here, until the end of the first Norman reign." The work is instructive, abounding in sagacious criticism of social and political institutions. It is interesting to contrast his views of history with Macaulay's :—

"I have likewise omitted the accounts and remarks wherein some writers have busied their pens, of strange comets, inclemencies of seasons, raging diseases, or deplorable fires that are said to have happened in this age and kingdom; and are represented by some as judgments of God upon the king's reign, because I rather esteem them accidents of time or chance, such as happen in one part or other of the world, perhaps every age, at some periods of time, or from some influence of stars, or by the conspiring of some natural or casual circumstances, and neither argue the virtues or vices of princes, nor serve for example or instruction to posterity, which are the great ends of history, and ought to be the chief care of all historians."

His 'Observations upon the United Provinces of the Netherlands' is an example of a conspectus, or general view of a state of society in all its parts at a particular time. It is a model of painstaking observation and search, and is full of sagacious remarks. After recounting the rise and progress of the Federation, he delineates their condition towards 1672 under six heads :-their Government, their Situation, their People and Dispositions, their Religion, their Trade, their Forces and Revenues. The performance is very different from the third chapter of Macaulay's History. It is as severely didactic and thorough as Macaulay's is pictorial and superficial.

JOHN DRYDEN, 1631-1700.

From the beginning to the end of his poetical career, Dryden, not content to leave his works to the chances of criticism, loved to defend in prose his principles of composition, and issued hardly anything without an apologetic or explanatory preface or dedication. In this casual form he has left some ingenious special pleading for his own practice, as well as many valuable remarks on his predecessors, and interesting comparisons of the most eminent names. Besides these stray pieces, he published, in 1668, a formal Essay of Dramatic Poesy'-" a little discourse in dialogue, for the most part borrowed from the observations of others"--which, says Johnson, "was the first regular and valuable treatise on the art of writing." It is now interesting chiefly for its defence of rhyming in tragedies--a style abandoned in the author's later works. It also contains some clever argument in favour of the superiority of modern to ancient playwriters.

After his conversion to the Catholic Church, he was employed by James II. to defend against Stillingfleet a paper found in the strong box of the deceased king, purporting to be written by the Duchess of York in explanation of her departure from the Protestant faith. In this controversy there was little that could be called argument on either side-it was very much like other controversies of that time, a pitched battle of abuse; and Dryden, in