EXTRACT. He that forgets his friend is ungrateful to him; but he that forgets his Saviour is unmerciful to himself. OTHER AUTHORS OF THIS AGE. POETS. EDMUND WALLER (1605-1687), first a Republican, afterwards a Royalist, author of Panegyric to My Lord Protector, and many short poems. Very popular in his day. ABRAHAM COWLEY (1618-1667), once regarded as a great poet, author of The Mistress (or Love Verses), Pindaric Odes, Davideis, etc.; also of some excellent Essays. George WithER (1588-1667), a soldier and poet on the side of Cromwell, author of Shepherd's Hunting, Hymns and Songs of the Church, Abuses Stript and Whipt (a satire), etc. ROBERT HERRICK (1591-1674), a fine lyric poet, but sometimes coarse ; author of Cherry Ripe, Gather Rosebuds while ye may, and other songs. SIR JOHN SUCKLING (1608-1642), a Cavalier poet, author of many charming short poems and songs. RICHARD CRASHAW (?-1650), a religious poet of rich and fervid imagination, author of Steps to the Temple, Music's Duel, Delights of the Muses, etc The celebrated line, "The conscious water saw its God and blushed," is a translation of one of his Latin verses. PROSE WRITERS. EDWARD HYDE, Earl of Clarendon (1608-1673), an eminent Royalist statesman, author of an excellent History of the Rebellion. THOMAS HOBBES (1588-1679), an eminent philosopher, author of The Leviathan. SIR THOMAS BROWNE (1605-1682), a quaint and powerful writer, author of Religio Medici (Religion of a Physician), etc. IZAAK WALTON (1593-1683), author of The Complete Angler, one of the most celebrated books of the age; and Walton's Lives (lives of Wotton, Herbert, Hooker, etc.). THOMAS FULLER (1608–1661), a learned divine, author of Church History, Worthies of England, the Holy and the Profane State, etc. JFREMY TAYLOR, D. D. (1613-1667), a great pulpit orator, author of Holy Living, Holy Dying, Liberty of Prophesying, etc. DR. ISAAC BARROW (1630–1677), a great mathematician (instructor of Sir Isaac Newton) and powerful preacher; author of Mathematical Works, Sermons, etc. DR. RICHARD BAXTER (1615-1691), a great preacher and writer, author of Call to the Unconverted, Saints' Everlasting Rest, Hymns, etc. ✓ PERIOD V-AGE OF THE RESTORATION. THI 1660-1700. (Reigns of Charles II., James II., William and Mary.) HIS age presents a marked contrast to the preceding one. The gravity and austerity of the Puritans gave way before the flood of French tastes, French fashions, and French vices, that came in with Charles and his gay Cavaliers. Corruption and licentiousness reigned in court and camp, and literature was debased and made to pander to the false tastes and lusts of the ruling class. Its greatest events were the restoration of the Stuarts, and the great Revolution of 1688, which resulted in the banishment of James II., and the enthronement of William and Mary. Its greatest author was John Dryden. DRYDEN. 1631-1700. John Dryden, the greatest poet of the Restoration, was born in 1631, and died in 1700. His parents were Puritans, and he was at first a great admirer of Cromwell, on whom he wrote a panegyric; but on the accession of the Stuarts he became an ardent Royalist, and addressed a flattering poem to the King. Dryden's chief defect was a lack of high principle. He wrote for present gain and popularity, not because he had any great message to deliver. Hence, though he was endowed with genius of the highest order, his life was comparatively a failure. He wrote dramas, poems, and essays. The best of his dramas is The Indian Emperor. His principal poems are Alexander's Feast; Absalom and Achitophel, a political satire; The Hind ana Panther, a poem in defence of the Catholic Church; and a Translation of Virgil's Æneid. EXTRACTS. Men are but children of a larger growth. II. But Shakspeare's magic could not copied be; III. Great wits are sure to madness near allied, IV. Three poets* in three distant ages born, OTHER AUTHORS OF THIS AGE. POETS. SAMUEL BUTLER (1612-1680), author of Hudibras, one of the most famous satires in the language, ridiculing the Puritans and Independents. PROSE WRITERS. JOHN LOCKE (1632-1704), a great philosopher, author of Essay Concerning the Human Understanding, etc. SIR ISAAC NEWTON (1642-1727), the great mathematician, author of The Principia. HON. ROBERT BOYLE (1627-1691), a devout philosopher, one of the founders of the Royal Society. SIR WM. TEMPLE (1628-1699), a diplomatist, and a graceful esssyist. JOHN EVELYN, F. R. S. (1620-1706), author of Sylva, a Discourse on Forest Trees; and Terra, a work on Agriculture. SAMUEL PEPYS (1632-1703) left a marvellously entertaining and important Diary, which has taken a permanent place in literature. AMERICAN CONTEMPORARIES. JOHN ELIOT (the "great apostle to the Indians"), and COTTON Mather. ✓ PERIOD VI.-AGE OF QUEEN ANNE. 1700-1750. (Queen Anne, George I., George II.) 'HE moral and religious tone of this age was not much higher THE than that of the last. It was characterized by a sort of superficial refinement—a refinement, not of morals and character, but of manners and language. This was especially apparent in its * Homer, Virgil, Milton. poetry; hence the poets of the age are sometimes spoken of as "the correct poets." Its great events were the campaigns of the Duke of Marlborough and the Peace of Utrecht. We select as its literary representatives Pope and Addison. POPE. 1688-1744. Alexander Pope, the worthy successor of Dryden to the .nron of poesy, was born in 1688, and died in 1744. He was sickly, puny, and deformed in body, and therefore did not attend college; but he had a mind of wonderful clearness and vigor, was a great reader and a diligent student, and thus made himself master of several languages and acquired a vast store of information. He was a great admirer and to some extent an imitator of Dryden; but while he surpassed the latter in smoothness of versification and brilliancy of wit, he fell below him in grasp and vigor of thought. His principal works are the Essay on Criticism, Essay on Man, Rape of the Lock (the finest mock-heroic poem in the language), The Dunciad (a satire), and a Translation of Homer. EXTRACTS. Charms strike the sight, but merit wins the soul. II. To err is human; to forgive, divine. III. Essay on Man. Essay on Criticism. Know, then, thyself; presume not God to scan; IV. Essay on Man. All are but parts of one stupendous whole, V. Essay on Man. Slave to no sect, who takes no private road, Essay on Man. VI. What nothing earthly gives or can destroy, The soul's calm sunshine and the heartfelt joy, VII. Vice is a monster of so frightful mien, VIII. Dryden taught to join Essay on Man. Essay on Man. The varying verse, the full resounding line, Epistles of Horace. The history of literature presents few nobler and more symmetrical characters than that of Joseph Addison. He was born in 1672, received a thorough education at Oxford, and then travelled on the Continent. A poem on the battle of Blenheim procured for him an appointment under the Government, and he rose from one position to another until he became Secretary of State, from which position he retired with a pension of fifteen hundred pounds a year, and died soon after, in 1719, at the age of forty-seven—full of honors, though in the meridian of life. Addison is distinguished both in poetry and prose. His principal poetical works are his Tragedy of Cato, and several beautiful hymns. Among the latter is the well-known hymn beginning,— "When all thy mercies, O my God," and his exquisite version of the xixth Psalm, beginning,— "The spacious firmament on high." His principal prose works are his delightful papers contributed to the Tatler, the Spectator, and the Guardian. These papers have been commended as models of correct taste, and have exercised a powerful and salutary influence on the manners, morals, and literature of the English people. Addison's contributions are signed by one of the letters of the word CLIO. |