Samuel Butler, 1612-1680, famous as the author of "Hudibras," a poetical burlesque upon the absurdities and fanaticisms of the republicans of that time, and particularly of the extravagances o the Presbyterians. Jeremy Taylor, 1613-1667, eminent and eloquent Anglican theolo gian and bishop; his sermons were learned and powerful, and are regarded as of the highest rhetorical excellence; of his works those most read are his “Holy Living" and "Holy Dying." Richard Baxter, 1615-1691, learned theologian, and defender of religious liberty; prolific writer; his most famous book is "The Saints' Everlasting Rest." Abraham Cowley, 1618-1667, poet and essayist; translator of the odes of Anacreon; author of the epic poem "Davideis." See "A Supplication," page 82. Andrew Marvell, 1620-1678, diplomatist and poet; friend of Milton; wrote "Thoughts in a Garden," and many short poems. See the "Song of the Emigrants in Bermuda," page 83. Algernon Sidney, 1621-1683, republican controversialist; his bestknown work is "Discourses on Government." Henry Vaughan, 1621-1695, wrote many devotional poems. See "The Retreat," page 81. John Bunyan, 1628-1688, religious enthusiast and preacher; left, among other writings, "Grace Abounding in the Chief of Sinners,” autobiographical in character; "The Holy War;" and his celebrated allegory "Pilgrim's Progress." Samuel Pepys, 1632-1713, secretary to the English Admiralty Board; famous for his "Diary," written in cipher, which affords a wonderful picture of the state of society in his day. John Locke, 1632-1704, politician, theologian, moral philosopher, and essayist; his more important works are "A Treatise on Civil Government," ‚""Letters on Toleration," " Essay on Education," and especially his "Essay on the Human Understanding." William Wycherley, 1640–1715, left several comedies, among them "The Country Wife" and "The Plain Dealer." Sir Isaac Newton, 1642-1727, mathematician and philosopher; his "Treatise on Optics" and his "Principles of Natural Philosophy are the more important of his works. Gilbert Burnet, 1643-1715, Bishop of Salisbury; politician and divine; his best-known work is "A History of My Own Times." Thomas Otway, 1651-1685, tragic dramatist, and author of "The Orphan" and "Venice Preserved." Nathaniel Lee, 1657-1691, author of eleven tragedies, the best known of which are "The Rival Queens" and "The Death of Alexander." William Congreve, 1670-1729, comic dramatist; among his more familiar plays are The Old Bachelor," "Love for Love," "The Mourning Bride," and "The Way of the World." 66 IV LITERATURE OF THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY ΕΝ SWIFT BURNS NGLISH literature of the eighteenth century has certain broad characteristics which easily set it off, as a whole, as something very different from all that had gone before it. We have already seen that English prose gave, in the essays of Dryden, some signs of what it was to become. This writer died in 1701, and to those who succeeded him in the century then opening, it remained to develop and fix the form of our prose literary ex pression. Verse, to be sure, plays an important part in the literature of the eighteenth century, but it does not rule the imaginations of its writers, it is only imagination's servant. Shakespeare, Milton, and Dryden, each in his time, was easily predominant over his contemporaries; but the characteristic figures of the literature of the last century are not its poets, but its prose writers, - Swift, Addison, Richardson, Gibbon, Fielding, and Johnson. Swift was a witty rhymester, and Johnson could make verses, but neither of these was, or thought himself, a poet. Roughly speaking, then, the prime distinction of eighteenth-century literature was its mastery of the prose form as a vehicle of general thought. Prose had been antiquated and without any accepted standard of excellence; it was left by the writers of the last century in the finished form of present usage. Two instrumentalities contributed chiefly to this: one of them was the introduction of periodical literature, and the other was the appearance of the realistic novel. One of the most beneficent results of the Revolution of 1688 was that it brought about the freedom of the press. The ten years succeeding the abolition of state censorship saw the publication in London of a score of little weekly and semi-weekly papers, in themselves of little account, yet showing an awakening intellectual appetite for something that the decaying stage could not supply. Reading, it seemed, was no longer to be exclusively a privilege of the polite few. In 1702 the first English daily paper, such as it was, made its appearance. It was of meager proportions, hardly more than a leaflet, and its text was made up of gossip of court and town, a variety of small-talk, and some few scraps of news. Then came De Foe with his Weekly Review devoted mainly to politics, and then Steele with The Tatler and The Spectator. Richard Steele To the latter both Steele and Addison contributed in essays dealing lightly with an endless variety of subjects, but especially with those of a social and literary nature. The most famous of Addison's contributions to The Spectator were his "Sir Roger de Coverley" papers, into which were woven many charming little scenes of real life. The circulation of The Spectator increased from three thousand to thirty thousand in the three years of the paper's existence; and as each copy of it had many readers, it would be hard to overestimate its favorable influence upon the manners, habits, and thought of that time. Steele, at a later day, published The Guardian, for which both Pope and Addison wrote, and Swift edited The Examiner. Between these and Dr. Johnson's Rambler, forty years later, more than a hundred periodical papers were issued in London, most of them of little, a few of them of considerable, influence, but all of them contributory to the establishment of English prose and to the diffusion of papers contributed by Daniel Dete have grown up the modern newspaper and the whole of periodical literature. The only one of De Foe's romances which survives as a classic is his "Robinson Crusoe," published in 1719. The modern novel, the romance of the affections, had its rise with Richardson, Fielding, and Smollett. Richardson produced "Pamela" in 1740, "Clarissa Harlowe" in 1748, and "Sir Charles Grandison" six years later. Fielding published "Joseph Andrews" in 1742, "Tom Jones" in 1749, and |