a most popular novelist. The book is fortunately too well known to need any remarks. It should be noticed how Mr. Blackmore, though not equal in strength to Sir Walter Scott, was entirely with him in putting his books into pure and wholesome shape, a merit which places them side by side as types of gentle and honourable men.

90. Summary of the Reign.

(1) Tennyson's Work-The Difference from Wordsworth. The note struck by Tennyson is essentially the note of the earlier nineteenth century, and did not create a school, but followed the steps of Wordsworth, Shelley, and Keats. Though the metaphysical vein which crept into Tennyson's poems marked the changing of the age, and showed a point of divergence from the natural theology of Wordsworth, Tennyson will be remembered not so much as the poet of the mind, as the master of exquisite phrase; as the conscientious artist, who strove for perfection of expression; as the sweet singer, who did all within his power to cultivate his natural gift.

(2) Robert Browning-The Difference from the Classical School.

Browning, entrusted with different talents and working on different methods, left behind him thirty volumes of verse; and will apparently be remembered by his lyrics. He had too strong an intellect to be swayed to and fro by the varying conflicts of the age; his temperament, keen and sensible, was 20 healthy as to keep him from unwarrantable hopes, attended by inevitable failure. Hence arose the difference between Browning and the school represented, on its rougher side by Clough, and on its more polished side by Matthew Arnold. The peculiar circumstances, with its many movements and few conspicuous results, made life appear unreal to sensitive people. Clough and Arnold were both dissatisfied with their environments, and could never manage to escape from them. They had not learnt, like Carlyle, the secret of the Everlasting No! (see p. 492). They beat their wings against the bars of their cages, conveying the feeling that even if they did obtain their freedom, it would hardly be worth their while to accept it.

(3) The Romancists in Poetry.

Opposed to the Classical School in every way was that of the Romancists, of which Dante Rossetti may be taken as the leader. Frankly ignoring the world that surrounded them, they declared the whole pleasure of life to be the gratification of the artistic capacities; and their methods sometimes laid them open to blame. They did much, however, to prevent poetry from

being absolutely extinguished by a material age. The work of two of their company was fortunately without reproach. Christina Rossetti added to her command over words, and to her beauty of thought, a sense of the hopeful side of the problem of the Infinite In this respect she was raised far above either William Morris or her brother.

To Morris had been granted the gift of a languid, but beautiful verse, which in some respects is the nearest to Chancer that later generations have known. If Morris had not the same dramatic insight into character, he possessed a perhaps stronger seuse of colour and form. His liking for vague theories, which led to the production of much inferior work, does not detract from the good qualities of his best poetry.

4. Fiction.

The art of fiction seems to be in much the same condition as the art of poetry. From the days of Thackeray and Dickens to the days of the problem novel, the descent was steep and dreary. The earlier and middle years of the reign showed a power of creative imagination, after which, recent years have toiled in vain. This is probably due to a morbid discontent which has spread among certain sections of the community; and a good deal of the later modern fiction appears to be the production of dissatisfied people, uncertain of their own positions. The thousands of new readers who devour contemporary fiction have seldom grounded themselves in genuine literature; and it is a dangerous thing to be wanting in a knowledge of Thackeray and Scott, in order to form a literary taste upon Gemini Cœlestes, or Satana Maestitiæ.

Some

Yet one point persistently recurs, when we think of the mass of printed matter produced during the last few years. books are so marked with the originality of genius, that we can tell from the first that they will make part of the heritage of our nation. They are books of which it is impossible to weary; in which every reading reveals fresh beauties, or rejoices one again with a familiar joy. They have become part of our lives; the personages in them are nearer and more real to us than many of our ordinary acquaintances. Pride and Prejudice, Rob Roy, Red Gauntlet, The Antiquary, Pickwick, Jane Eyre, Vanity Fair, The Newcomes, and Esmond, all make part of a glorious list. How many works of fiction written during the last quarter of the century will ever receive the same reward?

(5) John Ruskin.

One name, however, remains too great to be overlooked, too unique and self-contained to be classed with any others. It

was given to John Ruskin to open the eyes of his fellows as, in many cases, they had never been opened before; and made them realise how much of beauty and worth lay round them even in the dullest of every-day worlds. This task was accomplished largely through the medium of an impassioned style, recalling much of the music and stateliness of the older prose.

Ruskin has been well described as 66 a great teacher of Righteousness"; all work, however humble, must be done faithfully and lovingly-that was his fundamental rule. Work was only a curse or a shame, when there was a knowledge that it was bad, and it was passed off as good.

His attitude with regard to art and literature rested on this same basis. He maintained in art the necessary connection between the beautiful and the true. In the beautiful picture, as in the beautiful life, each line was to be drawn with anxious and affectionate care. Art was not, in his eyes, Religion; though the highest and best Art was religious.

Ruskin ranks as one of the great masters in English literature; and, so long as any love for English books endures, will be remembered and honoured for both his matter and his style. He says of himself that he has written "frankly, garrulously, and at ease." He was eloquent in his use of words, yet never lost sight of clearness and simplicity. As a word-painter and a master of word-music, he stands almost alone. Whatever he describes--either the grandeur of a great building under the skies of Italy, or the details of the simplest natural beauty in England-the description in each is delicate and accurate, expressed in the fewest and most ordinary words, which only Ruskin would have thought of using. The periods of his writing flow like a broad stream; and few can know how their effect has been produced. Ruskin himself has let us into the secret; he had developed "the habit of fixed attention with both eyes and mind, and felt as he saw. He realised that to feel keenly was the first and most important step towards obtaining a power of happy wording"; and this, combined with his natural love for beauty and his vivid imagination, made him the best writer of English for the last half of the nineteenth century. His prose showed a wonderful skill in metaphor, and a use of the simplest and most natural words. And it should always be remembered that the explanation of this style is that the textbook of his childhood was the Bible.

91. A Note of Forecast.

At this point our book has to be brought to its conclusion. It is probable that in the coming century the principal features

of the Victorian age will be more defined, and that its persistent inquiry into theological, scientific, and historical subjects will be most discussed; while a due recognition will be made of the cultivated tone in much of its poetry and prose.

Time, working with leisurely hands, will sift out from the masses of production such portions as are deemed fit for remembrance; and it is beyond doubt that subsequent generations, when they turn to the poetry, the prose, historical or scientific, and the fiction of the Victorian age, will add their admiration to the honour and praise that the principal writers of the nineteenth century had earned so well.

INDEX OF AUTHORS.

Akenside, Mark (1721-1770), 331- Blackmore, Richard Doddridge (d.

Alfred, the Great (849-901), 12, 13, Boccaccio, 50, 52, 63, 104, 166.