ing of an immense quantity of oak timber, which, a century after, proved of the greatest service to the nation, in the construction of ships of war. Terra, a discourse on the earth, with a regard to the rearing of plants, appeared in 1675; and the venerable author also wrote a treatise on medals. Evelyn was one of the first in this country to treat gardening and planting scientifically; and his grounds at Sayes Court, near Deptford, where he resided, were greatly admired, on account of the number of foreign plants which he reared in them, and the fine order in which they were kept. A Diary, written by this excellent person, and published in 1818, is much valued for the picture which it gives of the state of society during the latter part of the seventeenth century. ROGER L'ESTRANGE (1616-1704) was the first individual in England who acquired notoriety as an occasional political writer; from the Restoration to the time of his death, he was constantly occupied in the editing of newspapers and writing of pamphlets, generally in behalf of the Court, from which he at last received the honour of knighthood. He also translated Æsop's Fables and the works of Josephus. Sir Roger was so anxious to accommodate his style to the taste of the common people, that few of his writings could now be read with any pleasure. The class whom he addressed were only beginning to be readers, and as yet relished nothing but the meanest ideas, presented in the meanest language.

Of DRYDEN's prose compositions, which have been published separately in four volumes, the most remarkable are his Discourse on Dramatic Poetry, and the Prefaces and Dedications to his various poetical works. These are the first easy and graceful essays upon the lighter departments of literature which appeared in England. Dr Johnson describes them as airy, animated, and vigorous. In the Discourse, he has drawn characters of his dramatic predecessors, which are allowed to be unsurpassed, in spirit and precision, by any later or more laborious criticisms.

D'URFEY-BROWN-BOYLE NEWTON.

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Writers named D'URFEY and TOM BROWN, entertained the public in the reign of William III. with occasional whimsical compositions both in prose and verse, which are now only valued as conveying some notion of the taste and manners of the time. Brown died in 1704, and his works were published three years after, under the title of Dialogues, Essays, Declamations, Satires, and Amuse

ments.

It was not till the beginning of the period under notice, and fully twenty years after the death of Bacon, that natural science was cultivated with any marked success. The first eminent name which occurs in the history of this useful department of study, is that of the Honourable ROBERT BOYLE, a younger son of the Earl of Cork, and a native of Ireland. Mr Boyle was born in 1626, and spent several years of his youth in foreign travel. About the close of the reign of Charles I., while most men were engrossed with political and religious revolutions, this amiable student became the centre of a little circle of gentlemen, who preferred seeking their own amusement and the good of mankind in scientific inquiries, and who, in more quiet times, formed themselves into what is called the Royal Society. He himself commenced a series of experiments in chemistry, and became the inventor of that well-known instrument, the air-pump. Previously to his death in 1691, he had published no fewer than forty-one different treatises, chiefly on subjects in natural philosophy. Among the associates of Boyle, Dr Isaac Barrow was one of the most eminent. His works in science would have rendered him famous, although he had never been known as a divine. SIR ISAAC NEWTON (1642-1727), who outshone all that went before him, and all that have come after him, was only a young student at the time when Boyle and Barrow were in the height of their reputation. It was the fortune of Newton to erect, upon the basis of geometry, a new system of philosophy, by which the operations of nature were for the first time properly elucidated; the motions of the vast orbs composing the solar

system being shown by him to depend upon rules that were equally applicable to the smallest particles of matter. The work in which he explained this system was written in Latin, and published in 1687, under a title which in English means Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy. It is remarkable that all these three eminent cultivators of natural science wrote also upon religious subjects. Boyle endeavoured in more than one treatise to prove that religion and science were reconcilable, and published a tract against swearing. Sir Isaac Newton wrote Some Observations on the Prophecies of Daniel and the Apocalypse of St John, which were published after his death.

During this period Scotland produced many eminent men, but scarcely any who attempted composition in the English language. The difference between the common speech of the one country, and that which was used in the other, had been widening ever since the days of Chaucer and James I., but particularly since the accession of James VI. to the English throne; the Scotch remaining stationary or declining, while the English was advancing in refinement of both structure and pronunciation. Accordingly, except the works of Drummond of Hawthornden, who had studied and acquired the language of Drayton and Jonson, there did not appear in Scotland any estimable specimen of vernacular prose or poetry, between the time of Maitland and Montgomery and that of SIR GEORGE MACKENZIE, Lord Advocate under Charles II. and James II. (1636–1691), who seems to have been the only learned man of his time that maintained an acquaintance with the lighter departments of contemporary English literature. Sir George was the friend of Dryden, by whom he is mentioned with great respect, and he himself composed poetry, which, if it has no other merit, is at least in pure English, and appears to have been fashioned after the best models of the time. He also wrote some moral essays, which possess the same merits. The only other compositions bearing a resemblance to English, which

FROM 1689 TO 1727.

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appeared in Scotland during the seventeenth century, were controversial pamphlets in politics and divinity, now generally forgotten.

FIFTH PERIOD.

REIGNS OF WILLIAM III., ANNE, AND GEORGE I.
[1689-1727.]

THE thirty-eight years embraced by these reigns produced a class of writers in prose and poetry, who, during the whole of the eighteenth century, were deemed the best, or nearly the best, that the country had ever known. The central period of twelve years which compose the reign of Anne, (1702-14,) was, indeed, usually styled the Augustan Era of English Literature, on account of its supposed resemblance in intellectual opulence to the reign of the Emperor Augustus. This opinion has not been followed or confirmed in the present age. The praise due to good sense, and a correct and polished style, is allowed to the prose-writers, and that due to a felicity in painting artificial life, is awarded to the poets; but modern critics seem to have agreed to pass over these qualities as of secondary moment, and to hold in greater estimation the writings of the times preceding the Restoration, and of our own day, as being more boldly original, both in style and in thought, more imaginative, and more sentimental. The Edinburgh Review appears to state the prevailing sentiment in the following sentences- Speaking generally of that generation of authors, it may be said that, as poets, they had no force or greatness of fancy, no pathos and no enthusiasm, and, as philosophers, no comprehensiveness, depth, or originality. They are sagacious, no doubt, neat, clear, and reasonable; but for the most. part, cold, timid, and superficial.' The same critic represents it as their chief praise that they corrected the

indecency, and polished the pleasantry and sarcasm, of the vicious school introduced at the Restoration. Writing,' he continues, with infinite good sense, and great grace and vivacity, and, above all, writing for the first time in a tone that was peculiar to the upper ranks of society, and upon subjects that were almost exclusively interesting to them, they naturally figured as the most accomplished, fashionable, and perfect writers which the world had ever seen, and made the wild, luxuriant, and humble sweetness of our earlier authors, appear rude and untutored in the comparison.' While there is general truth in these remarks, it must at the same time be observed, that the age produced several writers, who, each in his own line, may be called extraordinary. Satire, expressed in forcible and copious language, was certainly carried to its utmost pitch of excellence by Swift. The poetry of elegant and artificial life was exhibited, in a perfection never since attained, by Pope. The art of describing the manners, and discussing the morals of the passing age, was practised for the first time, and with unrivalled felicity, by Addison. And, with all the licentiousness of Congreve and Farquhar, it may be fairly said that English comedy was in their hands what it had never been before, and has scarcely in any instance been since.

POETS.

The gay epigrammatic kind of versification, introduced from France at the Restoration, was brought to perfection during the reign of William III. by MATTHEW PRIOR (1664-1721), an individual of obscure birth, but who, by means of his abilities, rose to considerable state employments. Prior was matchless for his tales and light occasional verses, though these, as well as others of his compositions, are degraded by their licentiousness. He wrote one serious poem of considerable length, called Solomon, or the Vanity of the World, and a pastoral tale