OF

ENGLISH LITERATURE

AND

LANGUAGE

BY

ALFRED H. WELSH, A.M.

MEMBER OF VICTORIA INSTITUTE, THE PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY OF GREAT BRITAIN

VOLUME II

Books are a real world, both pure and good,

Round which, with tendrils strong as flesh and blood,
Our pastime and our happiness may grow.-WORDSWORTH

SECOND EDITION

CHICAGO

S. C. GRIGGS AND COMPANY

LONDON: TRÜBNER & CO.

1883

COPYRIGHT 1882

Br S. C. GRIGGS AND COMPANY

PRESSO

KNIGHT & LEONARD

CHICAGO

11-17-84-

CONTENTS OF VOLUME II.

CHAPTER I.

FIRST TRANSITION PERIOD.

Politics. Constitutional Reform. Society-Laxity, Violence. Rude-
ness of Living. Religion. Intolerance. Incredulity. Sects .
Poetry. Society Verse. Extravagance. The Epic. Satire Drama.
Coarseness. Lewdness. Etherege. Wycherley. Congreve. Van-
brugh. Farquhar. Tragedy. Dryden. Otway .
Prose. Ease and Finish. Temple. The Preachers. Walton. Evelyn.
Pepys. Baxter. History. Clarendon. Burnet. Theology. Scep-
ticism and Denial. Deism. Ethics. Hobbes. Utilitarianism.
Science. Newton. Physics. Philosophy. Materialism. Locke

Representative Authors:

BUNYAN

DRYDEN

10

23

43

54

69

CHAPTER II.

CRITICAL PERIOD - FIRST PHASE.

Political Armistice. Social Depravity. Religion. Loss of Enthusiasm 73

Poetry. Polish. Drama. Artifice

74

Prose. The Periodical. The Novel. Theology. Polemics. Science.

The Royal Society

76