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THE WORKS OF HENRY HALLAM.
INTRODUCTION TO THE LITERATURE OF EUROPE IN THE FIFTEENTH, SIXTEENTH, AND SEVENTEENTH CENTURIES.
BY
HENRY HALLAM, F.R.A.S.,
CORRESPONDING MEMBER OF THE ACADEMY OF MORAL AND POLITICAL SCIENCES IN THE FRENCH INSTITUTE
VOLUME I.
WARD, LOCK & CO., LONDON: WARWICK HOUSE, SALISBURY SQUARE, E.C. NEW YORK: BOND STREET.
Chapter I
ON THE GENERAL STATE OF LITERATURE IN THE MIDDLE AGES TO THE END OF THE FOURTEENTH CENTURY.
Page Retrospect of Learning in Middle Ages Necessary 1 Loss of learning in Fall of Roman Empire 1 Boethius--his Consolation of Philosophy 1 Rapid Decline of Learning in Sixth Century 2 A Portion remains in the Church 2 Prejudices of the Clergy against Profane Learning 2 Their Uselessness in preserving it 3 First Appearances of reviving Learning in Ireland and England 3 Few Schools before the Age of Charlemagne 3 Beneficial Effects of those Established by him 4 The Tenth Century more progressive than usually supposed 4 Want of Genius in the Dark Ages 5 Prevalence of bad Taste 5 Deficiency of poetical Talent 5 Imperfect State of Language may account for this 6 Improvement at beginning of Twelfth Century 6 Leading Circumstances in Progress of Learning 6 Origin of the University of Paris 6 Modes of treating the Science of Theology 6 Scholastic Philosophy--its Origin 7 Roscelin 7 Progress of Scholasticism; Increase of University of Paris 8 Universities founded 8 Oxford 8 Collegiate Foundations not derived from the Saracens 9 Scholastic Philosophy promoted by Mendicant Friars 9 Character of this Philosophy 10 It prevails least in Italy 10 Literature in Modern Languages 10 Origin of the French, Spanish, and Italian Languages 10 Corruption of colloquial Latin in the Lower Empire 11 Continuance of Latin in Seventh Century 12 It is changed to a new Language in Eighth and Ninth 12 Early Specimens of French 13 Poem on Boethius 13 Provençal Grammar 14 Latin retained in use longer in Italy 14 French of Eleventh Century 14 Metres of Modern Languages 15 Origin of Rhyme in Latin 16 Provençal and French Poetry 16 Metrical Romances--Havelok the Dane 18 Diffusion of French Language 19 German Poetry of Swabian Period 19 Decline of German Poetry 20 Poetry of France and Spain 21 Early Italian Language 22 Dante and Petrarch 22 Change of Anglo-Saxon to English 22 Layamon 23 Progress of English Language 23 English of the Fourteenth Century--Chaucer, Gower 24 General Disuse of French in England 24 State of European Languages about 1400 25 Ignorance of Reading and Writing in darker Ages 25 Reasons for supposing this to have diminished after 1100 26 Increased Knowledge of Writing in Fourteenth Century 27 Average State of Knowledge in England 27 Invention of Paper 28 Linen Paper when first used 28 Cotton Paper 28 Linen Paper as old as 1100 28 Known to Peter of Clugni 29 And in Twelfth and Thirteenth Century 29 Paper of mixed Materials 29 Invention of Paper placed by some too low 29 Not at first very important 30 Importance of Legal Studies 30 Roman Laws never wholly unknown 31 Irnerius--his first Successors 31 Their Glosses 31 Abridgements of Law--Accursius’s Corpus Glossatum 31 Character of early Jurists 32 Decline of Jurists after Accursius 32 Respect paid to him at Bologna 33 Scholastic Jurists--Bartolus 33 Inferiority of Jurists in Fourteenth and Fifteenth Centuries 34 Classical Literature and Taste in dark Ages 34 Improvement in Tenth and Eleventh Centuries 34 Lanfranc and his Schools 35 Italy--Vocabulary of Papias 36 Influence of Italy upon Europe 36 Increased copying of Manuscripts 36 John of Salisbury 36 Improvement of Classical Taste in Twelfth Century 37 Influence of increased Number of Clergy 38 Decline of Classical Literature in Thirteenth Century 38 Relapse into Barbarism 38 No Improvement in Fourteenth Century--Richard of Bury 39 Library formed by Charles V. at Paris 39 Some Improvement in Italy during Thirteenth Century 40 Catholicon of Balbi 40 Imperfection of early Dictionaries 40 Restoration of Letters due to Petrarch 40 Character of his Style 41 His Latin Poetry 41 John of Ravenna 41 Gasparin of Barziza 42
II. ON THE LITERATURE OF EUROPE FROM 1400 TO 1440
Zeal for Classical Literature in Italy 42 Poggio Bracciolini 42 Latin Style of that Age indifferent 43 Gasparin of Barziza 43 Merits of his Style 43 Victorin of Feltre 44 Leonard Aretin 44 Revival of Greek Language in Italy 44 Early Greek Scholars of Europe 44 Under Charlemagne and his Successors 45 In the Tenth and Eleventh Centuries 45 In the Twelfth 46 In the Thirteenth 46 Little Appearance of it in the Fourteenth Century 47 Some Traces of Greek in Italy 47 Corruption of Greek Language itself 47 Character of Byzantine Literature 48 Petrarch and Boccace learn Greek 48 Few acquainted with the Language in their Time 49 It is taught by Chrysoloras about 1395 49 His Disciples 49 Translations from Greek into Latin 50 Public Encouragement delayed 51 But fully accorded before 1440 51 Emigration of learned Greeks to Italy 52 Causes of Enthusiasm for Antiquity in Italy 52 Advanced State of Society 52 Exclusive Study of Antiquity 53 Classical Learning in France low 53 Much more so in England 53 Library of Duke of Gloucester 54 Gerard Groot’s College at Deventer 54 Physical Sciences in Middle Ages 55 Arabian Numerals and Method 55 Proofs of them in Thirteenth Century 56 Mathematical Treatises 56 Roger Bacon 57 His Resemblance to Lord Bacon 57 English Mathematicians of Fourteenth Century 57 Astronomy 58 Alchemy 58 Medicine 58 Anatomy 58 Encyclopædic Works of Middle Ages 58 Vincent of Beauvais 59 Berchorius 59 Spanish Ballads 59 Metres of Spanish Poetry 60 Consonant and assonant Rhymes 60 Nature of the Glosa 61 The Cancionero General 61 Bouterwek’s Character of Spanish Songs 61 John II. 62 Poets of his Court 62 Charles, Duke of Orleans 62 English Poetry 62 Lydgate 63 James I. of Scotland 63 Restoration of Classical Learning due to Italy 63 Character of Classical Poetry lost in Middle Ages 64 New School of Criticism in Modern Languages 64 Effect of Chivalry on Poetry 64 Effect of Gallantry towards Women 64 Its probable Origin 64 It is shown in old Teutonic Poetry; but appears in the Stories of Arthur 65 Romances of Chivalry of two Kinds 65 Effect of Difference of Religion upon Poetry 66 General Tone of Romance 66 Popular Moral Fictions 66 Exclusion of Politics from Literature 67 Religious Opinions 67 Attacks on the Church 67 Three Lines of Religious Opinions in Fifteenth Century 67 Treatise de Imitatione Christi 68 Scepticism--Defences of Christianity 69 Raimond de Sebonde 69 His Views misunderstood 69 His real Object 70 Nature of his Arguments 70
Chapter III
ON THE LITERATURE OF EUROPE FROM 1440 TO THE CLOSE OF THE FIFTEENTH CENTURY.
The year 1440 not chosen as an Epoch 71 Continual Progress of Learning 71 Nicolas V. 71 Justice due to his Character 72 Poggio on the Ruins of Rome 72 Account of the East, by Conti 72 Laurentius Valla 72 His Attack on the Court of Rome 72 His Treatise on the Latin Language 73 Its Defects 73 Heeren’s Praise of it 73 Valla’s Annotations on the New Testament 73 Fresh Arrival of Greeks in Italy 74 Platonists and Aristotelians 74 Their Controversy 74 Marsilius Ficinus 75 Invention of Printing 75 Block Books 75 Gutenberg and Costar’s Claims 75 Progress of the Invention 76 First printed Bible 76 Beauty of the Book 77 Early printed Sheets 77 Psalter of 1547--Other early Books 77 Bible of Pfister 77 Greek first taught at Paris 78 Leave unwillingly granted 78 Purbach--his Mathematical Discoveries 78 Other Mathematicians 78 Progress of Printing in Germany 79 Introduced into France 79 Caxton’s first Works 79 Printing exercised in Italy 79 Lorenzo de’ Medici 80 Italian Poetry of Fifteenth Century 80 Italian Prose of same Age 80 Giostra of Politian 80 Paul II. persecutes the Learned 81 Mathias Corvinus 81 His Library 81 Slight Signs of Literature in England 81 Paston Letters 82 Low Condition of Public Libraries 83 Rowley 83 Clotilde de Surville 83 Number of Books printed in Italy 83 First Greek printed 84 Study of Antiquities 84 Works on that Subject 84 Publications in Germany 85 In France 85 In England, by Caxton 85 In Spain 85 Translations of Scripture 85 Revival of Literature in Spain 86 Character of Labrixa 86 Library of Lorenzo 87 Classics corrected and explained 87 Character of Lorenzo 87 Prospect from his Villa at Fiesole 87 Platonic Academy 88 Disputationes Camaldulenses of Landino 88 Philosophical Dialogues 89 Paulus Cortesius 89 Schools in Germany 89 Study of Greek at Paris 91 Controversy of Realists and Nominalists 91 Scotus 91 Ockham 92 Nominalists in University of Paris 92 Low State of Learning in England 92 Mathematics 93 Regiomontanus 93 Arts of Delineation 93 Maps 94 Geography 94 Greek printed in Italy 94 Hebrew printed 95 Miscellanies of Politian 95 Their Character, by Heeren 95 His Version of Herodian 96 Cornucopia of Perotti 96 Latin Poetry of Politian 96 Italian Poetry of Lorenzo 97 Pulci 97 Character of Morgante Maggiore 97 Platonic Theology of Ficinus 98 Doctrine of Averroes on the Soul 98 Opposed by Ficinus 99 Desire of Man to explore Mysteries 99 Various Methods employed 99 Reason and Inspiration 99 Extended Inferences from Sacred Books 99 Confidence in Traditions 100 Confidence in Individuals as inspired 100 Jewish Cabbala 100 Picus of Mirandola 101 His Credulity in the Cabbala 101 His Literary Performances 102 State of Learning in Germany 102 Agricola 103 Renish Academy 103 Reuchlin 104 French Language and Poetry 104 European Drama 104 Latin 104 Orfeo of Politian 105 Origin of Dramatic Mysteries 105 Their early Stage 105 Extant English Mysteries 105 First French Theatre 106 Theatrical Machinery 107 Italian Religious Dramas 107 Moralities 107 Farces 107 Mathematical Works 107 Leo Baptista Alberti 108 Lionardo da Vinci 108 Aldine Greek Editions 109 Decline of Learning in Italy 110 Hermolaus Barbarus 111 Mantuan 111 Pontanus 111 Neapolitan Academy 112 Boiardo 112 Francesco Bello 113 Italian Poetry near the End of the Century 113 Progress of Learning in France and Germany 113 Erasmus--his Diligence 114 Budæus--his early Studies 114 Latin not well written in France 115 Dawn of Greek Learning in England 115 Erasmus comes to England 116 He publishes his Adages 116 Romantic Ballads of Spain 116 Pastoral Romances 117 Portuguese Lyric Poetry 117 German popular Books 117 Historical Works 118 Philip de Comines 118 Algebra 118 Events from 1490 to 1500 119 Close of Fifteenth Century 119 Its Literature nearly neglected 119 Summary of its Acquisitions 119 Their Imperfection 120 Number of Books printed 120 Advantages already reaped from Printing 120 Trade of Bookselling 121 Books sold by Printers 121 Price of Books 122 Form of Books 122 Exclusive Privileges 122 Power of Universities over Bookselling 123 Restraints on Sale of Printed Books 124 Effect of Printing on the Reformation 124
IV. ON THE LITERATURE OF EUROPE FROM 1500 TO 1520
Decline of Learning in Italy 125 Press of Aldus 125 His Academy 126 Dictionary of Calepio 126 Books printed in Germany 126 First Greek Press at Paris 126 Early Studies of Melanchthon 127 Learning in England 127 Erasmus and Budæus 128 Study of Eastern Languages 128 Dramatic Works 128 Calisto and Melibœa 128 Its Character 129 Juan de la Enzina 129 Arcadia of Sanazzaro 129 Asolani of Bembo 130 Dunbar 130 Anatomy of Zerbi 130 Voyages of Cadamosto 130 Leo X., his Patronage of Letters 131 Roman Gymnasium 131 Latin Poetry 132 Italian Tragedy 132 Sophonisba of Trissino 132 Rosmunda of Rucellai 132 Comedies of Ariosto 132 Books printed in Italy 133 Cælius Rhodiginus 133 Greek printed in France and Germany 133 Greek Scholars in these Countries 134 College at Alcala and Louvain 134 Latin Style in France 135 Greek Scholars in England 135 Mode of Teaching in Schools 136 Few Classical Works printed here 137 State of Learning in Scotland 137 Utopia of More 137 Inconsistency in his Opinions 138 Learning restored in France 138 Jealousy of Erasmus and Budæus 138 Character of Erasmus 139 His Adages severe on Kings 139 Instances in illustration 140 His Greek Testament 142 Patrons of Letters in Germany 142 Resistance to Learning 143 Unpopularity of the Monks 145 The Book excites Odium 145 Erasmus attacks the Monks 145 Their Contention with Reuchlin 145 Origin of the Reformation 146 Popularity of Luther 147 Simultaneous Reform by Zwingle 147 Reformation prepared beforehand 147 Dangerous Tenets of Luther 148 Real Explanation of them 149 Orlando Furioso 150 Its Popularity 150 Want of Seriousness 150 A Continuation of Boiardo 150 In some Points inferior 151 Beauties of its Style 151 Accompanied with Faults 151 Its Place as a Poem 152 Amadis de Gaul 152 Gringore 152 Hans Sachs 152 Stephen Hawes 153 Change in English Language 153 Skelton 154 Oriental Languages 154 Pomponatius 155 Raymond Lully 155 His Method 155 Peter Martyr’s Epistles 156
V. HISTORY OF ANCIENT LITERATURE IN EUROPE FROM 1520 TO 1550
Superiority of Italy in Taste 157 Admiration of Antiquity 158 Sadolet 158 Bembo 159 Ciceronianus of Erasmus 159 Scaliger’s Invective against it 160 Editions of Cicero 160 Alexander ab Alexandro 160 Works on Roman Antiquities 161 Greek less Studied in Italy 161 Schools of Classical Learning 161 Budæus--his Commentaries on Greek 161 Their Character 162 Greek Grammars and Lexicons 162 Editions of Greek Authors 163 Latin Thesaurus of R. Stephens 163 Progress of Learning in France 164 Learning in Spain 165 Effects of Reformation on Learning 165 Sturm’s Account of German Schools 165 Learning in Germany 166 In England--Linacre 166 Lectures in the Universities 166 Greek perhaps Taught to Boys 167 Teaching of Smith at Cambridge 167 Succeeded by Cheke 168 Ascham’s Character of Cambridge 168 Wood’s Account of Oxford 168 Education of Edward and his Sisters 169 The Progress of Learning is still slow 169 Want of Books and Public Libraries 169 Destruction of Monasteries no Injury to Learning 169 Ravisius Textor 170 Conrad Gesner 170
Chapter VI
HISTORY OF THEOLOGICAL LITERATURE IN EUROPE FROM 1520 TO 1550.
Progress of the Reformation 171 Interference of Civil Power 171 Excitement of Revolutionary Spirit 172 Growth of Fanaticism 172 Differences of Luther and Zwingle 172 Confession of Augsburg 173 Conduct of Erasmus 173 Estimate of it 174 His Controversy with Luther 174 Character of his Epistles 176 His Alienation from the Reformers increases 176 Appeal of the Reformers to the Ignorant 176 Parallel of those Times with the Present 177 Calvin 177 His Institutes 177 Increased Differences among Reformers 178 Reformed Tenets spread in England 178 In Italy 178 Italian Heterodoxy 179 Its Progress in the Literary Classes 180 Servetus 180 Arianism in Italy 181 Protestants in Spain and Low Countries 181 Order of Jesuits 181 Their Popularity 181 Council of Trent 182 Its Chief Difficulties 182 Character of Luther 182 Theological Writings--Erasmus 183 Melanchthon--Romish Writers 183 This Literature nearly forgotten 184 Sermons 184 Spirit of the Reformation 184 Limits of Private Judgment 185 Passions instrumental in Reformation 185 Establishment of new Dogmatism 186 Editions of Scripture 186 Translations of Scripture 186 In English 187 In Italy and Low Countries 187 Latin Translations 187 French Translations 188
Chapter VII
HISTORY OF SPECULATIVE, MORAL, AND POLITICAL PHILOSOPHY, AND OF JURISPRUDENCE, IN EUROPE, FROM 1520 TO 1550.
Logic included under this head 188 Slow Defeat of Scholastic Philosophy 188 It is sustained by the Universities and Regulars 188 Commentators on Aristotle 188 Attack of Vives on Scholastics 189 Contempt of them in England 189 Veneration for Aristotle 189 Melanchthon countenances him 189 His own Philosophical Treatises 190 Aristotelians of Italy 190 University of Paris 190 New Logic of Ramus 190 It meets with unfair treatment 191 Its Merits and Character 191 Buhle’s account of it 191 Paracelsus 191 His Impostures 192 And Extravagancies 192 Cornelius Agrippa 192 His pretended Philosophy 193 His Sceptical Treatise 193 Cardan 193 Influence of Moral Writers 194 Cortegiano of Castiglione 194 Marco Aurelio of Guevara 194 His Menosprecio di Corte 194 Perez d’Oliva 195 Ethical Writings of Erasmus and Melanchthon 195 Sir T. Elyot’s Governor 195 Severity of Education 196 He seems to avoid Politics 196 Nicholas Machiavel 196 His motives in writing the Prince 197 Some of his Rules not immoral 197 But many dangerous 197 Its only Palliation 198 His Discourses on Livy 198 Their leading Principles 198 Their Use and Influence 199 His History of Florence 199 Treatises on Venetian Government 199 Calvin’s Political Principles 199 Jurisprudence confined to Roman Law 200 The Laws not well arranged 200 Adoption of the entire System 200 Utility of General Learning to Lawyers 200 Alciati--his Reform of Law 201 Opposition to him 201 Agustino 201
Chapter VIII
HISTORY OF THE LITERATURE OF TASTE IN EUROPE FROM 1520 TO 1550.
Poetry of Bembo 201 Its Beauties and Defects 202 Character of Italian Poetry 202 Alamanni 202 Vittoria Colonna 202 Satires of Ariosto and Alamanni 203 Alamanni 203 Rucellai 203 Trissino 203 Berni 203 Spanish Poets 204 Boscan and Garcilasso 204 Mendoza 204 Saa di Miranda 205 Ribeyro 205 French Poetry 205 Marot 206 Its Metrical Structure 206 German Poetry 206 Hans Sachs 206 German Hymn 206 Theuerdanks of Pfintzing 206 English Poetry--Lyndsay 206 Wyatt and Surrey 207 Dr. Nott’s Character of them 207 Perhaps rather exaggerated 208 Surrey improves our versification 208 Introduces Blank Verse 208 Dr. Nott’s Hypothesis as to his Metre 208 It seems too extensive 209 Politeness of Wyatt and Surrey 209 Latin Poetry 210 Sannazarius 210 Vida 210 Fracastorius 210 Latin Verse not to be disdained 210 Other Latin Poets in Italy 211 In Germany 211 Italian Comedy 211 Machiavel 211 Aretin 211 Tragedy 212 Sperone 212 Cinthio 212 Spanish Drama 212 Torres Naharro 212 Lope de Rueda 212 Gil Vicente 213 Mysteries and Moralities in France 213 German Theatre--Hans Sachs 213 Moralities and Similar Plays in England 214 They are turned to religious Satire 214 Latin Plays 214 First English Comedy 215 Romances of Chivalry 215 Novels 215 Rabelais 216 Contest of Latin and Italian Languages 216 Influence of Bembo in this 217 Apology for Latinists 217 Character of the Controversy 217 Life of Bembo 217 Character of Italian and Spanish Style 218 English Writers 218 More 218 Ascham 218 Italian Criticism 218 Bembo 218 Grammarians and Critics in France 219 Orthography of Meigret 219 Cox’s Art of Rhetoric 219
Chapter IX
ON THE SCIENTIFIC AND MISCELLANEOUS LITERATURE OF EUROPE FROM 1520 TO 1550.
Geometrical Treatises 220 Fernel Rhœticus 220 Cardan and Tartaglia 220 Cubic Equations 220 Beauty of the Discovery 221 Cardan’s other Discoveries 221 Imperfections of Algebraic Language 222 Copernicus 222 Revival of Greek Medicine 223 Linacre and other Physicians 223 Medical Innovators 224 Paracelsus 224 Anatomy 224 Berenger 224 Vesalius 224 Portal’s Account of him 225 His Human Dissections 225 Fate of Vesalius 225 Other Anatomists 225 Imperfection of the Science 225 Botany--Botanical Gardens 226 Ruel 226 Fuchs 226 Matthioli 226 Low State of Zoology 226 Agricola 227 Hebrew 227 Elias Levita--Pellican 227 Arabic and Oriental Literature 227 Geography of Grynæus 228 Apianus 228 Munster 228 Voyages 228 Oviedo 228 Historical Works 228 Italian Academies 229 They pay regard to the Language 229 Their fondness for Petrarch 229 They become numerous 229 Their Distinctions 230 Evils connected with them 230 They succeed less in Germany 230 Libraries 230
X. HISTORY OF ANCIENT LITERATURE IN EUROPE FROM 1550 TO 1600
Progress of Philology 231 First Editions of Classics 231 Change in Character of Learning 232 Cultivation of Greek 232 Principal Scholars--Turnebus 232 Petrus Victorius 233 Muretus 233 Gruter’s Thesaurus Criticus 234 Editions of Greek and Latin Authors 235 Tacitus of Lipsius 235 Horace of Lambinus 235 Of Cruquius 236 Henry Stephens 236 Lexicon of Constantin 237 Thesaurus of Stephens 237 Abridged by Scapula 238 Hellenismus of Caninius 239 Vergara’s Grammar 239 Grammars of Ramus and Sylburgius 239 Camerarius--Canter--Robortellus 240 Editions by Sylburgius 241 Neander 241 Gesner 241 Decline of Taste in Germany 242 German Learning 242 Greek Verses of Rhodomanu 242 Learning Declines 243 Except in Catholic Germany 243 Philological Works of Stephens 243 Style of Lipsius 244 Minerva of Sanctius 244 Orations of Muretus 244 Panegyric of Ruhnkenius 244 Defects of his Style 245 Epistles of Manutius 245 Care of the Italian Latinists 245 Perpinianus--Osorius--Maphœus 246 Buchanan--Haddon 246 Sigonius, De Consolatione 246 Decline of Taste and Learning in Italy 247 Joseph Scaliger 247 Isaac Casaubon 248 General Result 249 Learning in England under Edward and Mary 249 Revival under Elizabeth 249 Greek Lectures at Cambridge 250 Few Greek Editions in England 250 School Books enumerated 250 Greek taught in Schools 251 Greek better known after 1580 251 Editions of Greek 252 And of Latin Classics 252 Learning lower than in Spain 252 Improvement at the End of the Century. 253 Learning in Scotland 253 Latin little used in Writing 253 Early Works on Antiquities 254 P. Manutius on Roman Laws 254 Manutius, De Civitate 254 Panvinius--Sigonius 255 Gruchius 255 Sigonius on Athenian Polity 256 Patrizzi and Lipsius on Roman Militia 256 Lipsius and other Antiquaries 256 Saville on Roman Militia 257 Numismatics 257 Mythology 257 Scaliger’s Chronology 258 Julian Period 258
Chapter XI
HISTORY OF THEOLOGICAL LITERATURE IN EUROPE FROM 1550 TO 1600.
Diet of Augsburg in 1555 259 Progress of Protestantism 259 Its Causes 260 Wavering of Catholic Princes 260 Extinguished in Italy and Spain 260 Reaction of Catholicity 260 Especially in Germany 261 Discipline of the Clergy 261 Influence of Jesuits 261 Their Progress 262 Their Colleges 262 Jesuit Seminary at Rome 262 Patronage of Gregory XIII. 262 Conversions in Germany and France 263 Causes of this Reaction 263 A rigid Party in the Church 264 Its Efforts at Trent 264 No Compromise in Doctrine 265 Consultation of Cassander 265 Bigotry of Protestant Churches 266 Tenets of Melanchthon 266 A Party hostile to him 267 Form of Concord, 1576 267 Controversy raised by Baius 267 Treatise of Molina on Free will 268 Protestant Tenets 268 Trinitarian Controversy 268 Religious Intolerance 270 Castalio 270 Answered by Beza 271 Aconcio 271 Minus Celsus, Koornhert 271 Decline of Protestantism 272 Desertion of Lipsius 272 Jewell’s Apology 272 English Theologians 272 Bellarmin 273 Topics of Controversy changed 273 It turns on Papal Power 274 This upheld by the Jesuits 274 Claim to depose Princes 274 Bull against Elizabeth 274 And Henry IV. 275 Deposing Power owned in Spain 275 Asserted by Bellarmin 275 Methods of Theological Doctrine 275 Loci Communes 275 In the Protestant and Catholic Church 276 Catharin 276 Critical and Expository Writings 276 Ecclesiastical Historians 277 Le Clerc’s Character of them 277 Deistical Writers 277 Wierus, De Præstigiis 278 Scot on Witchcraft 278 Authenticity of Vulgate 278 Latin Versions and Editions by Catholics 278 By Protestants 279 Versions into Modern Languages 279
XII. HISTORY OF SPECULATIVE PHILOSOPHY FROM 1550 TO 1600
Predominance of Aristotelian Philosophy 279 Scholastic and genuine Aristotelians 280 The former class little remembered 280 The others not much better known 280 Schools of Pisa and Padua 280 Cesalpini 280 Sketch of his System 280 Cremonini 281 Opponents of Aristotle 281 Patrizzi 281 System of Telesio 281 Jordano Bruno 282 His Italian Works--Cena de li Ceneri 282 Della Causa, Principio ed Uno 282 Pantheism of Bruno 283 Bruno’s other Writings 284 General Character of his Philosophy 285 Sceptical Theory of Sanchez 286 Logic of Aconcio 286 Nizolius on the Principles of Philosophy 286 Margarita Antoniana of Pereira 287 Logic of Ramus--its Success 288
Chapter XIII
HISTORY OF MORAL AND POLITICAL PHILOSOPHY AND OF JURISPRUDENCE FROM 1550 TO 1600.
Soto, De Justitia 289 Hooker 290 His Theory of Natural Law 290 Doubts felt by others 290 Essays of Montaigne 290 Their Characteristics 290 Writers on Morals in Italy 293 In England 293 Bacon’s Essays 293 Number of Political Writers 294 Oppression of Governments 294 And Spirit generated by it 294 Derived from Classic History 294 From their own and the Jewish 294 Franco Gallia of Hossoman 295 Vindiciæ of Languet 295 Contr’Un of Boetie 295 Buchanan, De Jure Regni 296 Poynet, on Politique Power 296 Its liberal Theory 296 Argues for Tyrannicide 297 The Tenets of Parties swayed by Circumstances 297 Similar Tenets among the Leaguers 298 Rose on the Authority of Christian States over Kings 298 Treatise of Boucher in the same Spirit 299 Answered by Barclay 299 The Jesuits adopt these Tenets 299 Mariana, De Rege 299 Popular Theories in England 300 Hooker 300 Political Memoirs 301 La Noue 301 Lipsius 301 Botero 301 His Remarks on Population 301 Paruta 302 Bodin 302 Analysis of his Treatise called the Republic 302 Authority of Heads of Families 302 Domestic Servitude 303 Origin of Commonwealths 303 Privileges of Citizens 303 Nature of Sovereign Power 304 Forms of Government 304 Despotism and Monarchy 304 Aristocracy 305 Senates and Councils of State 305 Duties of Magistrates 305 Corporations 305 Slaves, part of the State 305 Rise and Fall of States 306 Causes of Revolution 306 Astrological Fancies of Bodin 306 Danger of sudden Changes 307 Judicial Power of the Sovereign 307 Toleration of Religions 307 Influence of Climate on Government 307 Means of obviating Inequality 308 Confiscations--Rewards 308 Fortresses 308 Necessity of Good Faith 309 Census of Property 309 Public Revenues 309 Taxation 309 Adulteration of Coin 310 Superiority of Monarchy 310 Conclusion of the Work 310 Bodin compared with Aristotle and Machiavel 310 And with Montesquieu 310 Golden Age of Jurisprudence 311 Cujacius 311 Eulogies bestowed upon him 311 Cujacius, an Interpreter of Law rather than a Lawyer 312 French Lawyers below Cujacius--Govca and others 312 Opponents of the Roman Law 313 Faber of Savoy 313 Anti-Tribonianus of Hottoman 313 Civil Law not countenanced in France 314 Turamini 314 Cau Law 314 Law of Nations; its early State 314 Francis a Victoria 314 His Opinions on Public Law 315 Ayala, on the Rights of War 315 Albericus Gentilis on Embassies 316 His Treatise on the Rights of War 317
XIV. HISTORY OF POETRY FROM 1550 TO 1600
General Character of Italian Poets in this Age 318 Their usual Faults 318 Their Beauties 318 Character given by Muratori 318 Poetry of Casa 318 Of Costanzo 319 Baldi 319 Caro 319 Odes of Celio Magus 319 Coldness of the Amatory Sonnets 320 Studied Imitation of Petrarch 320 Their Fondness for Description 320 Judgment of Italian Critics 320 Bernardino Rota 320 Gaspara Stampa; her Love for Collalto 321 Is ill-requited 322 Her Second Love 322 Style of Gaspara Stampa 322 La Nautica of Baldi 322 Amadigi of Bernardo Tasso 323 Satirical and burlesque Poetry; Aretin 323 Other burlesque Writers 324 Attempts at Latin Metres 324 Poetical Translations 324 Torquato Tasso 324 The Jerusalem excellent in Choice of Subject 324 Superior to Homer and Virgil in some Points 324 Its Characters 325 Excellence of its Style 325 Some Faults in it 325 Defects of the Poem 326 It indicates the peculiar Genius of Tasso 326 Tasso compared to Virgil 326 To Ariosto 326 To the Bolognese Painters 327 Poetry Cultivated under Charles and Philip 327 Luis de Leon 328 Herrera 328 General Tone of Castilian Poetry 329 Castillejo 329 Araucana of Ercilla 329 Many epic Poems in Spain 329 Camœns 330 Defects of the Lusiad 330 Its Excellencies 330 Mickle’s Translation 330 Celebrated Passage in the Lusiad 331 Minor Poems of Camœns 331 Ferreira 331 Spanish Ballads 331 French Poets numerous 332 Change in the Tone of French Poetry 333 Ronsard 333 Other French Poets 334 Du Bartas 334 Pibrac; Desportes 335 French Metre and Versification 335 General character of French Poetry 335 German Poetry 336 Paradise of Dainty Devices 336 Character of this Collection 336 Sackville’s Induction 336 Inferiority of Poets in early years of Elizabeth 337 Gascoyne 337 Spenser’s Shepherd’s Kalendar 337 Sydney’s Character of Contemporary Poets 338 Improvement soon after this Time 338 Relaxation of Moral Austerity 339 Serious Poetry 339 Poetry of Sydney 339 Epithalanium of Spenser 340 Poems of Shakspeare 340 Daniel and Drayton 340 Nosce Teipsum of Davies 340 Satires of Hall, Marston, and Donne 341 Modulation of English Verse 341 Translations of Homer by Chapman 341 Of Tasso by Fairfax 342 Employment of Ancient Measures 342 Number of Poets in this Age 342 Scots and English Ballads 343 The Faery Queen 343 Superiority of the First Book 343 The succeeding Books 344 Spenser’s Sense of Beauty 344 Compared to Ariosto 344 Style of Spenser 345 Inferiority of the latter Books 345 Allegories of the Faery Queen 346 Blemishes in the Diction 346 Admiration of the Faery Queen 346 General Parallel of Italian and English Poetry 347 Decline of Latin Poetry in Italy 347 Compensated in other Countries 347 Lotichius 347 Collections of Latin Poetry by Gruter 348 Characters of some Gallo-Latin Poets 348 Sammarthanus 349 Belgic Poets 349 Scots Poets--Buchanan 349
XV. HISTORY OF DRAMATIC LITERATURE FROM 1550 TO 1600
Italian Tragedy 350 Pastoral Drama 351 Aminta of Tasso 351 Pastor Fido of Guarini 352 Italian Opera 352 The National Taste revives in the Spanish Drama 353 Lope de Vega 353 His Extraordinary Fertility 353 His Versification 354 His Popularity 354 Character of his Comedies 354 Tragedy of Don Sancho Ortiz 355 His Spiritual Plays 356 Numancia of Cervantes 356 French Theatre--Jodelle 357 Garnier 357 Comedies of Larivey 358 Theatres in Paris 358 English Stage 359 Gammar Gurton’s Needle 359 Gorboduc of Sackville 359 Preference given to the Irregular Form 359 First Theatres 360 Plays of Whetstone and Others 360 Marlowe and his Contemporaries 360 Tamburlaine 361 Blank Verse of Marlowe 361 Marlowe’s Jew of Malta 361 And Faustus 361 His Edward II. 361 Plays whence Henry VI. was taken 361 Peele 362 Greene 362 Other Writers of this Age 363 Heywood’s Woman Killed with Kindness 363 William Shakspeare 364 His First Writings for the Stage 364 Comedy of Errors 365 Love’s Labour Lost 365 Taming of the Shrew 365 Midsummer Night’s Dream 365 Its Machinery 366 Its Language 366 Romeo and Juliet 366 Its Plot 367 Its Beauties and Blemishes 367 The Characters 367 The Language 367 Second Period of Shakspeare 368 The Historical Plays 368 Merchant of Venice 368 As You Like It 369 Jonson’s Every Man in his Humour 369
XVI. HISTORY OF POLITE LITERATURE IN PROSE FROM 1550 TO 1600
Italian Writers 369 Casa 369 Tasso 370 Firenzuola 370 Character of Italian Prose 370 Italian Letter Writers 370 Davanzati’s Tacitus 371 Jordano Bruno 371 French Writers--Amyot 371 Montaigne; Du Vair 371 Satire Menippée 372 English Writers 372 Ascham 372 Euphues of Lilly 373 Its Popularity 373 Sydney’s Arcadia 374 His Defence of Poesie 374 Hooker 374 Character of Elizabethan Writers 374 State of Criticism 375 Scaliger’s Poetics 375 His Preference of Virgil to Homer 375 His Critique on Modern Latin Poets 376 Critical Influence of the Academics 376 Dispute of Caro and Castelvetro 377 Castelvetro on Aristotle’s Poetics 377 Severity of Castelvetro’s Criticism 377 Ercolano of Varchi 378 Controversy about Dante 378 Academy of Florence 378 Salviati’s Attack on Tasso 379 Pinciano’s Art of Poetry 379 French Treatises of Criticism 379 Wilson’s Art of Rhetorique 379 Gascoyne; Webbe 380 Puttenham’s Art of Poesie 380 Sydney’s Defence of Poesy 380 Novels of Bandello 380 Of Cinthio 381 Of the Queen of Navarre 381 Spanish Romances of Chivalry 381 Diana of Monte-Mayor 382 Novels in the Picaresque Style 382 Guzman d’Alfarache 382 Las Guerras de Granada 383 Sydney’s Arcadia 383 Its Character 383 Inferiority of other English Fictions 384
Chapter XVII
HISTORY OF PHYSICAL AND MISCELLANEOUS LITERATURE FROM 1500 TO 1600.
Tartaglia and Cardan 385 Algebra of Pelletier 385 Record’s Whetstone of Wit 385 Vieta 385 His Discoveries 386 Geometers of this Period 388 Joachim Rhœticus 388 Copernican Theory 388 Tycho Brahe 389 His System 389 Gregorian Calendar 390 Optics 390 Mechanics 390 Statics of Stevinus 391 Hydrostatics 392 Gilbert on the Magnet 392 Gesner’s Zoology 392 Its Character by Cuvier 392 Gesner’s Arrangement 393 His Additions to known Quadrupeds 393 Belon 394 Salviani and Rondelet’s Ichthyology 394 Aldrovandus 394 Botany--Turner 395 Maranta--Botanical Gardens 395 Gesner 396 Dodœns 396 Lobel 396 Clusius 396 Cæsalpin 396 Dalechamps--Bauhin 397 Gerard’s Herbal 397 Anatomy--Fallopius 397 Eustachius 397 Coiter 398 Columbus 398 Circulation of the Blood 398 Medicinal Science 398 Syriac Version of New Testament 399 Hebrew Critics 399 Its Study in England 399 Arabic begins to be Studied 399 Collection of Voyages by Ramusio 400 Curiosity they awakened 400 Other Voyages 401 Accounts of China 401 India and Russia 401 English Discoveries in the Northern Seas 401 Geographical Books--Ortelius 401 Guicciardini 402 French Memoirs 403 Universities in Italy 403 In other Countries 403 Libraries 403 Collections of Antiquities in Italy 404 Pinelli 404 Italian Academies 405 Society of Antiquaries in England 405 New Books and Catalogues of them 406 Literary Correspondence 406 Bibliographical Works 406 Restraints on the Press 407 Index Expurgatorius 407 Its Effects 407 Restrictions in England 407 Latin more employed on this account 408 Influence of Literature 408
XVIII. HISTORY OF ANCIENT LITERATURE IN EUROPE FROM 1600 TO 1650
Learning of 17th Century less Philological 409 Popularity of Comenius 409 Decline of Greek Learning 410 Casaubon 410 Viger de Idiotismis 411 Weller’s Greek Grammar 411 Labbe and Others 411 Salmasius de Lingua Hellenistica 412 Greek Editions--Savile’s Chrysostom 412 Greek Learning in England 413 Latin Editions--Torrentius 413 Gruter 413 Heinsius 413 Grotius 414 Rutgersius--Reinesius--Barthius 414 Other Critics--English 414 Salmasius 415 Good Writers of Latin 415 Scioppius 416 His Philosophical Grammar 416 His Infamia Famiani 416 Judicium de Stylo Historico 416 Gerard Vossius, de Vitiis Sermonis 417 His Aristarchus 417 Progress of Latin Style 418 Gruter’s Collection of Inscriptions 418 Assisted by Scaliger 419 Works on Roman Antiquity 419 Geography of Cluversius 420 Meursius 420 Ubbo Emmius 420 Chronology of Lydiat--Calvisius 420 Petavius 421 Character of this Work 421
Chapter XIX
HISTORY Of THEOLOGICAL LITERATURE IN EUROPE FROM 1600 TO 1650.
Temporal Supremacy of Rome 422 Contest with Venice 423 Father Paul Sarpi 423 History of Council of Trent 424 Gallican Liberties--Richter 424 Perron 425 Decline of Papal Power 425 Unpopularity of the Jesuits 426 Richelieu’s Care of Gallican Liberties 426 Controversy of Catholics and Protestants 426 Increased respect for the Fathers 426 Especially in England--Laud 427 Defections to the Catholic Church 427 Wavering of Casaubon 428 And of Grotius 429 Calixtus 434 His Attempts at Concord 434 High Church Party in England 435 Daillé on the Right Use of the Fathers 435 Chillingworth’s Religion of Protestants 436 Character of this Work 436 Hales on Schism 438 Controversies on Grace and Free will--Augustinian Scheme 438 Semi-pelagian Hypothesis 439 Tenets of the Reformers 439 Rise of Arminianism 440 Episcopius 440 His Writings 440 Their Spirit and Tendency 440 Great Latitude allowed by them 441 Progress of Arminianism 441 Cameron 441 Rise of Jansenism 441 Socinus--Volkelius 442 Crellius--Ruarus 442 Erastianism maintained by Hooker 443 And Grotius 444 His Treatise on Ecclesiastical Power of the State 444 Remark upon this Theory 446 Toleration of Religious Tenets 446 Claimed by the Arminians 446 By the Independents 447 And by Jeremy Taylor 447 His Liberty of Prophesying 447 Boldness of his Doctrines 447 His Notions of Uncertainty in Theological Tenets 448 His low Opinion of the Fathers 448 Difficulty of Finding out Truth 449 Grounds of Toleration 449 Inconsistency of One Chapter 450 His General Defence of Toleration 450 Effect of this Treatise 451 Its Defects 451 Great Erudition of this Period 452 Usher--Petavius 452 Sacred Criticism 452 Grotius--Coccejus 452 English Commentators 453 Style of Preaching 453 English Sermons 453 Of Donne 454 Of Jeremy Taylor 454 Devotional Writings of Taylor and Hall 454 In the Roman 455 And Lutheran Church 455 Infidelity of some Writers--Charron--Vanini 455 Lord Herbert of Cherbury 456 Grotius de Veritate 457 English Translation of the Bible 457 Its Style 457
XX. HISTORY OF SPECULATIVE PHILOSOPHY FROM 1600 TO 1650
Subjects of this Chapter 458 Aristotelians and Ramists 458 No improvement till near the End of the Century 459 Methods of the Universities 459 Scholastic Writers 459 Treatises on Logic 460 Campanella 460 His Theory taken from Telesio 460 Notion of Universal Sensibility 461 His Imagination and Eloquence 461 His Works Published by Admai 462 Basson 463 Berigard 463 Magnen 463 Paracelsists 463 And Theosophists 463 Fludd 464 Jacob Behmen 464 Lord Herbert de Veritate 464 His Axioms 465 Conditions of Truth 465 Instinctive Truths 466 Internal Perceptions 466 Five Notions of Natural Religion 466 Remarks of Gassendi on Herbert 467 Gassendi’s Defence of Epicurus 468 His chief Works after 1650 468 Preparation for the Philosophy of Lord Bacon 468 His Plan of Philosophy 468 Time of its Conception 469 Instauratio Magna 470 First Part--Partitiones Scientiarum 470 Second Part--Novum Organum 470 Third Part--Natural History 470 Fourth Part--Scala Intellectûs 471 Fifth Part--Anticipationes Philosophiæ 471 Sixth Part--Philosophia Secunda 471 Course of studying Lord Bacon 472 Nature of the Baconian Induction 472 His Dislike of Aristotle 474 His Method much required 474 Its Objects 474 Sketch of the Treatise De Augmentis 474 History 474 Poetry 475 Fine Passage on Poetry 475 Natural Theology and Metaphysics 475 Form of Bodies might sometimes be inquired into 475 Final Causes too much slighted 476 Man not included by him in Physics 476 Man--in Body and Mind 476 Logic 476 Extent given it by Bacon 476 Grammar and Rhetoric 477 Ethics 477 Politics 477 Theology 478 Desiderata enumerated by him 478 Novum Organum--First Book 478 Fallacies--Idola 478 Confounded with Idols 478 Second Book of Novum Organum 479 Confidence of Bacon 479 Almost justified of late 480 But should be kept within Bounds 481 Limits to our Knowledge by Sense 481 Inductive Logic--whether confined to Physics 481 Baconian Philosophy built on Observation and Experiment 482 Advantages of the latter 482 Sometimes applicable to Philosophy of Human Mind 483 Less so to Politics and Morals 483 Induction less conclusive on these Subjects 483 Reasons for this Difference 484 Considerations on the other Side 484 Result of the whole 485 Bacon’s Aptitude for Moral Subjects 486 Comparison of Bacon and Galileo 487 His Prejudice against Mathematics 488 Bacon’s Excess of Wit 488 Fame of Bacon on the Continent 489 Early Life of Descartes 491 His beginning to philosophise 491 He retires to Holland 491 His Publications 492 He begins by doubting all 492 His First Step in Knowledge 492 His Mind not Sceptical 493 He arrives at more Certainty 493 His Proof of a Deity 493 Another Proof of it 494 His Deductions from this 494 Primary and Secondary Qualities 495 Objections made to his Meditations 495 Theory of Memory and Imagination 496 Seat of Soul in Pineal Gland 497 Gassendi’s Attacks on the Meditations 497 Superiority of Descartes 497 Stewart’s Remarks on Descartes 498 Paradoxes of Descartes 499 His Just Notions and Definitions 500 His Notion of Substances 501 Not Quite Correct 501 His Notions of Intuitive Truth 501 Treatise on Art of Logic 502 Merits of his Writings 502 His Notions of Free will 502 Fame of his System, and Attacks upon it 503 Controversy with Voet 503 Charges of Plagiarism 504 Recent Increase of his Fame 505 Metaphysical Treatises of Hobbes 505 His Theory of Sensation 506 Coincident with Descartes 506 Imagination and Memory 506 Discourse or Train of Imagination 507 Experience 507 Unconceivableness of Infinity 507 Origin of Language 508 His Political Theory interferes 508 Necessity of Speech exaggerated 509 Use of Names 509 Names Universal not Realities 509 How imposed 510 The Subject continued 510 Names differently imposed 511 Knowledge 511 Reasoning 512 False Reasoning 512 Its frequency 513 Knowledge of Fact not derived from Reasoning 514 Belief 514 Chart of Science 515 Analysis of Passions 515 Good and Evil relative Terms 515 His Paradoxes 515 His Notion of Love 516 Curiosity 516 Difference of Intellectual Capacities 516 Wit and Fancy 517 Differences in the Passions 517 Madness 517 Unmeaning Language 517 Manners 517 Ignorances and Prejudice 518 His Theory of Religion 518 Its supposed Sources 518
Chapter XXI
HISTORY OF MORAL AND POLITICAL PHILOSOPHY AND OF JURISPRUDENCE FROM 1600 TO 1650.
Casuistical Writers 521 Importance of Confession 521 Necessity of Rules for the Confessor 521 Increase of Casuistical Literature 521 Distinction of subjective and objective Morality 522 Directory Office of the Confessor 522 Difficulties of Casuistry 522 Strict and Lax Schemes of it 523 Convenience of the latter 523 Favoured by the Jesuits 523 The Causes of this 523 Extravagance of the strict Casuists 524 Opposite Faults of Jesuits 524 Suarez, De Legibus 524 Titles of his Ten Books 524 Heads of the Second Book 525 Character of such Scholastic Treatises 525 Quotations of Suarez 525 His Definition of Eternal Law 526 Whether God is a Legislator 526 Whether God could permit or commend wrong Actions 527 English Casuists--Perkins--Hall 527 Selden, De Jure Naturali Juxta Hebræos 528 Jewish Theory of Natural Law 528 Seven Precepts of the Sons of Noah 528 Character of Selden’s Work 528 Grotius and Hobbes 528 Charron on Wisdom 529 La Mothe le Vayer--his Dialogues 529 Bacon’s Essays 529 Their Excellence 530 Feltham’s Resolves 530 Browne’s Religio Medici 531 Selden’s Table Talk 532 Osborn’s Advice to his Son 532 John Valentine Andrax 532 Abandonment of Anti-Monarchical Theories 533 Political Literature becomes historical 533 Bellenden De Statu 534 Campanella’s Politics 534 La Mothe le Vayer 534 Naude’s Coups d’Etat 534 Patriarchal Theory of Government 534 Refuted by Suarez 535 His Opinion of Law 535 Bacon 536 Political Economy 536 Serra on the Means of obtaining Money without Mines 537 His Causes of Wealth 537 His Praise of Venice 537 Low Rate of Exchange not essential to wealth 587 Hobbes.--His Political Works 538 Analysis of his Three Treatises 538 Civil Jurists of this period 543 Suarez on Laws 544 Grotius--De Jure Belli et Pacis 544 Success of this Work 544 Its Originality 545 Its Motive and Object 545 His Authorities 545 Foundation of Natural Law 546 Positive Law 546 Perfect and Imperfect Rights 546 Lawful Cases of War 546 Resistance by Subjects unlawful 547 All Men naturally have Right of War 547 Right of Self-Defence 548 Its Origin and Limitations 548 Right of Occupancy 549 Relinquishment of it 549 Right over Persons--By Generation 549 By Consent 549 In Marriage 549 In Commonwealths 549 Right of Alienating Subjects 549 Alienation by Testament 550 Rights of Property by Positive Law 550 Extinction of Rights 550 Some Casuistical Questions 550 Promises 550 Contracts 551 Considered ethically 551 Promissory Oaths 552 Engagements of Kings towards Subjects 552 Public Treaties 552 Their Interpretation 553 Obligation to repair Injury 553 Rights by Law of Nations 554 Those of Ambassadors 554 Right of Sepulture 554 Punishments 554 Their Responsibility 555 Insufficient Causes of War 556 Duty of avoiding it 556 And Expediency 556 War for the sake of other Subjects 556 Allies 556 Strangers 556 None to Serve in an Unjust War 556 Rights in War 557 Use of Deceit 557 Rules and Customs of Nations 557 Reprisals 557 Declarations of War 557 Rights by law of nations over Enemies 558 Prisoners become Slaves 558 Rights of Postliminium 558 Moral Limitation of Rights in War 558 Moderation required as to spoil 559 And as to Prisoners 559 Also in Conquest 559 And in Restitution to right Owners 559 Promises to Enemies and Pirates 559 Treaties concluded by competent Authority 560 Matters relating to them 561 Truces and Conventions 561 Those of Private persons 561 Objections to Grotius made by Paley unreasonable 561 Reply of Mackintosh 561 Censures of Stewart 562 Answer to them 562 Grotius vindicated against Rousseau 565 His Arrangement 565 His Defects 565
XXII. HISTORY OF POETRY FROM 1600 TO 1650
Low Estimation of the Seicentisti 566 Not quite so great as formerly 566 Praise of them by Rubbi 566 Also by Salfi 566 Adone of Marini 567 Its Character 567 And Popularity 567 Secchia Rapita of Tassoni 568 Chiabrera 569 His Followers 569 The Styles of Spanish Poetry 570 The Romances 570 The Brothers Argensola 570 Villegas 571 Quevedo 571 Defects of Taste in Spanish Verse 571 Pedantry and far-fetched Allusions 572 Gongora 572 The Schools formed by him 573 Malherbe 573 Criticisms upon his Poetry 574 Satires of Regnier 574 Racan--Maynard 574 Voiture 574 Sarrasin 575 Low state of German Literature 575 Literary Societies 575 Opitz 575 His Followers 576 Dutch Poetry 576 Spiegel 576 Hooft-Cats-Vondel 577 Danish Poetry 577 English Poets numerous in this age 577 Phineas Fletcher 577 Giles Fletcher 578 Philosophical Poetry 578 Lord Brooke 578 Denham’s Cooper’s Hill 579 Poets called Metaphysical 579 Donne 580 Crashaw 580 Cowley 580 Johnson’s Character of him 580 Narrative Poets--Daniel 580 Drayton’s Polyolbion 581 Browne’s Britannia’s Pastorals 581 Sir John Beaumont 582 Davenant’s Gondibert 582 Sonnets of Shakspeare 582 The person whom they address 583 Sonnets of Drummond and others 584 Carew 584 Ben Jonson 585 Wither 585 Habington 585 Earl of Pembroke 585 Suckling 586 Lovelace 586 Herrick 586 Milton 586 His Comus 586 Lycidas 587 Allegro and Penseroso 587 Ode on the Nativity 588 His Sonnets 588 Anonymous Poetry 588 Latin Poets of France 588 In Germany and Italy 588 In Holland--Heinsius 589 Casimir Sarbievius 589 Barlæus 589 Balde--Greek Poems of Heinsius 590 Latin Poets of Scotland--Jonston’s Psalms 590 Owen’s Epigrams 590 Alabaster’s Roxana 590 May’s Supplement to Lucan 590 Milton’s Latin Poems 591
XXIII. HISTORY OF DRAMATIC LITERATURE FROM 1600 TO 1650
Decline of the Italian Theatre 591 Filli de Sciro 592 Translations of Spanish Dramas 592 Extemporaneous Comedy 593 Spanish Stage 593 Calderon--Number of his Pieces 593 His Comedies 593 La Vida es Sueno 594 A Secreto agravio secreta vengança 595 Style of Calderon 595 His Merits sometimes overrated 596 Plays of Hardy 596 The Cid 597 Style of Corneille 598 Les Horaces 598 Cimia 598 Polyeucte 599 Rodogune 599 Pompey 599 Heraclius 599 Nicomède 600 Faults and Beauties of Corneille 600 Le Menteur 600 Other French Tragedies 600 Wenceslas of Rotron 600 Popularity of the Stage under Elizabeth 601 Number of Theatres 601 Encouraged by James 601 General Taste for the Stage 601 Theatres closed by the Parliament 602 Shakspeare’s Twelfth Night 602 Merry Wives of Windsor 603 Measure for Measure 604 Lear 604 Timon of Athens 604 Pericles 605 His Roman Tragedies--Julius Cæsar 606 Antony and Cleopatra 606 Coriolanus 606 His Retirement and Death 607 Greatness of his Genius 607 His Judgment 607 His Obscurity 608 His Popularity 608 Critics on Shakspeare 609 Ben Jonson 609 The Alchemist 609 Volpone, or The Fox 610 The Silent Woman 610 Sad Shepherd 611 Beaumont and Fletcher 611 Corrupt State of their Text 611 The Maid’s Tragedy 611 Philaster 612 King and no King 613 The Elder Brother 613 The Spanish Curate 613 The Custom of the Country 613 The Loyal Subject 613 Beggar’s Bush 613 The Scornful Lady 614 Valentinian 614 The Two Noble Kinsmen 615 The Faithful Shepherdess 615 Rule a Wife, and have a Wife 616 Some other Plays 616 Origin of Fletcher’s Plays 616 Defects of their plots 616 Their Sentiments and Style Dramatic 617 Their Characters 617 Their Tragedies 617 Inferior to their Comedies 618 Their Female Characters 618 Massinger--Nature of his Dramas 619 His Delineations of Character 619 His Subjects 619 Beauty of His Style 620 Inferiority of his Comic Powers 620 Some of his Tragedies particularized 620 And of his other Plays 620 Ford 621 Shirley 621 Heywood 622 Webster 622 His Duchess of Malfy 622 Vittoria Corombona 622
XXIV. HISTORY OF POLITE LITERATURE IN PROSE FROM 1600 TO 1650
Decline of Taste in Italy 623 Style of Galileo 624 Bentivoglio 624 Boccalini’s News from Parnassus 624 His Pietra del Paragone 625 Terrante Pallavicino 625 Dictionary Delia Crusca 625 Grammatical Works--Buonmattei--Bartoli 626 Tassoni’s Remarks on Petrarch 626 Galileo’s Remarks on Tasso 626 Sforza Pallavicino 626 And other Critical Writers 626 Prolusiones of Strada 627 Spanish Prose--Gracian 627 French Prose--Du Vair 627 Balzac 628 Character of his Writings 628 His Letters 628 Voiture--Hotel Rambouillet 629 Establishment of French Academy 630 Its objects and Constitution 630 It publishes a Critique on the Cid 631 Vaugelas’s Remarks on the French Language 631 La Mothe le Vayer 632 Legal Speeches of Patru 632 And of Le Maistre 632 Improvement in English Style 633 Earl of Essex 633 Knolles’s History of the Turks 634 Raleigh’s History of the World 635 Daniel’s History of England 635 Bacon 635 Milton 636 Clarendon 636 The Icon Basilice 636 Burton’s Anatomy of Melancholy 637 Earle’s Characters 637 Overbury’s Characters 637 Jonson’s Discoveries 637 Publication of Don Quixote 638 Its Reputation 638 New Views of its Design 638 Probably erroneous 638 Difference between the two Parts 639 Excellence of this Romance 639 Minor Novels of Cervantes 639 Other Novels--Spanish 639 And Italian 639 French Romances--Astrée 639 Heroic Romances--Gomberville 640 Calprenède 640 Scuderi 641 Argenis of Barclay 641 His Euphormis 643 Campanella’s City of the Sun 643 Few Books of Fiction in England 643 Mundus Alter et Idem of Hall 644 Godwin’s Journey to the Moon 644 Howell’s Dodona’s Grove 644 Adventures of Baron de Fænesle 644
Chapter XXV
HISTORY OF MATHEMATICAL AND PHYSICAL SCIENCE FROM 1600 TO 1650.
State of Science in 16th Century 645 Tediousness of Calculations 645 Napier’s Invention of Logarithms 645 Their Nature 645 Property of Numbers discovered by Stifelius 645 Extended to Magnitudes 646 By Napier 646 Tables of Napier and Briggs 646 Kepler’s New Geometry 647 Its Difference from the Ancient 647 Adopted by Galileo 648 Extended by Cavalieri 648 Applied to the Ratios of Solids 648 Problem of the Cycloid 648 Progress of Algebra 649 Briggs--Girard 649 Harriott 649 Descartes 650 His Application of Algebra to Curves 650 Suspected Plagiarism from Harriot 650 Fermat 651 Algebraic Geometry not successful at first 652 Astronomy--Kepler 652 Conjectures as to Comets 652 Galileo’s Discovery of Jupiter’s Satellites 653 Other Discoveries by him 653 Spots of the Sun discovered 653 Copernican System held by Galileo 654 His Dialogues, and Persecution 654 Descartes alarmed by this 655 Progress of Copernican System 655 Descartes denies General Gravitation 655 Cartesian Theory of the World 655 Transits of Mercury and Venus 656 Laws of Mechanics 656 Statics of Galileo 657 His Dynamics 657 Mechanics of Descartes 658 Law of Motion laid down by Descartes 658 Also those of Compound Forces 659 Other Discoveries in Mechanics 659 In Hydrostatics and Pneumatics 659 Optics--Discoveries of Kepler 660 Invention of the Telescope 660 Of the Microscope 660 Antonio de Dominis 660 Dioptrics of Descartes--Law of Refraction 661 Disputed by Fermat 661 Curves of Descartes 661 Theory of the Rainbow 661
Chapter XXVI
HISTORY OF SOME OTHER PROVINCES OF LITERATURE FROM 1600 TO 1650.
Aldrovandus 662 Clusius 662 Rio and Marcgraf 662 Jonston 662 Fabricius on the Language of Brutes 663 Botany--Columna 664 John and Gaspar Bauhin 664 Parkinson 664 Valves of the Veins discovered 665 Theory of the Blood’s Circulation 665 Sometimes ascribed to Servetus 665 To Columbus 666 And to Cæsalpin 666 Generally unknown before Harvey 667 His Discovery 667 Unjustly doubted to be Original 667 Harvey’s Treatise on Generation 668 Lacteals discovered by Asellius 668 Optical Discoveries of Scheiner 669 Medicine--Van Helmont 669 Diffusion of Hebrew 669 Language not studied in the best method 669 The Buxtorfs 670 Vowel Points rejected by Cappel 670 Hebrew Scholars 671 Chaldee and Syriac 671 Arabic 671 Erpenius 671 Golius 671 Other Eastern Languages 672 Purchas’s Pilgrim 672 Olearius and Pietro della Valle 672 Lexicon of Ferrari 672 Maps of Blaew 672 Davila and Bentivoglio 673 Mendoza’s Wars of Granada 673 Mezeray 673 English Historians 673 English Histories 673 Universities 673 Bodleian Library founded 674 Casaubon’s Account of Oxford 674 Catalogue of Bodleian Library 674 Continental Libraries 675 Italian Academies 675 The Lincei 675 Prejudice for Antiquity diminished 676 Browne’s Vulgar Errors 677 Life and Character of Peiresc 677
XXVII. HISTORY OF ANCIENT LITERATURE IN EUROPE FROM 1650 TO 1700
James Frederic Gronovius 678 James Gronovius 679 Grævius 679 Isaac Vossius 679 Decline of German Learning 679 Spanheim 679 Jesuit Colleges in France 679 Port-Royal Writers--Lancelot 679 Latin Writers--Perizonius 680 Delphin Editions 680 Le Fevre and the Daciers 680 Henry Valois--Complaints of Decay of Learning 680 English Learning--Duport 681 Greek not much studied 681 Gataker’s Cinnus and Antoninus 681 Stanley’sÆschylus 682 Other English Philologers 682 Bentley 682 His Epistle to Mill 682 Dissertation on Phalaris 682 Disadvantages of Scholars in that Age 683 Thesauri of Grævius and of Gronovius 683 Fabretti 684 Numismatics, Spanheim--Vaillant 684 Chronology--Usher 684 Pezron 685 Marsham 685
XXVIII. HISTORY OF THEOLOGICAL LITERATURE FROM 1650 TO 1700
Decline of Papal Influence 685 Dispute of Louis XIV. with Innocent XI. 686 Four Articles of 1682 686 Dupin on the ancient Discipline 686 Dupin’s Ecclesiastical Library 687 Fleury’s Ecclesiastical History 687 His Dissertations 687 Protestant Controversy in France 688 Bossuet’s Exposition of Catholic Faith 688 His Conference with Claude 688 Correspondence with Molanus and Leibnitz 689 His Variations of Protestant Churches 690 Anglican Writings against Popery 690 Taylor’s Dissuasive 690 Barrow--Stillingfleet 690 Jansenius 691 Condemnation of his Augustinus in France 691 And at Rome 691 The Jansenists take a Distinction 692 And are Persecuted 692 Progress of Arminianism 692 Courcelles 693 Limborch 693 Le Clerc 693 Sancroft’s Fur Prædestinatus 693 Arminianism in England 694 Bull’s Harmonia Apostolica 694 Hammond--Locke--Wilkins 694 Socinians in England 695 Bull’s Defensio Fidei Nicenæ 695 Not Satisfactory to all 695 Mystics 696 Fenelon 696 Change in the Character of Theological Literature 696 Freedom of many Writings 696 Thoughts of Pascal 697 Vindications of Christianity 699 Progress of Tolerant Principles 700 Bayle’s Philosophical Commentary 700 Locke’s Letter on Toleration 700 French Sermons 701 Bourdaloue 701 Compared with Bossuet 702 Funeral Discourses of Bossuet 702 Fléchier 703 English Sermons--Barrow 703 South 704 Tillotson 704 Expository Theology 704 Pearson on the Creed 704 Simon’s Critical Histories 705
XXIX. HISTORY OF SPECULATIVE PHILOSOPHY FROM 1650 TO 1700
Aristotelian Metaphysics 705 Their Decline. Thomas White 706 Logic 706 Stanley’s History of Philosophy 707 Gale’s Court of Gentiles 707 Cudworth’s Intellectual System 707 Its object 708 Sketch of it 708 His plastic nature 708 His account of old Philosophy 708 His Arguments against Atheism 709 More 709 Gassendi 710 His Logic 710 His Theory of Ideas 710 And of the Nature of the Soul 710 Distinguishes Ideas of Reflection 711 Also Intellect from Imagination 711 His Philosophy misunderstood by Stewart 712 Bernier’s Epitome of Gassendi 713 Process of Cartesian Philosophy 713 La Forge--Regis 714 Huet’s Censure of Cartesianism 715 Port-Royal Logic 716 Malebranche 717 His Style 717 Sketch of his Theory 717 Character of Malebranche 724 Compared with Pascal 724 Arnauld on True and False ideas 725 Norris 725 Pascal 725 Spinosa’s Ethics 726 Its general Originality 726 View of his Metaphysical Theory 727 Spinosa’s Theory of action and Passion 731 Character of Spinosism 732 Glanvil’s Scepsis Scientifica 733 His Plus Ultra 734 Dalgarno 735 Wilkins 736 Locke on Human Understanding 736 Its merits 736 Its Defects 737 Origin of Ideas according to Locke 737 Vague Use of the Word Idea 738 An Error as to Geometrical Figure 739 His Notions as to the Soul 740 And its Immateriality 740 His Love of Truth and Originality 741 Defended in two cases 742 His View of Lunatic Ideas 742 General Praise 743 Locke’s Conduct of Understanding 743
Chapter XXX
HISTORY OF MORAL AND POLITICAL PHILOSOPHY AND OF JURISPRUDENCE FROM 1650 TO 1700.
Casuistry of the Jesuits 744 Pascal’s Provincial Letters 744 Their Truth questioned by some 744 Taylor’s Ductor Dubitantium 745 Its Character and Defects 745 Cudworth’s immutable Morality 745 Nicole--La Placette 746 Other Writers 746 Moral System of Spinosa 746 Cumberland’s De Legibus Naturæ 747 Analysis of Prolegomena 748 His Theory expanded afterwards 749 Remarks on Cumberland’s Theory 752 Puffendorf’s Law of Nature and Nations 753 Analysis of this Work 754 Puffendorf and Paley compared 757 Rochefoucault 757 La Bruyère 758 Education--Milton’s Tractrate 758 Locke on Education--Its merits 759 And Defects 759 Fenelon on Female Education 761 Puffendorf’s Theory of Politics 762 Politics of Spinosa 764 His Theory of a Monarchy 766 Amelot de la Houssaye 766 Harrington’s Oceana 766 Patriarcha of Filmer 767 Sydney’s Discourses on Government 767 Locke on Government 768 Observations on this Treatise 771 Avis auz Refugiéz, perhaps by Bayle 772 Political Economist’s 772 Mun on Foreign Trade 773 Child on Trade 773 Locke on the Coin 773 Statistical Tracts 774 Works of Leibnitz on Roman Law 775 Civil Jurists--Godefroy--Domat 775 Noodt of Usury 776 Law of Nations--Puffendorf 776
XXXI. HISTORY OF POETRY FROM 1650 TO 1700
Improved Tone of Italian Poetry 776 Filicaja 777 Guidi 777 Menzini 778 Salvator Rosa--Redi 778 Other Poets 778 Christina’s Patronage of Letters 778 Society of Arcadians 778 La Fontaine 779 Character of his Fables 779 Boileau: His Epistles 780 His Art of Poetry 780 Comparison with Horace 780 The Lutrin 780 General Character of his Poetry 780 Lyric Poetry lighter than before 781 Benserade 781 Chaulieu 781 Pastoral Poetry 781 Segrais 781 Deshouliéres 781 Fontenelle 782 Bad Epic Poems 782 German Poetry 782 Waller 782 Butler’s Hudibras 783 Paradise Lost--Choice of Subject 783 Open to some Difficulties 783 Its Arrangement 783 Characters of Adam and Eve 784 He owes less to Homer than the Tragedians 784 Compared with Dante 784 Elevation of his Style 785 His Blindness 786 His Passion for Music 786 Faults in Paradise Lost 786 Its Progress to Fame 786 Paradise Regained 787 Samson Agonistes 787 Dryden--His earlier Poems 787 Absalom and Achitophel 788 Mac Flecknoe 788 The Hind and Panther 789 Its Singular Fable 789 Its Reasoning 789 The Fables 789 His Odes--Alexander’s Feast 790 His Translation of Virgil 790 Decline of Poetry from the Restoration 790 Some Minor Poets enumerated 790 Latin Poets of Italy 791 Ceva 791 Sergardi 791 Of France--Quillet 791 Menage 792 Rapin on Gardens 792 Santeul 793 Latin Poetry in England 793
XXXII. HISTORY OF DRAMATIC LITERATURE FROM 1650 TO 1700
Italian and Spanish Drama 793 Racine’s first Tragedies 793 Andromaque 794 Britannicus 795 Berenice 795 Bajazet 795 Mithridate 796 Iphigénie 796 Phédre 797 Esther 797 Athalie 797 Racine’s Female Characters 798 Racine compared with Corneille 798 Beauty of his Style 798 Thomas Corneille--His Ariane 799 Manlius of La Fosse 799 Molière 799 L’Avare 799 L’Ecole des Femmes 800 Le Misanthrope 800 Les Femmes Savantes 801 Tartuffe 801 Bourgeois Gentilhomme--George Dandin 801 Character of Molière 802 Les Plaideurs of Racine 802 Regnard--Le Joueur 802 His Other Plays 803 Quinault--Boursault 803 Dancourt 803 Brueys 804 Operas of Quinault 804 Revival of the English Theatre 804 Change of Public Taste 804 Its Causes 805 Heroic Tragedies of Dryden 805 His later Tragedies 805 Don Sebastian 806 Spanish Friar 806 Otway 806 Southern 807 Lee 807 Congreve 807 Comedies of Charles II.’s Reign 807 Wycherley 808 Improvement after the Revolution 808 Congreve 808 Love for Love 808 His other Comedies 808 Farquhar--Vanbrugh 809
XXXIII. HISTORY OF POLITE LITERATURE IN PROSE FROM 1650 TO 1700
Low State of Literature in Italy 809 Crescimbeni 810 Age of Louis XIV. in France 810 Fontenelle--his Character 810 His Dialogues of the Dead 811 Those of Fenelon 811 Fontenelle’s Plurality of Worlds 811 His History of Oracles 811 St. Evremond 812 Madame de Sevigné 812 The French Academy 812 French Grammars 813 Bouhour’s Entretiens d’Ariste et d’Eugène 813 Attacked by Barbier d’Ancour 814 La Manière de Bien Penser 815 Rapin’s Reflections on Eloquence and Poetry 815 His Parallel’s of Great Men 815 Bossu on Epic Poetry 816 Fontenelle’s Critical Writings 816 Preference of French Language to Latin 816 General Superiority of Ancients disputed 816 Charles Perrault 816 Fontenelle 817 Boileau’s Defence of Antiquity 817 First Reviews--Journal des Sçavans 817 Reviews Established by Bayle 818 Reviews Established by Le Clerc 818 Leipsic Acts 819 Bayle’s Thoughts on the Comet 819 His Dictionary 819 Baillet--Morhof 820 The Ana 820 English Style in this Period 820 Hobbes 821 Cowley 821 Evelyn 821 Dryden 821 His Essay on Dramatic Poesy 822 Improvements in his Style 823 His Critical Character 823 Rymer on Tragedy 823 Sir William Temple’s Essays 824 Style of Locke 824 Sir George Mackenzie’s Essays 824 Andrew Fletcher 824 Walton’s Complete Angler 824 Wilkins’ New World 824 Antiquity defended by Temple 825 Wotton’s Reflection’s 825 Quevedo’s Visions 825 French Heroic Romances 826 Novels of Madame La Fayette 826 Scarron’s Roman Comique 826 Cyrano de Bergerac 827 Segrais 827 Perrault 827 Hamilton 827 Télémaque of Fenelon 827 Deficiency of English Romances 828 Pilgrim’s Progress 828 Turkish Spy 829 Chiefly of English Origin 830 Swift’s Tale of a Tub 831
XXXIV. HISTORY OF PHYSICAL AND OTHER LITERATURE FROM 1650 TO 1700
Reasons for omitting Mathematics 831 Academy del Cimento 831 Royal Society 832 Academy of Sciences at Paris 832 State of Chemistry 832 Becker 833 Boyle 833 His Metaphysical Works 833 Extract from one of them 833 His Merits in Physics and Chemistry 834 General Character of Boyle 834 Of Hooke and Others 834 Lemery 835 Slow Progress of Zoology 835 Before Ray 835 His Synopsis of Quadrupeds 835 Merits of this Work 835 Redi 836 Swammerdam 836 Lister 836 Comparative Anatomy 836 Botany 837 Jungius 837 Morison 837 Ray 837 Rivinus 838 Tournefort 838 Vegetable Physiology 839 Grew 839 His Anatomy of Plants 840 He discovers the Sexual System 840 Camerarius confirms this 840 Predecessors of Grew 840 Malpighi 840 Early Notions of Geology 840 Burnet’s Theory of Earth 840 Other Geologists 841 Protogæa of Leibnitz 841 Circulation of Blood Established 842 Willis--Vieussens 842 Malpighi 842 Other Anatomists 842 Medical Theories 843 Polyglott of Walton 843 Hottinger 844 Spencer 844 Bochart 844 Pococke 844 D’Herbelot 844 Hyde 844 Maps of the Sansons 844 De Lisle’s Map of the World 845 Voyages and Travels 845 Historians 845 De Solis 845 Memoirs of De Retz 845 Bossuet on Universal History 846 English Historical Works 846 Burnet 846 General Character of 17th Century 846 Conclusion 847
Preface
The advantages of such a synoptical view of literature as displays its various departments in their simultaneous condition through an extensive period, and in their mutual dependency, seem too manifest to be disputed. And, as we possess little of this kind in our own language, I have been induced to undertake that to which I am in some respects, at least, very unequal, but which no more capable person, as far as I could judge, was likely to perform. In offering to the public this introduction to the literary history of three centuries--for I cannot venture to give it a title of more pretension--it is convenient to state my general secondary sources of information, exclusive of the acquaintance I possess with original writers; and, at the same time, by showing what has already been done, and what is left undone, to furnish a justification of my own undertaking.
The history of literature belongs to modern, and chiefly to almost recent times. The nearest approach to it that the ancients have left us is contained in a single chapter of Quintilian, the first of the tenth book, wherein he passes rapidly over the names and characters of the poets, orators, and historians of Greece and Rome. This, however, is but a sketch; and the valuable work of Diogenes Laertius preserves too little of chronological order to pass for a history of ancient philosophy, though it has supplied much of the materials for all that has been written on the subject.
In the sixteenth century, the great increase of publications, and the devotion to learning which distinguished that period, might suggest the scheme of a universal literary history. Conrad Gesner, than whom no one, by extent and variety of erudition, was more fitted for the labour, appears to have framed a plan of this kind. What he has published, the Bibliotheca Universalis, and the Pandectæ Universales, are, taken together, the materials that might have been thrown into an historical form; the one being an alphabetical catalogue of authors and their writings; the other a digested and minute index to all departments of knowledge, in twenty-one books, each divided into titles, with short references to the texts of works on every head in his comprehensive classification. The order of time is therefore altogether disregarded. Possevin, an Italian Jesuit, made somewhat a nearer approach to this in his Bibliotheca Selecta, published at Rome in 1593. Though his partitions are rather encyclopædic than historical, and his method, especially in the first volume, is chiefly argumentative, he gives under each chapter a nearly chronological catalogue of authors, and sometimes a short account of their works.
Lord Bacon, in the second book De Augmentis Scientiarum, might justly deny, notwithstanding these defective works of the preceding century, that any real history of letters had been written; and he compares that of the world, wanting this, to a statue of Polypheme deprived of his single eye. He traces the method of supplying this deficiency in one of those luminous and comprehensive passages which bear the stamp of his vast mind: the origin and antiquities of every science, the methods by which it has been taught, the sects and controversies it has occasioned, the colleges and academies in which it has been cultivated, its relation to civil government and common society, the physical or temporary causes which have influenced its condition, form, in his plan, as essential a part of such a history, as the lives of famous authors, and the books they have produced.
No one has presumed to fill up the outline which Bacon himself could but sketch; and most part of the seventeenth century passed away with few efforts on the part of the learned to do justice to their own occupation; for we can hardly make an exception for the Prodromus Historiæ Literariæ (Hamburg, 1659) of Lambecius, a very learned German, who, having framed a magnificent scheme of a universal history of letters, was able to carry it no farther than the times of Moses and Cadmus. But, in 1688, Daniel Morhof, professor at Kiel in Holstein, published his well-known Polyhistor, which received considerable additions in the next age at the hands of Fabricius, and is still found in every considerable library.
Morhof appears to have had the method of Possevin in some measure before his eyes; but the lapse of a century, so rich in erudition as the seventeenth, had prodigiously enlarged the sphere of literary history. The precise object, however, of the Polyhistor, as the word imports, is to direct, on the most ample plan, the studies of a single scholar. Several chapters, that seem digressive in an historical light, are to be defended by this consideration. In his review of books in every province of literature, Morhof adopts a sufficiently chronological order; his judgments are short, but usually judicious; his erudition so copious, that later writers have freely borrowed from, and, in many parts, added little to the enumeration of the Polyhistor. But he is far more conversant with writers in Latin than the modern languages; and, in particular, shows a scanty acquaintance with English literature.
Another century had elapsed, when the honour of first accomplishing a comprehensive synopsis of literary history in a more regular form than Morhof, was the reward of Andrès, a Spanish Jesuit, who, after the dissolution of his order, passed the remainder of his life in Italy. He published at Parma, in different years, from 1782 to 1799, his Origine Progresso e Stato attuale d’ogni Litteratura. The first edition is in five volumes quarto; but I have made use of that printed at Prato, 1806, in twenty octavo volumes. Andrès, though a Jesuit, or perhaps because a Jesuit, accommodated himself in some measure to the tone of the age wherein his book appeared, and is always temperate, and often candid. His learning is very extensive in surface, and sometimes minute and curious, but not, generally speaking, profound; his style is flowing, but diffuse and indefinite; his characters of books have a vagueness unpleasant to those who seek for precise notions; his taste is correct, but frigid; his general views are not injudicious, but display a moderate degree of luminousness or philosophy. This work is, however, an extraordinary performance, embracing both ancient and modern literature in its full extent, and, in many parts, with little assistance from any former publication of the kind. It is far better known on the Continent than in England, where I have not frequently seen it quoted; nor do I believe it is common in our private libraries.
A few years after the appearance of the first volumes of Andrès, some of the most eminent among the learned of Germany projected a universal history of modern arts and sciences on a much larger scale. Each single province, out of eleven, was deemed sufficient for the labours of one man, if they were to be minute and exhaustive of the subject: among others, Bouterwek undertook poetry and polite letters; Buhle speculative philosophy; Kästner the mathematical sciences; Sprengel anatomy and medicine; Heeren classical philology. The general survey of the whole seems to have been assigned to Eichhorn. So vast a scheme was not fully executed; but we owe to it some standard works, to which I have been considerably indebted. Eichhorn published, in 1796 and 1799, two volumes, intended as the beginning of a General History of the Cultivation and Literature of modern Europe, from the twelfth to the eighteenth century. But he did not confine himself within the remoter limit; and his second volume, especially, expatiates on the dark ages that succeeded the fall of the Roman empire. In consequence, perhaps, of this diffuseness, and also of the abandonment, for some reason with which I am unacquainted, of a large portion of the original undertaking, Eichhorn prosecuted this work no farther in its original form. But, altering slightly its title, he published, some years afterwards, an independent universal “History of Literature” from the earliest ages to his own. This is comprised in six volumes, the first having appeared in 1805, the last in 1811.
The execution of these volumes is very unequal. Eichhorn was conversant with oriental, with theological literature, especially of his own country, and in general with that contained in the Latin language. But he seems to have been slightly acquainted with that of the modern languages, and with most branches of science. He is more specific, more chronological, more methodical in his distribution than Andrès: his reach of knowledge, on the other hand, is less comprehensive; and though I could praise neither highly for eloquence, for taste, or for philosophy, I should incline to give the preference in all these to the Spanish Jesuit. But the qualities above mentioned render Eichhorn, on the whole, more satisfactory to the student.
These are the only works, as far as I know, which deserve the name of general histories of literature, embracing all subjects, all ages, and all nations. If there are others, they must, I conceive, be too superficial to demand attention. But in one country of Europe, and only in one, we find a national history so comprehensive as to leave uncommemorated no part of its literary labour. This was first executed by Tiraboschi, a Jesuit born at Bergamo, and, in his later years, librarian of the Duke of Modena, in twelve volumes quarto: I have used the edition published at Rome in 1785. It descends to the close of the seventeenth century. In full and clear exposition, in minute and exact investigation of facts, Tiraboschi has few superiors; and such is his good sense in criticism, that we must regret the sparing use he has made of it. But the principal object of Tiraboschi was biography. A writer of inferior reputation, Corniani, in his Secoli della litteratura Italiana dopo il suo risorgimento (Brescia, 9 vols., 1804-1813), has gone more closely to an appreciation of the numerous writers whom he passes in review before our eyes. Though his method is biographical, he pursues sufficiently the order of chronology to come into the class of literary historians. Corniani is not much esteemed by some of his countrymen, and does not rise to a very elevated point of philosophy; but his erudition appears to me considerable, his judgments generally reasonable; and his frequent analyses of books gives him one superiority over Tiraboschi.
The Histoire Littéraire de l’Italie, by Ginguéné, is well known: he had the advantage of following Tiraboschi; and could not so well, without his aid, have gone over a portion of the ground, including in his scheme, as he did, the Latin learning of Italy; but he was very conversant with the native literature of the language, and has, not a little prolixly, doubtless, but very usefully, rendered much of easy access to Europe, which must have been sought in scarce volumes, and was, in fact, known by name to a small part of the world. The Italians are ungrateful if they deny their obligations to Ginguéné.
France has, I believe, no work of any sort, even an indifferent one, on the universal history of her own literature; nor can we claim for ourselves a single attempt of the most superficial kind. Warton’s History of Poetry contains much that bears on our general learning; but it leaves us about the accession of Elizabeth.
Far more has been accomplished in the history of particular departments of literature. In the general history of philosophy, omitting a few older writers, Brucker deserves to lead the way. There has been, of late years, some disposition to depreciate his laborious performance, as not sufficiently imbued with a metaphysical spirit, and as not rendering, with clearness and truth, the tenets of the philosophers whom he exhibits. But the Germany of 1744 was not the Germany of Kant and Fichte; and possibly Brucker may not have proved the worse historian for having known little of recent theories. The latter objection is more material; in some instances he seems to me not quite equal to his subject. But, upon the whole, he is of eminent usefulness; copious in his extracts, impartial and candid in his judgments.
In the next age after Brucker, the great fondness of the German learned both for historical and philosophical investigation produced more works of this class than I know by name, and many more than I have read. The most celebrated, perhaps, is that of Tennemann; but of which I only know the abridgment, translated into French by M. Victor Cousin, with the title Manuel de l’Histoire de Philosophie. Buhle, one of the society above mentioned, whose focus was at Göttingen, contributed his share to their scheme in a History of Philosophy from the revival of letters. This I have employed through the French translation in six volumes. Buhle, like Tennemann, has very evident obligations to Brucker; but his own erudition was extensive, and his philosophical acuteness not inconsiderable.
The history of poetry and eloquence, or fine writing, was published by Bouterwek, in twelve volumes octavo. Those parts which relate to his own country, and to Spain and Portugal, have been of more use to me than the rest. Many of my readers must be acquainted with the Littérature du Midi, by M. Sismondi; a work written in that flowing and graceful style which distinguishes the author, and succeeding in all that it seeks to give--a pleasing and popular, yet not superficial or unsatisfactory, account of the best authors in the southern languages. We have nothing historical as to our own poetry but the prolix volumes of Warton. They have obtained, in my opinion, full as much credit as they deserve. Without depreciating a book in which so much may be found and which has been so great a favourite with the literary part of the public, it may be observed that its errors as to fact, especially in names and dates, are extraordinarily frequent, and that the criticism, in points of taste, is not of a very superior kind.
Heeren undertook the history of classical literature--a great desideratum, which no one had attempted to supply. But, unfortunately, he has only given an introduction, carrying us down to the close of the fourteenth century, and a history of the fifteenth. These are so good, that we must much lament the want of the rest; especially as I am aware of nothing to fill up the vacuity. Eichhorn, however, is here of considerable use.
In the history of mathematical science, I have had recourse chiefly to Montucla and, as far as he conducts us, to Kästner, whose catalogue and analysis of mathematical works is far more complete, but his own observations less perspicuous and philosophical. Portal’s History of Anatomy, and some other books, to which I have always referred, and which it might be tedious to enumerate, have enabled me to fill a few pages with what I could not be expected to give from any original research. But several branches of literature, using the word, as I generally do, in the most general sense for the knowledge imparted through books, are as yet deficient in anything that approaches to a real history of their progress.
The materials of literary history must always be derived in great measure from biographical collections, those especially which intermix a certain portion of criticism with mere facts. There are some, indeed, which are almost entirely of this description. Adrian Baillet, in his Jugemens des Sçavans, published in 1685, endeavoured to collect the suffrages of former critics on the merits of all past authors. His design was only executed in a small part, and hardly extends beyond grammarians, translators, and poets; the latter but imperfectly. Baillet gives his quotations in French, and sometimes mingles enough of his own to raise him above a mere compiler, and to have drawn down the animosity of some contemporaries. Sir Thomas Pope Blount is a perfectly unambitious writer of the same class. His Censura Celebriorum Autorum, published in 1690, contains nothing of his own, except a few short dates of each author’s life, but diligently brings together the testimonies of preceding critics. Blount omits no class, nor any age; his arrangement is nearly chronological, and leads the reader from the earliest records of literature to his own time. The polite writers of modern Europe, and the men of science, do not receive their full share of attention; but this volume, though not, I think, much in request at present, is a very convenient accession to any scholar’s library.
Bayle’s Dictionary, published in 1697, seems at first sight an inexhaustible magazine of literary history. Those who are conversant with it know that it frequently disappoints their curiosity; names of great eminence are sought in vain, or are very slightly treated; the reader is lost in episodical notes, perpetually frivolous, and disgusted with an author who turns away at every moment from what is truly interesting to some idle dispute of his own time, or some contemptible indecency. Yet the numerous quotations contained in Bayle, the miscellaneous copiousness of his erudition, as well as the good sense and acuteness he can always display when it is his inclination to do so, render his Dictionary of great value, though, I think, chiefly to those who have made a tolerable progress in general literature.
The title of a later work by Père Niceron, Mémoires Pour Servir à l’Histoire des Hommes Illustres de la République des Lettres, avec un Catalogue Raisonné de leurs Ouvrages, in forty-three volumes 12mo, published at Paris from 1727 to 1745, announces something rather different from what it contains. The number of “illustrious men” recorded by Niceron is about 1600, chiefly of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. The names, as may be anticipated, are frequently very insignificant; and, in return, not a few of real eminence, especially when Protestant, and, above all, English, are overlooked, or erroneously mentioned. No kind of arrangement is observed; it is utterly impossible to conjecture in what volume of Niceron any article will be discovered. A succinct biography, though fuller than the mere dates of Blount, is followed by short judgments on the author’s works, and by a catalogue of them far more copious, at least, than had been given by any preceding bibliographer. It is a work of much utility; but the more valuable parts have been transfused into later publications.
The English Biographical Dictionary was first published in 1761. I speak of this edition with some regard from its having been the companion of many youthful hours; but it is rather careless in its general execution. It is sometimes ascribed to Birch; but I suspect that Heathcote had more to do with it. After several successive enlargements, an edition of this Dictionary was published in thirty-two volumes from 1812 to 1817, by Alexander Chalmers, whose name it now commonly bears. Chalmers was a man of very slender powers, relatively to the magnitude of such a work; but his life had been passed in collecting small matters of fact, and he has added much of this kind to British biography. He inserts, beyond any one else, the most insignificant names, and quotes the most wretched authorities. But as the faults of excess, in such collections, are more pardonable than those of omission, we cannot deny the value of his Biographical Dictionary, especially as to our own country, which has not fared well at the hands of foreigners.
Coincident nearly in order of time with Chalmers, but more distinguished in merit, is the Biographie Universelle. The eminent names appended to a large proportion of the articles contained in its fifty-two volumes, are vouchers for the ability and erudition it displays. There is, doubtless, much inequality in the performance; and we are sometimes disappointed by a superficial notice where we had a right to expect most. English literature, though more amply treated than had been usual on the Continent, and with the benefit of Chalmer’s contemporaneous volumes, is still not fully appreciated: our chief theological writers, especially, are passed over almost in silence. There seems, on the other hand, a redundancy of modern French names; those, above all, who have, even obscurely and insignificantly been connected with the history of the Revolution: a fault, if it be one, which is evidently gaining ground in the supplementary volumes. But I must speak respectfully of a work to which I owe so much, and without which, probably, I should never have undertaken the present.
I will not here characterise several works of more limited biography; among which are the Bibliotheca Hispana Nova of Antonio, the Biographia Britannica, the Bibliothèque Française of Goujet; still less is there time to enumerate particular lives, or those histories which relate to short periods, among the sources of literary knowledge. It will be presumed, and will appear by my references, that I have employed such of them as came within my reach. But I am sensible that, in the great multiplicity of books of this kind, and especially in their prodigious increase on the Continent of late years, many have been overlooked from which I might have improved these volumes. The press is indeed so active, that no year passes without accessions to our knowledge, even historically considered upon some of the multifarious subjects which the present volumes embrace. An author who waits till all requisite materials are accumulated to his hands, is but watching the stream that will run on for ever; and though I am fully sensible that I could have much improved what is now offered to the public by keeping it back for a longer time, I should but then have had to lament the impossibility of exhausting my subject. Epoiei, the modest phrase of the Grecian sculptors, but expresses the imperfection that attaches to every work of literary industry or of philosophical investigation. But I have other warnings to bind up my sheaves while I may--my own advancing years, and the gathering in the heavens.
I have quoted, to my recollection, no passage which I have not seen in its own place; though I may possibly have transcribed in some instances, for the sake of convenience, from a secondary authority. Without censuring those who suppress the immediate source of their quotations, I may justly say that in nothing I have given to the public has it been practised by myself. But I have now and then inserted in the text characters of books that I have not read, on the faith of my guides; and it may be the case that intimation of this has not been always given to the reader.
It is very likely that omissions, not, I trust, of great consequence, will be detected; I might in fact say that I am already aware of them; but perhaps these will be candidly ascribed to the numerous ramifications of the subject, and the necessity of writing in a different order from that in which the pages are printed. And I must add that some omissions have been intentional: an accumulation of petty facts, and especially of names to which little is attached, fatigues unprofitably the attention; and as this is very frequent in works that necessarily demand condensation, and cannot altogether be avoided, it was desirable to make some sacrifice in order to palliate the inconvenience. This will be found, among many other instances, in the account of the Italian learned of the fifteenth century where I might easily have doubled the enumeration, but with little satisfaction to the reader.
But, independently of such slight omissions, it will appear that a good deal is wanting in these volumes which some might expect in a history of literature. Such a history has often contained so large a proportion of biography, that a work in which it appears very scantily, or hardly at all, may seem deficient in necessary information. It might be replied, that the limits to which I have confined myself, and beyond which it is not easy perhaps in the present age to obtain readers, would not admit to this extension; but I may add, that any biography of the authors of these centuries, which is not servilely compiled from a few known books of that class, must be far too immense an undertaking for one man, and besides its extent and difficulty, would have been particularly irksome to myself, from the waste of time, as I deem it, which an inquiry into trifling facts entails. I have more scruple about the omission of extracts from some of the poets and best writers in prose, without which they can be judged very unsatisfactorily: but in this also I have been influenced by an unwillingness to multiply my pages beyond a reasonable limit. But I have, in some instances, at least in the later periods, gone more largely into analysis of considerable works than has hitherto been usual. These are not designed to serve as complete abstracts, or to supersede, instead of exciting, the reader’s industry; but I have felt that some books of traditional reputation are less fully known than they deserve.
Some departments of literature are passed over, or partially touched. Among the former are books relating to particular arts, as agriculture or painting, or to subjects of merely local interest, as those of English law. Among the latter is the great and extensive portion of every library, the historical. Unless where history has been written with peculiar beauty of language, or philosophical spirit, I have generally omitted all mention of it: in our researches after truth of fact, the number of books that possess some value is exceedingly great, and would occupy a disproportionate space in such a general view of literature as the present. For a similar reason, I have not given its numerical share to theology.
It were an impertinence to anticipate, for the sake of obviating, the possible criticism of the public which has a right to judge, and for those judgments I have had so much cause to be grateful, nor less so to dictate how it should read what it is not bound to read at all; but perhaps I may be allowed to say, that I do not wish this to be considered as a book of reference on particular topics, in which point of view it must often appear to disadvantage; and that, if it proves of any value, it will be as an entire and synoptical work.
INTRODUCTION TO THE
LITERATURE OF EUROPE
IN THE FIFTEENTH, SIXTEENTH, AND SEVENTEENTH CENTURIES.