A manual of English literature, historical and critical : with an appendix on English metres

Preface

The substance of the following work was delivered in the form of lectures to students, and it is for the use of students that it is principally intended. At the same time I trust that it may prove not uninteresting to the general reader. While conceding the praise which is justly their due to existing compilations — to the works of Craik and Spalding, and the epitome published by Chambers, — one may say without offence that the point of view taken in them lies too far north, and that Scottish authors receive a little more than relative justice from these Scottish critics. To profound research the present work makes no pretension : in this respect I cheerfully acknowledge the immeasurable superiority of the really learned work of Professor Craik; but if I have succeeded in presenting an intelligible and connected view of at least the more popular portion of our literature, as it appears to an ordinary Englishman who has paid attention to the subject, my book will, I think, fill a vacant niche, and my endeavours will not be without a certain value, whether at home or in foreign countries.

Desiring, if possible, that the work should be widely useful as an educational manual, I have thought it a duty to adapt it for general circulation, by avoiding, as far as

VI PEEFACE.

was practicable, debatable topics, and carefully respecting religious susceptibilities.

The arrangement of the subject-matter according to two distinct principles — that of the order of time and that of the order of thought — is a novel one : whether it be also sound, let the critics decide. I will only say that in my lectures I have followed this plan, and that it has appeared to be successful,, and to engage the attention of the hearers better than an unbroken adherence either to the historical or the critical mode of treatment.

Contents

HISTOEICAL SECTION.

PEELEVLTNAKY CHAPTEE,

Section I. Anglo-saxon Period : A.d. 449 1066

Character of Anglo-Saxon Literature. — "Works in Latin : Bede, Aleuin. — Poetry: Beowulf, Caedmon. — Prose: Alfred, Saxon Chronicle. Pages 1 — 7

Section II. Norman Period : 1066 1350

Decline of the Saxon tongue. — Later portion of the Saxon Chronicle. — Impulse given to Learning by the Moors. — Scholastic Philosophy : St. Anselm; Abelard; St. Bernard; Peter Lombard; Alexander Hales; Duns Scotus ; "William of Occam. — Historians and Cheoniciebs : "William of Malmesbury ; Geoffrey of Monmouth ; Matthew Paris. — Law and Medicine : Grlanvile ; Salerno. — Science : Eoger Bacon. — Means of Education : Universities ; Monasteries ; invention of Paper. — Poetry : Leonine Verses ; Troubadours ; Trouveres ; Eomances ; Fabliaux ; Satires ; Historical Poems ; English Poets ; Ehyming Chroniclers, Layamon ; Eobert of Gloucester ; Eobert Mannyng ; Eeligious Poems ; Occasional Poems 8 — 44

CHAPTEE I.

Latin and French Compositions ; growth of the English Language and Literature ; Chaucer, Sketch of his Life ; Chronology of his "Writings.— Grower, Langlande, Occleve, Lydgate, Minot. — Scottish Poets : Barbour, James I.— Prose Writhes : Mandevile, Chaucer, "Wycliffe . 45—61

a

Vlll CONTENTS.

CHAPTEE II.

Decline of Literature; invention of Printing; foundation of Schools and Universities. — Poetry: Hawes, Skelton, Surrey, "Wyat; first Poet Laureate. — Scottish Poets : Henryson, Dunbar, Gawain Douglas, Lyndsay. — Learning : Grocyn ; Colet ; the Humanities ; state of the Universities. — Prose Writers : — Fortescue, Caxton, Leland, More ; Chroniclers (Fabyam Hall, Grafton) ; Bale ; Theological Writers : Eoger Ascham, Pages 62 — 82

CHAPTEE III.

Brilliant Period of our Literature ; connected with the social Prosperity of the Country. — Poets and Dramatists : Spenser, Daniel, &c. ; origin of the English Drama ; Dramatic Unities : Marlowe ; Shakspeare, Sketch of his Life ; his Plays; BenJonson ; Beaumont and Fletcher. — Prose Writers: Novels ; Essays ; Pamphlets ; Criticism. Sidney, Bacon, Spenser, Gascoyne. — Historians : Holinshed, Bacon, Ealeigh, Knolles.'— Theologians : Puritan Writers : Hooker, Donne, Allen, Parsons. — Philosophy : Lord Bacon 83—108

CHAPTEE IV.

Historical Sketch of the leading political Events. — Poetry : the Fantastic School ; Donne, Cowley, Cleveland, &c. ; Crashaw; Song-writers. Milton; Sketch of his literary Life ; Wither ; Marvell. Dryden ; Sketch of his literary Life ; Eoscommon ; Butler. Heroic Plays ; Comedy of Manners : Jeremy Collier. — Learning: Usher, Selden, Gale, &c. — Prose Fiction: Bunyan. — History and Biography : Milton, Ludlow, Clarendon, &c. ; Wood's Athenee, Pepys, Evelyn, &c. — Theology : Hall, Jeremy Taylor, Gother, Baxter, &c. — Philosophy : Hobbes, Locke. — Essay Writers : HaE, Felltham, Browne.— Science : Newton . . . 109—152

CHAPTEE V.

Historical Sketch, general characteristics.— Poetry from 1700 to 1745 Pope: Sketch of his literary Life; Addison; Parnell; Swift; Thomson Prior; Garth; &c— The Drama : Addison, Eowe, &c; Prose Comedy

CONTENTS. IX

Farquhar, Vanbrugh, Gay. — Learning, 1700 — 1745 : Bentley, Lardner. — Prose Fiction: Swift, Defoe. Pamphleteers : Swift; Arbuthnot. Periodical Miscellany : Tatler, Spectator, Guardian, &c. Satirical Works ; Swift. History, 1700—1745: Burnet, Rapin — Poetey, 1745—1800: Johnson, Gray, Cowper, Burns, &c. The Deama ; Home, Johnson, Goldsmith, Sheridan.— Peose Fiction, 1745—1800 : Eichardson, Fielding, Smollett, Sterne, Goldsmith, Miss Burney. — Oeatoet : Chatham, Burke, &c. Pamphleteers; Junius, Burke, Johnson.— Histoey, 1745—1800: Hume, Kobertson, Gibbon. Biographers : Boswell, &c— Theology : the English Deists ; Bentley, Berkeley ; Warburton ; Methodism ; Middleton.— Philosophy : Berkeley, Hume, Eeid, Butler, Paley. — Political Science : Hume, Burke, Godwin. — Political Economy : Adam Smith. — Criticism : Burke, Keynolds, &c Pages 153—210

CHAPTER VI.

Reaction against the Ideas of the Eighteenth Century ; Theory of the Spontaneous in Poetry. — Poetey : Sir Walter Scott ; Sketch of his literary Life ; Keats, Shelley, Byron, Crabbe, Coleridge, Southey, Campbell, Wordsworth, Moore.— Peose Weitees: summary account of . . . 211 — 236.

CRITICAL SECTION.

Chapter I

Definition of Literature: Poetry and Prose-writings : Classification of Poetical Compositions ; — Epic Poetey : the Paradise Lost ; — Deamatic Poetey : its kinds ; Shakspeare, Addison, Ben Jonson, Milton. — Heeoic Poetey : The Bruce, the Mirrour for Magistrates ; the Campaign. — Narrative Poetry ; 1. Romances, Sir Isumbras ; 2. Tales, Chaucer and the Canterbury Tales, Falconer, Prior, Crabbe, Parnell; 3. Allegories; Vision of Piers Plowman, Flower and the Leaf, Spenser's Faery Queen, Castle of Indolence ; Fables : Gay, Mrs. Thrale, Merrick ; 4. Romantic Poems : Scott's Lay and others ; Byron's Oriental Tales ; Lalla Rookh ; 5. Historical Poems ; Rhyming Chroniclers, Dryden's Annus Mirabilis. — Didactic Poetry: The Hind and Panther; Essay on Man; Essay on Criticism ; Vanity of Human Wishes. — Satirical Poetry : of three kinds, moral, personal, political; Satires of Donne, Hall, and Swift; Pope's Satires ; Moral Essays, the Dunciad ; Dryden's M'Flecknoe, English Bards andScotch Reviewers, Hudibras, Absalom and Ahitophel, Moore's Satires ; the Vicar of Bray. — Pastoral Poetry: Spenser, Pope, Shenstone.—

CONTENTS.

Descriptive Poetry : Poly-olbion, Cooper's Hill, the Seasons. — Lyrical Poetry : its kinds ; devotional, loyal, patriotic, amatory, bacchanalian, martial; specimens of each kind. — Elegiac Poetry; Fidele, the Castaway, Lycidas, Adonais. — Miscellaneous Poetry; 1. Poems founded on the Passions and Affections ; 2. Poems of Sentiment and Beflection ; Childe Harold, "Wordsworth's ' Ode ; ' 3, Poems of Imagination and Fancy ; 4. Philosophical Poetry ; the Excursion .... Pages 239 — 339

CHAPTEE II.

Prose "Writings: 1. Prose Fiction ; Classification of Works of Fiction; Historical Novels : Scott ; Novels of high Life : Bichardson ; Novels of middle Life : Fielding, Miss Austen ; Novels of low Life : Dickens, Smollett. — 2. Works of Satire, Wit, and Humour : Tale of a Tub ; Battle of the Books; the Anti- Jacobin ; Sterne; Sydney Smith. — 3. Oratory: it^ kinds ; Jeremy Taylor ; Burke ; Journalism ; Pamphleteering, — illustrated from Milton, Swift, and Byron. — 4. History: contemporary and retrospective ; Clarendon, Ealeigh, G-ibbon, Lord Bacon. — Biography : its Divisions ; Diaries ; Letters. — 5. Theology : its Branches ; leading Works in each. — 6. Philosophy: Logic : Bacon, Whately, Mill, Hamilton. — Psychology : 1. Moral Philosophy, Butler, &c. ; 2. Intellectual Philosophy, Locke, Eeid, Hamilton. — Metaphysics : Cudworth, More, Berkeley, Hume, Coleridge. — Political Science: Filmer, Hobbes, Milton, Burke. — Essays: Bacon, Felltham, Foster, &c. — Criticism: 1. Philosophical: Bacon's Advancement of Learning ; 2. Literary : Sidney, Dryden, &c ; 3. Artistic ; Buskin, Sir Joshua Eeynolds . . - . . . . 340 — 399

Appendix

On English Metres 403—415

INDEX 417

LJ

OF

ENGLISH LITERATURE.

PKELIMINAKY CHAPTEK.

SECTION I.

ANGLO-SAXON PERIOD.

Anglo-Saxon Litekatuee forms of itself a special department of study. It is one of those stop-gap products of the human mind, working with scanty materials, imperfect tools, and under adverse circumstances, which, like stars scattered over a dark portion of the sky, stud the dreary period that intervenes between the break-up of the ancient civilisation and literature, and the rise of those of modern times. It is a thing apart, like the Irish or the Icelandic literature, and requires to be studied in connection with the fossil remains of other extinct cognate languages, such as the Old Saxon, the Mcesogothic, and the Frisian. It is a chapter in Palaeontology. Yet, since the present English tongue is in its essential elements derived from the Anglo-Saxon, and since the existence of an Anglo-Saxon literature probably stimulated our earliest English writers to persist in the use of the vernacular, when interest, fashion, and the torrent of literary example would have led them to adopt the Norman French,

B it seems desirable to commence with a brief sketch of that literature.

We know of no Anglo-Saxon composition, produced in England, that can be traced back with certainty to the times of Paganism. We must not look to the dwellers on the muddy Elbe, or the inhabitants of the grassy plains of Holstein, for the teeming imagination which characterised the Northmen of Iceland and Scandinavia, and which, ages before the stirring stimulus of Christianity was applied to them, produced the wonderful mythology of the Edda. In 596, St. Augustine, sent by Gregory the Great, brought the faith to the Anglo-Saxon tribes; and the moral ferment which the introduction of this new spiritual element occasioned, acting upon a towardly and capable race, full of dormant power and energy of every kind, induced also such intellectual exertion as the times permitted, and as the partial communication by the missionaries of the literature of the ancient world tended to enkindle and to sustain. From this period until the Norman Conquest, (and in one memorable instance beyond it), the Anglo- Saxon mind was ever labouring, so far as intestine war and Danish inroad would allow, and executed a very creditable amount of work. Its chief successes, it is true, were obtained through the medium of the Latin, then and long after the common language of Europe, and which a generous and expansive mind, sick of irrational local usages, and material isolation, would rejoice to employ.

The Venerable Bede (673-735), in whom the Saxon intellect culminated, wrote all his extant works in Latin. Alcuin, Eddi Stephanus, and Ethelwerd, did the same. But the rough vernacular was employed in popular poetry, and in all such prose writings, as had a didactic purpose which included the laity within its scope. Such writings were naturally for the most part translations, since it was evidently safer and wiser to gain an insight into, and acquaintance with, the wisdom of antiquity, before essay-

ANGLO-SAXON PERIOD. 3

ing, under less favourable conditions, to make conquests in the realm of original thought.

I. Poetry. By far the longest, and in some respects the most interesting, relic of Anglo-Saxon poetry, is the epic poem of Beowulf, in forty-three Cantos, first published at Copenhagen, in 1815, by Thorkelin, the keeper of the royal archives, and reproduced in this country in 1833, an English translation being added in 1837, by the eminent Saxon scholar, John Mitchell Kemble. The poem was probably composed in Anglen, a district of Sleswick, before the great Angle migration to Britain in the middle of the fifth century (since it nowhere contains the slightest allusion to Britain), and was brought over, according to a conjecture of Mr. Kemble's, about the year 495, by those who accompanied Cerdic and Cynewine. The poem is Angle, and the chief heroes mentioned in it are Angles; and yet the word "Angle" does not occur through the whole poem. The race to which that local designation was finally fixed are described in Beowulf as " Greatas," a name probably derived from that of some god or demi-god ; just as the general name of " Hellenes " is nowhere met with in Homer, and as the Komans in early times called themselves Quirites.

Two other pieces of what Mr. Kemble calls the " Angle Cyclus," are, the Traveller's Song, and the Battle of Finnes-burh. Both these, like Beoividf, refer to the times of heathenism and to continental transactions. It is not known by whom they were written. The first known Anglo-Saxon poet is Caedmon, the Northumbrian, who flourished about the year 680, when Christianity was already the faith of all the seven kingdoms. He was at first a lay-brother, afterwards a monk, of St. Hilda's monastery at Whitby. " He sang," says Bede, " the creation of the world, the origin of man, and all the history of Genesis ; and made many verses on the departure of Israel out of Egypt, and their entering into the land of promise, with many other histories from holywrit ; the incarnation, passion, resurrection, of Our Lord, and His ascension into Heaven ; the coming of the Holy Ghost, and the preaching of the Apostles ; also the terror of future judgment, the horror of the pains of hell, and the delights of heaven ; besides many more about the divine benefits and judgments, by which he endeavoured to turn away all men from the love of vice, and excite in them the love of, and application to, good actions ; for he was a very religious man."

II. The extant prose writings, though numerous, are, with one exception, valuable, not so much for any literary merits as for the light which they throw on the labours of the historian and the antiquary. There exists in the public Record offices an immense body of documents — charters, conveyances, declarations, laws, edicts, &c. — many of which have been arranged and translated by the labours ol Thorpe and Kemble, and have greatly contributed to deepen our knowledge of the way of life of our forefathers. But such documents are of course not literature, and therefore need not be here considered. Another large portion of the extant works consists of translations, many of which proceed from the pen of Alfred himself, who has explained his own motives for undertaking the work. The views of an " Educational Reformer " in the ninth century are worthy of our careful attention. His object is, he says, " the translation of useful books into the language which we all understand ; so that all the youth of England, but more especially those who are of gentle kind and at ease in their circumstances, may be grounded in letters, — for they cannot profit in any pursuit until they are well able to read English." With these views Alfred translated the work of Pope Gregory, Be Cura Pastorcdi, the epitome of universal history by Orosius, the work of Boethius De Consolatione Philosophic, and the Ecclesiastical History of Bede.

ANGLO-SAXON PERIOD. 5

But by far the most important prose work that has come down to us is the Saxon Chronicle, which gives a connected history of Britain in the form of annals, from the Christian era to the year 1154. The oldest MS. in existence dates from about the year 891, and is thought, with much probability, to have been partly composed, partly transcribed from earlier annals, by or under the direction of Archbishop Plegmund. From this time the Chronicle seems to have been continued under succeeding Archbishops of Canterbury to the time of the Conquest, when the task was transferred, under what circumstances we do not know, to the monks of Peterborough.

Considered as a whole, the literature of the Anglo- Saxons conveys the impression that they were a prosaic and practical race, solid but slow thinkers, without much imagination or mental fire. What they might have made of it, had they been allowed to develop their literature uninterruptedly, it is, of course, impossible to say. But it seems reasonable to suppose that, for ulterior ends of higher good, it was ordered that the Saxon commonwealth should not repose in unmolested prosperity. A vein of sluggishness, of Boeotian enjoyment, of coarse indulgence, with forgetfulness of the higher aims of life, ran through the Saxon character. Their transference from the sandy barrens and marshes of Holstein, from the peaty plains and stunted forests of Hanover, to the rich soil and milder climate of England, tended to develop this weak side — this proneness to ease. In their old dwelling-place they were at least stimulated by the necessity of contending with the unfruitfulness of nature and the encroachments of the sea; in comparison with it, England must have been a terrestrial paradise — a very land of Cockaigne. This tendency to relapse into habits of indolent ease, which Sir Walter Scott has pourtrayed in the character of Athelstan in Ivanhoe, extended to the learned class, and to the churchmen no less than the

B 3 laity. The influence of such a man as Bede should have been enough to inaugurate a long era of literary energy ; yet William of Malmesbury assures us that, with the exceptiou of the brief Saxon annals and the barbarous epitome of Ethelwerd, he had not been able to discover any historical work composed by an Anglo-Saxon upon the affairs of Britain, from the death of Bede to his own time. To form the future English character, it was necessary that the harder and sterner elements which belonged to the Scandinavian races, should be mingled and gradually fused with the softer Teutonic, type. The Danish invasions and immigrations, which commenced in 832, and terminated with the establishment of the Danish dynasty in 1017, effected this. But in the process, the existing literary culture, and nearly all the establishments which had been founded to promote it, were swept away. In .a country reduced to the dismal condition described by Bishop Lupus in a sermon preached to his flock * about the year 1012, it was impossible that men's thoughts should be efficaciously turned to any subjects save such as bore upon their personal security. Canute, indeed, after he had restored internal peace and order, showed a desire to patronise literary men, and, by rebuilding the monasteries, to open asylums for learning. But the glory and greatness of his reign gave an impulse rather to the Scandinavian than to the Saxon genius. No English poet sang of his victories ; that task was left to the scalds, whom he brought with him from Denmark. By this time large advances had been made towards the amalgamation of the races. Writing of the year 1036, Malmesbury f says that the citizens of London, "from long intercourse with these barbarians " (the Danes), " had almost entirely adopted their customs." The Danes adopted with facility

* Turner, Ang.-Sax. Book vi. ch. xiv. f Malmesbury, p. 205 (Bonn's series).

A1S T GL0-SAX0N PEKIOD. 7

the Anglo-Saxon tongue, though importing into it many Danish words, and probably breaking down to a great degree its grammatical structure. The secular laws of Canute, addressed to both races equally, are written in Anglo-Saxon. All that the cold North could supply, the English nationality had now received. The stubborn hardihood and perseverance which were illustrated in the Drakes, the Cooks, the Stephensons, of later days, were, by this large infusion of Danish blood, rooted in the English nature. The intellectual activity and literary culture of the South, together with the great Eoman tradition of political order and vigorous administration, were still wanting ; and these were supplied by means of the Norman Conquest,

N^

HISTOEY OF ENGLISH LITERATURE.

PEELIMINAEY CHAPTER.

SECTION II.

THE NORMAN PERIOD. 1066 — 1350.

In the age at which we are arrived, two classes of men only cultivated literature, the clergy and the minstrels. The local centres at which learning was to be obtained were of two kinds, the universities and the monasteries. Poetry and light literature were comparatively independent of such aids; yet the form and development even of these could not but be largely dependent on the social and moral condition of the classes among whom they were circulated. The intellectual achievements, therefore, of the clergy, — both Saxon and Norman — the means of selfculture which they had at their disposal, and the degree of success with which they availed themselves of those means, — the different classes of poets, their nationality, the traditional or other materials upon which they worked, and the furtherance or obstruction which they met with in the temper and habits of the time, — all these matters must now be successively touched upon. What we have named the Norman period embraces more than two centuries and a half, and includes the long conflict between two opposing elements, which terminated, on the whole, in favour of what was English, yet so that the national language, literature, and prevailing opinions, were all deeply coloured by French words and French thoughts. For many years after the Conquest the Saxon clergy

THE NOKMAN PERIOD. 9

were in no mood or condition to betake themselves to the tranquil pursuits of learning. Before that catastrophe, religious fervour and rigour of discipline had long been on the wane amongst them. We read of much laxity of manners, of bishops holding two or more sees at once, of priests so ignorant of Latin as to be unable to say mass without innumerable blunders. The Conqueror, who, with all his cruelty and pride, hated hypocrisy and empty profession with all his heart, would not tolerate these relaxed ecclesiastics, and by the nomination of Lanfranc (a native of Italy, but for many years prior of Bee, in Normandy) to the see of Canterbury, inaugurated a great reformation in Church matters. Some few of the Saxon bishops, as the noble St. Wulstan of Worcester, Agelric of Chichester, and one or two others, were left in possession of their sees ; the rest had to make way for Normans. Nor was this all. Had the unworthy only bee^> deposed, and the worthy still allowed to look forward to advancement to be obtained through desert, the Saxon clergy might still have held together, and with renewed strictness of life a revival of learning might have taken place among them. But the repeated insurrections of the English exasperated the fiery temper of the Conqueror ; and after having quelled them, and thus " overturned the power of the laity, he made an ordinance that no monk or clergyman of that nation should be suffered to aspire to any dignity whatever." * Thus cut off from the hope of due recognition for merit the Saxon clergy were deprived of one of the chief incentives to study. One may be sure that from that time the more ambitious among them would make haste to learn French, and would rather disguise their nationality than avow it. Yet there was at least one monastery, in which a literary work, begun in happier times two centuries before, was carried on by Saxon

* Malmesbury, p. 287.

10 HISTOEY OF ENGLISH LITERATURE.

monks and in the Saxon tongue. This is the Saxon Chronicle, the later portion of which was composed in the monastery of Peterborough. It ends abruptly in the first year of the reign of Henry II. (1154), the writer or writers being by that time probably unable to resist any longer the universal fashion of employing Latin for any serious prose work. William of Malmesbury, Henry of Huntingdon, Greoffrey of Monmouth, Caradoc, all these, and many others, were writing history at this very time, and all, as a matter of course, wrote in Latin. The Anglo- Saxon, too, being no longer taught in schools, nor spoken in the higher circles of society, had lost very much of its original harmony and precision of structure; and when the annalist found himself using one inflexion for another, or dropping inflexions altogether, he may well have thought it high time to exchange a tongue which seemed crumbling and disintegrating under his hands, for one whose forms were fixed and its grammar rational. Little did the down-hearted monk anticipate the future glories, which, after a crisis of transformation and fusion, would surround his rude ancestral tongue.

Yet literature and learning were not negligently or even unsuccessfully prosecuted in England during this which we call the Norman period ; and this is a fact which we must learn to see in its true light, in order to understand aright the rise of English literature in the fourteenth century. Again, the intellectual awakening which spread to England in the eleventh and twelfth, and produced valuable literary results there in the thirteenth century, cannot be understood except in connection with the general European movement of mind which ensued upon the consolidation of society following the long troubled night of the dark ages. Something must therefore be said about the origin of that movement, about the course it took, and about the great thinkers whose names are for ever associated with it.

Strange as it may seem, the revival of intellectual activity at the end of the eleventh and in the twelfth century is clearly traceable to the labours and the example of Mahometans. Charlemagne, indeed, had made a noble effort in the ninth century to systematize education, and to make literature and science the permanent denizens of his empire, but the wars and confusion of every kind which ensued upon the partition of that empire among his sons extinguished the still feeble light. A happier lot had befallen the powerful and populous kingdoms founded by the successors of Mahomet. Indoctrinated with a knowledge of the wonderful fertility and energy of the Greek mind, as exemplified especially in Aristotle and Plato, by Syrian Nestorians (whose forefathers, fleeing from persecution into Persia after the council of Chalcedon, carried with them Syriac versions of the chief works of the Greek philosophers, and founded a school at Grondisapor), Harounal-Easchid (whose reign was contemporary with that of Charlemagne), and Al Mamoun, his successor, saw and assisted in the commencement of a brilliant period of literary activity in the nations of Arabian race, which lasted from the ninth to the fourteenth century. Among the Arabian kingdoms none entered into this movement with more earnestness and success than the Moorish kingdoms in Spain.* We hear of the Universities of Cordova, Seville, and Granada ; and the immense number of Arabic manuscripts on almost every subject contained at this day in the library of the Escurial at Madrid attests the eagerness with which the Moorish writers sought after knowledge, and the universality of their literary tastes. Of their poetry, and the effect which it had on that of Christian Europe, we shall speak presently. Their proficiency in science is evidenced by the remarkable facts which William of Malmesbury relates of Gerbert, afterwards Pope Sylvester II. After having put on the monastic habit at

* Sismondi's Literature of the South of Europe.

Flory, in France, his thirst for knowledge led him to quit his cloister and betake himself to the Moorish community in Spain, about the year 1000. At Seville, we are told, he " satisfied his desires," becoming an adept, not only in astrology and magic, but also in the " lawful sciences " of music and astronomy, arithmetic and geometry. " These," says Malmesbury, " with great perseverance he revived in Graul, where they had for a long time been wholly obsolete." Allowing for some exaggeration in this statement, since the studies of the Trivium and Quadrivium, among which the said lawful sciences were included, had never been wholly discontinued in the West since the fall of the Eoman empire, we may yet easily conceive that Grerbert was the first who popularized in Graul the use of the Arabic numerals, without which arithmetic could never have made any considerable progress ; and that by importing the astronomical instruments used by the Moors, together with a knowledge of the mechanical principles on which they were constructed, he may have placed the study of astronomy on a new footing. He became a public professor on his return into Gaul, and had many eminent persons among his scholars.

Our next forward step transports us to the monastery of Bee, in Normandy. There the abbots Herluin, Lanfranc, and St. Anselm, formed a line of great teachers, whose lectures were eagerly attended, both by laymen and ecclesiastics. Whether the intellectual life of Bee was directly influenced by the writings of the great Arabian thinkers, it is difficult to ascertain. Avicenna, the physician and philosopher, died in 1037; therefore, in point of time, his comments on the various works of Aristotle might have become known to Lanfranc and Anselm. The Organon, however, which was translated by Boethius and was known to Bede and Alcmn, had never ceased to be used in the schools, and the writings of St. Anselm do not, we believe, contain any proof that he was acquainted with any other of the works of the Stagyrite besides the Aristotelian logic. Stilly it is not only possible but probable, that the reports, brought by Grerbert and others, of the palmy state of literature among the Moors, aud of the zeal both of teachers and students in their universities, may have indirectly had a stimulating effect on the studies of Bee.