are occasionally lacking altogether in other and more important periods, and we can only rest assured that the spirit of poetry was surely, if slowly, rising in the England of these years.'

If we institute a comparison between these poems and those written during the latter decades of Queen Elizabeth's magnificent reign-between, for example, The Paradise of Dainty Devices and England's Helicon, the former is found woefully deficient in the delicacy of fancy, the spontaneity and imaginative fervour which characterise the lyrics and pastorals of the latter collection. In the one culture has bred poetic taste, but in the other taste has developed into the brilliancy of genius; yet the one paved the way for the other, even as the soil has to be prepared ere the delightful flowers bloom amid the joys of summer.

It is interesting to find that every poem in the collection affords evidence of studious alliteration. Indeed, to such an extent is this the case, that Hallam, alluding to Hunnis-a generous contributor, considers that he should be placed as high as Vaux or Edwards; "but too often," he adds, "he falls into trivial morality and a ridiculous excess of alliteration." At all events, if these

be faults, they are shared at least by all the minor poets of the age.

English literature owes a debt of gratitude to the compilers of these Miscellanies, for to them is due the preservation of these poems. As they appear in Tottel's Miscellany and The Paradise of Dainty Devices a great part of them are posthu1 Elizabethan Literature, Saintsbury, p. 26.

mous, many of the writers having been dead for years before the publication of these two collections. Thus in 1557, when the first edition of Tottel's Miscellany was published, Lord Surrey had been dead ten years; Sir Thomas Wyatt, fourteen; Sir Francis Bryan, eight; and Lord Rochford-a probable contributor,-twenty-one years; and it is highly probable that many of them were written as early as 1527. With regard to the writers in The Paradise of Dainty Devices, Lord Vaux had been dead eighteen or nineteen years when the first edition was published in 1576, and Richard Edwards, the compiler himself, had been dead ten years.

These poems, however, notwithstanding their trivial and sometimes commonplace character, are entitled to be regarded as the heralds of the poetical revival which took place later in the century; and since the majority of them were written simply for the amusement of their authors, and without any intention as to their being published, we must esteem them as so many evidences of the poetical taste which the cultured classes of England were gradually introducing from Italy, the light of the old pre-eminent civilisation she had still maintained throughout the Middle Ages. When the civil wars of England were over, and she felt inclined to resume her literary culture, she, like all other European countries, turned to Italy for instruction and enlightenment, and thus Wyatt and Surrey introduced a new era in English poetry, characterised by such a refined and dignified expression of thought-such harmony, directness, and perspicuity as were then unknown; and to them

belongs the credit of leavening Elizabethan poetry with the subtle sweetness of Italian versification.

As

Admitting, therefore, that the poetry of the first half of the sixteenth century was far inferior to that of the latter half, it should at the same time be remembered that the former period was rather an era of education,—a period in which culture was evolved by means of translations and the study of the best models attainable, and that, within this period, the poetic inspiration was generated which in later years filled this England of ours with song. Sir Egerton Brydges has truly said, “the progress of the human mind in the polish of language, as well as in the refinement of opinion, is surely among the most important of philosophical inquiries. What can better exhibit it than a series of those poetical compositions which were most popular in their day? Here are shown all those forms of expression which are most laboured into nicety and elegance. Here are displayed all those feelings which intellectual cultivation had most drawn forth."1

To this I would only add that these Miscellanies mark a period of intellectual quickening and activity in English literary history, and that the poems which they contain were the seed from which upsprung the splendid growths of after years, and from which eventually was evolved the glorious bloom of Elizabethan song.

But the flight of time reluctantly compels me to conclude.

Let us retrace our steps from The Paradise of Dainty Devices!

1 Opus cit., Preface, p. xxiii.

POSITIVISM IN LITERATURE.

BY PERCY W. AMES, F.S.A., F.R.G.S.,

Secretary, R.S.L.

[Read November 28th, 1894.]

WE sometimes hear our clerical friends remark that the duty which they like the least is choosing a text, and the writer of papers experiences a similar difficulty. Usually the subject comes to him, or papers would scarcely be written; but the naming of the production is often a serious matter.

Among the unwritten laws defining the duties of a Secretary is one that imposes upon him the task of supplying a paper on short notice to fill an unexpected vacancy. Finding myself recently in this position, and glancing despondently over a list of subjects I had drawn up with the intention of inducing some one else to write upon them, the historical order of their arrangement suggested some reflections upon the very different degrees of boldness and independence of spirit which characterised the various periods and schools. Between the authors in the Dark Ages, when scarcely a single writer in Europe had the courage or the ability to think for himself, and those of the last two centuries, during which the spirit of inquiry has invaded every subject, and fearlessly doubted and questioned every doctrine handed down by tradition, in Politics, Science, and Religion, the difference

is so extreme that it at once arrests attention and suggests an interesting subject of inquiry.

How is it that the great change has come about? this emancipation from the thraldom of Tradition and Authority, this independence out of the debilitating influence of Patronage? Is it to be ascribed to the growth of the new scepticism, science, and democracy? Eloquent advocates may make out a strong case for all these. In the present paper I venture to point out the part played by Positivism, which includes scientific scepticism and something more than this.

ture.

While

I do not think any apology is necessary for introducing this subject to the Royal Society of LiteraConsidering that Philosophy is one of the subjects on which the duty of writing papers is imposed upon us in the charter, it is remarkable how little attention has been paid to it. papers have been very numerous on Philology, Ancient History, Classical Archæology, and the Arts, those on philosophical subjects do not number half a dozen in the seventy years of the Society's existence. When we reflect on the undeniable influence modern philosophy has exerted upon European thought, in every department of intellectual inquiry, some explanation seems rather to be needed of our previous neglect. If we take the "term Literature in its primary sense of an application of letters to the records of facts or opinions. we may readily allow the fitness of an attempt under the auspices of this Society to embody the results of observations of that influence.

1 Mure's History of the Literature of Greece.