CRITICAL SECTION. CHAPTER I. POETRY. Definition of Literature-Classification of Poetical ENGLISH LITERATURE is now to be considered under that which is its most natural and legitimate arrangement; that arrangement, namely, of which the principle is, not sequence in time, but affinity in subject; and which aims, by comparing together works of the same kind, to arrive with greater ease and certainty than is possible by the chronological method, at a just estimate of their relative merits. To effect this critical aim, it is evident that a classification of the works which compose a literature is an essential prerequisite. This we shall now proceed to do. With the critical process, for which the proposed classification is to serve as the foundation, we shall, in the present work, be able to make but scanty progress. Some portions of it we shall attempt, with the view rather of illustrating the conveniences of the method, than of seriously undertaking to fill in the vast outline which will be furnished by the classification. First of all, what is literature? In the most extended sense of the word, it may be taken for the whole written thought of man; and in the same acceptation a national literature is the whole written thought of a particular nation. But this definition is too wide for our present purpose; it would include such books as Fearne on Contingent Remainders, and such periodicals as the Lancet or the Shipping Gazette. If the student of literature were called upon to examine the stores of thought and knowledge which the different professions have collected and published, each for the use of its own members, his task would be endless. We must abstract, therefore, all works addressed, owing to the speciality of their subject-matter, to particular classes of men; e.g., law books, medical books, works on moral theology, rubrical works, &c.-in short, all strictly professional literature. Again, the above definition would include all scientific works, which would be practically inconvenient, and would tend to obscure the really marked distinction that exists between literature and science. We must further abstract, therefore, all works in which the words are used as ciphers or signs for the purpose of communicating objective truth, not as organs of the writer's personality. All strictly scientific works are thus excluded. In popularised science, exemplified by such books as the Architecture of the Heavens, or the Vestiges of the Natural History of the Creation, the personal element comes into play; such books are, therefore, rightly classed as literature. What remains after these deductions is literature in the strict or narrower sense; that is, the assemblage of those works which are neither addressed to particular classes, nor use words merely as the signs of things, but which, treating of subjects that interest man as man, and using words as the vehicles and exponents of thoughts, appeal to the general human intellect and to the common human heart. Literature, thus defined, may be divided into— 1. Poetry. 2. Prose writings. For the present, we shall confine our attention to Poetry. The subject is so vast as not to be easily manageable, and many of the different kinds slide into each other by such insensible gradations, that any classification must be to a certain extent arbitrary; still the following division may, perhaps, be found useful:-Poetry may be classed under eleven designations-1. Epic, 2. Dramatic, 3. Heroic, 4. Narrative, 5. Didactic, 6. Satirical and Humorous, 7. Descriptive and Pastoral, 8. Lyrical (including ballads and sonnets), 9. Elegiac, 10. Epistles, 11. Miscellaneous Poems; the latter class including all those pieces-very numerous in modern times-which cannot be conveniently referred to any of the former heads, but which we shall endeavour further to subdivide upon some rational principle. Epic Poetry:Paradise Lost;' Minor Epic Poems. The epic poem has ever been regarded as in its nature the most noble of all poetic performances. Its essential properties were laid down by Aristotle in the Poetics more than two thousand years ago, and they have not varied since. For, as Pope says, These rules of old, discovered not devised, The subject of the epic poem must be some one, great, complex action. The principal personages must belong to the high places of society, and must be grand and elevated in their ideas. The measure must be of a sonorous dignity befitting the subject. The action is developed by a mixture of dialogue, soliloquy, and narrative. Briefly to express its main requisites, the epic poem treats of one, great, complex action, in a grand style, and with fulness of detail. English literature possesses one great epic poemMilton's Paradise Lost. Not a few of our poets have wooed the epic muse; and the results are seen in such poems as Cowley's Davideis, Blackmore's Prince Arthur, Glover's Leonidas, and Wilkie's Epigoniad. But these productions do not deserve a serious examination. The Leonidas, which is in blank verse, possesses a certain rhetorical dignity, but has not enough of variety and poetic truth to interest deeply any but juvenile readers. Pope's translation of the Iliad may in a certain sense be called an English epic; for while it would be vain to seek in it for the true Homeric spirit and manner, the translator has, in compensation, adorned it with many excellences of his own. It abounds with passages which notably illustrate Pope's best qualities;-his wonderful intellectual vigour, his terseness, brilliancy and ingenuity. But we shall have other and better opportunities of noticing these characteristics of that great poet. The first regular criticism on the Paradise Lost is found in the Spectator, in a series of articles written by Addison. Addison compares Milton's poem to the Iliad and the Eneid, first with respect to the choice of subject, secondly to the mode of treatment, and in both particulars he gives the palm to Milton. Dr. Johnson, in his Life of Milton, speaks in more discriminating terms: "The defects and faults of Paradise Lost-for faults and defects every work of man must have-it is the business of impartial criticism to discover. As, in displaying the excellence of Milton, I have not made long quotations, because of selecting beauties there had been no end, I shall in the same general manner mention that which seems to deserve censure; for what Englishman can take delight in transcribing passages, which, if they lessen the reputation of Milton, diminish in some degree the honour of our country?' Coleridge, in his Literary Remains, gives a criticism of the Paradise Lost, parts of which are valuable. He |