From his earliest years he was fond of constructing mechanical toys, such as windmills and waterclocks. At Cambridge he made rapid progress; and, in 1669, was appointed Dr. Barrow's successor as Professor of Mathematics. Now it was that he discovered in nature the grand law of gravitation; and with this discovery his name will always be associated. He was elected a Member, and by and bye appointed President, of the Royal Society. In 1688 he became a Member of Parliament; and, in 1705, received the honour of knighthood from Queen Anne. He died in 1727, in the eighty-fifth year of his age. Newton is celebrated chiefly for his scientific works, the principal of which are the Philosophiae Naturalis, Principia Mathematica, and his treatise on Optics.

Other Writers on Philosophy.-Among the authors eminent in this department of learning were the HON. ROBERT BOYLE, who showed the connection between religion and philosophy; and DR. RALPH CUDWORTH, who wrote against many of the teachings of Hobbes.

HISTORIANS.

Edward Hyde

CLARENDON (b. 1608, d. 1674). was a distinguished royalist, who wrote the history of the Civil War. He was the friend and adviser of Prince Charles in his exile, and at the Restoration was rewarded with the title of Earl of Clarendon, and made Lord Chancellor of England. But after a while, Charles preferred his own way of thinking and acting, and thus the advice of his old friend was not only disregarded, but became utterly unbearable. The people, too, had taken a dislike to him. They were displeased to see him acquiring such wealth, and when they found that hethe son of a country gentleman-had presumed to marry his daughter to James, Duke of York, the king's own brother. But they were enraged beyond all measure when they heard that Clarendon had had some share in the selling of Dunkirk to the French King.

F

Charles, who was the principal culprit himself, allowed a charge of high treason to be brought against the Chancellor, who had to flee to France, where he died in 1674. His only great work is his History of the Rebellion, which is very interesting, because it comes from the pen of a man who actually took part in the events he describes. But he was a partial historian-not because he wrote much that was untrue regarding the side opposed to his own, but because he left unwritten that which an impartial historian would certainly have recorded. His History is defective in style; but it is full of well drawn character portraits of the men who were conspicuous at the time of which he writes. Some of them, however, such as those of Charles I. and Cromwell, are drawn with a very partial pen.

CHARACTER OF CHARLES I.

"He was the worthiest gentleman, the best master, the best friend, the best husband, the best father, and the best Christian that the age in which he lived produced. And if he were not the greatest king, if he were without some parts and qualities which have made some kings great and happy, no other prince was ever unhappy who was possessed of half his virtues and endowments, and so much without any kind of vice."

CHARACTER OF CROMWELL.

"He was guilty of many crimes against which damnation is denounced, and for which hell fire is prepared, though he had some good qualities which have caused the memory of some men in all ages to be celebrated; and he will be looked upon by posterity as a brave, wicked man.”—History of the Rebellion.

GILBERT BURNET (b. 1643, d. 1715) was at one time Professor of Divinity in the University of Glasgow, but afterwards went to London, where he became popular as a preacher and as author of a history of the Reformation. Charles II. liked Burnet very well for a while; but when that clergyman took him to task for his vices he turned his back upon him. When James II. became king, Burnet thought it advisable to retire to Holland, and was one of those who were instrumental in bringing William of Orange to England. With this Prince he

JOHN EVELYN AND SAMUEL PEPYS.

83

returned from his exile, and was made Bishop of Salisbury. He died in 1715. Besides his History of the Reformation, he wrote a book called The History of My Own Times, a posthumous work. It is written in a natural and interesting style, and contains an account of the important events with which he himself was so closely connected.

WILLIAM III.

"Thus lived and died William III., King of Great Britain, and Prince of Orange. He had a thin and weak body, was brown-haired, and of clear and delicate constitution. He had a Roman eagle nose, bright and sparkling eyes, a large front, and a countenance composed to gravity and authority. All his senses were critical and exquisite. He was always asthmatical; and the dregs of the small-pox falling on his lungs, he had a constant deep cough. His behaviour was solemn and serious, seldom cheerful, and but with a few. He spoke little and very slowly, and most commonly with a disgusting dryness, which was his character at all times, except in a day of battle; for then he was all fire, though without passion; he was then everywhere, and looked to everything."-History of My Own Times.

Other Historians.-JOHN EVELYN and SAMUEL PEPYS, though they did not write histories properly so-called, contributed a great deal of interesting information of a historical nature in the Diaries which they wrote.

CHAPTER X.

POETS OF THE "AUGUSTAN" AGE.

FROM 1702 TILL 1750.

Characteristics of the Period.

POETS-Pope-Young-Thomson -Collins-Gray-Other Poets. DRAMATISTS-Gay-Other

Dramatists.

THE period embraced by the reigns of Queen Anne, George I., and George II. is known as the "Augustan❞ Age of English Literature, because the number of great authors whose writings were distinguished for refinement and

elegance made the time resemble that of Augustus, the great Roman Emperor. At the beginning of the period, the poets follow the teaching of Dryden, in attending more to the method of expressing their ideas than to the ideas themselves. This is more a matter of art than of poetry, and hence poets often forgot to write naturally in their strong desire to write elegantly. Pope excels all the poets of the artificial school; and, for a while, he was closely imitated. But a time came when people got tired of this style; and hence, towards the close of the period, there was a return to the poetry of nature. This age was remarkable for the publication of the first periodicals, the earliest being the Review, conducted by Defoe; but the most important were those published by Steele, containing the news of the day, as well as short, pleasant essays on the manners and customs of the time. They were of great service to society, improving its morality, and cultivating a literary taste among the people. It was during this period also that the first English novels were written.

ALEXANDER POPE (b. 1688, d. 1744) was the son of a London linen draper. After the poet's birth, his father retired from business, and lived at Binfield, in the neighbourhood of Windsor Forest. Here his deformed little son, Alexander, was reared, and early learned to love the beautiful scenery around him. He was dwarfish in stature, but great in genius, for even in the nursery he was a poet. His education was for the most part conducted by priests, for his father was a Catholic. When he was about sixteen his public career as a poet began, and afterwards he produced his Essay on Criticism, which is more like the work of an old and experienced poet than of so young a man as Pope then was. Next he published The Rape of the Lock, which "delicious little thing," as Addison called it, placed its author at the head of the poets of his time. Afterwards he translated the Iliad of Homer, and was so successful that he himself says"And thanks to Homer, since I live and thrive, Indebted to no prince or peer alive."

Up to this time Pope had been living with his father and
mother; but, after the death of the former, he bought a
pretty villa at Twickenham, and resided there with his
mother, whom he loved very dearly. His time was now
divided between his literary work and his garden and
grotto, which was a great hobby of his. At Twickenham
he entertained his friends, among whom were the wittiest
and best men in the land. Being pestered by a number of
the would-be poets of the day, he wrote The Dunciad,
which has been regarded as the fiercest poetical satire in any
literature. His last productions were The Essay on Man,
and The Imitations of Horace. In disposition Pope was
resentful, peevish, and ill tempered, although he was also
an affectionate and dutiful son. His bad health may
have been the cause of his fretfulness, for he was but
feeble in body. Disease, at length, made him lay down.
his pen,
and he died in May, 1744. The Rape of the
Lock is usually considered the best of his poems. It has
been called "a dwarf epic," having for its subject the
cutting of a lock of hair from the head of a beautiful
Court-maiden, named Lady Arabella Fermor. In the
poem she is called Belinda. Canto I. proceeds, in mock
heroic strain, to tell how Belinda is warned by the spirit
Ariel in a dream that something dreadful is about to
happen. Canto II. describes the bold baron, who has
determined to have the lock of hair, as offering sacrifices
to the gods, in order to be successful in obtaining it; and
tells how Ariel gathers together the little sylphs and
fairies who have charge of Belinda, and warns them
that, if any one shall allow harm to befal her, he

"Shall feel sharp vengeance overtake his sins,
Be steeped in vials, or transfixed with pins;
Or, plunged in lakes of bitter washes, lie;
Or, wedged, whole ages, in a bodkin's eye.”

In Canto III. we have a coffee drinking at Hampton Court, where the baron succeeds in obtaining a pair of scissors--and although a sylph tries to prevent it, and is cut in two in making the attempt