Superstition took alarm at seeing her empire invaded. Galileo was cited before the inquisition, committed to prison, and commanded solemnly to abjure his heresies and absurdities; in regard to which, the following decree, an eternal disgrace to the brightest age of literature in modern Italy, was passed in 1633: "To say that the sun is in the centre, and without local motion, is a proposition absurd and false in sound philosophy, and even heretical, being expresslý contrary to the Holy Scripture; and to say that the earth is not placed in the centre of the universe, nor immoveable, but that it has so much as a diurnal motion, is also a proposition false and absurd in sound philosophy, as well as erroneous in the faith!"

The influence of the reformation on government and manners was no less conspicuous than on philosophy. While the sovereigns of France and Spain rose into absolute power at the expense of their unhappy subjects, the people in every Protestant state acquired new privileges. Vice was depressed by the regular exertions of law, when the sanctuaries of the church were abolished, and the clergy themselves made amenable to punishment. This happy influence extended itself even to the church of Rome. The desire of equalling the reformers in those talents which had procured them respect; the necessity of acquiring the knowledge requisite for defending their own tenets, or refuting the arguments of their opponents, together with the emulation natural between two rival churches, engaged the popish clergy to apply themselves to the study of useful science, which they cultivated with such assiduity and success, that they gradually grew as eminent in literature as they were formerly remarkable for ignorance. And the same principle, proceeding from the same source, has occasioned a change no less salutary in their manners.

Various causes, which I have had occasion to enumerate in the course of my narration, had concurred in producing great licentiousness, and even a total dissoluteness of manners among the Romish ecclesiastics. Luther and his adherents began their attacks upon the church with such vehement invectives against these, that, in order to remove the scandal, and silence those declamations, more decency of conduct was found necessary. And the principal reformers were so eminent, not only for the purity but even austerity of their manners, and had acquired such reputation among the people on that account, that the popish clergy must have soon lost all credit, if they had not endeavoured to conform, in some measure, to the standard held up to them. They were besides sensible, that all their actions fell under the severe inspection of the Protestants, whom enmity and emulation prompted to observe and to display the smallest vice or impropriety in their conduct, with all the cruelty of revenge and all the exultation of triumph. Hence they became not only cautious to avoid such irregularities as must give offence, but studious to acquire the virtues that might merit praise.

Nor has the influence of the reformation been felt only by the inferior members of the Romish church: it has extended to the sovereign pontiffs themselves. Violations of decorum, and even trespasses against morality, which passed without censure in those ages, when neither the power of the popes, nor the veneration of the people for their character, had any bounds; when there was no hostile eye to observe the errors in their conduct, nor any adversary jealous to inveigh against them, would now be liable to the severest animadversion, and excite general indignation and horror. The popes, aware of this, instead of rivalling the courts of temporal princes in gayety, or surpassing them in licentiousness, have studied to assume manners more suitable to their ecclesiastical character; and by their humanity, their love of literature, their moderation, and even their piety, have made some atonement to mankind for the crimes of their predecessors.

The head of the church of Rome, however, not willing to rest what remained of his spiritual empire merely on the virtues and talents of its secular members, instituted a new monastic order, namely, that of the jesuits; who, instead of being confined to the silence and solitude of the cloister, like other monks, were taught to consider themselves as formed for action; as

chosen soldiers, who, under the command of a general, were bound to exert themselves continually in the service of Christ, and of the pope, his vicar on earth. To give more vigour and concert to their efforts, in opposing the enemies of the holy see, and in extending its dominion, this general or head of the order was invested with the most despotic authority over its members; and that they might have full leisure for such service, they were exempted from all monastic observances. They were required to attend to the transactions of the great world, to study the dispositions of persons in power, and to cultivate their friendship.(1)

In consequence of these primary instructions, which infused a spirit of intrigue into the whole fraternity, the jesuits considered the education of youth as their peculiar province; they aimed at being spiritual guides and confessors: they preached frequently, in order to attract the notice of the people; and they set out as missionaries, with a view to convert unbelieving nations. The novelty of the institution, as well as the singularity of its objects, procured the society many admirers and patrons. The generals and other officers had the address to avail themselves of every circumstance in its favour; and, in a short time, the number, as well as the influence, of its members was very considerable. Both increased wonderfully; and before the beginning of the seventeenth century, only sixty years after the institution of the order, the jesuits had obtained the chief direction of the education of youth in every Catholic country in Europe. They had become the confessors of most of its monarchs; a function of no small importance in any reign, but under a weak prince, superior even to that of minister. They were the spiritual guides of almost every person eminent for rank or power, and they possessed the highest degree of confidence and interest with the papal court, as the most zealous and able assertors of its dominion.

The advantages which an active and enterprising body of priests might derive from these circumstances, are obvious. As they formed the minds of men in youth, they retained an ascendant over them in their more advanced years. They possessed, at different periods, the direction of the most considerable courts in Europe; they mingled in all public affairs, and took part in every intrigue and revolution. Together with the power, the wealth of the order increased. The jesuits acquired ample possessions in every popish kingdom; and, under pretext of promoting the success of their missionaries, they obtained a special license from the court of Rome to trade with the nations which they laboured to convert. (2) In consequence of this permission, they engaged in an extensive and lucrative commerce, both in the East and West Indies, and they opened warehouses in different parts of Europe, where they vended their commodities. Not satisfied with trade alone, they imitated the example of other commercial societies, and aimed at obtaining settlements. They accordingly acquired possession of a large and fertile province of South America, well known by the name of Paraguay, and reigned as sovereigns over three or four hundred thousand subjects.

Unhappily for mankind, the vast influence which the jesuits acquired by all these different means was often exerted for the most pernicious purposes. Every jesuit was taught to regard the interest of the order as his principal object, to which all other considerations were to be sacrificed; and as it was for the honour and advantage of the society, that its members should possess an ascendant over persons of rank and power, the jesuits, in order to acquire and preserve such ascendant, were led to propagate a system of relaxed and pliant morality, which, accommodating itself to the passions o men, justifies their vices, tolerates their imperfections, and authorizes almost every action that the most audacious or crafty politician could wish to commit.(3)

In like manner, as the prosperity of the order was intimately connected with the preservation of the papal authority, the jesuits, influenced by the same principle of attachment to the interests of their society, which may serve (1) Compte Rendu, par M. de Monclar. D'Alembert, sur le Destruct. des Jesuites. (2) Hist. des Jesuits, tom. iv. (3) M. de Monclar, ubi sup.

as a key to the genius of their policy, have been the most zealous patrons of those doctrines which tend to exalt ecclesiastical power on the ruins of civil government. They have attributed to the court of Rome a jurisdiction as extensive and absolute as was claimed by the most presumptuous pontiffs during the dark ages: they have contended for the entire independence of ecclesiastics on the civil magistrate; and they have published such tenets, concerning the duty of opposing princes who were enemies to the Catholic faith, as countenance the most atrocious crimes, and tend to dissolve all the ties which connect subjects with their rulers.(1)

As the order derived both reputation and authority from the zeal with which it stood forth in defence of the Romish church against the attacks of the champions of the reformation, its members, proud of this distinction, have considered it as their peculiar function to combat the opinions, and to check the progress, of the Protestants. They have made use of every art, and employed every weapon, against the reformed religion: they have set themselves in opposition to every gentle and tolerating measure in its favour; and they have incessantly stirred up against its followers all the rage of ecclesias tical and civil persecution. But the jesuits have at length felt the lash of that persecution which they stimulated with such unfeeling rigour; and, as we shall afterward have occasion to see, with a severity which humanity must lament, notwithstanding their intolerant spirit.

While Paul III. was instituting the order of jesuits, and Italy exulting in her superiority in arts and letters, England, already separated from the holy see, and, like Germany, agitated by theological disputes, was groaning under the civil and religious tyranny of Henry VIII. This prince was a lover of letters, which he cultivated himself, and no less fond of the society of women than his friend and rival Francis I.; but his controversies with the court of Rome, and the sanguinary measures which he pursued in his domestic policy, threw a cloud over the manners and the studies of the nation, which the barbarities of his daughter Mary rendered yet darker, and which was not dispelled till the middle of the reign of Elizabeth. Then the muse, always the first in the train of literature, encouraged by the change in the manners, which became more gay, gallant, and stately, ventured once more to expand her wings; and Chaucer found a successor worthy of himself, in the celebrated Spenser.

The principal work of this poet is named the Fairy Queen. It is of the heroic kind, and was intended as a compliment to queen Elizabeth and her courtiers. But instead of employing historical or traditional characters for that purpose, like Virgil, the most refined flatterer, if not the finest poet of antiquity, Spenser makes use of allegorical personages; a choice which has contributed to consign to neglect one of the most truly poetical compositions that genius ever produced, and which, notwithstanding the want of unity in the fable, and of probability in the incidents, would otherwise have continued to command attention. For the descriptions in the Fairy Queen are generally bold and striking, or soft and captivating; the shadowy figures are strongly delineated; the language is nervous and elegant, though somewhat obscure, through an affectation of antiquated phrases; and the versification is harmonious and flowing. But the thin allegory is every where seen through; the images are frequently coarse; and the extravagant manners of chivalry, which the author has faithfully copied, conspired to render his romantic fictions little interesting to the classical reader, whatever pleasure they may afford the antiquary; while an absurd compound of heathen and Christian mythology complete the disgust of the critic. He throws aside the poem with indignation, considered in its whole extent, after making every allowance for its not being finished, as a performance truly Gothic: but he ad mires particular passages; he adores the bewitching fancy of Spenser, but laments his want of taste, and loathes his too often filthy and ill-wrought allegories.

VOL. II.-T

(1) M. de Monclar, ubi sup.

Shakspeare, the other luminary of the virgin reign, and the father of our drama, was more happy in his line of composition. Though unacquainted, as is generally believed, with the dramatic laws, or with any model worthy of his imitation, he has, by a bold delineation of general nature, and by adopting the solemn mythology of the North, witches, fairies, and ghosts, been able to affect the human mind more strongly than any other poet. By studying only the heart of man, his tragic scenes come directly to the heart; and by copying manners, undisguised by fashion, his comic humour is for ever new. Let us not however conclude that the three unities, time, place, and action or plot, dictated by reason and Aristotle, are unnecessary to the perfection of a dramatic poem, because Shakspeare, by the mere superiority of his genius, has been able to please, both in the closet and on the stage, without observing them.

Theatrical representation is perfect in proportion as it is natural; and that the observance of the unities contributes to render it so, will be disputed by no critic who understands the principles on which they are founded. A dramatic performance, in which the unities are observed, must therefore be best calculated for representation; and consequently for obtaining its end, if otherwise well constructed, by provoking mirth or awakening sorrow. Even Shakspeare's scenes would have acquired double force, had they proceeded, in an unbroken succession, from the opening to the close of every Then indeed the scene may be shifted to distance consistent with probability, and any portion of time may elapse, not destructive of the unity of the fable, without impairing the effect of the representation, or disturbing the dream of reality; for, as the modern drama is interrupted four times, which seem necessary for the relief of the mind, there can be no reason for confining the scene to the same spot during the whole piece, or the time exactly to that of the representation, as in the Grecian theatre, where the actors, or at least the chorus, never left the stage.

act.

The reign of James I. was distinguished by the labours of many eminent authors, both in prose and verse, but mostly in a bad taste. That propensity to false wit and superfluous ornament, which we have so frequently occasion to regret in the writings of Shakspeare, and which seems as inseparably connected with the revival, as simplicity is with the origin, of letters, infected the whole nation. The pun was common in the pulpit, and the quibble was propagated from the throne. Hooker's Ecclesiastical Polity, however, Camden's Annals of Queen Elizabeth, Raleigh's History of the World, and the translation of the Bible now in use, are striking proofs of the improvement of our language, and of the progress of English prose.

Fairfax's translation of Tasso, and some of the tragic scenes of Fletcher excepted, the style of none of the poets of this reign can be mentioned with entire approbation. Jonson, though born with a vein of genuine humour, perfectly acquainted with the ancient classics, and possessed of sufficient taste to relish their beauties, is a rude mechanical writer. And the poems of Drayton, who was endowed with a fertile genius, with great facility of expression, and a happy descriptive talent, are thickly bespangled with all the splendid faults in composition.

As an example of Drayton's best manner, which is little known, I shall give an extract from the sixth book of his Barons' Wars.

"Now waxing late, and after all these things,
Unto her chamber is the queen withdrawn,(1)
To whom a choice musician plays and sings,

Reposing her upon a state of lawn,

In night attire divinely glittering,

As the approaching of the cheerful dawn;
Leaning upon the breast of Mortimer,

Whose voice more than the music pleas'd her ear

(1) Isabella of France, widow of Edward II. of England.

"Where her fair breasts at liberty are let,
Where violet veins in curious branches flow;

Where Venus' swans and milky doves are set
Upon the swelling mounts of driven snow;(1)
Where Love, whilst he to sport himself doth get,
Hath lost his course, nor finds which way to go,
Enclosed in this labyrinth about,

Where let him wander still, yet ne'er get out.

"Her loose gold hair, O gold, thou art too base!
Were it not sin to name those silk threads hair,
Declining as to kiss her fairer face?

But no word 's fair enough for thing so fair.
O what high wondrous epithet can grace
Or give due praises to a thing so rare?

But where the pen fails, pencil cannot show it,
Nor can't be known, unless the mind do know it.

"She lays those fingers on his manly cheek,
The gods pure sceptres, and the darts of love!
Which with a touch might make a tiger meek,
Or the main Atlas from his place remove;
So soft, so feeling, delicate, and sleek,
As Nature wore the lilies for a glove!

As might beget life where was never none,
And put a spirit into the flintiest stone!"'(2)

Daniel, the poetical rival of Drayton, affects to write with more purity, yet he is by no means free from the bad taste of his age, as will appear by a single stanza of his Civil War, a poem seemingly written in emulation of the Barons' Wars.

"O War! begot in pride and luxury,
The child of Malice and revengeful Hate;
Thou impious good, and good impiety,
Thou art the FOUL refiner of a state!
Unjust just scourge of men's iniquity;

Sharp easer of corruptions desperate!

Is there no means, but that a sin-sick land

Must be let blood by such a boisterous band?"

During the tranquil part of the reign of Charles I. good taste began to gain ground. Charles himself was an excellent judge of literature, a chaste writer, and a patron of the liberal arts. Vandyke was caressed at court, and Inigo Jones was encouraged to plan those public edifices, which do so much honour to his memory; while Lawes, and other eminent composers, in the

(1) Perhaps the ingenious tracers of poetical imitation, may discover a resemblance between those glowing verses and two lines in Mr. Hayley's justly admired sonnet, in the Triumphs of Temper.

"A bosom, where the blue meand'ring vein
Sheds a soft lustre through the lucid snow."

And it will not require microscopic eyes to discover whence Mr. Gray caught the idea of the finest image in his celebrated historic ode, after reading the following lines of Drayton.

Who can read these animated stanzas, and not be filled with indignation at the arrogant remark of Warburton "Seldon did not disdain even to command a very ordinary poet, one Michael Drayton!" Pref. to his edit. of Shakspeare.