sketched out a plan on the Greek model; but this idea was abandoned for the epic form before he had written much on the theme. Paradise Lost is one of the greatest poems in the English language. To be sure, the idea of the universe with the earth in the center, surrounded by a series of concentric spheres in which the planets and stars are fixed, is totally wrong, as possibly Milton knew; but the poem remains great because its imagination is so wonderful and its verse so nearly perfect. Milton thought his minor poems were nothing but literary exercises compared with Paradise Lost. Of this poem he thought highly, though he aimed to be satisfied with nothing short of perfection. No one since has been able to sustain so grand a style. A Literary Epic. - Paradise Lost is a literary epic like Virgil's Eneid, as distinguished from a popular epic like The Iliad or Beowulf. It is not simple story, not a direct picture of life. Milton has a problem to discuss. He says: "What in me is dark Illumine; what is low raise and support; And justify the ways of God to men." The poem is a great artist's idea about the problem of evil in the world. It treats the revolt of Satan and the angels from God; their overthrow and the casting of them into Hell; their plan of revenge by corrupting man, whom God had created and placed in paradise; the temptation and fall of Adam and Eve; and the expulsion from paradise. At the end the outcasts are comforted by the promise of atonement through the coming of Christ. Adam is the hero; but Satan is the more interesting character, perhaps because he is more human. 66 The Greatness of the Poem. The poem is conceived and executed on a grand scale. The scene of the action comprises heaven, hell, and the entire universe between. The characters are God, the angels, fallen spirits, and man. The imagery is vivid and sublime; the flow of the verse, stately and harmonious. The lasting interest in the poem lies in the colossal images, exalted thought, and wonderful melody. Pilgrim's Progress." John Bunyan (1628-1688) was another Puritan who wrote enduring literature. He was a tinker by trade, and had little or no education; but he knew his Bible almost by heart, and was an artist by instinct. His religious experience was exceedingly vivid and dramatic. Intense religious feeling, vital imagination, and a thorough knowledge of the simple style of the Bible made him a great writer. Pilgrim's Progress is one of the most perfect allegories ever written. All the difficulties and triumphs of the Christian life are here represented in story. At the beginning, Christian sets out from the city of Destruction to make his way to the Holy City. He carries on his back the burden of his sins and fears. Evangelist tells him the way to go and he pushes onward in spite of the petitions of his family, his neighbors, and his friends. Scene after scene follows, picturing spiritual experiences. Christian falls into the Slough of Despond, travels into the Valley of Humiliation, climbs the Hill of Difficulty, has a fight with the demon Apollyon, is thrown along with Hopeful into the dungeon of Doubting Castle by Giant Despair. At length, after many difficulties, he comes to the city of All Delight, where he is welcomed by a company of angels that come singing down the street. Pilgrim's Progress has been translated into seventy-five languages and dialects, and has perhaps been more widely read than any other book in the English language except the Bible. SUGGESTED READINGS 1 Palgrave: Golden Treasury, Book II. Walton: The Compleat Angler. (Everyman's Library.) Milton: L' Allegro, Il Penseroso, Comus, Lycidas, Sonnets, Paradise Lost, Books I and II. 1 Except where special editions are mentioned, the books are to be found in the Pocket Series of English Classics published by The Macmillan Company. CHAPTER XI CLASSICISM Characteristics of the Age. The restoration of the Stuarts in 1660 brought a strong reaction against Puritanism. The upper classes, especially, had grown weary of the Puritanic restraints, and quickly adopted the new ideas, new fashions, and new moral standards which the gay court of Charles II introduced from France. In their hatred of hypocrisy and cant they went even further: they set aside not only the restraints of Puritanism, but also all that is emotional, mysterious, and vital in religion. Decent conformity to a conventional religion was all that could be asked. Many rejected the personal God with whom the Puritan had communed face to face, and made for themselves a god by means of the reason alone, neglecting the revelations of the Bible. These deists, as they were called, belonged to the established English church, but they defended the church, not on the ground that it represented the true faith, but because it was an established institution and helped to maintain law and order. Moral standards were low. Corruption in public life was almost universal. Walpole maintained his power for twenty years by open and notorious bribery. Polite society gathered about the gaming tables, where immense sums were lost and won; or frequented the theaters, where plays were enacted, so immoral that no one can read them to-day without surprise and disgust. To be sure, there was a certain veneer and polish, a superficial refinement, but at heart the age was coarse and corrupt. The intellectual life was brilliant rather than profound. There was no effort, as with the Puritans, to solve the deep mysteries of life; no effort, as with the Elizabethans, to reach out beyond the limits of ordinary experience and explore unknown worlds. Men were content to make what they could out of ordinary experiences through the exercise of reason and common sense. The center of interest was in the coffeehouses and clubs. Here came, daily, groups of politicians and literary men to discuss the gossip of the town, the newest drama, the latest book, the most startling gains and losses at the gaming table, the latest news of the drawing-rooms, the probable fortunes of political parties. There was about it all, however, a great intellectual zest. Daily discussion made the minds of men keen, discriminating, brilliant. Characteristics of the Literature. The change in social, moral, and intellectual standards brought a corresponding change in literature. Instead of a literature of enthusiasm, emotion, and mystery, or of mysticism and melancholy, we have a literature of reason, appealing almost exclusively to the intellect, a literature of the town life consisting largely of wit, satire, and travesty. There were dramas like those of Congreve, witty and licentious, the direct expression of a social life devoid of moral standards. There were essays like those in The Spectator, comments on life by the frequenters of the drawing-rooms, the coffee-house, and the club. There was didactic and satirical verse like that of Pope, clever, witty, and faultlessly regular, but never profound; fanciful, but not imaginative. Writers thought less of what they said than of how they said it. Every piece of writing was severely tested by the set rules of art which the French under the leadership of Malherbe and Boileau had formulated from the study of the classical writers and of the Italian scholars. Milton, Shakespeare, and Spenser were |