ENGLISH LITERATURE AND JOURNALISM.
NGLISH literature is one of the mainstays of our present civilization. Wherever the English language is spoken or understood, or wherever English thought predominates, English books are read, and the names of English authors are held in reverence. And second only to the power of English books is the power of the English press, which immediately after French journalism, represents the most trained culture and best talent employed in the Fourth Estate of our times.
London ranks, as I have said, in the second place, as far as her journalism is concerned. London journalists have not yet attained that high influence, both social and political, in the State, which is freely yielded to young and middle-aged men whose services are known to be of value on the Parisian journals of ability and circulation.
But the men who think for England, and who write its books, do not need to fear comparison with the same class in any other land in breadth of thought or influence on the masses of mankind. I shall make but a brief mention of a few of England's worthies in the paths of literature, and shall only speak of those who are best known by their works in America.