In the Shakspearian Age the great books were (1) Roger Ascham's Schoolmaster, which was a fine argument for kindness in teaching and nobility in the teacher, but has been superseded by Spencer's "Education." (2) Sackville's Induction to a series of political tragedies, called "A Mirror for Magistrates." The poet goes down into hell like Dante, and meets Remorse, Famine, War, Misery, Care, Sleep, Death, etc., and talks with noted Englishmen who had fallen. This "Mirror" was of great fame and influence in its day; and the "Induction," though far inferior to both Chaucer and Spenser, is yet the best poetic work done in the time between those masters. (3) John Lyly's Euphues, a book that expressed the thought of Ascham's "Schoolmaster" in a style peculiar for its puns, antitheses, and floweriness,—a style which made a witty handling of language the chief aim of writing. Lyly was a master of the art, and the ladies of the court committed his sentences in great numbers, that they might shine in society. The book has given a word to the language; that affected word-placing style is known as euphuistic. The book has no claims upon our reading. (4) Sir Philip Sidney's Arcadia, a romance in the same conceited style as the "Euphues," and only valuable as a mine for poetic images. (5) Hooker's Ecclesiastical Polity, which was a defence of the church system against the Puritans. The latter said that no such system of church government could be found in the Bible, and therefore should not exist. Hooker answered that Nature was a revelation from God as well as the Bible; and if in Nature and society there were good reasons for the existence of an institution, that was enough. The book is not of importance to the general reader to-day, for the truth of its principles is universally admitted. (6) The Plays of Marlowe, a very powerful but gross writer. His "Dr. Faustus" may very properly receive attention, but only after the best plays of Shakspeare, Jonson, Calderon, Racine, Molière, Corneille, Æschylus, Sophocles, Euripides, and Aristophanes have been carefully read. (7) The Plays of Beaumont and Fletcher, which are filled with beauty and imagination, mingled with the immodesty and vulgarity that were natural to this age. The remark just made about Marlowe applies here. (8) Fox's Book of Martyrs, which for the sake of breadth should be glanced at by every one. The marvellous heroism and devotion to faith on one side, and cruelty on the other that come to us through the pages of this history, open a new world to the modern mind. (9) Edmund Spenser's Faerie Queene, which combines the poetry of a Homer with the allegory of a Bunyan. It presents moral truth under vast and beautiful imagery. In English poetry it claims our attention next to Shakspeare and Milton. (10) Ben Jonson's Plays, which stand next to those of Shakspeare in English drama. (11) The Plays of Shakspeare, which need no comment, as they have already been placed at the summit of all literature; and (12) Bacon's Works, including the Novum Organum, the New Atlantis, and the Essays, the first of which, though one of the greatest books of the world, setting forth the true methods of arriving at truth by experiment and observation and the collation of facts, we do not need to read, because the substance of it may be found in better form in Mill's Logic. The "Essays," however, are world-famed for their condensed wit and wisdom on topics of never-dying interest, and stand among the very best books on the upper shelf. The "New Atlantis" also should be read for breadth, with More's "Utopia;" the subject being the same, namely, an ideal commonwealth.
From this sixty-one years of prolific writing, in which no less than two hundred and thirty authors gathered their poems together and published them, to say nothing of all the scattered writings, twelve volumes have come down to us with a large measure of fame. Only the last seven call for our reading; but two of them, Shakspeare and Bacon, are among the very most important books on the first shelf of the world's library.
The Post-Shakspearian Age is divided into four times, or periods,—the Time of Milton; the Time of Dryden; the Time of Pope; and the Time of the Novelists, Historians, and Scientists.
The Time of Milton, from 1620 to 1674, was contemporary with the Golden Age of literature in France. The great English books of this time were (1) Chapman's Translation of Homer, which is superseded by Pope's. (2) Hobbes's Leviathan, a discourse on government. Hobbes taught that government exists for the people, and rests not on the divine right of kings, but on a compact or agreement of all the citizens to give up a portion of their liberties in order by social co-operation the better to secure the remainder. He is one of our greatest philosophers; but the general reader will find the substance of Hobbes's whole philosophy better put in Locke, Mill, and Herbert Spencer. (3) Walton's Complete Angler, the work of a retired merchant who combined a love of fishing with a poetic perception of the beauties of Nature. It will repay a glance. (4) S. Butler's Hudibras, a keen satire on the Puritans who went too far in their effort to compel all men to conform their lives to the Puritan standard of abstinence from worldly pleasures. In spite of its vulgarity, the book stands very high in the literature of humor. (5) George Herbert's Poems, many of which are as sweet and holy as a flower upon a grave, and are beloved by all spiritually minded people. (6) Jeremy Taylor's Holy Living and Dying, a book that in the strength of its claim upon us must rank close after the Bible, Shakspeare, and the Science of Physiology and Hygiene. (7) Milton's Poems, of which the "Paradise Lost" and "Comus," for their sublimity and beauty, rank next after Shakspeare in English poetry. Æschylus, Dante, and Milton are the three sublimest souls in history.
From this time of fifty-four years seven great books have come to us, Milton and Taylor being among our most precious possessions.
The Time of Dryden.—From the death of Milton, in 1674, to the death of Dryden, in 1700, the latter held undisputed kingship in the realm of letters. This and the succeeding time of Pope were marked by the development of a classic style and a fine literary and critical taste, but were lacking in great creative power. The great books were (1) Newton's Principia, the highest summit in the region of astronomy, unless the "Mécanique Céleste" of Laplace must be excepted. Newton's discovery of the law of gravitation, and his theory of fluxions place him at the head of the mathematical thinkers of the world. His books, however, need not be read by the general student, for in these sciences the later books are better. (2) Locke's Works upon Government and the Understanding are among the best in the world, but their results will all be found in the later works of Spencer, Mill, and Bryce; and the only part of the writings of Locke that claims our reading to-day is the little book upon the Conduct of the Understanding, which tells us how to watch the processes of our thought, to keep clear of prejudice, careless observation, etc., and should be in the hands of every one who ever presumes to do any thinking. (3) Dryden's Translation of Virgil is the best we have, and contains the finest writing of our great John. (4) Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress picturing in magnificent allegory the journey of a Christian soul toward heaven, and his "Holy War," telling of the conflict between good and evil, and the devil's efforts to capture and hold the town of "Mansoul," should be among the first books we read. The "Progress" holds a place in the affections of all English-speaking peoples second only to the Bible. (5) Sam Pepys's Diary is the greatest book of its kind in the world, and is much read for its vividness and interesting detail. It has, however, no claims to be read until all the books on the first shelf of [Table I]. have been mastered, and a large portion of the second shelf pretty thoroughly looked into.
Of the five great works of these twenty-six years, Bunyan and Locke are far the most important for us.
The Time of Pope, or the Time of the Essayists and Satirists, covers a period of forty years, from 1700 to 1740, during which the great translator of Homer held the sceptre of literary power by unanimous assent. The great works of this time were (1) The Essays of Addison and Steele in the "Tatler" and "Spectator," which, though of great merit, must rank below those of Emerson, Bacon, and Montaigne. (2) Defoe's Robinson Crusoe, the boy's own book. (3) Swift's Satires,—the "Tale of a Tub," "Gulliver's Travels," and the "Battle of the Books,"—all full of the strongest mixture of grossness, fierceness, and intense wit that the world has seen. The "Battle of the Books" may be read with great advantage by the general reader as well as by the student of humor. (4) Berkeley's Human Knowledge, exceedingly interesting for the keenness of its confutation of any knowledge of the existence of matter. (5) Pope's Poems—the "Rape of the Lock" (which means the theft of a lock of hair), the "Essay on Man," and his translation of Homer—must form a part of every wide course of reading. Their mechanical execution, especially, is of the very finest. (6) Thomson's Seasons, a beautiful poem of the second class. (7) Butler's Analogy, chiefly noted for its proof of the existence of God from the fact that there is evidence of design in Nature.