Medici His ideas, curiosity, and doubts belong Francis Bacon-His talent-His originality-Con- centration and brightness of his style-Compari- sons and aphorisms-The Essays-His style not argumentative, but intuitive-His practical good sense-Turning-point of his philosophy- The object of science is the amelioration of the condition of man-New Atlantis-The idea is in accordance with the state of affairs and the spirit of the times-It completes the Renaissance-It introduces a new method -The Organum — Where Bacon stopped-Limits of the spirit of the age-How the conception of the world, which had been poetic, became mechanical- 847 Manners of the sixteenth century-Violent and English manners-Expansion of the energetic and The poets-General harmony between the character laine- The Jew of Malta-Edward II.-Faustus PAGE 380 depicts by expressive examples-Contrast of classical and Germanic art-Psychological con- struction and proper sphere of these two arts 397 Male characters-Furious passions-Tragical events -Exaggerated characters-The Duke of Milan by Massinger-Ford's Annabella-Webster's Duchess of Malfi and Vittoria Corombona-Female charac- ters-Germanic idea of love and marriage- Euphrasia, Bianca, Arethusa, Ordella, Aspasia INTRODUCTION. The historian might place himself for a given period, say a series of ages, or in the human soul, or with some particular people; he might study, describe, relate, all the events, all the transformations, all the revolutions which had been accomplished in the internal man; and when he had finished his work, he would have a history of civilisation amongst the people and in the period he had selected.-GUIZOT, Civilisation in Europe, p. 25. HISTORY has been transformed, within a hundred years in Germany, within sixty years in France, and that by the study of their literatures. It was perceived that a literary work is not a mere individual play of imagination, the isolated caprice of an excited brain, but a transcript of contemporary manners, a manifestation of a certain kind of mind. It vas concluded that we might recover, from the monuments of literature, a knowledge of the manner in which men thought and felt centuries ago. The attempt was made, and it succeeded. Pondering on these modes of feeling and thought, men decided that they were facts of the highest kind. They saw that these facts bore reference to the most important occurrences, that they explained and were explained by them, that it was necessary thenceforth to give them a rank, and a most important rank, in history. This rank they have received, and from that moment history has undergone a complete change: in its subject-matter, its system, its machinery, the appre VOL. I. B |