(_c_) An enlightened sympathy for the poor and oppressed. In English literature during this time one has but to think of the work of Cowper, Burns, and Crabbe, and even of the classically minded Gray, to perceive the revolution that is taking place in the minds of men. (_d_) A revolt against the conventional literary technique, such as that of the heroic couplet. On the other hand, we have a desire for strength, simplicity, and sincerity in the expression of the new literary ideals. (_e_) Fresh treatment of Romantic themes in such poems as _The Lay of the Last Minstrel_, _The Ancient Mariner_, _La Belle Dame sans Merci_. In the present chapter we shall perceive all the above features dimly taking shape. In the next chapter they will be the dominating features of the era. =3. The New Learning.= The middle and later stages of the eighteenth century show a minor Renaissance that touched nearly all Europe. The increase in wealth and comfort coincided with a general uplifting of the standard of the human intellect. In France particularly it was well marked, and it took for its sign and seal the labors of the Encyclopædists and the social amenities of the older _salons_. Many of the leading English writers, including Gibbon, Hume, and Sterne, visited Paris, which was the hub of European culture. In England the new learning took several channels. In literature we have the revival of the Romantic movement, leading to (_a_) research into archaic literary forms, such as the ballad, and (_b_) new editions of the older authors, such as Shakespeare and Chaucer. The publication of Bishop Percy’s _Reliques_ (1765) which contained some of the oldest and most beautiful specimens of ballad-literature, is a landmark in the history of the Romantic movement. Even Pope and Johnson were moved to edit Shakespeare, though they did it badly. The editions of Theobald and Warburton were examples of scholarly and enlightened research. =4. The New Philosophy.= The spirit of the new thinking, which received its consummate expression in the works of Voltaire, was marked by keen skepticism and the zest for eager inquiry. Scotland very early took to it, the leading Scottish philosopher being Hume. It would seem, perhaps, that this destructive spirit of disbelief would injure the Romantic ideal, which delights in illusion. But finally the new spirit actually assisted the Romantic ideal by demolishing and clearing away heaps of the ancient mental lumber, and so leaving the ground clear for new and fresher creations.