"The curfew tolls the knell of parting day, The lowing herd winds slowly o'er the lea, The plowman homeward plods his weary way, And leaves the world to darkness and to me" Then we listen to the droning flight of the beetle, to the drowsy tinklings from a distant fold, to the moping owl in an ivy-mantled tower. Each natural object, either directly or by contrast, reflects the mind of man. Nature serves as a background for the display of emotion. Gosse says in his _Life of Gray_: "The _Elegy_ has exercised an influence on all the poetry of Europe, from Denmark to Italy, from France to Russia. With the exception of certain works of Byron and Shakespeare, no English poem has been so widely admired and imitated abroad." [Illustration: STOKE POGES CHURCHYARD (SCENE OF GRAY'S ELEGY).] The Conflict between Romanticism and Classicism.--The influences of this period were not entirely in the direction of romanticism. Samuel Johnson, the literary dictator of the age, was unsparing in his condemnation of the movement. The weight of his opinion kept many romantic tendencies in check. Even authors like Gray were afraid to adopt the new creed in its entirety. In one stanza of his _Hymn to Adversity_ we find four capitalized abstractions, after the manner of the classical school: Folly, Noise, Laughter, Prosperity; and the following two lay figures, little better than abstractions:-- "The summer Friend, the flattering Foe." These abstractions have little warmth or human interest. After Gray had studied the Norse mythology, we find him using such strong expressions as "iron-sleet of arrowy shower." Collins's ode on _The Passions_ contains seventeen personified abstractions, from "pale Melancholy" to "brown Exercise." The conflict between these two schools continues; and many people still think that any poetry which shows polished regularity must be excellent. To prove this statement, we have only to turn to the magazines and glance at the current poetry, which often consists of words rather artificially strung together without the soul of feeling or of thought. THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE MODERN NOVEL The Growth of Prose Fiction.--Authentic history does not take us back to the time when human beings were not solaced by tales. The _Bible_ contains stories of marked interest. _Beowulf_, the medieval romances, the _Canterbury Tales_, and the ballads relate stories in verse.