The second part of the eighteenth century was a time of changing standards in church, state, and literature. The downfall of Walpole, the religious revivals of Wesley, the victories of Clive in India and of Wolfe in Canada, show the progress that England was making at home and abroad. Even her loss of the American colonies left her the greatest maritime and colonial power. There began to be a revolt against the narrow classical standards in literature. A longing gradually manifested itself for more freedom of imagination, such as we find in _Ossian, The Castle of Otranto_, Percy's _Reliques_, and translations of the Norse mythology. There was a departure from the hackneyed forms and subjects of the preceding age and an introduction of more of the individual and ideal element, such as can be found in Gray's _Elegy_ and Collins's _Ode to Evening_. Dr. Johnson, however, threw his powerful influence against this romantic movement, and curbed somewhat such tendencies in Goldsmith, who, nevertheless, gave fine romantic touches to _The Deserted Village_ and to much of his other work. This period was one of preparation for the glorious romantic outburst at the end of the century. In prose, the most important achievement of the age was the creation of the modern novel in works like Richardson's _Pamela_ and _Clarissa Harlowe_, Fielding's _Tom Jones_, Sterne's _Tristram Shandy_, Smollett's _Humphrey Clinker_, and Goldsmith's _Vicar of Wakefield_. There were also noted prose works in philosophy and history by Hume and Gibbon, in politics by Burke, in criticism by Johnson, and in biography by Boswell. Goldsmith's comedy of manners, _She Stoops to Conquer_, won a decided victory over the insipid sentimental drama. REFERENCES FOR FURTHER STUDY HISTORICAL For contemporary English history, consult Gardiner,[3] Green, Walker, or Cheney. For the social side, see Traill, V. Lecky's _History of the Eighteenth Century_ is specially full. LITERARY _The Cambridge History of English Literature_. Courthope's _History of English Poetry_, Vol. V. Seccombe's _The Age of Johnson_. Gosse's _History of English Literature in the Eighteenth Century_. Stephen's _English Literature in the Eighteenth Century_. Minto's _Manual of English Prose Literature_. Symons's _The Romantic Movement in English Poetry_. Beers's _English Romanticism_. Phelps's _Beginnings of the English Romantic Movement_. Nutt's _Ossian and Ossianic Literature_. Jusserand's _The English Novel in the Time of Shakespeare_. Cross's _The Development of the English Novel_. Minto's _Defoe_ (E.M.L.) Dobson's _Samuel Richardson_. (E.M.L.) Dobson's _Henry Fielding_. (E.M.L.) Godden's _Henry Fielding, a Memoir_. Stephen's _Hours in a Library_ (Defoe, Richardson, and Fielding). Thackeray's _English Humorists of the Eighteenth Century_ (Fielding, Smollett, Sterne, Goldsmith). Gosse's _Life of Gray_. (E.M.L.) Huxley's _Life of Hume_. (E.M.L.) Morrison's _Life of Gibbon_. (E.M.L.)