It would be quite as erroneous to allege that modern science began with these men as to assume that it began with the Chinese or with Roger Bacon; the most that can be said truthfully is, that the scientific spirit which they reflected began to dominate our thought, to influence even our poetry and fiction, even as the voyages of Drake and Magellan furnished a mighty and mysterious background for the play of human life on the Elizabethan stage. The Elizabethans looked upon an enlarging visible world, and the wonder of it is reflected in their prose and poetry; the Victorians overran that world almost from pole to pole, then turned their attention to an unexplored world of invisible forces, and their best literature thrills again with the grandeur of the universe in which men live. [Sidenote: IMPERIALISM] A third tendency of the Victorian age in England is expressed by the word "imperialism." In earlier ages the work of planting English colonies had been well done; in the Victorian age the scattered colonies increased mightily in wealth and power, and were closely federated into a world-wide Empire of people speaking the same noble speech, following the same high ideals of justice and liberty. The literature of the period reflects the wide horizons of the Empire. Among historical writers, Parkman the American was one of the first and best to reflect the imperial spirit. In such works as _A Half-Century of Conflict_ and _Montcalm and Wolfe_ he portrayed the conflict not of one nation against another but rather of two antagonistic types of civilization: the military and feudal system of France against the democratic institutions of the Anglo-Saxons. Among the explorers, Mungo Park had anticipated the Victorians in his _Travels in the Interior of Africa_ (1799), a wonderful book which set England to dreaming great dreams; but not until the heroic Livingstone's _Missionary Travels and Research in South Africa, The Zambesi and its Tributaries_ and _Last Journals_ [Footnote: In connection with Livingstone's works, Stanley's _How I Found Livingstone_ (1872) should also be read. Livingstone died in Africa in 1873, and his _Journals_ were edited by another hand. For a summary of his work and its continuation see _Livingstone and the Exploration of Central Africa_ (London, 1897).] appeared was the veil lifted from the Dark Continent. Beside such works should be placed numerous stirring journals of exploration in Canada, in India, in Australia, in tropical or frozen seas,--wherever in the round world the colonizing genius of England saw opportunity to extend the boundaries and institutions of the Empire. Macaulay's _Warren Hastings_, Edwin Arnold's _Indian Idylls_, Kipling's _Soldiers Three_,--a few such works must be read if we are to