"She [History] measures men not by the tawdry reputations of the hour, but by the influence they can diffuse; she watches the circling wave which forms as men cast their force into the great ocean of life, and she measures their power by the life of that wave; and she finds that few--few indeed--have been able to spread their influences beyond their age; she notes many exalted to the skies, and she sees that in the next generation their name is clean put out; she measures the greatness of men as men do the height of mountains, by the length of the shadows they cast upon the surface of the world; and, measuring thus, she bids those whose influence lives through the ages to sit like gods among the hills of time." It is intended here to consider only those works or writers which were of a popular character. It would therefore be out of place to record the various volumes of sermons, biographies, or theological treatises on the various systems which have more or less occupied the attention of the religious world, and have to a large extent shaped the character of many of our denominations. In passing, however, it may be of interest to direct attention to that vast array of literature which sprang into existence through the religious controversies which have to a large extent influenced the English Church. The greatest of these was that known as the Tractarian Movement, and centred round the illustrious names of Keble, Newman, and Pusey. An extensive library might be formed of the works brought forth by this polemic controversy. The publication of "Essays and Reviews," Seeley's "Ecce Homo," Gladstone's "Vatican Decrees," and "Lux Mundi," edited by Canon Gore, also produced a flood of literature which has left an indelible mark on religious thought and practice. To these may probably be traced that diffusion of religious influence which has entered into so many branches of our literature and even to our fiction.