In the plan of this book I have tried to follow out as faithfully as possible the general idea of the series to which it belongs; and thus I have been led rather to emphasise the thought of the greater men than to concern myself about including notices of a great number of minor writers. In a period so prolific it has therefore been necessary to enforce a somewhat rigid law of exclusion. The law has been made especially rigid in the case of fiction; because there is nothing that bears the test of time so ill as bad or mediocre fiction. Variety is, after copiousness, the most striking feature of the period under review; and this variety somewhat obscures the operation of ruling principles and ideas. I have taken as my guide the conviction that the key to the period is to be found in its search for truth and its resolve to understand. We see this everywhere, in the development of science, in the inquiry into the causes of the growth and decay of nations, in the intellectual quality of the best poetry, in the analytical psychology of so much prose fiction. It is the reaction against the extreme romanticism of the revolutionary period. The writers of the Revolution sought to grasp truth by an act of faith. In the Victorian period emotion plays a less and logic a greater part. Or we may describe the change as a partial reversion to the spirit of the eighteenth century. The imaginative glamour of the romantic movement is not lost, but there is conjoined with it a juster appreciation of the clearness and precision and the logical coherency of the age of Pope. Next to the eighteenth century the age of Tennyson has been the most critical in our literature. I owe thanks to Professor Hales for his uniform courtesy and kindness in reading and considering my proofs, and for many valuable and helpful suggestions. H. W. LAMPETER, _July, 1897_. CONTENTS. PAGE INTRODUCTION 1 Depression after the Napoleonic struggle--Social problems--Spread of democracy--Popular education--Rise of periodical literature--Physical science--Tractarianism-- Pre-Raphaelitism. CHAPTER I. THOMAS CARLYLE 12 CHAPTER II. POETRY FROM 1830 TO 1850. THE GREATER POETS: TENNYSON AND BROWNING 36 Introduction--Tennyson's first period--Browning's first period CHAPTER III. THE MINOR POETS, 1830 TO 1850 52 Mrs. Hemans and L. E. Landon--Charles Tennyson Turner-- Thomas Hood--Laman Blanchard--Praed--Lord Houghton--R. H. Barham--Hartley Coleridge--Sara Coleridge--William Motherwell--Henry Taylor--Philip James Bailey--R. H. Horne--William Barnes--Mangan--Whitehead--Wade--Ebenezer Jones. CHAPTER IV. THE EARLIER FICTION 68