THE VICTORIAN AGE IN LITERATURE.

Otago Witness, Issue 2263, 15 July 1897, Page 63

THE VICTORIAN AGE IN LITERATURE.

The following was the concluding portion of the paper which was given by Professor Gilray at the meetiDg of the Savage Club on the evening of the 28th ult. :— The Development of the Novel. Another, perhaps the most prominent, feature of Victorian literature is the remarkable development of the novel, and the wonderful variety of types of novel to which it has given birth. The novel has now taken the place of the drama ; and it bears the same important relation to Victorian literature that the drama does to Elizabethan literature. Almost never since the drama became a power in England has it had less to Bay for it? elf than in the Victorian era. It is the most poorly represented literary department in the Queen's reign ; and such dramatic masterpieces as have been produced are rather what are called " closetdramas " (i c., dramas more suitable for private study than for acting) than good stage pieces. The few exceptions that exist, 6uchas Bulwer Lytton's " Lady of Lyons," only make the general poverty of this department more conspicuous. The large number of novels now appearing yearly has made it quite hopeless for anyone to keep pace with this form of literature. In Sir Walter Scott's time about 26 novels appeared annually ; in 1850 the total *vas nearly 100 ; and the annual yield now is about 1800. I bßlieve that the old conception of the novel, a good story, is the true one. • But the novel is now employed for a great many other purposes. It is used for preaching, for controversy, for scient'fic and philosophical disxertation, for discussing social and religious topics, and for studies in • what is called " naturalism" — a term that, in many instances, eeems to- be used euphemistically to express the revolutionary and the disgusting in the region o? morals. These developments of the novel »re very questionable from the artistio point of | view ; and. no writer has done so much of recent : ; ears to recall the novel to its true type, a ! good story, es Robert Louis Stevenson, | who in his fictions has shown something j like the narrative power of Scott, the prince of storytellers, uoited to a style of >irjgular" excellence — a distinction 1 to which Scott, who was a very rapid workman, can make no pretension. Surely "Treasure i Is'and " is the best boyn' story since "Ivanbce," if not since "Robinson Cimoe"! Another interesting feature in the development of the novel is the extent to '•vhieh the literature of fiction is now enriched by the pens of women. Nob a few of the bs3t ot" our Victorian novelists have been women. The number of novelists in Victorian literature h almost countless ; and of these at least bix ; • ninny would say more) are great masters ol ; liotiou — Dickens, Thackeray, Bulwer Lyttou, Ooarlotte Bronte, Gearge Eliot, and R. L. Stevenson. Dickens is the greatest English humorist of the nineteenth century ; Thackeray :n its most remarkable wit, satirist, and realist, >nd is the author, among other books, of "Esmond," the tno3t perFect prose classic of the Queen's reign ; George E'.iot is unrivalled as a •»»«cholog ; c*l novelist and as a painter of Sjglish provincial life and manners ; Stevenson is unequalled among Victorian novelists in mrrative power ; while Bulwer Lylton is not «-»ly a very powerful novelist in various distinct >-< hools of fiction, bu 1 ; he is by far the most veisatile of literary Victorians. He tried bi3 hand at almost every form of literature ; and in nearly every case he obtained a fair amount of tuccts', while in some fields he obtained high distinction. j Charlotte Bronte seems to me to possess even j greiter genius than George Eiiot, although she is strikingly inferior to her in humour, aud had nothing like George Eliot's learnicg, culture, cud general m&ssiveness of mind and attain- j rn«nts. Is there any Victorian novel more intensely interesting on* a first reading than ] "Jane Eyre " ? I have read ifc four times, and I j «ouW read it agjin with pleasure. And is ' there in the wbole> of Victorian fiction a more vividly drawn character than P<iui Emanuel in *• Villette " ? Such is the spell of the author's genius that to this day it is painful to me to thiDk oE fche uncertainty in which she leaves Paul Emanuel's fate at the close of the novel. Was he drowned iv that terrible storm ? or did he return to be m&rried to Lucy Snowe after all P Hejjer, the original of the character and Miss Bronte's teacher in Brussels, survived till May 6 of last year, when he died at the advanced age of 87. Influence of Science on Literature. A very noteworthy feature oE Victorian literature is the extent to which it has been ii fluenced by scientific conceptions. The influence of science on many of our authors is very striking. To mention only two examples, the poems of Tennyson aud the novels of George Eliot are full of scient'fic ideas. The great doctrine of evolution is c aid to have been first propounded by Eichwald, a distinguished Russian naturalist^ who died iv 1576. Although the theory is associated by Englishman mainly with the illustrious nama of Dartvio, Herbert Spencer anticipated him in propounding it, which he did as e»rly as 1852. Tbe doctrine of evolution has profoundly influenced literature, and has revolutionised saveral important studies. Science has also given to Victorian literature such ideas as the v&stness of tbe universe and it 3 agencies, the prevalence of law throughout the wholeness, or integrity, of Nature, and the omnipresence of force. It is not so much the details of the specialist as the large views and generalisations of science that enter into literature. In addition to evolution, other ideas to ..he found in Victorian literature, mainly derived from science, are the idea of the relative as oppo3ed to the absolute, the idea of heredity, and the idea of progress, which is bub a part of the doctrine of evolution. The relativity of human knowledge was a favourite doctrine of Sir William Hamilton. It has had a great effect on the study of history ; and in consequonce'of-jt the aim of the best; historians now is, not so much to attack or defend past Rges, as to try to understand them. The development of the historic sense, caused by this idea of relativity, has mide it perfectly plain that ifc is unjust and uncritical to judge previous ages by our nineteenth century

standards of whit ii tight and proper. Only [ by trying to understand tlia probable thonghts and feelings of historical characters in the surroundings in which they found thoojselvos can any approach to a just estimate of these characters be made. The same idea is applicable to literary and other kinds of criticism. The idea of heredity is very prominent in the works of George Eliot, more especially in " The Spanish Gypsy." It is not usual to class scientific writers as literary men. But one Victorian scientific writer has shown such remarkable literary ability and such brilliant powers of exposition that he belongs almost as much to literature as to science. It has been well said of Professor Huxley that '• a literary critic of the very firsb class was lost in him." Influence of the Democratic Movement on Literature. The great democratic movement, so characteristic of the Quean's reign, is powerfully reflected in Victorian literature ; and literature has had, to a large extent, to accommodate itself to this powerful force. Literary masterpieces can now be had for a few pence; and the lives of our chief authors and the characteristics of their works have been made familiar to the general public by admirably written miniature biographies, or •'monographs'" as it is now fashionable to call them. Oue of the most pleasing cotes of Victorian literature is the extent to which the people ag a whole have been the subject-mabter of.literature. An instructive contrast might be drawn in this respect between the writings of Pope and Tennyson. Pope writes of lords, ladies, society coquettes, wits, and literary men; Teunyson, on the other hand, takes the whole English people for his subject. Ha is the typical poet of Victorian England, and admirably exemplifies the greater sense of brotherhood and the broadening of our interests and sympathies to characteristic of the time. "The enthusiasm of humanity " and tho growth of humane sentiment have found iv him an admirable exponent. Victorian Poetry. The Victorian era has been very productive in poetry, and can claim many sweet singers, and, at least, two really great poets, Tennyson and BrowniDg. It is doubtful, however, if it will finally rank as one of the very greatest poetical periods in the literary history of Britain. It would be unsound and uncritical to compare it in poetical value with the Elizabethan age ; and it is completely eclipsed by the earlier decades of the present century, whish added to the annuls of English verse such illustrious namss as those of Wordsworth, Coleridge, Crabbe, Scotfc, Byron, Shelley, and Keats. Further, it is very doubtful whether tha poems of Milton do not transcend in real poetical value, as they certainly do in sustained elevation of style, all the poetry that has been written in the Queen's reign. In poetry, if not in prose, supreme quality is infinitely more important than great quantity. And we oughts to remember that there were many sweat singers in England in Milton's time, in addition to Milton himself. The two supreme Victorian singers are Tennyson and Browning. Tennyson has reflected better than any other Victorian the general tendencies of Britain in the Queen's reign. He is the most representative, toe raosb popular, the most .tuneful and artistic of Victorian poets. Browning, although not nearly so popular, is probably even more loved by his admirers than Tennyson is by the great body of the people. The function Browning j has discharged to his age is even a higher one < than that discharged by Tennyson. He hasgiven to the age the particular kind of teaching and inspiration of which it stood sorely in need. The spiritual maladies of the age find in his works an admirable corrective. He opposes to the age's pessimism his sunny optimism, to its materialism his intense spirituality, to its unbelief his unfailing and triumphant religious faith. Great Religious Teachers. No age can be morally great without its prophets, or geniuses and teachers of the religious order ; and these have not besn denied to the Victorian era. Among the mo3b remarkable of those belonging to the ranks of the clergy aro John Henry Newman, Frederick D. Maurice. Charles Kingsley, Dean Stanley, Dr Martiueau, and C. H. Spurgeon. Newman, in addition to bsiug a rtmarkable spiritual genius, the Thomas Aquinas ot the nineteenth century, is ouß of the ment exquisite masters of Eoglish prose, and is one ot the greatest, and, ppgsibly, the Hat of our theological clas«c3. Waile reli- ■■ gion is being brought nenrsr and nearer every i j year to the hearts of the people, it is uudoubted j ! that theology is becoming rnora aud more ; technical and professional ; and this tendency, which is, probably, favourable tD the production of works of profound theological learning, is undoubtedly unfavourable to the production of | theological classics, and tends to kill this valuable speeiea of litera'ure altogether. Manriee, a diseiole of Colevidge, and friend of many of the leading men of the time, is a singularly interesting man ; and many received Christianity from him that could not have been reached by any other teacher. He is at once the saint and martyr of the B-oid Church movement — its saint, because of (ha great beauty and nobility of hia religious character ; its martyr, because he was deprived of his professorship in King's College, London, on acjount of his rejection of the orthodox dogma 1 of eternal punishment. | No writer of the Queen's reign is mora i thoroughly English in h ; s characteristics thau j Charles Kings'ey. He is one of the " muscular ! Christians," as they were called His life and j works undoubtedly rauk high among the j elevating influences of the time ; and he has j stamped his personality on the age by such splendid fioions as •• Westward Ho!" and " Hypatia." Probably no clergyman of the reign has been more thoroughly in sympathy with the laity fchan Dean Stanley. He w&3 the least professional of clergymen. His wide knowledge of history and literature and his extsnsive experience as a traveller aud man of the world helped ; him to sympathise with men of widely different j views ; and he and his gifted wife had a wonder- ■ ful faculty for bringing interesting people together and getting them to love and under- ■ stand each other. Few, if any, social gatherings in the Queen's reign can have been more j interesting than those that took place at the Westminster Deanery. There is no mora fascinating personality in the age thau Dean Stauley ; and the charm of his character was felt by all with whom he came into contact, from the Queen heraelf down to the humblest of her subjects. Of all the clergymen of the Queen's reigo, I imagine he enjoyed the widest popularity. He is one of the great reconcilers of tha age, probably the greate't of Victorian peace-makers, with the one illustrious exception of the Queen herself. Dr Martineau, who was born iv 1805, and is, therefore, now one of the most venerable figures I among Victorians, has been one of the great ' spiritual forces of the age, and combines in a I remarkable degree profound learning, philosophical genius, and fiae literary gifts. He has deeply influenced religious thought ; and his power has been felt by many that are utterly } at variance with his distinctive dogma*

C 11. Spurgeon is t'je most popalar repre- j sentalive in tuo Queen's reign of evangelical • Ohxiefciaiiity ; aod no ova that h*3 heard him pvoaoh in his hideous tabernacle can evev forget; his remarkably rich and powerful voice. I imagine there have been only two voices in the Victorian era that could bo compared with his — namely Bright's a'\d Gladstone*. I have heard all three ; and to this day I feel puzzled as to which of the three is the richest and most powerful. Some may claim to be adherents of a more humane and more enlightened theology than Spurgeon preached ; but we ought to remember that he was, and still is, the favourite religious teaoher of a large section of the Anglo-Saxon race all over the world, and that hia sermons still sell by the hundred thousand, and, therefore! satisfy a widely-felt want. : It is very characteristic of the Victorian era ' that its prophets have not been confined to the ranks of tho clergy. On the contrary, some of the greatest of them have been laymen. It is sufficient to mention the names of Carlyle, Ruskin, and BrowniDg, all of whom have had widespread spiritual influence. Carlyle has had greater moral influence than any other Victorian; and in intensity of spiritual'power and profound religiousness of nature he recalls, the Hebrew prophets. COKCLUSION. The Victorian era has been a very rich one iv our literary annals ; but almost all the literary Victorians of the first order are now dead, the most illustrious exception being John Ruskin, who is the last survivor of the Viotorian im- '; mortals. Ruskin is nob only the greatest of all art critics ; but he has done more than any other Englishman that ever lived to impress the British people with the importance and significance of beauty as an element in human life. The Victorian era would be much poorer j without the work of Ruakin ; and no influence in the Queen's reigu has been so unique as hia, or so urgently required by the British people. Although there are many able writers now living and working in Great Britain, it is no disrespect to these authors, but simply accurate description, to say that they belong to writers of the second class. There is now no Dickens, Thackeray, or George Eliot among novelists ; no Tennyson or Brov/ning among poets ; no Da Quincey or Matthew Arnold among critics; no Macaulay or Carlyle among historian". The great original literary forces that have made the Qaeen's reign illustrious ssem, for the present, to bo spent; aid the time in which we are now living has been accurately described as "a period rather of abundant cleverness than of j supreme genius." j In bringing these very imperfect remarks to a close, I feel that, all in all, Tennyson has reflected, better than any other Victorian author, the leading tendencies of the period. No one has expressed so well as Tennyson the intense loyalty and passionate devotion of the British race to tbe Queen. Nothing in the proceedings of the Savage Club has pleased me mote than the loyal enthusiasm with which wo weekly eing the first verse of the National Anthem at the close of our meetings. In some Dun?din gatherings the first bar of " God save I the Queen " is taken as a signal for as rapid an ' exodus ss po c sible ; bub I trust that the loyal celebrations in * which we have baen recently engaged will for ever put an end to this unseemly practice. Be this as it may, I cannot close tihig brief paper better than by quoting a few - linea from Tennyson's noble address to Queen Victoria :— ■ - t " Slay you rule us long, j And leave us rulers of your blood ■ As noble till the latest day ! May children of our children say, ! ' She wrought her people lasting good ; ; Hey court was pure ; her life serene ; God gave her peace ; her hand reposed } A thousand claims to reverence closed In her as Mother, Wife, and Queen ; ' Aaf? statesmen at fcer council met Wbo knew the seasons when to take i Occasion by the hand, and make I The bounds of freedom wider yet By shaping some august decree, j Which kept her thvone unshaken still ' Broad-based upon her people's will, And compags'd by the inviolate sea.' " The action of Steele v. the Bank of New Zealand, a olaim of £6959, damages for alleged breach of covenant in connection with a sheep run iv Hawke's Bay, after a week's hearing, | ended by counsel for the plaintiff, in view of the I evidence given, agreeing to a verdict for | defendant, without costs, whioh was entered by ,' the judge. Nearly four-fifths of the submarine cables of the world are in the hands of British companies, ; who own a length of more than 150,000 miles of . cable, laid at tbe cost of over £30,000,000. Of , 14- cables across the Atlantic to America, FraDce has one and Great Britaiu 10 ; while so popular ate the British cables that nine out of every 10 j telegrams are despatched over British lines. I A great doctor has studied the fingers and ! toes of 4500 criminal?, and finds a deficiency in the size or number of tees quite frequent among ! them, although very rare among ordinary meu. j He ha<s also observed that prehensile toes, ! marked by a wide space between the great toe ' and the s?cond toe, is a condition quite common among crinv.tt&lß.

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