themselves to believe what they had done; whilst the Spaniards comforted themselves with the belief that they were devils and not men who had destroyed them in such a manner. So much a strong resolution of bold and courageous men can bring to pass, that no resistance and advantage of ground can disappoint them. And it can hardly be imagined how small the loss the English sustained in this unparalleled action; no one ship being left behind, and the killed and wounded not exceeding two hundred men, when the slaughter on board the Spanish ships and on the shore was incredible.

"The fleet after this, having been long abroad, found it necessary to return home. And this was the last service performed by Blake; who sickened in his return, and in the very entrance of the fleet into the Sound of Plymouth, expired. He wanted †† no pomp of funeral when he was dead, Cromwell causing him to be brought up by land to London in all the state that could be; and to encourage his officers to venture their lives, that they might be pompously buried, he was, with all the solemnity possible, and at the charge of the public, interred in Harry the Seventh's Chapel, among the monuments of the kings." (Book xv.) NOTES.-* and. and . . . and. Note the simplicity of the connection of various parts of this passage. It corresponds to the λégis eipoμévn or "running style" of the early Greek chroniclers, as opposed to the λégis σrpoyyvan, “round" or "periodic style." Reconstruct this sentence in several ways, dispensing with one or more of the and's. got: the intransitive verb to get is no longer conjugated with to be. We now say, "had got," not "were got." See 116, 5. they thought: antecedent, "the Galleons," rather a harsh construction. Or it may mean, generally, "the enemy." See note **. This lax use of pronouns is a grave fault of style: see § 22, foll. "Offin," i.e. offing (edition before us, 1717). "Posture: we now say position of ships, troops, &c.; posture of the body or of affairs. "However. which... which yet.. so that . . . which . .:" these connectives mark the loose, and so to speak invertebrate, character of the style. See note *. **"they" i.e. the victors, by a loose change of subject. See note ‡. ++"He wanted Cromwell causing and to encourage his (Cromwell's) officers ... he was interred. . . The sentence is faulty, as not unfrequently happens in Clarendon.

...

EXERCISE 97.

Re-write the above narrative, using only short sentences, somewhat after the manner of Macaulay. (See p. 16.)

SIR THOMAS BROWNE: 1605-1682.

(Shaw, p. 189; Rowley, p. 110.)

§ 188. Sir Thomas Browne's writing is that of a learned and genial recluse. From his intimate familiarity with Latin, as the common medium of communication among men of letters, he was led to transfer words from the Latin vocabulary to the English whenever it suited his purpose to do so, with just the indispensable change of termination.

The following passage is from his best-known work, 'Religio Medici," or the Physician's Creed.' (Sir Thomas was a physician at Norwich.) Having regard to the ripeness of thought and style which this work dis

plays, we learn with surprise (see pt. ii. § 11) that he wrote it at the early age of thirty.

66

SLEEPING AND WAKING.

There is surely a nearer apprehension of any thing that delights us in our dreams, than in our waked senses; without this I were unhappy, for my awaked judgment discontents me, ever whispering unto me, that I am from my friend; but my friendly dreams in the night requite me, and make me think I am within his arms. I thank God for my happy dreams, as I do for my good rest, for there is a satisfaction in them unto reasonable desires, and such as can be content with a fit of happiness; and surely it is not a melancholy conceit to think we are all asleep in this world, and that the conceits of this life are as mere dreams to those of the next, as the phantasms of the night to the conceit of the day. There is an equal delusion in both, and the one doth but seem to be the emblem or picture of the other; we are somewhat more than our selves in our sleeps, and the slumber of the body seems to be but the waking of the soul.* It is the ligation † of sense, but the liberty of reason, and our waking conceptions do not match the fancies of our sleeps.

"We term sleep a death, and yet it is waking that kills us, and destroys those spirits that are the house of life It is that death by which we may literally be said to die daily; a death which Adam died before his mortality; a death whereby we live a middle and moderating point between life and death; in fine, so like death, I dare not trust it without my prayers, and take my farewell in a Colloquy with God.

"The night is come like to the day;
Depart not Thou, great God, away.
Let not my sins, black as the
night,

Eclipse the lustre of Thy Light.
Keep still in my horizon; for to

me

The sun makes not the day, but
Thee.

Thou whose nature cannot sleep,
On my temples sentry keep;
Guard me 'gainst those watchful
foes

Whose eyes are open while mine
close.

Let no dreams my head infest,
But such as Jacob's temples blest.
When I do rest, my soul advance;
Make my sleep a holy trance:

That I may, my rest being
wrought,

Awake into some holy thought,
And with as active vigour run
My course as doth the nimble sun.
Sleep is a death, O make me try,
By sleeping, what it is to die:
And as gently lay my head
On my grave as now my bed.
Howe'er I rest, great God, let me
Awake again at last with Thee.
And thus assur'd, behold I lie,
Securely, or to wake or die.
These are my drowsy days; in
vain

I do now wake to sleep again :
O come that hour, when I shall

never

Sleep again, but wake for ever.'

"This is the dormitive I take to bedward; I need no other laudanum than this to make me sleep; after which I close mine eyes in security, content to take my leave of the sun and sleep unto the Resurrection.”

This beautiful paragraph-beautiful alike in thought

and expression-may fittingly be followed by the characteristic peroration of the Hydriotaphia (Urn-burial).

[Passage to be committed to memory.]

"To subsist in lasting monuments, to live in their productions, to exist in their names, and predicament § of chimæra's, was large satisfaction unto old expectations, and made one part of their Elysiums. But all this is nothing to the metaphysics || of true belief. To live indeed is to be again our selves, which being not only an hope but an evidence in noble believers, 'tis all one to lie in S. Innocent's churchyard ¶ as in the sands of Egypt; ready to be anything in the ecstasy of being ever, and as content with six foot as the Moles ** of Adrianus."

NOTES. The former part of this passage is free from the more marked peculiarities of Sir Thomas Browne's style. It is as simple in expression as it is pure and tender in feeling. The balance and rhythm of the periods fall with a most agreeable and satisfying effect upon the ear. tligation, i.e. binding; Lat. ligatio. spirits, i.e. vital spirits. Dr. Johnson gives the following definition of the word "spirit in this sense: "that which gives vigour or cheerfulness to the mind; the purest part of the body bordering, says Sydenham [also a physician], on immortality. In this meaning it is commonly written with the plural termination." Dict. s.v. "Predicament of chimæra's" (=chimæras, pl.), i.e. predicament or category to which chimæras belong, viz. mere fancy and unreality. There is a sort of climax of unreality -monuments-productions-existence in name and fame-and finally this fatal " dicament." Here as elsewhere, a pedantry which is not without its charm, has led the writer into the use of an expression, the sense of which is far from obvious. || Metaphysics, i.e. the philosophy of Being. S. Innocent's churchyard: a place of proverbially swift corruption. The allusion is somewhat far-fetched; compare note §. **The "Moles of Adrianus " is "the stately mausoleum or sepulchral pile built by Adrianus in Rome, where now standeth the Castle of S. Angelo." (Note in folio ed.)

EXERCISE 98.

pre

(1) Subject for Essay: Compare with Sir Thomas Browne's lines ("The night is come," &c.), the popular "Evening Hymns" which are based upon them (Bishop Ken's and Keble's). Point out what thoughts and phrases in these compositions have been directly borrowed from the earlier poem or suggested by it. Trace the continuity of thought which pervades this. Which of the three seems best adapted to the purpose indicated by Sir Thomas Browne ("This is the dormitive. I need no other laudanum .")?

(2) Or this (more difficult): Subject for Essay: Dreams, as a legitimate source of enjoyment, and as furnishing illustrations of the activity of the mind in sleep ("the ligation [or fettering] of sense, but the liberty of reason"); vanity and emptiness of much of human life as suggesting the idea that we are actually living and thinking only in a dream

Compare and contrast this view with that of Sir Thomas Browne.

II. THE NEWER ENGLISH STYLE.;

GILBERT BURNET: 1643-1715.

(Shaw, p. 283; Rowley, p. 153.)

$ 189. Bishop Burnet was not a man possessed of any special literary aptitude or power. But his writings, as compared with those of Hyde, Earl of Clarendon (§ 187)— both dealing with the history of their own times-serve to show what progress English prose was making. There is little more than a generation between the two men, but the difference of style is very great indeed. Both wrote

·

narrative; but Clarendon writes it in the fine old stately manner of a courtly gentleman of the age of Bacon and Raleigh; Burnet writes it like a plain, practical, commonsense, modern Englishman. It requires effort and concentration of mind to read the 'History of the Great Rebellion,' whereas Burnet's History of his own Times' is as easy reading as any book or newspaper of to-day. This is not merely an individual matter between two writers. It indicates a great and important change which English prose as a whole was undergoing, and which was sufficiently marked to attract the attention of Burnet himself. The new style aimed to be "clear, plain, and short; " the old was apt to be both "long" heavy: and Burnet ascribes the change in part to the influence of Charles II., who (he says) had a good notion of style, due to his long residence in France, where much attention was being successfully given to this subject.*

وو

and

66

There is doubtless some truth in this view, for French prose from the time of Louis XIV. has been remarkable for its lucidness and freedom from that involved structure which so largely characterizes English writers of the old school. But the change is probably due, in a larger measure, to the spirit of the age itself, the tone of which was strongly opposed to anything like pedantry or "longwindedness.". S. T. Coleridge speaks of "the prevalence

See Mr. Matthew Arnold's very interesting paper on this subject in 'Macmillan's Magazine,' June 1878. (Johnson, Lives.)

of the Cavalier slang style," * as marking even the divines of Charles the Second's time. And in general, a sort of plain, easy directness, gained the ascendancy over the more laboured and often pedantic style which had preceded. In the same way, the artificial conceits in which writers of the preceding period revelled, passed out of fashion, and were succeeded by the plain, sensible, and often pungent observations of such writers as South, Tillotson, Paley, and Butler. Mark the contrast presented by such a paragraph as the following, from a writer of the time of Charles I.,-which appears to have been regarded with lively admiration in the author's own day,t—as compared with either of the extracts from South (pp. 158– 160):

"The Light of Reason is a pleasant Light. 'Tis lumen jucundum. All Light is pleasant, 'tis the very smile of Nature, the gloss of the world, the varnish of Creation, a bright paraphrase upon bodies. Whether it discover itself in the modesty of a morning blush, and open its fair and virgin eyelids in the dawning of the day; or whether it dart out more vigorous and sprightful beams, shining out in its noon-day glory; whether it sport and twinkle in a star; or blaze and glare out in a comet; or frisk and dance in a jewel; or dissemble and play the hypocrite in a glow-worm; or epitomize and abbreviate itself in a spark; or show its zeal, and the ruddiness of its complexion, in the yolk of the fire; or grow more pale, pining and consuming away in a candle," &c. (Culverwell, Light of Nature, p. 148.)

§ 190. There is little for the student to learn from this farrago of misplaced ingenuity;-the production, be it said, of a mind of no common depth and originality, and one whose best things are very different from what an injudicious editor has thus singled out for special commendation -except what not to admire. The style of it is vicious; and has deservedly become extinct. On the other hand, the style of the extracts from South can never become obsolete, and presents to the student an admirable model of directness and force.

§ 191. A natural reaction against the inordinate lengthiness of the divines of the Puritan period furthered the change of which we are speaking. Men grew impatient of long preambles and discursive digressions, as well as of the multiplied conceits, allusions, and quotations, which

*Table Talk,' p. 247.

This gaudy paragraph is thus referred to in the editor's preamble "to the reader": "If thou shouldst desire a foretast of the Authour's stile, I would turn thee to the beginning of the seventeenth chapter; never uas light so bespangled, never did it triumph in greater bravery of expression." (1652.)