friends. The Orphan and Venice Preserved abound in affecting and eloquent passages that touch the sensibilities more directly, perhaps, than Shakespeare's dramas. But they have not that subtle individuality of character and expression which stamp Shakespeare's creations as a class by themselves. Otway is merely affecting; he does not reveal to us a new world of thought and sentiment.

"This [The Orphan] is one of the few plays that keep possession of the stage, and has pleased for almost a century, through all the vicissitudes of domestic fashion. Of this play nothing new can easily be said. It is a domestic tragedy drawn from middle life. Its whole power is upon the affections; for it is not written with much comprehension of thought or elegance of expression. But, if the heart is interested, many other beauties may be wanting, yet not be missed.

"A tragedy [Venice] which still continues to be one of the favorites of the public, notwithstanding the want of morality in the original design and the despicable scenes of vile comedy with which he has diversified his tragic action. . . . The work of a man not attentive to decency nor zealous for virtue, but of one who conceived forcibly, and drew originally, by consulting nature in his own breast." - Dr. Johnson. THOMAS SHADWELL, 1640-1692, is a well-known dramatic writer of this period.

Shadwell was educated at Cambridge, and abandoned the bar for the drama. In 1688 he was crowned poet laureate. Dryden ridiculed him severely in his Mac Flecknoe. Shadwell had some slight poetic ability and some wit, but was unable to finish pieces thoroughly. And not only were his plays defective; they were gross and indecent even in that age of license. Among them are The Humorists, The Libertine, The Virtuoso, Timon of Athens, The Lancashire Witches, The Squire of Alsatia, Bury Fair, &c. The Volunteers exposed the knavery of the dealers in stocks. Nahum Tate and Shadwell are ranked by Southey as the lowest of the poet laureates.

NATHANIEL LEE, 1658-1691, was a dramatist of some note, his notoriety being gained, however, as much by the irregularities of his life as by his genius.

Lee was a native of Hertfordshire, and was educated at Cambridge. Not successful as an actor, he furned his attention to play-writing. He was the author of eleven dramas, all tragedies but one. Owing to his habits of intemperance he became insane, was for a time in Bedlam, and was finally killed in a street-brawl. Lee was much lauded by some of his cotemporaries, Dryden, for instance; and has since been mercilessly condemned for his bombast and extravagance. The sounder opinion seems to be that Lee as a writer was full of faults, but also was a man of decided poetical talents, and that he might have produced works of lasting merit, had he only learned to restrain his imagination. The most popular of his dramas are Alexander, and Theodosius or The Force of Love.

SIR CHARLES SEDLEY, 1639-1701, a gay courtier and wit of the reigns of Charles IL and James II., wrote the following plays: The Mulberry Garden, Antony and Cleopatra, Bellamira, Beauty the Conqueror, The Grumbler, The Tyrant King of Crete, besides numerous Songs and other short poems. He was in great repute in his day as a man of letters, but is now little known. His writings partake of the general licentiousness of his age, though not to such a degree as some.

RICHARD FLECKNOE,

1680, a dramatic poet in the time of Charles II. He wrote some plays and poems, but nothing worthy of record, and he has his place in literature because only of the scourgings given him in the satires of Dryden and Pope.

JOHN BANKS, a popular dramatic writer during the latter part of the seventeenth century. Some of his plays, running from 1677 to 1696, are the following: Rival Kings, Destruction of Troy, Virtue Betrayed, Island Queens, Unhappy Favorite, Innocent Usurper, and Cyrus the Great. "His style gives alternate specimens of vulgar meanness and of bombast. But even his dialogue is not destitute of occasional nature and pathos; and the value of his works as acting plays is very considerable.”—Knight. MRS. APHRA BEHN, - 1689, was of a good family by the name of Johnson, in the city of Canterbury. Her father being appointed Governor of Surinam, Aphra became a resident of that country, and while there became acquainted with the native prince, Oroonoko, whose story she afterwards gave in a novel of that name. On returning to England, she was married to Mr. Behn, an eminent Dutch merchant of London, and so became conversant with Dutch affairs. King Charles II. having formed a high opinion of her abilities, from conversations with her in regard to the colony of Surinam, sent her to Antwerp, in the secret service of the Government, during the progress of the Dutch war. She had a lover living at Antwerp, through whom she learned important state secrets, which she communicated to her Government. Mrs. Behn published three volumes of poems, consisting of songs and other short pieces. She wrote also seventeen plays, and translated several works from the French and the Latin. She was the author of Letters between a Nobleman and his Sister, and of Eight Love Letters, the latter being addressed to a gentleman whom she passionately loved, and with whom she corresponded under the name of Lycidas. "The licentiousness of Mrs. Behn's pen is a disgrace to her sex and to the language." — Allibone.

II. PHILOSOPHICAL AND MISCELLANEOUS WRITERS.

Locke.

John Locke, 1632-1704, is one of the names always quoted in speaking of the great thinkers who have largely influenced the current of English opinion on science, morals, or religion.

His Career. Locke was the son of a captain in the Parliamentary army. After passing through the Westminster School and Oxford University, he applied himself to the study of medicine, in which science he acquired no little proficiency. His skill in prescribing for the treatment of Lord Ashley (afterwards Earl of Shaftesbury), in a critical disease, led to a lifelong intimacy with that nobleman and his family. Locke became thenceforward a permanent member of his lordship's household, and the tutor of his young son, afterwards celebrated as the author of The Characteristics. Locke shared in the political odium attached to his noble patron, and was obliged at one time to secrete himself on the continent to avoid being arrested on the suspicion of treasonable practices. At the Revolution, in 1668, he returned to England with other members of his party, and in the same fleet that brought over William and Mary. He received appointments

under the new Government which yielded him a competent support, but his health failing he gave up his offices in 1700, and passed the four remaining years of his life in retirement at the family seat of his friend Sir Francis Masham.

Locke's writings are numerous, and are of various kinds, according to the varieties of experience of his life.

Political Writings. By the circumstances of his life he was thrown into connection with the statesmen to whom the public affairs of the nation were subjects of controlling practical interest. His thoughts consequently were much occupied with questions of this kind, and though not a professed political writer, in the sense of being a partisan, he yet wrote several treatises on political subjects. Among these may be named his celebrated Letters on Toleration, giving views in regard to political liberty much in advance of his times; Two Treatises on Government; On Interest and The Value of Money; On Coining Silver Money; On Raising the Value of Money, etc.

Religious and Educational. — Being a devout Christian, Locke wrote On the Reasonableness of Christianity, on Miracles, A Paraphrase and Notes on the Epistles to the Romans, Corinthians, Galatians, and Ephesians, and other works of a religious and devotional kind. He wrote also Thoughts concerning Education, a treatise which, though containing some things now ascertained to be impracticable, has yet many valuable suggestions, and is an important part of the literature of that subject.

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His Great Work. The great work of Locke's life, however, was An Essay concerning the Human Understanding. He was occupied with this, at intervals, for eighteen years. It gave him rank as a philosopher and metaphysician of world-wide celebrity, causing his name to be associated with those of Bacon and Newton as leaders of human thought.

The theory which Locke undertook to explode was the old doctrine of innate ideas, and the theory which he proposed in its place was that all human knowledge begins with sensation. This theory, which for a time obtained almost universal ascendency, has been materially modified since his day, and he himself is no longer acknowledged as a leader in any school of philosophy. But he did a great service by his unanswerable refutation of many errors which up to that time held undisputed sway, and by the example which he gave of a more rational way of treating metaphysical subjects.

Locke's Essay, on account of the freshness and vigor of its style,

held its place as a text-book in institutions of learning much longer than it otherwise would have done. While he makes no pretence to ornament, and never runs into smooth phrase or rounded periods, he avoids most sedulously the uncouth and abstruse jargon of the older writers on metaphysics, and aims everywhere to make his meaning plain and obvious to the common understanding. His diction is that of the common people, his illustrations are drawn from common life. His book, even in the abstrusest parts of it, is entertaining.

Boyle.

Hon. Robert Boyle, 1627-1691, son of the "Great Earl of Cork," is greatly distinguished as an experimental philosopher, of the school of Bacon, and as the chief founder of the Royal Society.

Character and Life. - Boyle was a very devout man, and though strongly tempted to enter into political life, he steadily declined, and gave himself entirely to the cultivation of science and the practice of religious duties, and at his death he bequeathed a fund for the endowment of an annual course of lectures in defence of the Christian religion. These lectures began in 1692, one hundred and eighty years ago. Many of them have been printed. They form a valuable series of works on the evidences of Christianity. Mr. Boyle himself wrote several works of the same sort, and studied the Hebrew and Greek languages for the sake of qualifying himself better to write on this subject.

He was a man of such a devout and reverent character that he would never utter the name of God in conversation without first making a slight but perceptible pause. His chief labors and writings were in the line of experimental philosophy. He was the principal founder of the Royal Society, and was offered the Presidency of it, but he declined the honor, as he repeatedly declined the peerage. He was never married, but lived in London with his sister, Lady Ranelagh, whom he survived only a week. Boyle belonged to the same school of philosophy as Bacon, and may be considered indeed as intellectually the successor and heir of the latter. In reference to the fact that Boyle was born on the day that Bacon died, it was well said: Sol occubuit; nox nulla secuta est (The sun has set; but no night followed).

Works. After Boyle's death, his works were collected and published in 5 vols., fol. His principal works, exclusive of those of a purely scientific character, are the following: Seraphic Love; Considerations upon the Style of the Holy Scriptures; Occasional Reflections; A Discourse of Things above Reason; A Free Inquiry into the

Vulgarly received Notion of Nature; A Free Discourse against Customary Swearing; On the High Veneration Man's Intellect Owes to God; The Reconcileableness of Reason and Religion.

"No one Englishman of the seventeenth century, after Lord Bacon, raised to himself so high a reputation in experimental philosophy as Robert Boyle."- Hallam.

"As a philosopher he conferred advantages on science which place him in the same rank with Bacon and Newton."— Cunningham.

"Some of the most striking and beautiful instances of design in the order of the material world, which occur in the sermons preached at the Boyle Lectures, are borrowed from the works of the founder."- Dugald Stewart.

Temple.

Sir William Temple, 1628-1699, a well-known English diplomatist, attained distinction as a writer.

Career. Temple studied at Cambridge, and afterwards travelled on the continent in company with his tutor, Dr. Ralph Cudworth. Temple entered upon political life and rose to distinction. His chief services were the negotiation of the Triple Alliance between England, Holland, and Sweden, in 1668, the treaty of peace between England and Holland, and the marriage between William, Prince of Orange, and the Princess Mary of England. Temple finally abandoned politics and retired to his country-seat of Moor Park. Here he had, for a number of years, as private secretary, Swift, who was then a young man unknown to fame.

Works.-Temple's works fall into two classes, his Memoirs and his Miscellanies. The former consist chiefly of letters and autobiographical essays. The latter comprise his detached essays on various topics. One of them, the Essay on Ancient Learning, has attained considerable notoriety from the circumstance that its author was totally unfamiliar with the subject, and betrayed his ignorance. Temple's chief merit consists in his style, which has received the almost universal praise of critics.

"Next to Dryden, the second place among the polite writers of the period from the Restoration to the end of the century has commonly been given to Sir William Temple. His Miscellanies, to which principally this praise belongs, are not recommended by more erudition than a retired statesman might acquire with no great expense of time, nor by much originality of reflection. But, if Temple has not profound knowledge, he turns all he possesses well to account; if his thoughts are not very striking, they are commonly just. He has less eloquence than Bolingbroke, but is also free from his restlessness and ostentation. Much also which now appears superficial in Temple's historical surveys was far less familiar in his age; he has the merit of a comprehensive and a candid mind. His style, to which we should particularly refer, will be found in comparison with his contemporaries highly polished, and sustained with more equability than they have preserved, remote from anything either pedantic or humble. The periods are studiously rhythmical; yet they want the variety and peculiar charm that we admire in those of Dryden."- Hallam.