tian revelation than the views often advocated in the
national pulpits. The religion of Christ seems to have been regarded as
little more than a useful kind of cement which held society together.
The good sense advocated so constantly by Pope in poetry was also
considered the principal requisite in the pulpit, and the careful
avoidance of religious emotion in the earlier years of the century led
to the fervid and too often ill-regulated enthusiasm that prevailed in
the days of Whitefield and Wesley. At the same time there appears to
have been no lack of religious controversy. 'The Church in danger' was a
strong cry then, as it is still. The enormous excitement caused in 1709
by Sacheverell's sermon in St. Paul's Cathedral advocating passive
obedience, denouncing toleration, and aspersing the Revolution
settlement, forms a striking chapter in the reign of Queen Anne.
Extraordinary interest was also felt in the Bangorian controversy raised
by Bishop Hoadly, who, in a sermon preached before the king (1717), took
a latitudinarian view of episcopal authority, and objected to the entire
system of the High Church party.

Queen Caroline, whose keen intellect was allied to a coarseness which
makes her a representative of the age, was considerably attracted by
theological discussion. She obtained a bishopric for Berkeley,
recommended Walpole to read Butler's _Analogy_, which was at one time
her daily companion at the breakfast-table, and made the preferment of
its author one of her last requests to the king. She liked well to
reason with Dr. Samuel Clarke, 'of Providence, Foreknowledge, Will, and
Fate,' and wished to make him Archbishop of Canterbury, but was told
that he was not sufficiently orthodox. Theology was not disregarded
under the first and second Georges; it was only religion that had fallen
into disrepute. The law itself was calculated to excite contempt for the
most solemn of religious services. 'I was early,' Swift writes to
Stella, 'with the Secretary (Bolingbroke), but he was gone to his
devotions and to receive the sacrament. Several rakes did the same. It
was not for piety, but for employment, according to Act of Parliament.'

A glance at some additional features in the social condition of the age
will enable us to understand better the character of its literature.

III.

It is a platitude to say that authors are as much affected as other men
by the atmosphere which they breathe. Now and then a consummate m