ater novelists, who incarnate their ideals in flesh and blood. This,
and the minor character sketches which are introduced incidentally,
imply a feeling after a less didactic method. As yet the sermon is in
the foreground, and the characters are dismissed as soon as they have
illustrated the preacher's doctrine. Such a method was congenial to the
Wit. He was, or aspired to be, a keen man of the world; deeply
interested in the characteristics of the new social order; in the
eccentricities displayed at clubs, or on the Stock Exchange, or in the
political struggles; he is putting in shape the practical philosophy
implied in the conversations at clubs and coffee-houses; he delights in
discussing such psychological problems as were suggested by the worldly
wisdom of Rochefoucauld, and he appreciates clever character sketches
such as those of La Bruyere. Both writers were favourites in England.
But he has become heartily tired of the old romance, and has not yet
discovered how to combine the interest of direct observation of man with
a thoroughly concrete form of presentation.

The periodical essay represents the most successful innovation of the
day; and, as I have suggested, because it represents the mode by which
the most cultivated writer could be brought into effective relation with
the genuine interests of the largest audience. Other writers used it
less skilfully, or had other ways of delivering their message to
mankind. Swift, for example, had already shown his peculiar vein. He
gives a different, though equally characteristic, side of the
intellectual attitude of the Wit. In the _Battle of the Books_ he had
assumed the pedantry of the scholar; in the _Tale of a Tub_ with amazing
audacity he fell foul of the pedantry of divines. His blows, as it
seemed to the Archbishops, struck theology in general; he put that right
by pouring out scorn upon Deists and all who were silly enough to
believe that the vulgar could reason; and then in his first political
writings began to expose the corrupt and selfish nature of
politicians--though at present only of Whig politicians. Swift is one of
the most impressive of all literary figures, and I will not even touch
upon his personal peculiarities. I will only remark that in one respect
he agrees with his friend Addison. He emphasises, of course, the aspect
over which Addison passes lightly; he scorns fools too heartily to treat
them tenderly and do justice to the pathetic side of even