to have surpassed in
everything. . . This romantic love of beauty, forced to seek in history
and in external nature the satisfaction it cannot find in ordinary
life."--_Modern Painters_, Vol. III. p. 260.

[6] Although devout in their admiration for antiquity, the writers of the
seventeenth century have by no means always clearly grasped the object of
their cult. Though they may understand Latin tradition, they have
certainly never entered into the freer, more original spirit of Greek
art. They have but an incomplete, superficial conception of
Hellenism. . . Boileau celebrates but does not understand Pindar. . .
The seventeenth century comprehended Homer no better than Pindar. What
we miss in them is exactly what we like best in his epopee--the vast
living picture of semi-barbarous civilization. . . No society could be
less fitted than that of the seventeenth century to feel and understand
the spirit of primitive antiquity. In order to appreciate Homer, it was
thought necessary to civilize the barbarian, make him a scrupulous
writer, and convince him that the word "ass" is a "very noble" expression
in Greek--_Pellisier: "The Literary Movement in France" (Brinton's
translation, _1897), pp. 8-10. So Addison apologizes for Homer's failure
to observe those qualities of nicety, correctness, and what the French
call _bienseance_ (decorum,) the necessity of which had only been found
out in later times. See _The Spectator_, No. 160.

[7] Preface to "Cromwell."

[8] "History of English Poetry," section lxi. Vol III. p. 398 (edition of
1840).

[9] See, for a fuller discussion of this subject, "From Shakspere to Pope:
An Inquiry into the Causes and Phenomena of the Rise of Classical Poetry
in England," by Edmund Gosse, 1885.

[10] The cold-hearted, polished Chesterfield is a very representative
figure. Johnson, who was really devout, angrily affirmed that his
celebrated letters taught: "the morality of a whore with the manners of a
dancing-master."

[11] "History of English Thought in the Eighteen Century," Vol. II. chap.
xii. Section iv. See also "Selections from Newman," by Lewis E. Gates,
Introduction, pp. xlvii-xlviii. (1895).

[12] See especially _Spectator_, Nos. 185, 186, 201, 381, and 494.

[13] The classical Landor's impatience of mysticism explains his dislike
of Plato, the mystic among Greeks. Diogenes says to Plato: "I meddle not
at present with infinity or eternity: when I can comprehend them, I