er genius, was awkward and ill-considered and
capricious, and yet strong and successful in the end, as a growing lad,
while he is clumsier, yet manages to leap higher than a year ago.

And once more, to carry the parallel still further, during the middle
period of the reign, while the balance of parties and powers remained
much the same, principles and tendencies began to assert themselves more
definitely, just as muscles and sinews begin to appear through the round
contour of the limbs of a growing child.

Thus, from 1571 to 1577, while there was no startling reversal of
elements in the affairs of England, the entire situation became more
defined. The various parties, though they scarcely changed in their
mutual relations, yet continued to develop swiftly along their respective
lines, growing more pronounced and less inclined to compromise; foreign
enmities and expectations became more acute; plots against the Queen's
life more frequent and serious, and the countermining of them under
Walsingham more patient and skilful; competition and enterprise in trade
more strenuous; Scottish affairs more complicated; movements of revolt
and repression in Ireland more violent.

What was true of politics was also true of religious matters, for the two
were inextricably mingled. The Puritans daily became more clamorous and
intolerant; their "Exercises" more turbulent, and their demands more
unreasonable and one-sided. The Papists became at once more numerous and
more strict; and the Government measures more stern in consequence. The
act of '71 made it no less a crime than High Treason to reconcile or be
reconciled to the Church of Rome, to give effect to a Papal Bull, to be
in possession of any muniments of superstition, or to declare the Queen a
heretic or schismatic. The Church of England, too, under the wise
guidance of Parker, had begun to shape her course more and more
resolutely along the lines of inclusiveness and moderation; to realise
herself as representing the religious voice of a nation that was widely
divided on matters of faith; and to attempt to include within her fold
every individual that was not an absolute fanatic in the Papist or
Puritan direction.

Thus, in every department, in home and foreign politics, in art and
literature, and in religious independence, England was rising and shaking
herself free; the last threads that bound her to the Continent were
snapped by the Reformation, and she was standing with h