y to all the experience of former times
were we to hope that it should be equally sustained at that
extraordinarily high level which belongs, speaking roughly, to the first
fifty years after the peace of 1815. That was a great period--a great
period in England, a great period in Germany, a great period in France,
and a great period, too, in Italy. [Cheers.]

As I have said, I think we can hardly hope that it should continue on a
perfect level at so high an elevation. Undoubtedly the cultivation of
literature will ever be dear to the people of this country; but we must
remember what is literature, and what is not. In the first place, we
should be all agreed that bookmaking is not literature. ["Hear!"] The
business of bookmaking I have no doubt may thrive and will be continued
upon a constantly extending scale from year to year. But that we may put
aside. For my own part if I am to look a little forward, what I
anticipate for the remainder of the century is an age not so much of
literature proper--not so much of great, permanent and splendid
additions to those works in which beauty is embodied as an essential
condition of production, but I rather look forward to an age of
research. [Cheers.] This is an age of great research--of great research
in science, great research in history--an age of research in all the
branches of inquiry that throw light upon the former condition whether
of our race, or of the world which it inhabits [cheers]; and it may be
hoped that, even if the remaining years of the century be not so
brilliant as some of its former periods, in the production of works
great in themselves, and immortal,--still they may add largely to the
knowledge of mankind; and if they make such additions to the knowledge
of mankind, they will be preparing the materials of a new tone and of
new splendors in the realm of literature. There is a sunrise and sunset.
There is a transition from the light of the sun to the gentler light of
the moon. There is a rest in nature which seems necessary in all her
great operations. And so with all the great operations of the human
mind. But do not let us despond if we seem to see a diminished efficacy
in the production of what is essentially and immortally great. Our sun
if hidden is hidden only for a moment. He is like the day star of
Milton:--

"Which anon repairs his drooping head
And tricks his beams, and with new spangled ore,
Flames in the forehead of the morning sky."

[Che