The trend of the Modern Language Association has been, thus far, almost exclusively in the direction of grammatical criticism and philological exegesis. The literary side of language has been subordinated or retired until it is almost faded out of memory, in the confusion of tongues and the strife of phonetics. Nearly all of the illustrating power, the æsthetic brilliance of literary culture, is lost upon the philological devotee. As an attempt to counteract this tendency, I purpose a special investigation of some points suggested by the study of one of the noblest works through which the spiritual genius and the artistic sense of our age has expressed itself—I mean Tennyson's “In Memoriam.” As is well known to students of our literature, “In Memoriam “appeared in 1850, the year of Wordsworth's death and of Tennyson's succession to the office of Laureate. It is one of the five or six supreme elegiac poems of our language, “Lycidas “standing first in point of time (1637), then Dryden's “Ode on Mrs. Killigrew” (1686), then Shelley's “Adonais “(1822), suggested by the death of Keats and “In Memoriam “which was occasioned by the death of Arthur Hallam at Vienna in September, 1833—in 1850. Matthew Arnold's “Thyrsis,” evoked by the death of his friend Arthur Hugh Clough, in point of grace and tenderness is entitled to most honorable recognition, but as it is subsequent by several years to the appearance of “In Memoriam,”

I purpose in the present paper to direct attention to certain influences by whose action the character of our English prose style is being more or less affected. It will be apparent at a glance that I do not design an elaborate exposition of any one phase of our modern literary life, but simply a concise discussion of some of its aspects that have been impressed upon me during a varied and changeful career as teacher of English literature.

Nearly thirty years have elapsed since the death of Lord Macaulay (December, 1859), a period sufficient to have witnessed the rise, the decline, and the decay of many reputations less brilliant than his own. (The year 1859 was fruitful in the death of eminent men of letters : Hallam, DeQuincey, Irving, Prescott, Macaulay.) It is the fate even of the finest genius to incur detraction, and in our era, Macaulay has been the special victim of critics. He has provoked the polished cynicism of Mr. Matthew Arnold, the cautious censure of Bishop Stubbs, and received only the qualified approbation of one of his most discriminating biographers, the late Rector of Lincoln College. Save his nephew, Mr. Trevelyan, and Mr. Edward A. Freeman, few writers of our time are just in their appreciation of his genius, or in their estimate of his impress upon the character of our language. Yet his influence upon the fortunes of English speech was never more potent than at present, and may be discovered by the critical student in many phases of our literature where its agency was not suspected.—Let us endeavor to trace in detail some of the sources of Lord Macaulay's diction, some of the secret springs that impelled into activity the most perspicuous and fascinating prose style which has appeared in modern English literature.

There has been produced up to the present time no complete manual or treatise, exhibiting the origin and development of our prose. The works of Minto and Saintsbury are characterized by marked excellences, but they fail in some points of essential interest and importance. Our standard literary historians ignore, for the most part, this phase of their subject, and there is more of stimulating, suggestive criticism to be gathered from the terse prefaces that accompany Mark Pattison's edition of Pope, than from the elaborate manuals of Morley and Arnold. In discussing the growth of English prose from Elizabeth to Victoria, it is not my purpose to ignore the periods that precede the Elizabethan age. The germ of our English prose antedates by many generations the advent of that era. It may be traced back as early as the epoch of “the blameless King,” Alfred, in whose ideal character were concretely displayed those qualities of mind and heart of which the romancers of the Arthurian cycle but dreamed.

To the student of English literature from a merely popular point of view, this work of Mr. Gosse's, cannot fail to commend itself. Its mode of treatment is pleasing— the style is lucid, the narrative is lightened by the judicious introduction of biographical sketches and entertaining reminiscences. Despite its many agreeable features, it lacks both the depth and breadth of philosophic or scientific investigation, and the critical student of our literary evolution, will lay it aside, with a mingled feeling of disappointment and regret. The volume contains a series of lectures delivered before the Lowell Institute, and the Johns Hopkins University, during the. season of 1884 and 1885. The restraints that are naturally imposed by the presence of popular audiences, will no doubt serve in some measure to account for the superficial manner of dealing with the subject, which is a distinctive characteristic of the work.