e sole object of human endeavor; it has established
the principle of law throughout the universe; and it has given us an
entirely new view of life, as summed up in the word "evolution," that is,
the principle of growth or development from simple to complex forms. On the
other hand, its first effect seems to be to discourage works of the
imagination. Though the age produced an incredible number of books, very
few of them belong among the great creative works of literature. (4) Though
the age is generally characterized as practical and materialistic, it is
significant that nearly all the writers whom the nation delights to honor
vigorously attack materialism, and exalt a purely ideal conception of life.
On the whole, we are inclined to call this an idealistic age fundamentally,
since love, truth, justice, brotherhood--all great ideals--are emphasized
as the chief ends of life, not only by its poets but also by its novelists
and essayists.

In our study we have considered: (1) The Poets; the life and works of
Tennyson and Browning; and the chief characteristics of the minor poets,
Elizabeth Barrett (Mrs. Browning), Rossetti, Morris, and Swinburne. (2) The
Novelists; the life and works of Dickens, Thackeray, and George Eliot; and
the chief works of Charles Reade, Anthony Trollope, Charlotte Bronte,
Bulwer-Lytton, Kingsley, Mrs. Gaskell, Blackmore, George Meredith, Hardy,
and Stevenson. (3) The Essayists; the life and works of Macaulay, Matthew
Arnold, Carlyle, Newman, and Ruskin. These were selected, from among many
essayists and miscellaneous writers, as most typical of the Victorian Age.
The great scientists, like Lyell, Darwin, Huxley, Wallace, Tyndall, and
Spencer, hardly belong to our study of literature, though their works are
of vast importance; and we omit the works of living writers who belong to
the present rather than to the past century.

SELECTIONS FOR READING. Manly's English Poetry and Manly's English Prose
(Ginn and Company) contain excellent selections from all authors of this
period. Many other collections, like Ward's English Poets, Garnett's
English Prose from Elizabeth to Victoria, Page's British Poets of the
Nineteenth Century, and Stedman's A Victorian Anthology, may be used to
advantage. All important works may be found in the convenient and
inexpensive school editions given below. (For full titles and publishers
see the General Bibliography.)

_Tennyson_. Short poems, and selections from Idylls o