e throne that
it has not since been displaced, (2) in giving fresh impetus to trade
and industry at home by reducing taxation, and (3) in strengthening
the navy and encouraging colonial commerce.

Change in Foreign Influence.--Of all foreign influences from the
beginning of the Renaissance to the Restoration, the literature of
Italy had been the most important. French influence now gained the
ascendancy.

There were several reasons for this change. (1) France under the great
Louis XIV. was increasing her political importance. (2) She now had
among her writers men who were by force of genius fitted to exert wide
influence. Among such, we may instance Moliere (1622-1673), who stands
next to Shakespeare in dramatic power. (3) Charles II. and many
Cavaliers had passed the time of their exile in France. They became
familiar with French literature, and when they returned to England in
1660, their taste had already been influenced by French models.

Change in the Subject Matter of Literature.--The Elizabethan age
impartially held the mirror up to every type of human emotion. The
writers of the Restoration and of the first half of the eighteenth
century, as a class, avoided any subject that demanded a portrayal of
deep and noble feeling. In this age, we catch no glimpse of a Lady
Macbeth in the grasp of remorse or of a Lear bending over a dead
Cordelia.

The popular subjects were those which appealed to cold intellect; and
these were, for the most part, satirical, didactic, and argumentative.
The two greatest poets of the period, John Dryden and his successor,
Alexander Pope, usually chose such subjects. John Locke (1632-1704), a
great prose writer of this age, shows in the very title of his most
famous work, _Of the Conduct of the Understanding_, what he preferred
to discuss. That book opens with the statement, "The last resort a man
has recourse to in the conduct of himself is his understanding." This
declaration, which is not strictly true, embodies a pronounced
tendency of the age, which could not understand that the world of
feeling is no less real than that of the understanding.

One good result of the ascendancy of the intellect was seen in
scientific investigation. The Royal Society was founded in 1662 to
study natural phenomena and to penetrate into the hidden mysteries of
philosophy and life.

The Advance of Prose.--In each preceding age, the masterpieces were
poetry; but before the middle of the eighteenth ce