. . Away with dry
Rationalism! Let us fight it with all the powers we possess; whether by
bold Platonism or simple Bible faith; whether by enthusiastic hymns, or
dreamy fairy tales; whether by the fabulous world of distant times and
zones, or by the instincts of the children in the next village. Let us
abjure the ever-recommended nostrum of imitation of the old masters in
poetry, and rather attach ourselves to homely models, and endeavour, with
their help, lovingly and organically to develop their inner life. These
were the aims of Walter Scott and his Scotch school, only with such
changes as local differences demanded. Individuality in person,
nationality, and subject, and therefore the emphasis of all natural
unlikeness, was the motto on both sides of the Tweed. And, as these men,
when confronted by elements peculiar, rare, and marvellous, designated
such elements as 'romantic,' so may they themselves be justly called the
'Romantic School.' But the term is much misused, and requires a little
elucidation. Shakespeare is usually called a romantic poet. He,
however, never used the expression, and would have been surprised if any
one had applied it to him. The term presupposes opposition to the
classic style, to rhetorical deduction, and to measured periods, all of
which were unknown in the time of the Renaissance, and first imported in
that of the French Revolution. On the other hand, Wordsworth, Coleridge,
Southey, Lamb, and Walter Scott's circle all branched off from the
classical path with a directness and consistency which sharply
distinguish them from their predecessors, contemporaries, and successors.
Their predecessors had not broken with the Greek and Latin school, nor
with the school of Pope; Chatterton copied Homer; Cowper translated him;
Burns in his English verses, and Bowles in his sonnets, adhered to what
is called the 'pig-tail period'! The principal poems composed in the
last decennium of the eighteenth century . . . adhered still more to
classic tradition. In London the satires of Mathias and Gifford renewed
the style of the 'Dunciad,' and the moral poems of Rogers that of the
'Essay on Man.' Landor wrote his youthful 'Gebir' in the style of
Virgil, and originally in Latin itself. The amateur in German
literature, William Taylor of Norwich, and Dr. Sayers, interested
themselves especially for those works by Goethe which bear an antique
character--for 'Iphigenia,' 'Proserpina,' 'Alexis and D