is far too complex a
phenomenon to be summed up in any particular formula. The mischief is
that to take the literary evolution as an isolated phenomenon is to miss
an essential clue to such continuity and unity as it really possesses.
When we omit the social factor, the solidarity which exists between
contemporaries occupied with the same problem and sharing certain common
beliefs, each school appears as an independent unit, implying a
discontinuity or a simple relation of contrariety, and we explain the
succession by such a verbal phrase as 'reaction.' The real problem is,
what does the reaction mean? and that requires us to take into account
the complex and variously composed currents of thought and reason which
are seeking for literary expression. The popularity of _Ossian_ for
example, is a curious phenomenon. At the first sight we are disposed to
agree with Johnson that any man could write such stuff if he would
abandon his mind to it, and to add that if any one would write it no one
could read it. Yet we know that _Ossian_ appealed to the gigantic
intellects of Goethe and Napoleon. That is a symptom of deep
significance; _Ossian_ suited Goethe in the _Werther_ period and
Napoleon took it with him when he was dreaming of rivalling Alexander's
conquests in the East. We may perhaps understand why the gigantesque
pictures in _Ossian_ of the northern mountains and scenery--with all its
vagueness, incoherence, and bombast, was somehow congenial to minds
dissatisfied, for different reasons, with the old ideals. To explain the
charm more precisely is a very pretty problem for the acute critic.
_Ossian_, it is clear, fell in with the mood characteristic of the
time. But when we ask what effect it produced in English literature, the
answer must surely be, 'next to none.' Gray was enthusiastic and tried
to believe in its authenticity. Scots, like Blair and even the sceptical
Hume--though Hume soon revolted--defended _Ossian_ out of patriotic
prejudice, and Burns professed to admire. But nobody in Great Britain
took to writing Ossianesque. Wordsworth was simply disgusted by the
unreality, and nothing could be less in the _Ossian_ vein than Burns.
The _Ossian_ craze illustrates the extension of historical interest, of
which I have spoken, and the vague discontent of Wertherism. But I do
not see how the publication can be taken as the cause of a new
departure, although it was an indication of the state of mind which led
to a ne