ent of their intellectual equals, they aim at
putting intelligible thoughts into the most natural and forcible
words. Precisely the same qualities are observable in all the best
English writers of the eighteenth century. Addison, Pope, and
Goldsmith are perhaps the most shining examples, but the rest are
'classical' in the sense which we have just indicated; and we can
hardly be wrong in ascribing this common rhetorical instinct to the
intimate connection between the men of thought and the men of action,
which existed both in the free states of antiquity, and in England
under the rule of the aristocracy. With the advance of the eighteenth
century the instinct in English literature seems to grow weaker; the
style of our authors becomes more formal and constrained, and
symptoms of that dislike of society encouraged by the philosophy of
Rousseau more frequently betray themselves. As the poetry of Cowper
shows less social instinct than that of Gray, so Gray himself is
inferior in this respect to Pope and Goldsmith. But his style has the
same lofty public spirit that distinguishes his favourite models, and
no worthier form could be imagined to express the ardour excited in
the heart of a patriotic poet by the rising fortunes of his native
country. We feel that it is in every way fitting that the author of
the 'Elegy' should have been the favourite of Wolfe and the
countryman of Chatham."

[Illustration: CLIO, THE MUSE OF HISTORY.]

INDEX OF WORDS EXPLAINED.

Aeolian, 109.

afield, 86.

amain, 110.

antic, 111.

Arvon, 125.

Attic warbler, 95.

Berkeley, 126.

boar (of Richard III.), 130.

broke (=broken), 86.

buskined, 132.

buxom, 104.

Cadwallo, 125.

Caernarvon, 125.

captive (proleptic), 104.

chance (adverb), 91.

cheer, 104.

churchway, 92.

curfew, 83.

customed, 92.

Cytherea, 111.

Delphi, 114.

fond (=foolish), 111, 132.

fretted, 87.

glister, 99.

Gloster, 124.

Gorgon, 137.

graved, 93.

grisly, 105, 126.

grove (=graved), 93.

haggard, 124.

hauberk, 123.

Helicon, 109.

Hoel, 124.

honied, 96.

Horae, 94.

Hyperion, 112.

Idalia, 110.

Ilissus, 114.

jet, 99.

leaden (eye), 136.

lion-port, 132.

little (=petty), 89.

Llewellyn, 124.

long-expecting, 95.

Maeander, 114.

margent, 104.

Modred, 125.

Mortimer, 124.

murther, 129.

murtherous, 105.

nightly (=nocturnal), 123.

partin