Chapter XXV
Influence of authors on society, and of society on authors. —National tastes a source of literary prejudices.—True genius always the organ of its nation.—Master-writers preserve the distinct national character.—Genius the organ of the state of the age.—Causes of its suppression in a people.—Often invented, but neglected.—The natural gradations of genius.—Men of genius produce their usefulness in privacy—The public mind is now the creation of the public writer.—Politicians affect to deny this principle.—Authors stand between the governors and the governed.—A view of the solitary author in his study.—They create an epoch in history.—Influence of popular authors.—The immortality of thought.—The family of genius illustrated by their genealogy. 258
Literary Miscellanies
Miscellanists 281
Prefaces 286
Style 291
Goldsmith and Johnson 294
Self-characters
On reading 298
On habituating ourselves to an individual pursuit 302
On novelty in literature
Vers de Société 308
The genius of Molière
The sensibility of Racine
Of Sterne 332
Hume, Robertson, and Birch
Of voluminous works incomplete by the deaths of the authors
Of domestic novelties at first condemned
Domesticity; or a dissertation on servants 364
Printed letters in the vernacular idiom
Character of James the First
Advertisement 383
Of the first modern assailants of the character of James I., Burnet, Bolingbroke and Pope, Harris, Macaulay, and Walpole 386
His pedantry 388
His polemical studies 389
—how these were political 392
The Hampton Court conference 393
Of some of his writings 398
Popular superstitions of the age
The King’s habits of life those of a man of letters 402
Of the facility and copiousness of his composition 404
Of his eloquence
Of his wit 406
Specimens of his humour, and observations on human life 407
Some evidences of his sagacity in the discovery of truth
Of his “Basilicon Doron” 413
Of his idea of a tyrant and a king 414
Advice to Prince Henry in the choice of his servants and associates
Describes the Revolutionists of his time 416
Of the nobility of Scotland 417
Of colonising ib.
Of merchants 418
Regulations for the prince’s manners and habits ib.
Of his idea of the royal prerogative 421
The lawyers’ idea of the same ib.
Of his elevated conception of the kingly character
His design in issuing “The Book of Sports” for the Sabbath-day 426
The Sabbatarian controversy 428
The motives of his aversion to war
James acknowledges his dependence on the Commons; their conduct 431
Of certain scandalous chronicles 434
A picture of the age from a manuscript of the times 437
Anecdotes of the manners of the age 441
James I. discovers the disorders and discontents of a peace of more than twenty years 449
The King’s private life in his occasional retirements
A detection of the discrepancies of opinion among the decriers of James I 451
TO ROBERT SOUTHEY, LL.D.,
Summary of his character &c. &c. &c.
In dedicating this Work to one of the most eminent literary characters of the age, I am experiencing a peculiar gratification, in which few, perhaps none, of my contemporaries can participate; for I am addressing him, whose earliest effusions attracted my regard, near half a century past; and during that awful interval of time—for fifty years is a trial of life of whatever may be good in us—you have multiplied your talents, and have never lost a virtue.
When I turn from the uninterrupted studies of your domestic solitude to our metropolitan authors, the contrast, if not encouraging, is at least extraordinary. You are not unaware that the revolutions of Society have operated on our literature, and that new classes of readers have called forth new classes of writers. The causes and the consequences of the present state of this fugitive literature might form an inquiry which would include some of the important topics which concern the PUBLIC MIND, —but an inquiry which might be invidious shall not disturb a page consecrated to the record of excellence. They who draw their inspiration from the hour must not, however, complain if with that hour they pass away.
I. Disraeli