In the midst of my studies I was arrested by the loss of sight; the papers in this collection are a portion of my projected history.
The title prefixed to this work has been adopted to connect it with its brothers, the "Curiosities of Literature," and "Miscellanies of Literature;" but though the form and manner bear a family resemblance, the subject has more unity of design.
The author of the present work is denied the satisfaction of reading a single line of it, yet he flatters himself that he shall not trespass on the indulgence he claims for any slight inadvertences. It has been confided to ONE whose eyes unceasingly pursue the volume for him who can no more read, and whose eager hand traces the thought ere it vanish in the thinking; but it is only a father who can conceive the affectionate patience of filial devotion.
THE NAME OF ENGLAND AND OF THE ENGLISH 24
ORIGIN OF THE VERNACULAR LANGUAGES OF EUROPE 96
HENRY THE EIGHTH; HIS LITERARY CHARACTER 250
THE DIFFICULTIES EXPERIENCED BY A PRIMITIVE AUTHOR 268
THE PSYCHOLOGICAL CHARACTER OF SIR THOMAS MORE 289
THE EARL OF SURREY AND SIR THOMAS WYATT 303
A CRISIS AND A REACTION; ROBERT CROWLEY 322
THE REFORMER BISHOP BALE; AND THE ROMANIST JOHN HEYWOOD, THE COURT JESTER 353
THE FIRST TRAGEDY AND THE FIRST COMEDY 502
THE PREDECESSORS AND CONTEMPORARIES OF SHAKESPEARE 514
THE PSYCHOLOGICAL HISTORY OF RAWLEIGH 590
THE FIRST FOUNDER OF A PUBLIC LIBRARY 661
EARLY WRITERS, THEIR DREAD OF THE PRESS,--THE TRANSITION TO AUTHORS BY PROFESSION 670
THE AUTHOR OF "THE GROUNDS AND REASONS OF MONARCHY" 709
THE TRUE INTELLECTUAL SYSTEM OF THE UNIVERSE 714
DIFFICULTIES OF THE PUBLISHERS OF CONTEMPORARY MEMOIRS 724
England, which has given models to Europe of the most masterly productions in every class of learning and every province of genius, so late as within the last three centuries was herself destitute of a national literature. Even enlightened Europe itself amid the revolving ages of time is but of yesterday.
How "that was performed in our tongue, which may be compared or preferred, either to insolent Greece or haughty Rome,"[1] becomes a tale in the history of the human mind.
In the history of an insular race and in a site so peculiar as our own, a people whom the ocean severed from all nations, where are we to seek for our ABORIGINES? A Welsh triad, and a Welsh is presumed to be a British, has commemorated an epoch when these mighty realms were a region of impenetrable forests and impassable morasses, and their sole tenants were wolves, bears, and beavers, and wild cattle. Who were the first human beings in this lone world?