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41
into English by the authority of King James I.
The fixity of the language was no doubt aided by the
increasing use of the art of printing. But in spite of
the immortal works of the poets named, the philosophical
treatises of Bacon, and the splendid essays of Puritan
Divines and Politicians, English literature may be said to
have been then in but little more than an elementary
stage. The first English novel had yet to be written, and
the first English Dictionary still to be compiled. Hitherto our
native literature had been mainly confined to ballads, dramatic
writings, and poems, and for some years after the Stuart
period the general current of writing continued to run in
much the same channels. The wonderful development of art
as applied to current literature, which may be regarded as
one of the features of the present generation, was not then
dreamed of. School books were few in number, and practically
altogether non-existent for quite elementary instruction,
hornbooks and tablets being used for teaching the alphabet.
Elementary Education itself was by no means general,
although no doubt the foundation of Grammar Schools in
various parts of the country, from funds set free at the dissolution
of the religious houses at the time of the Reformation,
gave an impetus to the cause of popular education, which
even yet has probably not reached its final point.
Philosophy and the spirit of enquiry received a considerable
impetus from the formation of the Royal Society at the
Restoration. Bacon had but recently passed away, and
Newton was in his prime ; hence, in spite of the backward
condition of England with regard to the Fine Arts, as compared
with Continental nations, it is not surprising that our country
was taking the lead in Philosophy, as it was also doing in
Medicine.
The amusements of the people were not distinguished by refinement.
Besides such pastimes as bowls and morris dancing,
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