This, then, furnishes the second term of the great moral problem of man's perfectibility. On the one hand, the just will of God, and on the other hand the perverse will of man; and between these two extreme terms and their mutual modifications, lie all the contingencies of man's earthly course, as an individual, or as forming a constituent part of the body-. politic. This important distinction of the two adverse principles which preside over the phenomena of the moral world, is familiar to every one who has been initiated into the Christian philosophy. In the individual, it is the never ceasing struggle of the Hesh and of the spirit; and in society, the conflict of the wisdom of the cross, and the wisdom of the world - the former accepting man's position in the present state of things, as something transitory and incomplete; the latter persisting, in defiance alike both of facts and of principles, in the wild attempt of realizing the stupendous projects of the human mind, within the narrow limits of time and space. Time ! so short for the most favoured. Space! so confined as a sphere of action for the most powerful.

In proportion, therefore, as one or other of these two principles, (to which we may very aptly apply the general terms of truth and error), in proportion, then, as truth or error predominates over the influential part of a nation, in the same proportion we shall find, not only their social institutions and their general habits. but even their literature partaking of that influence. To establish the truth of this theory, it would be sufficient to cast a rapid glance on the history of mankind in any age and in any country. If we select as an example, that vast extent of territory which is subject to the Hindoos, we shall find the general form of government to be a sanguinary despotism, and their habits those of men writhing under the stern grasp of the iron hand of fate; whereas their literature, which at the present day is reduced to a blank, bears ample traces of that indefinite pantheism which is the basis of their religious faith. And as pantheism, paganism, and atheism, are only separated from each other by a subtle logical distinction, being practically one and the same thing, the two grand philosophical sects of the pagan world are found reproduced among the Hindoos; those who term themselves orthodox bearing a close resemblance to the Stoics, professing, by an illusion of pride, to set themselves above the reach of good or of evil ; whilst on the other hand, a no less numerous portion of their religious adepts have adopted those tenets which distinguished the followers of Epicurus, and seek for the supreme good in an unlimited enjoyment of sensual pleasure.

The more familiar history of degenerate Rome, affords perhaps a still more striking illustration. In the latter days of the Empire, a frantic love of sensual pleasure seems to have taken possession of all classes of society. The actual power of the state, which was in fact vested in the prætorian guards, is sold to the highest bidder; and the sword of Divine justice, and the supreme dignity of the commonwealth, are confided to bim wlio furnishes most liberally the means of prolonging their riotous debauch. What, then, were the habits of the people, and what the fate of literature under the influence of such a state of things ? To the former of these questions we reply by the favourite cry of the populace in those days-panem et circenses! which shews, that the sanguinary pleasures of the circus had become for them as necessary as their daily food. In literature, which was then at its lowest ebb, we find the minor wits of that day imitating the worst defects of Horace, of Ovid, and of Juvenal, whose highly polished verses too often call the blush of indignation to a Christian cheek.

The application of this theory to the present state of literature in France, in Germany, and even in this country, would be highly interesting, but would lead us too far from the matter before us. We have already said sufficient to prove that the literature and the religious opinions of a nation, or of an epochi, are most intimately connected, and have therefore fully justified the line which we intend to adopt in reviewing Mr. Hallam's work. We shall merely add to what we have already advanced, an observation well worthy of the reader's serious attention, which is this: that the principal motiuments of ancient and of modern literature, the Wiad and the Divina Comedia, which were both the products of ages of faith, are both eminently religious, and it is a circumstance not a little curious, that the progress of a different principle should have produced a similar effect both in the pagan world and in Christendom— Tasso standing exactly in the same relation to Dante, as Virgil to Homer. Tasso and Virgil are both poets of nature. Homer and Dante are the poets of tradition, and in both poems the form is in harmony with the matter.

The total absence of any general theory of the history of literature appears to us then, we avow, a serious defect in the work before us; but it is not the only one with which we have to reproach it. The division of the matter into eight arbitrary periods, which have no connexion whatever with the principal vicissitudes of the subject, is altogether faulty. Those' vicissitudes have been sufficiently marked, to have afforded a natural liistorical division, if the author thought it more prudent to avoid all philosophical distinctions. The splendid galaxy of talent by which certain periods have been illustrated, offered him a sure basis upon which to construct a simple and lucid method. The most celebrated period of our own national literature, when the modern drama was brought forth into being by the immortal genius of Shakspeare, naturally presents itself to the mind of the reader ; vor was the age of Elizabeth less illustrious by its poets and prose writers of every description. The names of Spenser, of Lord Bacon, of Hooker, and of Archbishop Leighton, would alone suffice to raise it to the dignity of a literary epoch. The ages of Lorenzo de' Medici, and of Lewis the Fourteenth, are each of them equally celebrated in their way, particularly the latter, which, independently of the very remarkable religious reaction which distinguishes it, is no less celebrated in a purely literary point of view.

Mr. Hallam's first division comprises the whole of that portion of the middle ages which is anterior to the year 1400, the period at which his work professedly begins. This retrospective view of the state of learning in the middle ages, is of the highest importance to a just appreciation of the subject before us ; the more particularly so, as the year 1400 does not constitute a literary epoch, the beginning of the fifteenth century being, in a literary point of view, merely a continuation of the preceding century, in which the genius of Dante had already given a certain degree of fixity to the language in which he had written his immortal poem.

The author professes, it is true, to give only a rapid sketch of this period; but however rapid, it is necessary that all the causes which had contributed to the progress of literature, should be fairly stated and justly appreciated. The reader will do well to bear in mind the very comprehensive sense in which Mr. Hallam employs the word literature, not only as comprising poetry and the belles lettres, but also the more grave products of the human mind, such as theology, jurisprudence, philosophy, and the sciences.

The rapid decline of learning in the sixth century is a circumstance, which finds its natural explanation in the political state of the Roman empire at that period. It was only after several ages of the most distressing vicissitudes, that the awful pollutions of the pagan world were washed away in torrents of human blood; and a certain gleam of social order beamed forth upon those nations, which in the eighth century began to rise up out of the general chaos. Charlemagne appears at this period, not only as a legislator, but also as the special protector of letters and of learned men; and particularly of that holy religion, which he always regarded as the principal source of social order, and of the temporal prosperity of his people. Mr. Hallam does not perhaps attach sufficient inportance to this first renovation of letters, which took place under favour of the new temporal and ecclesiastical institutions formed by the care of this great monarch. Charlemagne was also himself a successful cultivator of polite learning, notwithstanding the rudeness of the age in which he lived; and that magnificent hymn of the Catholic liturgy, the Veni Creator, is generally attributed to his pen.

It is not to be expected that Mr. Hallam should have justly appreciated the literary influence of the clergy. He admits, however, that, during that most disturbed period, which may very properly be designated as the dark ages, they kept flowing a slender but living stream of knowledge. It may be easily imagined, that men whose residences were constantly pillaged-whose libraries were destroyed, and whose persons were frequently exposed to the greatest dangers ;-it may, we say, easily be supposed, that these men, with whom the valuable deposit of literary tradition rested, should have made little progress in profane learning during such a period, the sacred character with which they were invested, engaging them rather to occupy themselves with more serious matters. Yet we should do wrong to suppose that the human mind was left without a certain degree of culture, although this period is particularly barren as far as regards its authors. There can be no doubt that oral teaching, which was the most favourite form in all ecclesiastical establishments, exercised its just influence in the propagation of knowledge; and that the precious deposit of the learning of past ages was handed down from master to disciple, in those short moments of repose which the troubled character of the times still allowed. The sublime matters which constitute the general doctrine of the Church, are in themselves calculated to give an elevated tone to the mind, and to develope the highest powers, not only of the imagination, but also of the understanding. In fact, we find this sacred fire rapidly bursting forth into a brilliant flame, when no longer compressed by exterior circumstances. As early as the beginning of the twelfth century, the institution of universities, accompanied by the cultivation of the modern languages, and the multiplication of books, seem to have exercised an immense influence. To these causes must

be added the investigation of the Roman law, and a return to the study of the Latin language in its ancient models of purity. The influence of all these causes is admitted by Mr. Hallam (p. 15.) We are, however, not a little surprised to find, that, in enumerating the principal causes of the revival of letters, he has totally omitted all mention of one of the most important-the influence of the literature of the Arabians on that of modern Europe. Whilst Europe was plunged in that intellectual lethargy, which, as we have already observed, was the result of the united horrors of war, of pestilence, and of famine, the more favoured regions of the East, together with a considerable portion of the south of Europe, then under the flourishing sceptre of the successors of Mahomet, exhibited a very different aspect. The Caliphs had at that time submitted to their victorious sceptre the whole of Persia-the land of the ancient Magi, and Chaldea, which may be regarded as the most ancient fountain of knowledge. To these must be added Egypt, at one time the sole refuge of science; also that part of Asia Minor where poetry and the belles lettres had received their first developement; and Africa, the land of burning eloquence and of subtle distinctions. The Arabian genius appears as it were a compound of the different qualities which distinguished the various portions of that vast empire over which it reigned.

But the more immediate point of contact between the literature of the Arabians and that of western Europe, appears to have been those celebrated universities which were established in Spain under the patronage of the Moors, after Abderama the First had finally detached it from the empire of the Abassides, and erected it into a separate monarchy. This prince, who was the contemporary of Charlemagne, was like him a great patron of letters. The colleges and universities founded by him and by his successors, were frequented by all those who were desirous of making a rapid progress in science and in philosophy. One of the most distinguished men of his day, Gerbert, appears to have studied both at Seville and at Cordova, from whence he brought back so large a stock of Arabian science, that after having successively excited the admiration of France and of Italy, he was ultimately raised to the supreme honours of the ecclesiastical hierarchy, under the title of Sylvester the Second. A great many other persons, particularly the renovators of mathematical science in France, in Italy, and even in this country, during the eleventh century, spent a considerable time in the universities of the