National Literature the Exponent of National Character [pp. 201-225]

Exponent of National Character.
than any other body of uninspired men. May we through
abounding grace be permitted in heaven to unite with Bunyan,
with Owen, and with Baxter, in the beatific vision of the person and glory of Christ, and in the secure and blessed enjoyment of the saints' everlasting rest!
The degeneracy of the national manners and of the national
spirit in the time of Charles II. is faithfully reflected in the
mirror of the national literature. Milton, indeed, and others
like-minded, survived to rebuke and lament the worthlessness
of the age. But in genius and spirit, they were alien to the
"evil days" on which they had fallen. In temper and of right
they belonged to the brave old days of the Commonwealth,
when the name of England was revered abroad, and at home
"joy and gladness were found, thanksgiving and the voice of
melody." They had nothing in common with the infamous
parasites and panders of that polluted court and its heartless king- with the ribaldry of Butler-with the obscenity
of Dryden, "who profaned the God-given strength, and
marred the lofty line"-with the Settles and Shadwells, the
Congreves, Wycherlys, Vanbrughs and Farquhars of the
time.
From the period of John Knox to that of Thomas Chalmers,
the literature of Scotland has been pre-eminently religious. In
very many instances her purely literary offices have been filled
by clergymen and by the sons of clergymen. Some of ihe
most distinguished in several of the most exalted departments
of letters, as history and intellectual philosophy, have been
themselves ministers of the gospel. So prevalent indeed has
been the religious spirit, and so strong the religious sensibilities
of the Scottish people, that the most popular poems addressed
to the taste of the nation-as the Cotter's Saturday Nightwere suffused with the holy light of religious sentiment, and
redolent of the sweet savour of piety. Seeing that such is the
character of her literature, it is needless to add that for more
than two hundred years the Scottish people have been the most
intelligent and religious in Europe.
As works recede from the domain of objective science, and
becoming most purely literary, exhibit most fully the interior
and profound operation of Christianity on the heart of man,
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1852.]