27.  The unfortunate Charles I, as well as his father James I, was a lover and promoter of letters.  He was himself a good scholar, and wrote well in English, for his time:  he ascended the throne in 1625, and was beheaded in 1648.  Nor was Cromwell himself, with all his religious and military enthusiasm, wholly insensible to literary merit.  This century was distinguished by the writings of Milton, Dryden, Waller, Cowley, Denham, Locke, and others; and the reign of Charles II, which is embraced in it, has been considered by some “the Augustan age of English literature.”  But that honour, if it may well be bestowed on any, belongs rather to a later period.  The best works produced in the eighteenth century, are so generally known and so highly esteemed, that it would be lavish of the narrow space allowed to this introduction, to speak particularly of their merits.  Some grammatical errors may be found in almost all books; but our language was, in general, written with great purity and propriety by Addison, Swift, Pope, Johnson, Lowth, Hume, Horne, and many other celebrated authors who flourished in the last century.  Nor was it much before this period, that the British writers took any great pains to be accurate in the use of their own language;

   “Late, very late, correctness grew our care,
    When the tir’d nation breath’d from civil war.”—­Pope.

28.  English books began to be printed in the early part of the sixteenth century; and, as soon as a taste for reading was formed, the press threw open the flood-gates of general knowledge, the streams of which are now pouring forth, in a copious, increasing, but too often turbid tide, upon all the civilized nations of the earth.  This mighty engine afforded a means by which superior minds could act more efficiently and more extensively upon society in general.  And thus, by the exertions of genius adorned with learning, our native tongue has been made the polished vehicle of the most interesting truths, and of the most important discoveries; and has become a language copious, strong, refined, and capable of no inconsiderable degree of harmony.  Nay, it is esteemed by some who claim to be competent judges, to be the strongest, the richest, the most elegant, and the most susceptible of sublime imagery, of all the languages in the world.

CHAPTER VII.

CHANGES AND SPECIMENS OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE.

“Quot enim verba, et nonnunquam in deterius, hoc, quo vivimus, saeculo, partim aliqa, partim nulla necessitate cogente, mutata sunt?”—­ROB.  AINSWORTH:  Lat.  Dict., 4to; Praef., p. xi.