passengers on the Clyde, in Scotland.  Finally, in 1819, the bold undertaking was made of crossing the Atlantic by steam.  An American steamship, the Savannah, of about three hundred tons, set the example by a voyage from the United States to Liverpool.  Dr. Lardner, an English scientist, had proved to his own satisfaction that ocean steam navigation was impracticable.  The book containing the doctor’s demonstration was brought to America by the Savannah on her return.

Twenty-one years afterward, in 1840, the Cunard Company established the first regular line of ocean steamers.  They sailed between England and the United States.  Since then fleets of steamers ranging from two thousand to more than forty thousand tons each have been built.  They now make passages from continent to continent with the regularity of clockwork, and in fewer days than the ordinary sailing vessels formerly required weeks.  The fact that during a period of more than seventy years one of these lines has never lost a passenger is conclusive proof that Providence is on the side of steam, when steam has men that know how to handle it.

566.  Literature; Art; Education; Travel; Dress.

The reign of George III is marked by a long list of names eminent in letters and art.  First in point of time among these stands Dr. Samuel Johnson, the compiler of the first English dictionary worthy of the name, and that on which those of our own day are based to a considerable extent.  He was also the author of the story of “Rasselas,”—­that notable satire on discontent and the search after happiness.  Next stands Johnson’s friend, Oliver Goldsmith, famous for his genius, his wit, and his improvidence,—­which was always getting him into trouble,—­but still more famous for his poems, and his novel, “The Vicar of Wakefield.”

Edward Gibbon, David Hume, author of the well-known “History of England,” and Adam Smith come next in time.  In 1776 Gibbon published his “Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire,” which after more than a hundred years stands the ablest history of the subject in our language.  In the same year Adam Smith issued “An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations,” which had a great effect on legislation respecting commerce, trade, and finance.  During this period, also, Sir William Blackstone became prominent as a writer on law, and Edmund Burke, the distinguished orator and statesman, wrote his “Reflections on the French Revolution.”

The poets, Burns, Byron, Shelley, and Keats, with Sheridan, the orator and dramatist, and Sterne, the humorist, belong to this reign; so, too, does the witty satirist, Sydney Smith, and Sir Walter Scott, whose works, like those of Shakespeare, have “made the dead past live again.”  Then again, Maria Edgeworth and Jane Austen have left admirable pictures of the age in their stories of Irish and English life.  Coleridge and Wordsworth began to attract attention toward the last of this period, and to be much read by those who loved the poetry of thought and the poetry of nature; while, early in the next reign, Charles Lamb published his delightful “Essays of Elia.”