Beacon Lights of History, Volume 13 | Page 3

Charles I. was justifiable or criminal.
Approval of the Great Rebellion and of Milton's attitude towards it.
Eulogium on Cromwell and approval of Milton's taking office (Latin Secretaryship) under him.
The Puritans and Royalists, or Roundheads and Cavaliers.
The battle Milton fought for freedom of the human mind.
High estimate of Milton's prose works.
JOHANN WOLFGANG VON GOETHE.
GERMANY'S GREATEST WRITER.
BY FREDERIC HENRY HEDGE.
Fills highest place among the poets and prose-writers of Germany.
Influences that made the man.
Self-discipline and educational training.
Counsellor to Duke Karl August at Weimar, where he afterwards resides.
Visits Italy; makes Schiller's acquaintance; Goethe's personal appearance.
His unflagging industry; defence of the poet's personal character.
The "M?rchen," its interpretation and the light it throws on Goethe's political career.
Lyrist, dramatist, novelist, and mystic seer.
His drama "G?tz von Berlichingen," and "Sorrows of Werther".
Popularity of his ballads; his elegies, and "Hermann und Dorothea".
"Iphigenie auf Tauris;" his stage plays "Faust" (First Part) and "Egmont".
The prose works "Wilhelm Meister" and the "Elective Affinities".
His skill in the delineation of female character.
"Faust;" contrasts in spirit and style between the two Parts.
Import of the work, key to or analysis of the plot.
ALFRED (LORD) TENNYSON.
THE SPIRIT OF MODERN POETRY.
BY G. MERCER ADAM.
Tennyson's supreme excellence--his transcendent art.
His work the perfection of literary form; his melody exquisite.
Representative of the age's highest thought and culture.
Keen interpreter of the deep underlying spirit of his time.
Contemplative and brooding verse, full of rhythmic beauty.
The "Idylls of the King," their deep ethical motive and underlying purpose.
His profound religious convictions and belief in the eternal verities.
Hallam Tennyson's memoir of the poet; his friends and intimates.
The poet's birth, family, and youthful characteristics
Early publishing ventures; his volume of 1842 gave him high rank.
Personal appearance, habits, and mental traits.
"In Memoriam," its noble, artistic expression of sorrow for Arthur Hallam.
"The Princess" and its moral, in the treatment of its "Woman Question" theme.
The metrical romance "Maud," and "The Idylls of the King," an epic of chivalry.
"Enoch Arden," and the dramas "Harold," "Becket," and "Queen Mary".
Other dramatic compositions: "The Falcon," "The Cup," and "The Promise of May".
The pastoral play, "The Foresters," and later collections of poems and ballads.
The poet's high faith, and belief that "good is the final goal of ill".
His exalted place among the great literary influences of his era.
Expressive to his age of the high and hallowing Spirit of Modern Poetry.
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
VOLUME XIII.
The Young Goethe at Frankfort Frontispiece After the painting by Frank Kirchbach.
Jean Jacques Rousseau _After the painting by M. Q. de la Tour, Chantilly, France_.
Sir Walter Scott _After the painting by Sir Henry Raeburn, R. A_.
Lord Byron _After the painting by P. Kr?mer_.
Fran?ois Marie Arouet de Voltaire _After the painting by M. Q. de la Tour, Endoxe Marville Collection, Paris_.
Thomas Carlyle After a photograph from life Thomas Babington Macaulay _After a photograph by Maule, London_.
William Shakspeare _After the "Chandos Portrait," National Portrait Gallery, London_.
John Milton After the painting by Pieter van der Plaas.
Milton Visits the Aged Galileo _After the painting by T. Lessi_.
Goethe _After the painting by C. Jaeger_.
Alfred (Lord) Tennyson _After the painting by G. F. Watts, R. A_.
Tennyson's Elaine _After the painting by T. E. Rosenthal_.

BEACON LIGHTS OF HISTORY.
JEAN JACQUES ROUSSEAU.
1712-1778.
SOCIALISM AND EDUCATION.
Two great political writers in the eighteenth century, of antagonistic views, but both original and earnest, have materially affected the whole science of government, and even of social life, from their day to ours, and in their influence really belong to the nineteenth century. One was the apostle of radicalism; the other of conservatism. The one, more than any other single man, stimulated, though unwittingly, the French Revolution; the other opposed that mad outburst with equal eloquence, and caused in Europe a reaction from revolutionary principles. While one is far better known to-day than the other, to the thoughtful both are exponents and representatives of conflicting political and social questions which agitate this age.
These men were Jean Jacques Rousseau and Edmund Burke,--one Swiss, and the other English. Burke I have already treated of in a former volume. His name is no longer a power, but his influence endures in all the grand reforms of which he was a part, and for which his generation in England is praised; while his writings remain a treasure-house of political and moral wisdom, sure to be drawn upon during every public discussion of governmental principles. Rousseau, although a writer of a hundred years ago, seems to me a fit representative of political, social, and educational ideas in the present day, because his theories are still potent, and even in this scientific age more widely diffused than ever before. Not without reason, it is true, for he embodied certain germinant ideas in a fascinating literary style; but it is hard to understand how so weak a man could have exercised such far-reaching influence.
Himself a genuine and passionate lover of Nature; recognizing in his principles of conduct no duties that could conflict with personal inclinations; born in democratic