In the literature of the preceding age we noted two marked tendencies,—­the tendency to realism in subject-matter, and the tendency to polish and refinement of expression.  Both these tendencies were continued in the Augustan Age, and are seen clearly in the poetry of Pope, who brought the couplet to perfection, and in the prose of Addison.  A third tendency is shown in the prevalence of satire, resulting from the unfortunate union of politics with literature.  We have already noted the power of the press in this age, and the perpetual strife of political parties.  Nearly every writer of the first half of the century was used and rewarded by Whigs or Tories for satirizing their enemies and for advancing their special political interests.  Pope was a marked exception, but he nevertheless followed the prose writers in using satire too largely in his poetry.  Now satire—­that is, a literary work which searches out the faults of men or institutions in order to hold them up to ridicule—­is at best a destructive kind of criticism.  A satirist is like a laborer who clears away the ruins and rubbish of an old house before the architect and builders begin on a new and beautiful structure.  The work may sometimes be necessary, but it rarely arouses our enthusiasm.  While the satires of Pope, Swift, and Addison are doubtless the best in our language, we hardly place them with our great literature, which is always constructive in spirit; and we have the feeling that all these men were capable of better things than they ever wrote.

THE CLASSIC AGE.  The period we are studying is known to us by various names.  It is often called the Age of Queen Anne; but, unlike Elizabeth, this “meekly stupid” queen had practically no influence upon our literature.  The name Classic Age is more often heard; but in using it we should remember clearly these three different ways in which the word “classic” is applied to literature:  (1) the term “classic” refers, in general, to writers of the highest rank in any nation.  As used in our literature, it was first applied to the works of the great Greek and Roman writers, like Homer and Virgil; and any English book which followed the simple and noble method of these writers was said to have a classic style.  Later the term was enlarged to cover the great literary works of other ancient nations; so that the Bible and the Avestas, as well as the Iliad and the Aeneid, are called classics. (2) Every national literature has at least one period in which an unusual number of great writers are producing books, and this is called the classic period of a nation’s literature.  Thus the reign of Augustus is the classic or golden age of Rome; the generation of Dante is the classic age of Italian literature; the age of Louis XIV is the French classic age; and the age of Queen Anne is often called the classic age of England. (3) The word “classic” acquired an entirely different meaning in the period we are studying; and we shall better understand this by reference to the