In the nineteenth century the old schools have been much
broken up, or found in connection with new combinations. In
Wordsworth, the natural school has been combined with the
philosophic ; in Southey, with the romantic element. Crabbe
has identified realistic subjects with classical, Browning with
natural and romantic treatment. Swinburne has divorced the
material, from the conventional, school, and allied it with the
natural. In Montgomery, classical treatment is combined with
the religious element. In Longfellow, the natural is suffused
with a tinge of the romantic. The poets of the nineteenth cen-
tury have been as much distinguished by an eclecticism with regard
to their styles, as its builders with regard to their architecture,
or its philosophers with regard to their philosophy. Some of
the leading poets have a peculiar style of their own, while those
of the inferior classes have sought distinction by adopting a
melange so striking as to confound most of the schools which
have preceded them. It is the peculiar weakness of the thought
of the age not to know what it would be at, to set aesthetic and
logical coherence at defiance, to override radical principles, and
to imagine it has arrived at a satisfactory solution of conflicting
views by blending their contrarieties into one system. Nowhere
have these tendencies been so conspicuously displayed as in the
poetic arena. It has, therefore, been, in some degree, necessary
to group those poets, who depart from, or blend in their treat-
ment, the old established divisions, by some leading feature,
which their works have in common. In Tennyson and his
imitators, who are chiefly of the feminine class, the principles
of design largely predominate over those of nature. They may,



ENGLISH SCHOOLS OF POETRY. 79

therefore, be correctly designated the art school. Montgo-
mery and Longfellow are, in common, distinguished for the
prominence they give to social life and the domestic affections.
