The reflection of contemporary religious thought in the essays of the 18th century

Barnes, Eliza Mary Ann (1913). The reflection of contemporary religious thought in the essays of the 18th century. University of Birmingham. M.A.

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Abstract

The 18th century, that golden age of English prose, witnessed the attainment of perfection by two of most popular modern forms of literature, the Novel and the Essay. However ancient the thing itself might be , the name "essay" seems first to have been employed by Michel de Montaigne, whose charming " livre de bonne foi ” graced the literature of France in the second half of the sixteenth century. Both he , and his English disciple Bacon, used the word in its natural sense of an attempt as opposed to an accomplishment. In them and in all their successors, it was a term expressing modesty and a sense of the incompleteness, irregularity, mere tentativeness, characteristic of the work appearing under that title. Bacon obviously did not attach much importance to his Essays. He wrote them in English instead pf in the "universal language", and considered them as nothing greater than mere note-book jottings, "set down reflectively and significantly"; as "grains of salt, which give appetite rather than satiety".

Type of Work:	Thesis (Masters by Research > M.A.)
Award Type:	Masters by Research > M.A.
Licence:
College/Faculty:	Faculties (to 1997) > Faculty of Arts
School or Department:	School of English, Drama and American & Canadian Studies, Department of English Literature
Funders:	None/not applicable
Subjects:	B Philosophy. Psychology. Religion > BL Religion P Language and Literature > PE English P Language and Literature > PN Literature (General)
URI:	http://etheses.bham.ac.uk/id/eprint/8039

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