The Waning of the Renaissance 1640–1740: Studies in the Thought and Poetry of Henry More, John Norris and Isaac Watts (International Archives of the ... internationales d'histoire des idées, 39)

It is not always easy to maintain a proper balance between the delineation of cultural development within a given literary field and the claims of practical criticism. And yet if the history of ideas is to be more than a pastime for the student of literature, it must be rooted in the precise art of discrimination. The following chapters attempt to describe and evaluate a particular cultural development by relating the background of ideas to the literary achievement of three writers. It will be sufficient here to out­ line the nature of the problem, and the method and approach employed. The concept of cultural development implies a recognition of the con­ nections between ideology and aesthetics. There are at least two ways of exploring such connections. The one, pioneered by Basil Willey, seeks to situate the critical moments of our cultural development in the back­ ground of ideas, without which the contribution of a particular author cannot be justly evaluated. The danger of such an approach is that the task of discrimination comes to depend over-heavily on extra-literary criteria. Front Matter....Pages I-XVII Front Matter....Pages 1-1 Introduction: The Fourth Ground of Certainty....Pages 3-11 Philosophy: Descartes and Plato....Pages 12-28 Religion: Latitude and Pietism....Pages 29-44 Aesthetics: From Metaphysical to Romantic....Pages 45-64 More’s Work as Literature....Pages 65-72 Front Matter....Pages 73-73 Introduction: A Transitional Figure....Pages 75-78 Norris and the Enlightenment....Pages 79-91 Philosophy: “Platonic Gibberish”....Pages 92-110 Religion: The Grounds of Assent....Pages 111-121 Poetry: The Last of the Metaphysicals....Pages 122-139 Front Matter....Pages 141-141 Introduction: Classicism and the Enlightenment....Pages 143-148 The English Enlightenment....Pages 149-163 Free Philosophy....Pages 164-174 Sunk Religion....Pages 175-189 Aesthetics....Pages 190-198 The Sublime....Pages 199-212 The Metaphysical Tradition....Pages 213-232 Classicism: The Art of Sinking....Pages 233-250 Conclusion....Pages 251-251 Back Matter....Pages 252-265