The development of the essay in the early 19th century was again due largely to the evolu tion of periodical types, and in English litera ture one distinguishes clearly two of these types, the magazine and the critical review, which gave new opportunity for the familiar and the critical essay respectively. Most im portant of the former were Blackwood's and the London Magazine, founded in 1817 and 1820; of Blackwood's John Wilson ("Chris topher North") soon became the leading essay ist, while the London Magazine had the dis tinction of printing some of the most brilliant work of Lamb, DeQuincey and Hazlitt. The brothers John and Leigh Hunt were also con cerned in the publication of a number of periodicals, some (like the Examiner) being of a newspaper type, but offering space for literary essays, others (like the Indicator) con tinuing the Spectator tradition. For all these Leigh Hunt was a leading writer,— with the possible exception of John Wilson, the most prolific of the 19th century essayists. The Elia essays of Charles Lamb, which appeared in the London Magazine 1820-25, are by universal con sent the finest examples of the familiar type produced since Montaigne's; some of Hazlitt's, however (to be found in his collections called The Round Table, 1817, and Table Talk, 1822), are not far beneath them, and of substantial literary criticism (as in the papers called Characters of Shakespeare's Plays, 1817) Haz litt gives us far more than Lamb. Of the second newly developed type of periodical, the critical, the leading representatives are the Edinburgh Review and the Quarterly Review, founded in 1802 and 1809 respectively; these gave rise to a new form of literary essay, called a °review," which normally took its origin in an account of some recent publica tions, but became an independent discussion of the subject suggested by the work in hand. The typical examples of this form are to be found in the essays of Franciseffrey, long J editor of the Edinburgh, and John Gibson Lockhart, long editor of the Quarterly; but their work, important as it seemed, has proved insignificant in comparison with that of Thomas Babington Macaulay, who began his career as reviewer in the Edinburgh with his famous article on Milton, 1825, and remains the most brilliant and prolific of English critical essayists.
We cannot here follow the course of the essay throughout the 19th century. In general, England has continued to produce the most distinguished work in the familiar type; its best representative in recent times was Robert Louis Stevenson ('Familiar Studies,' 1882, and and Portraits,' 1•7). English
writers have also done fine work in the critical essay, notably Matthew Arnold ((Essays in Criticism,' 1865, 1888) and Leslie Stephen in a Library,' 1874-79) ; but here the palm must he yielded to the French, who have used the essay most characteristically for this purpose, notably Sainte-Bcuvc ('Causeries du Lundi,' 1851-72), Brunetiere ('Questions de Critique, 1889), and Anatole France ((La Vie Litteraire,' 1907). American literature in cludes, for the early period, one notable rep resentative of the Addison tradition, Wash ington Irving Book,' 1820). By far the most distinguished American essayist is Emerson, who revived to some extent the method of the aphoristic essay, emphasizing the single utterance rather more than the whole composition ((Essays,' 1841-44). In the criti cal type the work of James Russell Lowell re mains unexcelled my Books,' 1870 76). Other noteworthy American essayists of the 19th century are E. P. Whipple, Edgar A. Poe, Donald G. Mitchell (" Ik Marvel"), Thomas Wentworth Higginson, George Wil liam Curtis and Charles Dudley Warner. In the 'Autocrat of the Breakfast Table' (1858), Oliver Wendell Holmes made wise and witty use of the method of the familiar essay, though in an expanded and discursive form which belongs to no definite type.
The best account of the familiar essay is to be found in the introduc tion to Bryan and Crane's collection called 'The English Familiar Essay> (Boston 1916). For the English essay as a whole, consult Walker's 'The English Essay and Essayists' (London 1915) ; MacDonald, W. L., (Begin nings of the English Essay' (University of Toronto Studies) ; Wylie, Laura T., 'The Eng lish Essay' (in Social Studies in English Liter ature,' Boston 1916). For the reviews and the critical essay, consult the introductions to Gates's 'Selections from the Essay of Jeffrey' (Boston 1894), and Haney's 'Early Reviews of English Poets' (Philadelphia 1904) • also Saintsbury's of Criticism> (Edin burgh 1904). For the character-writers, con sult Morley's 'Character Writings of the 17th Century' (London 1891) ; for the letter writers, Hansche's Familiar Letter writers and their Contribution to the English Essay' (Dissertation of the University of Pennsylvania, 1902). For the Spectator and its influence, consult Beljame's (Le public et les hommes de lettres en Angleterre au 18e siecle' (Paris 1881). There is a convenient collection of essays by British writers in the Everyman's Library series, and a similar col lection of American essays has been edited by Brander Matthews (Oxford Press 1914).