wrote Gray, adding with the wisdom of disillusion,

Gay hopes are theirs, by fancy fed,
Less pleasing when possessed.

He was speaking of schoolboys whose ignorance is bliss; but the general
tenor of his mind allows us to surmise that he also smiled pityingly upon
some of the aspirations of the youthful sentimentalists. Dr. Johnson's
hostility to them was, of course, outspoken. He laughed uproariously at
their ecstatic manner, and ridiculed the cant of sensibility; and in
solemn mood he struck in _The Vanity of Human Wishes_ another blow at the
heresy of optimism. In style the contrast between these poems and those
of the Wartons and Collins is marked. Heirs of the Augustans, Johnson and
Gray have perfect control over their respective diction and metres: here
are no obscurities or false notes; Johnson sustains with superb
dignity the tone of moral grandeur; Gray is ever felicitous. Up to the
mid-century then, despite assailants, the classical school held its
supremacy; for its literary art was incomparably more skillful than that
of its enemies.


III. THE PROGRESS OF SENTIMENTALISM

(1751-1775)

During the 1750's sentimental poetry did not fulfill the expectations
which the outburst of 1744 had seemed to promise. It sank to lower
levels, and its productions are noteworthy only as signs of the times and
presages of the future. Richard Jago wrote some bald verses intended to
foster opposition to hunting, and love for the lower animals,--according