A history of the English Language

187.
The Temper of the Eighteenth Century.
In the light of this seventeenth-century background we may more readily understand the 
temper of the eighteenth century. The first half of the eighteenth century is commonly 
designated in histories of literature as the Augustan Age in England. The principal 
characteristics of this age which affected the course of the English language emerged 
early and maintained their influence throughout the century, in spite of the eruption of 
some radical challenges in the final two decades. The eighteenth century sought to retain 
from the seventeenth century the best features of rational discourse that had been 
established while rejecting the uncontrolled proliferation of what sober minds regarded as 
dangerous tendencies in English prose. 
In England the age was characterized by a search for stability. One of the first 
characteristics to be mentioned is a strong sense of order and the value of regulation. 
Adventurous individualism and the spirit of independence characteristic of the previous 
era gave way to a desire for system and regularity. This involves conformity to a standard 
that the consensus recognizes as good. It sets up correctness as an ideal and attempts to 
formulate rules or principles by which correctness may be defined and achieved. The 
most important consideration in the foundation of this standard is reason. The spirit of 
scientific rationalism in philosophy was reflected in many other domains of thought. A 
great satisfaction was felt in things that could be logically explained and justified. It must 
not be supposed, however, that the powerful new current of scientific rationalism swept 
away the firmly grounded reverence for classical literature. Not only in literature but also 
in language Latin was looked upon as a model, and classical precedent was often 
generalized into precept. It is easy to see how a standard having its basis in regularity, 
justified by reason, and supported by classical authority might be regarded as 
approaching perfection, and how an age that set much store by elegance and refinement 
could easily come to believe in this standard as an indispensable criterion of “taste.” 
While continuing to venerate Greece and Rome, eighteenth-century English people were 
increasingly conscious of ways in which their own achievements could be judged as 
surpassing those of the ancient world. They could easily come to believe in the essential 
rightness of their judgment and think that their own ideals could be erected into 
A history of the english language 240

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something like a permanent standard. We may well believe that permanence and stability 
would seem like no inconsiderable virtues to a generation that remembered the disorders 
and changes of the Revolution and Restoration.