The Victorian age was not one， not single， simple， or unified， only in part because Victoria's reign lasted so long that it comprised several periods. Above all， it was an age of paradox and power. The Catholicism of the Oxford Movement， the Evangelical movement， the spread of the Broad Church， and the rise of Utilitarianism， socialism， Darwinism， and scientific Agnosticism， were all in their own ways characteristically Victorian； as were the prophetic writings of Carlyle and Ruskin， the criticism of Arnold， and the empirical prose of Darwin and Huxley； as were the fantasy of George MacDonald and the realism of George Eliot and George Bernard Shaw.

　　More than anything else what makes Victorians Victorian is their sense of social responsibility， a basic attitude that obviously differentiates them from their immediate predecessors， the Romantics. Tennyson might go to Spain to help the insurgents， as Byron had gone to Greece and Wordsworth to France； but Tennyson also urged the necessity of educating “the poor man before making him our master.” Matthew Arnold might say at mid-century that

　　the world， which seems To lie before us like a land of dreams，So various， so beautiful， so new，Hath really neither joy， nor love， nor light，Nor certitude， nor peace， nor help for pain.

　　but he refused to reprint his poem “Empedocles on Etna，” in which the Greek philosopher throws himself into the volcano， because it set a bad example； and he criticized an Anglican bishop who pointed out mathematical inconsistencies in the Bible not on the grounds that he was wrong， but that for a bishop to point these things out to the general public was irresponsible.