CHAPTER XI.

On the Practical Study of English Literature.

The ocean of literature is without limit. How then shall we be able to perform a voyage, even to a moderate distance, if we waste our time in dalliance on the shore? Our only hope is in exertion. Let our only reward be that of industry.—RINGELBERGIUS.

The student of English literature has indeed embarked upon a limitless ocean. A lifetime of study will serve only to make him acquainted with parts of that great expanse which lies open before him. He should pursue his explorations earnestly, and with the inquiring spirit of a true discoverer. His thirst for knowledge should be unquenchable; he should long always for that mind food which brings the right kind of mind growth. He should not rest satisfied with merely superficial attainments, but should strive for that thoroughness of knowledge without which there can be neither excellence nor enjoyment.

English literature is not to be learned from manuals. They are only helps,—charts, buoys, light-houses, if you will call them so; or they serve to you the purposes of guide-books. What do you think of the would-be tourist who stays at home and studies his Baedeker with the foolish thought that he is actually seeing the countries which the book describes? And yet I have known students, and not a few teachers, do a thing equally as foolish. With a Morley, or a Shaw, or even a Brooke in their hands, and a few names and dates at their tongues’ ends, they imagine themselves viewing the great ocean of literature, ploughing its surface and exploring its depths, when in reality they are only wasting their time “in dalliance on the shore.”

English literature does not consist in a mere array of names and dates and short biographical sketches of men who have written books. Biography is biography; literature “is a record of the best thoughts.” But the former is frequently studied in place of the latter. “For once that we take down our Milton, and read a book of that ‘voice,’ as Wordsworth says, ‘whose sound is like the sea,’ we take up fifty times a magazine with something about Milton, or about Milton’s grandmother, or a book stuffed with curious facts about the houses in which he lived, and the juvenile ailments of his first wife.”[23] Instead of becoming acquainted at first hand with books in which are stored the energies of the past, we content ourselves with knowing only something about the men who wrote them. Instead of admiring with our own eyes the architectural beauties of St. Paul’s Cathedral, we read a biography of Sir Christopher Wren.

Again, it must be borne in mind that literature is one thing, and the history of literature is another. The study of the latter, however important, cannot be substituted for that of the former; yet it is not desirable to separate the two. To acquire any serviceable knowledge of a book, you will be greatly aided by knowing under what peculiar conditions it was conceived and produced,—the history of the country, the manners of the people, the status of morals and politics at the time it was written. Between history and literature there is a mutual relationship which should not be overlooked. “A book is the offspring of the aggregate intellect of humanity,” and it gives back to humanity, in the shape of new ideas and new combinations of old ideas, not only all that which it has derived from it, but more,—increased intellectual vitality, and springs of action hitherto unknown.

In the study of literature, one should begin with an author and with a subject not too difficult to understand. A beginner will be likely to find but little comfort in Chaucer or Spenser, or even in Emerson; but after he has worked up to them he may study them with unbounded delight. For a ready understanding and correct appreciation of the great masterpieces of English literature, a knowledge of Greek and Roman mythology and history is almost indispensable. The student will find the courses of historical reading given in a former chapter of this book of much value in supplementing his literary studies.

The great works of the world’s master-minds should be studied together, with reference to the similarity of their subject-matter. For example, the reading of Shakspeare will give occasion to the study of dramatic literature in all its forms; the reading of Milton’s “Paradise Lost” will introduce us to the great epics, and to heroic poetry in general; Sir Walter Scott’s “Lay of the Last Minstrel” will lead naturally to the romance literature of modern and mediæval times; Chaucer’s “Canterbury Tales” fitly illustrate the story-telling phase of poetry; the study of lyric poetry may centre around the old ballads, the poems of Robert Burns, and the religious hymns of our language; Bunyan’s “Pilgrim’s Progress” introduces us to allegory, and Milton’s “Lycidas” to elegiac and pastoral poetry; and to know the best specimens of argumentative prose, we begin with the speeches of Daniel Webster and end with the orations of Demosthenes.

The following schemes for the study of different departments of English literature have been tested both with private students and with classes at school. Of course, many of the books mentioned are to be used chiefly as works of reference; some of them may be conveniently omitted in case it is desirable to abridge the course, and others may be exchanged for similar works upon the same subject.

SCHEME I.

+For the Study of Dramatic Literature.+

LITERATURE.

For manuals use any or all of the following works—

SHAW’S _Manual of English Literature_.

MORLEY’S _First Sketch of English Literature_.

BALDWIN’S _English Literature and Literary Criticism_.

BROOKE’S _Primer of English Literature_.

WELCH’S _Development of English Literature_.

RICHARDSON’S _Familiar Talks on English Literature_.

PARALLEL STUDIES

English histories for study and reference—

GREEN’S _History of the English People_.

KNIGHT’S _History of England_.

YONGE’S _Young Folks’ England_.

To be read—

“Rise and Progress of the English Drama,” in White’s Shakspeare, vol. i.

“Origin and Growth of the Drama in England,” in Hudson’s _Life, Art, and Characters of Shakspeare_, vol. i.

“Life of Shakspeare” in either of the works just named.

Study the history of England from 1066 to 1580.

Write an essay on one of the following subjects—

1. Miracles and Mysteries.

2. Popular Amusements of the Middle Ages.

3. The Church and the Early Drama.

4. The Social Condition of England in the Time of Queen Elizabeth.

5. The Early Theatres.

To be referred to—

DOWDEN’S _Shakspere Primer_.

ABBOTT’S _Shakspearian Grammar_.

_Taine’s English Literature_, the chapter on “Shakspeare.”

To be studied—

I. THE MERCHANT OF VENICE.

I. Study the history and topography of Venice.

Write essays on various subjects suggested by the play

II. CORIOLANUS or JULIUS CÆSAR.

II. Read Plutarch’s Life of Coriolanus or of Julius Cæsar.

Study the peculiarities of Roman life and manners.

Refer to Mommsen’s Rome.

III. RICHARD III.

III. Study the history of Richard III. as related by trustworthy historians. Write an essay in his defence.

IV. A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM.

IV. Study the sources from which this play has been derived. Write essays on subjects suggested by it.

V. KING LEAR or MACBETH.

V. Read Geoffrey of Monmouth’s account of King Lear. Learn what you can of the historical legends of early Britain and Scotland.

Write essays on subjects suggested by these plays.

VI. HAMLET.

VI. HAMLET. Study the sources of the play. Write essays. Discuss the question of Hamlet’s madness.

Books for study and reference while studying Shakspeare—

HAZLITT’S _Characters of Shakspeare’s Plays_.

COLERIDGE’S _Literary Remains_.

LEIGH HUNT’S _Imagination and Fancy_.

LAMB’S _Essay on Shakspeare’s Tragedies_.

DOWDEN’S _Mind and Art of Shakspeare_.

WEISS’S _Wit, Humor, and Shakspeare_.

MORGAN’S _The Shakspearian Myth_.

Also, the various works of the Shakspeare Society and of the New Shakspere Society.

Write an essay on Shakspeare’s works, his life, his art.

Discuss the Baconian theory of the authorship of Shakspeare’s plays.

+General Study of the Drama.+

1. _The Greek Drama._—Refer to, or read,—

MAHAFFY’S _Greek Literature_.

SCHLEGEL’S _Dramatic Literature_.

COPLESTON’S _Æschylus_.

CHURCH’S _Stories from the Greek Tragedians_.

MRS. BROWNING’S translation of _Prometheus Bound_.

DONNE’S _Euripides_.

FROUDE’S essay,—_Sea Studies_.

DONALDSON’S _Theatre of the Greeks_.

1. _The Greek Drama._—Study the history of Greece from some brief text-book like Smith’s _Smaller History_. Study the life and manners of the Greeks by referring to Becker’s _Charicles_, or Mahaffy’s _Old Greek Life_.

Refer to Grote and Curtius.

Read the old Greek Myths.

Write essays on the Greek Stage, the Greek Tragedy, and kindred subjects.

Discuss the subjects suggested by reading “Prometheus Bound.”

2. _The Roman Drama._—See the following works—

SCHLEGEL’S _Dramatic Literature_.

SIMCOX’S _History of Latin Literature_.

QUACKENBOS’S _Classical Literature_.

2. Refer to Mommsen’s _Rome_, especially the chapters relating to literature and art.

3. _Mysteries and Miracle-Plays._—Refer to—

“An Essay on the Origin of the English Stage,” in Percy’s _Reliques of Ancient English Poetry_.

WARTON’S _History of English Poetry_.

MORLEY’S _English Writers_; and the essays of White and Hudson, already named.

3. Review the history of England from 1066 to 1580, with special reference to the social, religious, and political progress of the people.

4. _The Elizabethan Drama._—See the works on Shakspeare, mentioned above; also,—

WHIPPLE’S _Literature of the Age of Elizabeth_.

HAZLITT’S _Age of Elizabeth_.

LAMB’S _Notes on the Elizabethan Dramatists_.

WARD’S _English Dramatic Literature_.

Study selections from—

JONSON’S _Every Man in his Humor_.

MARLOWE’S _Doctor Faustus_, or _Tamburlaine_.

Also, selections from Webster, Beaumont and Fletcher, and others.

4. Subjects for special study—

The history of the reigns of Elizabeth and James I.

The causes and character of the Renaissance in England.

Character of the Elizabethan dramatists.

Causes of the decline of dramatic literature.

The character of James I.

The Puritans and their influence upon the manners of the English people.

The Puritans and the drama.

PRYNNE’S _Histrio-Mastix_.

The reign of Charles I.

5. Study Milton’s _Comus_.

Read Milton’s _Samson Agonistes_.

5. Study the history of Oliver Cromwell and Puritan England. Suppression of the drama.

Read Macaulay’s _Essay on Milton_.

Write essays on subjects suggested by these studies.

Discuss the character of the Puritans.

6. _The Drama of the Restoration._—Read—

HAZLITT’S _English Comic Writers_.

JOHNSON’S _Life of Dryden_.

THACKERAY’S _English Humorists_.

MACAULAY’S Essay on the _Comic Dramatists of the Restoration_.

WARD’S _History of the Drama_.

6. Study the state of society at the time of the Restoration.

The history of England from 1660 to 1760.

Write essays on subjects relating to the drama or the public manners of this period.

JEREMY COLLIER’S work.

7. _The Later Drama._—See the following—

FITZGERALD’S _Life of David Garrick_.

_The Life and Dramatic Works of R. B. Sheridan._

_Lives of the Kembles._

MACREADY’S _Reminiscences_.

LEWES’S _Actors and the Art of Acting_.

HUTTON’S _Plays and Players_.

GOLDSMITH’S _She Stoops to Conquer_.

SHERIDAN’S _School for Scandal_.

BULWER’S _Richelieu_.

TENNYSON’S _Drama of Queen Mary_.

SHELLEY’S _Prometheus Unbound_.

SWINBURNE’S _Atalanta in Calydon_.

ROBERT BROWNING’S _Dramas_.

7. Study the history of England to the close of the eighteenth century.

Write an essay on the “Influence of the Drama.”

Discuss the means by which the stage may be made beneficial as a means of popular education.

Study the character of the drama of our own times, and how it may be improved.

SCHEME II.

+For the Study of Epic Poetry.+

LITERATURE.

For manuals, etc., see Scheme I.

To be studied—

MILTON’S _Paradise Lost_.

Read—

MACAULAY’S _Essay on Milton_.

DR. JOHNSON’S _Life of Milton_.

STOPFORD BROOKE’S _Milton_.

MARK PATTISON’S _Milton_.

HAZLITT’S Essay on “Shakspeare and Milton,” in _English Poets_.

HAZLITT’S Essay on _Milton’s Eve_.

DE QUINCEY’S Essay on _Milton vs. Southey and Landor_.

HIMES’S _A Study of Paradise Lost_.

_The Spectator_; the numbers issued on Saturdays from Jan. 5 to May 3, 1712.

MASSON’S _Introduction to Milton’s Poetical Works_.

GOSSE’S Essay on Milton and Vondel, in “Studies in Northern Literature.”

Refer to—

MASSON’S _Life of Milton_.

BOYD’S _Milton’s Paradise Lost_ (with copious notes).

PARALLEL STUDIES

For English histories, see Scheme I.

Read the account of the Creation as related in the book of Genesis.

Study the character of the Puritans in England.

Write essays on subjects suggested by the study of “Paradise Lost.”

Study the mythological allusions found in the poem. The following works of reference are recommended for this purpose—

SMITH’S _Classical Dictionary_.

MURRAY’S _Manual of Mythology_.

KEIGHTLEY’S _Classical Mythology_.

Write an essay on the general plan of the poem.

Discuss Milton’s theory of the universe as understood from the reading of “Paradise Lost.”

A notice of the other great Epics—

1. HOMER’S _Iliad and Odyssey_. Selections read and studied.

(See list of books suggested for the study of Greek history, etc.)

2. VIRGIL’S _Æneid_ (Morris’s translation). General plan of the work observed.

See list of books elsewhere given, relating to Greek Mythology, the Trojan War, etc.

3. DANTE’S _Divina Commedia_ (Longfellow’s or Carey’s translation). General plan of the work observed.

See—

LOWELL’S Essay on Dante, in _Among My Books_.

SYMOND’S _Introduction to the Study of Dante_.

BOTTA’S _Dante as a Philosopher, Patriot, and Poet_.

CARLYLE’S _Heroes and Hero-Worship_.

_Attempted Epics_—

COWLEY’S _Davideis_.

GLOVER’S _Leonidas_.

SOUTHEY’S _Joan of Arc_, _Madoc_, _Thalaba_, and _The Curse of Kehama_.

LANDOR’S _Gebir_.

Why these poems fail to be epics.

Historical studies suggested by these attempted poems.

Write an essay on the qualities requisite to a great epic poem.

Discuss the possibility of another great epic being written.

_Heroic Poems_—

BARBOUR’S Bruce.

DAVENANT’S Gondibert.

Study the legends and historical events upon which these poems are founded.

_The Mock-Heroic_—

POPE’S _Rape of the Lock_. The general plan. Selections studied.

Write an essay on some subject suggested by these studies.

SCHEME III.

+For the Study of Poetical Romance.+

LITERATURE.

For manuals, see Scheme I.

To be studied—

Sir Walter Scott’s great poems,—

_The Lay of the Last Minstrel._

_Marmion._

_The Lady of the Lake._

To be read—

CARLYLE’S Essay on _Sir Walter Scott_.

HAZLITT on Scott, in _The Spirit of the Age_.

The chapter on Scott in Shaw’s _Manual of English Literature_.

PARALLEL STUDIES

For histories, see Scheme I.

Read the history of Scotland from the earliest period to the reign of James V.

MISS PORTER’S _Scottish Chiefs_.

SCOTT’S _Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border_.

AYTOUN’S _Ballads of Scotland_.

SCOTT’S _Fair Maid of Perth_.

Write essays on subjects suggested by these studies.

Discuss the character of the Scotch people in feudal times.

R. H. HUTTON’S _Sir Walter Scott_, in “English Men of Letters.”

How the Romance poetry differed from Classic poetry.

See Macaulay’s Essay on _Southey’s Life of Byron_.

Compare selections from Scott with selections from Pope. Find other illustrations of the difference between the two schools of poetry.

_The Origin of Romance Literature._—Refer to—

WARTON’S _History of Poetry_.

The Introduction to Ellis’s _Early English Metrical Romances_.

RITSON’S _Ancient English Metrical Romances_.

PERCY’S _Reliques_, introductory essay to book iii.

Read the chapter on the Troubadours, in Sismondi’s _Literature of Southern Europe_; also in Van Laun’s _History of French Literature_.

Refer to Miss Prescott’s _Troubadours and Trouvères_.

To be studied—

TENNYSON’S _Idylls of the King_.

Refer to Taine’s criticism of Tennyson’s Poetry, in his _English Literature_, vol. iv.

Read the account of the romances of King Arthur as related in the books already mentioned.

Also,—

LANIER’S _Boy’s King Arthur_.

BULFINCH’S _Age of Chivalry_.

GEOFFREY OF MONMOUTH’S _British History_, books viii. and ix.

Write an essay on the King Arthur legends.

Read selected portions of Byron’s poetical romances—

_The Giaour._

_The Corsair._

_The Bride of Abydos._

_The Siege of Corinth._

Read _Byron_, by John Nichol, in “English Men of Letters.”

Read Matthew Arnold’s Introduction to the _Selected Poems of Lord Byron_.

Compare Byron’s poetry with that of Sir Walter Scott,

1st. As to matter.

2d. As to style.

Write essays on subjects suggested by these studies.

Discuss reasons why Lord Byron’s poetry is much less popular than formerly.

Study selections from Moore’s _Lalla Rookh_.

Read Hazlitt’s criticisms on Moore, in his “English Poets.”

Also, W. M. Rossetti’s Introduction to the _Poems of Thomas Moore_.

Study, from whatever sources are available, Oriental life and manners as portrayed in _Lalla Rookh_. Write essays on the same.

Study selections from Morris’s _Sigurd the Volsung_; also from _The Earthly Paradise_ by the same author.

Study the myths of the north, referring to Mallet’s _Northern Antiquities_ and Anderson’s _Norse Mythology_.

SCHEME IV.

+For the Study of Story-Telling Poetry.+

LITERATURE.

Use manuals for reference as indicated in Scheme I. To these may be added Underwood’s _American Literature_, and White’s _Story of English Literature_.

PARALLEL STUDIES.

Use for reference, Green’s _History of the English People_, or Knight’s _History of England_; also, some standard history of America.

CHAUCER’S _Canterbury Tales_.

Study the _Prologue_ and either the _Knightes Tale_ or the _Clerkes Tale_.

Refer to, or read,—

_The Riches of Chaucer_, by Charles Cowden Clarke.

LOWELL’S Essay on _Chaucer_, in “My Study Windows.”

CARPENTER’S _English of the Fourteenth Century_.

_Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales Explained_, by Saunders.

_Canterbury Chimes_, by Storr and Turner.

_Stories from Old English Poetry_, by Mrs. Richardson.

Study the history of England in the fourteenth century, and especially the social condition of the people during that period.

Make some acquaintance with the great Italian writers who flourished about this time, and exerted a marked influence upon Chaucer’s work.

Refer to—

SISMONDI’S _Literature of Southern Europe_;

CAMPBELL’S _Life of Petrarch_;

BOTTA’S _Dante as Philosopher, Patriot, and Poet_; etc.

Read some of Scott’s shorter narrative poems,—

_Rokeby._

_The Bridal of Triermain._

_Harold the Dauntless._

For criticisms and essays on Scott, see Scheme III.

Study the historical subjects, suggested by these poems.

See Parallel Studies in connection with Scott’s longer poems, Scheme III.

Study _The Prisoner of Chillon_, by Lord Byron.

See criticisms on Byron, in Taine’s _English Literature_.

Read Wordsworth’s story-poems,—

_The White Doe of Rylstone_;

_Peter Bell_;

_We are Seven_; etc.

Study Coleridge’s _The Ancient Mariner_, and Keats’s _The Eve of St. Agnes_.

Read Hazlitt’s estimate of Wordsworth, in _The Spirit of the Age_.

DE QUINCEY on Wordsworth’s poetry, in _Literary Criticism_.

Write essays on subjects suggested by these studies.

For criticisms on the poets last read, refer to—

HAZLITT’S _English Poets_.

SWINBURNE’S _Studies and Essays_.

SHAIRP’S _Studies in Poetry_.

LORD HOUGHTON’S _Life of Keats_.

MATTHEW ARNOLD’S Essay on Keats, in Ward’s _English Poets_.

CARLYLE’S _Reminiscences_.

Study the history of the English people from 1760 to 1820, with special reference to their social condition, and the progress of literature.

Write essays on suggested subjects.

Read Campbell’s _Gertrude of Wyoming_.

Read the historical account of the Massacre of Wyoming.

Read selections from Mrs. Hemans.

Read Mrs. Browning’s _Lady Geraldine’s Courtship_; also some of her shorter poems.

Read biographies of Mrs. Hemans and Mrs. Browning. Discuss reasons why Mrs. Hemans’ poetry is no longer popular.

Study Tennyson’s poems,—

_The Princess._

_Maud._

_Enoch Arden._

Also his shorter poems.

Consult—

STEDMAN’S _Victorian Poets_.

HADLEY’S _Essays_.

KINGSLEY’S _Miscellanies_.

Study at least two poems in Morris’s _Earthly Paradise_.

Study the classical and Norse legends upon which these stories are based.

Study Longfellow’s poems,—

_Evangeline._

_Miles Standish._

_Hiawatha._

_Tales of a Wayside Inn._

_The Skeleton in Armor._

Read Underwood’s _Life of Longfellow_.

See—

BANCROFT’S _History of the United States_, vol. iv.

ABBOTT’S _Life of Miles Standish_.

Study other historical references, etc., suggested by these poems.

Study the story-poems of John G. Whittier: _Maud Muller_; _Flud Ireson_; etc.

Write essays on subjects suggested by these studies.

SCHEME V.

+For the Study of Allegory.+

LITERATURE.

ÆSOP’S Fables.

Oriental parables and fables.

Study Bunyan’s _Pilgrim’s Progress_, as being the most popular allegory in the English language.

Read—

MACAULAY’S _Essay on John Bunyan_.

CHEEVER’S _Lectures on Bunyan_.

Anglo-Saxon parables and allegories. The growth of the allegory.

_The Vision of Piers Plowman._

The great French allegory, the _Roman de la Rose_.

CHAUCER’S _Romaunt of the Rose_.

Other allegorical poems usually ascribed to Chaucer,—

_The Court of Love._

_The Cuckow and the Nightingale._

_The Parlament of Foules._

_The Flower and the Leaf._

Refer to Taine’s _English Literature_.

Notice, next, Dunbar’s _The Thistle and the Rose_; also, _The Golden Terge_, and the _Dance of the Seven Sins_.

STEPHEN HAWES’S _Grand Amour and la Bell Pucell_.

Study selected passages from Spenser’s _Faerie Queene_; also the general plan of the poem.

See—

LOWELL’S _Among My Books_.

CRAIK’S _Spenser and his Poetry_.

PARALLEL STUDIES.

Rhetorical definition of allegory. The distinction between fables and parables.

Study the history of the rise and progress of Puritanism in England.

Refer to Green’s _History of the English People_, and to Taine’s _English Literature_.

Consult—

MORLEY’S _English Writers_.

WARTON’S _History of English Poetry_.

GEORGE P. MARSH’S _Lectures on the Origin and History of the English Language_.

SKEATS’S _Specimens of English Literature_.

Study the social condition of England in the thirteenth, fourteenth, and fifteenth centuries. Refer to the histories already mentioned; also to—

PEARSON’S _History of England in the Fourteenth Century_.

LANIER’S _Boy’s Froissart_, or the abridged edition of _Froissart’s Chronicles_.

TOWLE’S _History of Henry V_.

Study the social and literary history of England during the sixteenth century.

Refer to Froude’s _History of England_.

Write essays on subjects suggested by these studies.

Read—

PHINEAS FLETCHER’S _Purple Island_.

THOMSON’S _Castle of Indolence_.

LOWELL’S _Vision of Sir Launfal_.

GAY’S _Fables_.

BURNS’S _The Twa Dogs_, and _The Brigs of Ayr_.

_Abou Ben Adhem._

Discuss the value of allegory as an aid in education.

Why has the taste for allegory steadily declined?

Write in plain prose the lesson learned in each of the fables studied.

What relationship exists between fables and myths?

SCHEME VI.

+For the Study of Didactic Poetry.+

LITERATURE.

DRYDEN’S _Religio Laici_; and _The Hind and the Panther_.

Study selected passages from Pope’s _Essay on Criticism_, and _Essay on Man_.

YOUNG’S _Night Thoughts_.

JOHNSON’S _Vanity of Human Wishes_.

AKENSIDE’S _Pleasures of the Imagination_.

WARTON’S _Pleasures of Melancholy_.

ROGERS’ _Pleasures of Memory_.

CAMPBELL’S _Pleasures of Hope_.

GRAHAME’S _The Sabbath_.

Study selected passages from Wordsworth’s _Excursion_.

Select and study some of the best-known shorter didactic poems in the language.

REFERENCES.

Refer to—

HAZLITT’S _English Poets_; Lowell’s _Among My Books_ (essay on Dryden); Macaulay’s Essay on Dryden; and Taine’s _English Literature_.

JOHNSON’S _Lives of the Poets_; Stephen’s _Hours in a Library_; De Quincey’s _Literature of the Eighteenth Century_.

MACAULAY’S Essay on _Samuel Johnson_; Boswell’s _Life of Dr. Johnson_; Carlyle’s Essay on _Boswell’s Life of Johnson_; Stephen’s _Johnson_, in “English Men of Letters.”

WHIPPLE’S Essay on Wordsworth, in “Literature and Life.”

SHAIRP’S _Studies in Poetry and Philosophy_; Hazlitt’s _Spirit of the Age_; Charles Lamb’s Essay on Wordsworth’s _Excursion_.

SCHEME VII.

+For the Study of Lyric Poetry.+

LITERATURE.

I.

+The Early Ballads.+

Ballads of Robin Hood.

Ballads of the Scottish Border.

Modern Ballads.

PARALLEL STUDIES

Read histories and stories of the mediæval times.

Refer to Percy’s _Reliques_; Aytoun’s _Scottish Ballads_; Scott’s _Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border_.

II.

+Songs of Patriotism.+

Read and study the best-known patriotic poems in the language.

Study the historical events, or other circumstances which led to the production of these poems.

III.

+Battle Songs.+

The battle scenes in Scott’s poems. Burns: “Scots wha hae wi’ Wallace bled.” Macaulay’s _Battle of Ivry_, _Naseby_, _Horatius at the Bridge_. Tennyson’s _Charge of the Light Brigade_. Drayton’s _Battle of Agincourt_.

Study the historical events which gave rise to these poems.

Write essays on subjects suggested by these studies.

IV.

+Religions Songs and Hymns.+

GEORGE HERBERT’S _Temple_. Read selections from Crashaw and Vaughan. Study Milton’s _Hymn on the Nativity_, and selections from Keble’s _Christian Year_. Read Pope’s _Universal Prayer_, and _The Dying Christian_; also selections from Moore’s _Sacred Songs_, Byron’s _Hebrew Melodies_, and Milman’s _Hymns for Church Service_.

For specimens and extracts of lyric poetry of every class, consult Ward’s _English Poets_; Appleton’s _Library of British Poets_; _The Family Library of British Poets_; Emerson’s _Parnassus_; Chambers’ _Cyclopædia of English Literature_; Bryant’s _Library of Poetry and Song_; and Piatt’s _American Poetry and Art_.

V.

+Love Lyrics.+

The Songs of the Troubadours. Wyatt’s Poems. Marlowe’s _Passionate Shepherd_. Raleigh’s _The Nymph’s Reply_. Robert Herrick’s Poems. Selections from the poems of Sir John Suckling. The love poems of Robert Burns. Coleridge’s _Genevieve_. Selections from other poets.

Consult Miss Prescott’s _Troubadours and Trouvères_; Warton’s _History of English Poetry_. Study the biographies of Marlowe, Raleigh, Herrick, and Suckling. Read Carlyle’s Essay on _Robert Burns_; and Principal Shairp’s _Burns_, in “English Men of Letters.”

VI.

+Sonnets.+

The origin of the sonnet. Selections from the sonnets of Wyatt, Spenser, Sidney, Shakspeare, Drayton, Drummond, Milton, Wordsworth, Keats, and others. Mrs. Browning’s _Sonnets from the Portuguese_.

See Leigh Hunt’s _Book of the Sonnet_; Dennis’s _English Sonnets_; French’s _Dublin Afternoon Lectures_; Massey’s _Shakspeare’s Sonnets_; Henry Brown’s _Sonnets of Shakspeare Solved_; Tomlinson’s _The Sonnet: its Origin, Structure, and Place in Poetry_.

VII.

+Odes.+

DRYDEN’S _Alexander’s Feast_.

POPE’S _Ode on St. Cecilia’s Day_.

COLLINS’S _Ode on the Passions_, and other odes.

GRAY’S _Ode on the Progress of Poesy_, and _The Bard_.

KEATS’S _Sleep and Poetry_.

SHELLEY’S _Ode to Liberty_, and _To the West Wind_.

COLERIDGE’S _Ode on France_, and _To the Departing Year_.

WORDSWORTH’S _Ode on the Intimations of Immortality_.

See Husk’s Account of the Musical Celebrations on St. Cecilia’s Day, in the Sixteenth, Seventeenth, and Eighteenth Centuries.

Study the construction of the ode. Compare the English ode with the Greek and Latin ode. Learn something of the odes of Horace.

Write essays on subjects suggested by these studies.

VIII.

+Elegies.+

Study Milton’s _Lycidas_. Read selections from Spenser’s _Astrophel_; Shelley’s _Adonais_; Tennyson’s _In Memoriam_; _Ode on the Death of the Duke of Wellington_; Pope’s _Elegy on an Unfortunate Lady_. Study Gray’s _Elegy in a Country Churchyard_; The Dirge in _Cymbeline_; and Collins’s _Dirge in Cymbeline_. Read Shenstone’s _Elegies_; Cowper’s _The Castaway_; and Bryant’s _Thanatopsis_.

For references to Milton and Spenser, see other schemes. For Shelley’s _Adonais_, see Hutton’s _Essays_. See F. W. Robertson’s _Analysis of In Memoriam_. See also, for subjects connected with these studies, Roscoe’s _Essays_; Hazlitt’s _English Poets_; Dr. Johnson’s _Life of Gray_; E. W. Gosse’s _Gray_, in “English Men of Letters;” Parke Godwin’s _Life of William Cullen Bryant_.

IX.

+Miscellaneous Lyrics.+

Study selections from the poems of Burns, Ramsay, and Fergusson; Whittier, Bryant, and Longfellow; William Blake; Mrs. Browning, Tennyson, and Swinburne; and others, both British and American.

Refer to the manuals elsewhere mentioned.

Write essays on subjects suggested by these studies.

Discuss the distinctive qualities of Lyric Poetry, and the place which it occupies in English Literature.

SCHEME VIII.

+For the Study of Descriptive Poetry, Etc.+

LITERATURE.

Study selections from the poems of William Cullen Bryant.

Study Whittier’s _Snow-Bound_, and other descriptive poems.

Study Milton’s _L’Allegro_ and _Il Penseroso_.

Study selections from Thomson’s _Seasons_, and Cowper’s _Task_.

Study Goldsmith’s _Traveller_, and _The Deserted Village_; also, Shenstone’s _Schoolmistress_.

Find and read characteristic descriptive passages in the poems of Scott, Byron, Shelley, Wordsworth, Keats, Browning, and others. Compare Scott’s descriptions with the descriptions in Pope’s _Windsor Forest_ and in Denham’s _Cooper’s Hill_.

Select and study descriptive passages from Chaucer’s Poems, and from Spenser’s _Faerie Queene_.

Read selections from Gay’s _Rural Sports_, and from Bloomfield’s _Farmer’s Boy_.

PARALLEL STUDIES.

See Godwin’s _Life of William Cullen Bryant_; and Underwood’s biography of John G. Whittier. See Stopford Brooke’s _Milton_; and Mark Pattison’s _Milton_, in “English Men of Letters;” Irving’s _Life of Goldsmith_; Thackeray’s _English Humorists of the Eighteenth Century_; William Black’s _Goldsmith_, in “English Men of Letters;” Hazlitt’s _English Poets_; and De Quincey’s _Literature of the Eighteenth Century_.

Read Macaulay’s Essay on _Moore’s Life of Byron_.

Refer to Goldwin Smith’s _Cowper_, in “English Men of Letters;” also to Charles Cowden Clarke’s _Life of Cowper_.

See references to Chaucer and Spenser elsewhere given.

+Pastoral Poetry.+

Study Milton’s _Arcades_, and selections from Pope’s _Pastorals_; also from Spenser’s _Shepherd’s Calendar_.

See Drayton’s _Shepherd’s Garland_; Browne’s _Britannia’s Pastorals_; Jonson’s _Sad Shepherd_; Fletcher’s _Faithful Shepherdess_; Gay’s _Shepherd’s Week_; Ramsay’s _Gentle Shepherd_; and Shenstone’s _Pastoral Ballads_.

Read Pope’s _Essay on Pastoral Poetry_.

Learn something about Theocritus and his _Idyls_, and about the _Eclogues_ of Virgil. A translation of the former may be found in Bohn’s Classical Library. The latest translation of the _Eclogues_ is that by Wilstach.

SCHEME IX.

+For the Study of Satire, Wit, and Humor.+

LITERATURE.

DEAN SWIFT, the great English satirist. Study his life and character. See Forster’s _Life of Swift_; or Leslie Stephen’s _Swift_, in “English Men of Letters.”

Read selections from _Gulliver’s Travels_, and the _Tale of a Tub_. Read, also, his _Modest Proposal_.

DANIEL DEFOE’S Satirical Essays: _The Shortest Way with Dissenters_, etc.

See Minto’s _Defoe_, in “English Men of Letters.”

PARALLEL STUDIES.

RABELAIS, the great satirist of France. Read Besant’s _French Humorists_; and _Rabelais_, by the same author. Refer also to Van Laun’s _History of French Literature_.

VOLTAIRE, the third of the great modern satirists. Read Parton’s _Life of Voltaire_; or _Voltaire_, by John Morley; or Colonel Hamley’s _Voltaire_, in “Foreign Classics for English Readers.”

The origin and growth of satirical literature in England.

JOHN SKELTON’S _Satires_. See Warton’s _History of English Poetry_, and Taine’s _English Literature_.

BARCLAY’S _Shyp of Fooles_. See Warton’s _History_.

The Satires of Surrey and Wyatt. See Hallam’s _Literary History_, and Chalmers’ _Collection of the Poets_.

GASCOIGNE’S _The Steele Glass_.

DONNE’S _Satires_. See Pope’s _The Satires of Dr. Donne Versified_.

HALL’S _Virgidemiarum_. See Warton’s _History_, and Campbell’s _Specimens of the English Poets_.

Study selected passages from Butler’s _Hudibras_.

Refer to Hazlitt’s _Comic Writers_, and Leigh Hunt’s _Wit and Wisdom_.

DRYDEN’S _Absalom and Achitophel_, and the publications which followed it.

Satirical literature in Rome.

The great poetical satirists of ancient times,—Horace and Juvenal. See Lord Lytton’s translation of the _Epodes and Satires of Horace_; and Dryden’s _Imitations of Juvenal_. Dr. Johnson’s _London_ and _The Vanity of Human Wishes_ are also imitations of Juvenal. See Dryden’s _Essay on Satire_.

To understand the satires of Hall, Butler, Dryden, and Pope, it is absolutely necessary to be well acquainted with the history and social condition of England during the seventeenth century.

Study Green’s _History of the English People_.

Study the political agitations in England just preceding the Revolution of 1688.

DRYDEN’S _MacFlecknoe_.

POPE’S _Dunciad_.

BYRON’S _English Bards and Scotch Reviewers_.

LOWELL’S _Fable for Critics_.

Compare these four personal satires, and write essays on the subjects suggested by their study.

POPE’S _Moral Essays_.

SWIFT’S Satirical Poems.

The humor of Fielding, Smollett, and Goldsmith, as exhibited in their writings.

CHATTERTON’S _Prophecy_.

Read Burns’ _Holy Willie’s Prayer_, and the _Holy Fair_.

Read Thackeray’s _Humorists of the Eighteenth Century_, and Hazlitt’s _Comic Writers_.

Study the social condition of England in the eighteenth century.

SYDNEY SMITH. See the _Wit and Wisdom of Sydney Smith_ (1861).

_The Fudge Family in Paris_, by Thomas Moore.

The Humorous Essays of Charles Lamb.

THOMAS CARLYLE’S _Sartor Resartus_, and _Latter-Day Pamphlets_. Study selections.

Study the political agitations in England during the first half of the present century. Refer to _Knight’s History of England_, and to Justin McCarthy’s _History of Our Own Times_. Miss Martineau’s _History of the Thirty Years’ Peace_ may be read with profit.

Write essays on subjects suggested by these studies.

THACKERAY as a humorist. Read his _Irish Sketch-Book_, and selections from the _Book of Snobs_, but especially observe his power in _Vanity Fair_.

Read and study Dr. Holmes’ _Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table_.

Study the true distinctions between Wit, Humor, and Satire; and select from what you have read a number of illustrative examples.

Discuss questions which may arise from these studies; and write essays on the same.

Read Lowell’s _Biglow Papers_.

Read selections from Mark Twain and other living American humorists.

Compare the humor of the present day with that of the last generation. Read selections from Irving’s _Sketch Book_, and _Knickerbocker’s New York_.

Read Burns’ _Tam O’Shanter_; and selections from Hood, John G. Saxe, and others.

Study the biographies of Irving, Lowell, Holmes, Mark Twain, Saxe, and other American authors whose works have been noticed in this scheme.

SCHEME X.

+For the Study of English Prose Fiction.+

+General Works of Reference.+

LITERATURE.

DUNLOP’S _History of Fiction_.

JEAFFRESON’S _Novels and Novelists_.

MASSON’S _British Novelists and their Styles_.

TUCKERMAN’S _History of English Prose Fiction_.

PARALLEL STUDIES.

The historical works and also the literary manuals mentioned in Scheme IV. should be at hand for constant reference.

I.

+The First Romances.+

SIDNEY’S _Arcadia_.

LYLY’S _Euphues_.

GREENE’S _Pandosto, or the Triumph of Time_.

The Novels of Thomas Nash.

Study the conditions of life and thought in England under which these first attempts at the writing of prose romance were made.

II.

+Fabulous Voyages and Travels.+

GODWIN’S _Man in the Moon_.

HALL’S _Mundus Alter et Idem_.

SWIFT’S _Gulliver’s Travels_;—read selections.

Study _Robinson Crusoe_.

_The Adventures of Peter Wilkins._

EDGAR A. POE’S _Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym_.

See Collins’ _Lucian_, in “Ancient Classics for English Readers,” for an account of Lucian’s _Veracious History_.

Read the voyage of Gargantua by Rabelais; or, better, consult Besant’s _Rabelais_.

Read Minto’s _Defoe_, in “English Men of Letters.”

See Forster’s _Life of Dean Swift_; Scott’s _Memoir of Dean Swift_; and Minto’s _Manual of English Prose_.

III.

+Romances of the Supernatural.+

WALPOLE’S _The Castle of Otranto_.

MRS. RADCLIFFE’S _Romances_.

GODWIN’S _St. Leon_.

BULWER’S _Zanoni_.

MRS. SHELLEY’S _Frankenstein_.

LEWIS’S _The Monk_.

See Tuckerman’s _Literature of Fiction_ (an essay); C. Kegan Paul’s _Life of William Godwin_; Macaulay’s Essay on _Horace Walpole_; Miss Kavanagh’s _English Women of Letters_.

IV.

+Oriental Romances+

BECKFORD’S _Vathek_.

HOPE’S _Anastasius_.

_The Adventures of Hajji Baba._

V.

+Historical Romances.+

MISS PORTER’S _Scottish Chiefs_.

SCOTT’S _Waverley Novels_.

The Novels of G. P. R. James.

BULWER’S _Last Days of Pompeii_; _Rienzi_; _Harold_; _The Last of the Barons_.

LOCKHART’S _Valerius_.

KINGSLEY’S _Hypatia_.

GEORGE ELIOT’S _Romola_.

See Lockhart’s _Life of Scott_; Stephen’s _Hours in a Library_; Carlyle’s Essay on _Sir Walter Scott_; Shaw’s _Manual of English Literature_; Hutton’s _Scott_, in “English Men of Letters;” Nassau Senior’s _Essays on Fiction_; _The Life of Edward Bulwer-Lytton_, by his son, the present Lord Lytton.

VI.

+Novels of Social Life, etc.+

RICHARDSON’S _Novels_.

FIELDING’S _Tom Jones_.

SMOLLETT’S Novels.

STERNE’S _Tristram Shandy_.

GOLDSMITH’S _Vicar of Wakefield_.

MISS BURNEY’S Novels.

GODWIN’S _Caleb Williams_.

MISS EDGEWORTH’S Novels.

SCOTT’S _Guy Mannering_; _The Heart of Mid-Lothian_; _The Bride of Lammermoor_; _The Antiquary_; etc.

MISS AUSTEN’S Works.

THACKERAY’S _Vanity Fair_.

DICKENS’S _Pickwick Papers_.

Other Novels of Dickens and Thackeray.

CHARLOTTE BRONTË’S _Jane Eyre_.

BULWER’S Novels.

DISRAELI’S _Vivian_; and _Lothair_.

CHARLES KINGSLEY’S Novels.

GEORGE ELIOT’S Works.

See Stephen’s _Hours in a Library_; Hazlitt’s _English Novelists_; Thackeray’s _English Humorists of the Eighteenth Century_; Irving’s _Life of Goldsmith_; Macaulay’s Essay on _Madame d’Arblay_; Miss Kavanagh’s _English Women of Letters_; James T. Fields’ _Yesterdays with Authors_; Horne’s _New Spirit of the Age_; John Forster’s _Life of Charles Dickens_; Hannay’s _Studies on Thackeray_; Hannay’s _Characters and Sketches_; Anthony Trollope’s _Thackeray_, in “English Men of Letters;” Taine’s _English Literature_, vol. iv.; Mrs. Gaskell’s _Life of Charlotte Brontë_; Miss Martineau’s _Biographical Sketches_; Thackeray’s _Roundabout Papers_; Life of _Charles Brockden Brown_, in Sparks’ “American Biography;” Griswold’s _Prose_

_American Fiction_—

CHARLES BROCKDEN BROWN’S _Wieland_, and other Novels.

COOPER’S Novels.

JAMES KIRKE PAULDING.

JOHN P. KENNEDY.

WILLIAM GILMORE SIMMS.

HAWTHORNE’S Works.

The later and living novelists.

_Writers of America_; Prescott’s _Miscellaneous Essays_; J. T. Fields’ _Hawthorne_; H. A. Page’s _Life of Hawthorne_; Lathrop’s _Study of Hawthorne_; Roscoe’s _Essays_; _Hawthorne_, by Henry James, in “English Men of Letters;” Cooke’s _George Eliot: a Critical Study of her Life, Writings, and Philosophy_; (Round-Table Series) _George Eliot, Moralist and Thinker_.

VII.

+Didactic Fiction.+

MORE’S _Utopia_.

HARRINGTON’S _Oceana_.

DISRAELI’S _Coningsby_.

BULWER-LYTTON’S _The Coming Race_.

BUNYAN’S _Pilgrim’s Progress_.

HANNAH MORE’S Novels.

JOHNSON’S _Rasselas_.

The modern didactic novel.

See Hallam’s _Literary History_; and references given in the preceding schemes.

An After Word.

_HERE let us face the last question of all: In the shade and valley of Life, on what shall we repose? When we must withdraw from the scenes which our own energies and agonies have somewhat helped to make glorious; when the windows are darkened, and the sound of the grinding is low,—where shall we find the beds of asphodel? Can any couch be more delectable than that amidst the Elysian leaves of Books? The occupations of the morning and the noon determine the affections, which will continue to seek their old nourishment when the grand climacteric has been reached._

THE AUTHOR OF “HESPERIDES.”

INDEX.

Addison, Joseph, 32, 78.

Æschylus, 74.

Alcott, A. Bronson, 63.

Allegory, 183.

American Fiction, 195.

Areopagitica, 78.

Aristophanes, 74.

Axon, William, 62.

Bacon, Lord, 53, 78.

Ballads, 186.

Banking, 164.

Battle Songs, 186.

Baxter, Richard, 159.

Beaumont and Fletcher, 71.

Beecher, Henry Ward, 60.

Bennoch, Francis, 17.

Bible, The, 153.

Borrowed Books, 58.

Boswell’s Johnson, 79.

Bright, John, 17, 63.

Brontë, Charlotte, 82.

Brown, Dr. John, 148.

Browne, Matthew, 49.

Browne, Sir Thomas, 78.

Browning, Elizabeth Barrett, 72.

Bryant, William Cullen, 73.

Bulwer Lytton, 82.

Burke, Edmund, 78.

Burns, Robert, 72.

Burton, Robert, 21.

Bury, Richard de, 9.

Carlyle, Thomas, 15, 29, 79.

Carr, Frank (“Launcelot Cross”), 61.

Cervantes, 80.

Chambers, William and Robert, 93.

Chaucer, Geoffrey, 70.

Children’s Books, 84.

Chivalry, Tales of, 102.

Choice of Books, 23, 165.

Christian Year, The, 72.

Cicero’s Orations, 79.

Clarke, James Freeman, 19.

Cobbett, William, 33.

Coleridge, Samuel Taylor, 53, 72.

Collier, Jeremy, 13.

Collyer, Robert, 25, 95.

Colton, Charles C., 54.

Constitutional History, 162.

Cooper, James Fenimore, 81.

Craik, Dinah Mulock, 82.

Crusoe, Robinson, 80, 104.

Currency and Wealth, 163.

Dante’s Divina Commedia, 75.

Dawson, George, 64.

Defoe, Daniel, 80.

Demosthenes, 79.

Descriptive Poetry, 189.

Dickens, Charles, 81.

Didactic Fiction, 195.

Didactic Poetry, 185.

Dryden, John, 71.

Dyer, George, 63.

Elegies, 188.

Eliot, George, 81, 156.

Emerson, Ralph Waldo, 16, 46, 79.

English Literature, 168.

Epic Poetry, 177.

Fabulous Voyages, 193.

Fairy Stories, 99.

Fénelon’s Telemaque, 81.

Fiction, English Prose, 192.

Fielding, Henry, 81.

Franklin, Benjamin, 85.

Froude, James Anthony, 79.

Geography, 138.

Gibbon, Edward, 51.

Gilfillan, George, 46.

Goethe, 54, 75, 81.

Goldsmith, Oliver, 72, 80.

Government, Science of, 161.

Hale, Sir Matthew, 153.

Hamerton, Philip Gilbert, 54.

Hare, Julius C., 45.

Harrison, Frederic, 34, 76.

Hawthorne, Nathaniel, 81.

Helps, Sir Arthur, 47.

Herbert, George, 71.

Historical Romances, 194.

History, Courses of Reading in, 113.

Holmes, Oliver Wendell, 70, 79.

Homer, 74, 90.

Horace, 74.

Hugo, Victor, 81.

Humor, Wit and, 190.

Hunt, Leigh, 82.

Hymns, 186.

Irving, Washington, 79, 96.

Johnson, Samuel, 79.

Jonson, Ben, 71.

Keats, John, 72.

Keble, John, 72.

Kempis, Thomas à, 156.

Kingsley, Charles, 22, 81.

Labor and Wages, 164.

Lamb, Charles, 79.

Libraries 56, 108.

Locke, John, 44.

Longfellow, Henry Wadsworth, 72.

Love Lyrics, 187.

Luther, Martin, 44.

Lyric Poetry, 186.

Macaulay, Thomas Babington, 73, 79, 96.

Marlowe, Christopher, 71.

Miller, Hugh, 88.

Milton, John, 12, 71, 78.

Montaigne’s Essays, 78.

Morse, James Herbert, 37.

Mythology, 101.

Natural History, 138.

Nibelungen Lied, 101.

Novels, 194.

Odes, 187.

Oriental Romances, 193.

Parker, Theodore, 17, 148.

Pastoral Poetry, 189.

Patmore, Coventry, 76.

Patriotism, Songs of, 186.

Pauperism, 166.

Petrarca, Francesco, 10.

Philosophy and Religion, 148.

Plutarch’s Lives, 79, 86.

Political Economy, 161.

Pope, Alexander, 71.

Population, 163.

Praise of Books, 9.

Prefaces always to be read, 51.

Procter, Bryan Waller, 51, 56.

Rantzau, Henry, 22.

Religious Books, 148.

Religious Poetry, 186.

Rhodiginus, Balthasar Bonifacius, 12.

Richardson, Charles F., 49.

Richter, Jean Paul, 64.

Romances, 179, 193.

Romances of the Middle Ages, 101.

Rules for Reading, 42, 46.

Ruskin, John, 36, 59, 76.

Satire, 190.

Scholar, Books for every, 69.

School Libraries, 108.

Schopenhauer, Arthur, 28, 35.

Scott, Sir Walter, 81.

Searle, January, 18.

Seneca, 44.

Shakspeare, 70.

Smith, Alexander, 66.

Socialism, 165.

Sonnets, 187.

South, Robert, 44.

Southey, Robert, 27.

Spectator, The, 78, 86.

Spenser, Edmund, 70.

Story-telling Poetry, 181.

Stowe, Harriet Beecher, 81.

Tariff, Books on the, 166.

Taxation, 166.

Tennyson, Alfred, 72.

Thackeray, William Makepeace, 81.

Theological Literature, 157.

Travels and Adventure, 138.

Twain, Mark, 81.

Value and Use of Libraries, 56.

Virgil’s Æneid, 74.

Wages and Labor, 164.

Wealth and Currency, 163.

Webster, Daniel, 78.

Webster, John, 71.

Whipple, Edwin P., 20.

Whittier, John G., 73.

Wit, Humor, and Satire, 190.

Wordsworth, William, 72.

Young Folks, Books for, 84.

FOOTNOTES:

[1] Robert Collyer: _Addresses and Sermons_.

[2] _The Doctor_, Interchapter V., 1856.

[3] Arthur Schopenhauer: _Parerga und Paralipomena_, 1851.

[4] _The Elements of Drawing, in Three Letters to Beginners_, 1857.

[5] _The Spectator_, No. 166.

[6] _Fortnightly Review_ (April, 1879),—“On the Choice of Books.”

[7] _Parerga und Paralipomena_ (1851).

[8] _The Critic_ (July 5, 1884),—“Leisure Reading.”

[9] John Ruskin: _Sesame and Lilies_.

[10] _Guesses at Truth, by Two Brothers_, 1848.

[11] _Society and Solitude_,—“Books.”

[12] George Gilfillan.

[13] _Friends in Council._

[14] _Views and Opinions_, by Matthew Browne (W. H. Rands).

[15] _The Choice of Books._

[16] _Temple Bar_ (September, 1884),—“Barry Cornwall on the Reading of Books.”

[17] _Sesame and Lilies._

[18] _Meliora_ (October, 1867).

[19] Sparks’s _Life of Franklin_, part i.

[20] _My Schools and Schoolmasters._

[21] _Memoir of Robert Chambers: with Autobiographic Reminiscences of William Chambers._

[22] _Chinese Classics_, by J. Legge. 3 vols.

[23] Frederic Harrison: _Fortnightly Review_ (April, 1879), “On the Choice of Books.”

THE SURGEON’S STORIES. By Z. TOPELIUS, Professor of History, University of Finland. Translated from the original Swedish comprising—

TIMES OF GUSTAF ADOLF, TIMES OF BATTLE AND REST, TIMES OF CHARLES XII., TIMES OF FREDERICK I., TIMES OF LINNÆUS, TIMES OF ALCHEMY.

In cloth, per volume $ 1.25 The same, in box, per set 7.50 In half calf, per set 16.50 In half morocco, per set 18.00

These stories have been everywhere received with the greatest favor. They cover the most interesting and exciting periods of Swedish and Finnish history. They combine history and romance, and the two are woven together in so skilful and attractive a manner that the reader of one volume is rarely satisfied until he has read all. Of their distinguished author the _Saturday Review_, London, says: “He enjoys the greatest celebrity among living Swedish writers;” and R. H. Stoddard has styled them “the most important and certainly the most readable series of foreign fiction that has been translated into English for many years.” They should stand on the shelves of every library, public and private, beside the works of Sir Walter Scott.

The Graphic, New York, says:

“Topelius is evidently a great romancer,—a great romancer in the manner of Walter Scott. At moments in his writing there is positive inspiration, a truth and vivid reality that are startling.”

The Sun, Philadelphia, says:

“We would much prefer teaching a youth Swedish history from the novels of Topelius than from any book of strict historical narrative.”

BIOGRAPHIES OF MUSICIANS.

+LIFE OF LISZT.+ With Portrait. +LIFE OF HAYDN.+ With Portrait. +LIFE OF MOZART.+ With Portrait. +LIFE OF WAGNER.+ With Portrait. +LIFE OF BEETHOVEN.+ With Portrait.

_From the German of Dr. Louis Nohl._

In cloth, per volume $ 1.25 The same, in neat box, per set 6.25 In half calf, per set 13.75

Of the “Life of Liszt,” the _Herald_ (Boston) says: “It is written in great simplicity and perfect taste, and is wholly successful in all that it undertakes to portray.”

Of the “Life of Haydn,” the _Gazette_ (Boston) says: “No fuller history of Haydn’s career, the society in which he moved, and of his personal life can be found than is given in this work.”

Of the “Life of Mozart,” the _Standard_ says: “Mozart supplies a fascinating subject for biographical treatment. He lives in these pages somewhat as the world saw him, from his marvellous boyhood till his untimely death.”

Of the “Life of Wagner,” the _American_ (Baltimore) says: “It gives in vigorous outlines those events of the life of the tone poet which exercised the greatest influences upon his artistic career.... It is a story of a strange life devoted to lofty aims.”

Of the “Life of Beethoven,” the _National Journal of Education_ says: “Beethoven was great and noble as a man, and his artistic creations were in harmony with his great nature. The story of his life, outlined in this volume, is of the deepest interest.”

TALES FROM FOREIGN TONGUES.

+MEMORIES. A Story of German Love.+ By MAX MULLER.

+GRAZIELLA. A Story of Italian Love.+ By A. DE LAMARTINE.

+MADELEINE. A Story of French Love.+ By JULES SANDEAU.

+MARIE. A Story of Russian Love.+ By ALEX. PUSHKIN.

In cloth, full gilt, per volume $1.25 The same, in neat box, per set 5.00 In half calf or morocco, per set 12.00

The series of four volumes forms, perhaps, the choicest addition to the English language that has been made in recent years.

Of “Memories,” the London _Academy_ says: “It is a prose poem.... Its beauty and pathos show us a fresh phase of a many-sided mind, to which we already owe large debts of gratitude.”

Of “Graziella,” the Boston _Post_ says: “It is full of beautiful sentiment, unique and graceful in style, of course, as were all the writings that left the hands of this distinguished French author.”

Of “Madeleine,” the New York _Evening Mail_ says: “It is one of the most exquisite love tales that ever was written, abounding in genuine pathos and sparkling wit, and so pure in its sentiment that it may be read by a child.”

Of “Marie,” the Cincinnati _Gazette_ says: “It is one of the purest, sweetest little narratives that we have read for a long time. It is a little classic, and a Russian classic, too.”

FAMILIAR TALKS ON ENGLISH LITERATURE. A Manual embracing the Great Epochs of English Literature, from the English conquest of Britain, 449, to the death of Walter Scott, 1832. By ABBY SAGE RICHARDSON. Fourth edition, revised. Price $1.75.

The Boston Transcript says:

“The work shows thorough study and excellent judgment, and we can warmly recommend it to schools and private classes for reading as an admirable text-book.”

The New York Evening Mail says:

“What the author proposed to do was to convey to her readers a clear idea of the variety, extent, and richness of English literature.... She has done just what she intended to do, and done it well.”

The New York Nation says:

“It is refreshing to find a book designed for young readers which seeks to give only what will accomplish the real aim of the study; namely, to excite an interest in English literature, cultivate a taste for what is best in it, and thus lay a foundation on which they can build after reading.”

Prof. Moses Coit Tyler says:

“I have had real satisfaction in looking over the book. There are some opinions with which I do not agree; but the main thing about the book is a good thing; namely, its hearty, wholesome love of English literature, and the honest, unpretending, but genial and conversational, manner in which that love is uttered. It is a charming book to read, and it will breed in its readers the appetite to read English literature for themselves.”

TALES OF ANCIENT GREECE. By the Rev. Sir G. W. COX, Bart., M.A., Trinity College, Oxford.

12mo, extra, cloth, black and gilt, $1.50.

“Written apparently for young readers, it yet possesses a charm of manner which will recommend it to all.”—_The Examiner, London._

“It is only when we take up such a book as this that we realize how rich in interest is the mythology of Greece.”—_Inquirer, Philadelphia._

“Admirable in style, and level with a child’s comprehension. These versions might well find a place in every family.”—_The Nation, New York._

“The author invests these stories with a charm of narrative entirely peculiar. The book is a rich one in every way.”—_Standard, Chicago._

“In Mr. Cox will be found yet another name to be enrolled among those English writers who have vindicated for this country an honorable rank in the investigation of Greek history.”—_Edinburgh Review._

“It is doubtful if these tales—antedating history in their origin, and yet fresh with all the charms of youth to all who read them for the first time—were ever before presented in so chaste and popular form.”—_Golden Rule, Boston._

“The grace with which these old tales of the mythology are re-told makes them as enchanting to the young as familiar fairy tales or the ‘Arabian Nights.’ ... We do not know of a Christmas book which promises more lasting pleasures.”—_Publishers’ Weekly._

“Its exterior fits it to adorn the drawing-room table, while its contents are adapted to the entertainment of the most cultivated intelligence.... The book is a scholarly production, and a welcome addition to a department of literature that is thus far quite too scantily furnished.”—_Tribune, Chicago._

SHORT HISTORY OF FRANCE, FOR YOUNG PEOPLE. By Miss E. S. KIRKLAND, author of “Six Little Cooks,” “Dora’s Housekeeping,” &c.

12mo, extra, cloth, black and gilt, $1.50.

“A very ably written sketch of French history, from the earliest times to the foundation of the existing Republic.”—_Cincinnati Gazette._

“The narrative is not dry on a single page, and the little history may be commended as the best of its kind that has yet appeared.”—_Bulletin, Philadelphia._

“A book both instructive and entertaining. It is not a dry compendium of dates and facts, but a charmingly written history.”—_Christian Union, New York._

“After a careful examination of its contents, we are able to conscientiously give it our heartiest commendation. We know no elementary history of France that can at all be compared with it.”—_Living Church._

“A spirited and entertaining sketch of the French people and nation,—one that will seize and hold the attention of all bright boys and girls who have a chance to read it.”—_Sunday Afternoon, Springfield (Mass.)._

“We find its descriptions universally good, that it is admirably simple and direct in style, without waste of words or timidity of opinion. The book represents a great deal of patient labor and conscientious study.”—_Courant, Hartford (Conn.)._

“Miss Kirkland has composed her ‘Short History of France’ in the way in which a history for young people ought to be written; that is, she has aimed to present a consecutive and agreeable story, from which the reader can not only learn the names of kings and the succession of events, but can also receive a vivid and permanent impression as to the characters, modes of life, and the spirit of different periods.”—_The Nation, New York._

_Sold by all booksellers, or mailed, on receipt of price, by_

JANSEN, MCCLURG, & CO., PUBLISHERS,

COR. WABASH AVE. AND MADISON ST., CHICAGO.