IN COMEDY AND SATIRE ARRANGED AND EDITED FOR THE SPECIAL USE NEW YORK.:. CINCINNATI: CHICAGO AMERICAN BOOK COMPANY L. C. INTRODUCTION Two of the three humorists who are reckoned greatest in the literature of the world have left to us pictures of education which have passed into proverb. The greatest of dramatists devoted to the portrayal of an academy one of his brightest and happiest comedies. Of Pope's incomparable satire, the book which is distinguished as The Greater Dunciad is devoted to educational shams. Colman the Younger is still preserved from oblivion through the humorous delineation of educational absurdities in one of his dramas. The greatest and most popular of novel writers, whose works exert an inestimable influence in favor of reforms, owes his reputation largely to his satirical pictures of school life. The most popular English playwright of the past generation, and his contemporary, the favorite painter of manners among the dramatists of France, have both chosen teachers and pupils for the subjects of merry plays. A favorite German writer of to-day has been most happy in a character study of a German gymnasium. There is a potent moral force in humor and satire; and there are few stronger influences than these that can be brought to bear on the training of teachers and the improvement of systems of education. Moreover, the rank of the authors to whom reference has been made, and of others as well, seems to render it especially desirable that teachers shall become acquainted with their style, and with their place in literature. 3 114959 |