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FIRST STEPS WITH AMERICAN AND

BRITISH AUTHORS.

CHAPTER I.

INTRODUCTORY.

1. Literature in General.- Literature in a general way has reference to the written productions of a nation, but in a more limited sense refers only to those writings which come within the province of the literary art; in other words, literature, as commonly spoken of, excludes scientific and technical works, and is synonymous with elegant or polite literature, or belles-lettres as the French call it.

Literature has often been defined. Emerson says it is the record of the best thoughts. "By literature," says Stopford Brooke, "we mean the written thoughts and feelings of intelligent men and women, arranged in a way that shall give pleasure to the reader." Says John Morley, "Poets, dramatists, humorists, satirists, masters of fiction, the great preachers, the character-writers, the maximwriters, the great political orators, they are all literature, in so far as they teach us to know men, and to know human nature. This is what makes literature a proper instrument for a systematic training of the imagination and sympathies, and of a genial and varied moral sensibility."

Strictly speaking, English literature refers only to the written productions of the British people. But inasmuch as the English-speaking world embraces two great nations, besides vast colonial dependencies, the term "English literature" is commonly used in its broad sense, referring thereby to the great classic authors who have written in the English language. English literature may thus include the writings of both British and American authors. If we wish to be exact, we may designate the literature of Great Britain as British literature, and that of the United States as American literature.

2. The Study of English Literature. Why do we study literature? The answer is brief. To be happy, and to do our whole duty, it is of paramount importance that we should habitually live with wise thoughts and right feelings. What will help us to this gracious companionship? A deep and abiding love for all that is good in literature. Hence its study is earnestly commended to our interest and care. "The object of literature in education," says John Henry Newman, "is to open the mind, to correct it, to refine it, to enable it to comprehend and digest its knowledge, to give it power over its faculties, application, flexibility, method, critical exactness, sagacity, address, and expression."

The story of our English literature began about twelve

I "To create and maintain in every student the highest ideal of human life, is, or ought to be, the chief work of any higher school. There is no study like that of the best literature to form and glorify such an ideal. It reveals possibilities, touches to finer issues, broadens thought, kindles faith, sets the soul free, quickens and greatens, as nothing else can.

"Arm in arm with a universal author, you are in living contact with the great facts and laws of nature and of human existence; you see them from the master's lofty standpoint, and your life is larger than before." - HOMER B. SPRAGUE.

hundred years ago, and is still going on. The roll-call of poets and prose-writers who have added to its treasures is long and splendid. To study English literature, is to become acquainted with the writings of the great authors who have made it what it is. It is to get at the characteristics of those master minds whose works have been universally accepted as classics. It is to read and re-read

these masterpieces, in which moral truth and human passion are touched with a certain largeness and attractiveness of form, until their essence becomes a part of our real life.'

This it is that makes the study of English literature, wisely selected and wisely studied, not the trifling occupation of a leisure hour, but a most efficient instrument for intellectual and moral discipline.

3. Methods of Study. The Old and the New. - The importance of a more or less extended course in English literature in schools of a higher grade is now generally recognized. Within a few years the method of instruction has been changed for the better. Too much time in past years has been given to the routine study of some manual of English literary history, and too little attention paid to the methodical study of the writings of standard authors; in brief, pupils have been taught to study merely about authors, and not to study authors.

The time-honored method, and the method that is occasionally employed, was to place in the hands of the pupil

"I need not tell you that you will find that most books worth reading once are worth reading twice; and, what is most important of all, the masterpieces of literature are worth reading a thousand times. It is a great mistake to think that because you have read a masterpiece once or twice, or ten times, therefore you have done with it because it is a masterpiece, you ought to live with it, and make it part of your daily life." - JOHN MORLEY.

some compend of the history of English literature, and to require stated lessons from its several chapters, as in the old-time method of studying a text-book on chemistry or history.

The pupil may thus become familiar with certain facts and borrowed opinions about authors, and yet scarcely have read a line of the writings of the authors themselves. By this method a familiarity with English literary history is gained, rather than with English literature: for example, a pupil might be able to mention all the plays of Shakspeare, and yet have never read a line of one of his plays for himself, or had any opinion of his own about the great dramatist. In fact, by this method every requirement of the teacher could be met, and a creditable examination be passed, by a student who had never read a line of the authors under discussion. Again, so dreary and so repulsive did this process become to average young pupils, that very few were disposed in after-years to cultivate a more intelligent acquaintance with standard authors.

The first and highest aim in the study of English literature is thus lost sight of by this radically defective method of instruction. For, the main purpose of a necessarily brief course in this branch of study in our schools is to cultivate a taste for good literature, to stimulate a love for systematic and wholesome reading, and to illustrate the principles which should guide us in selecting healthful books and authors to be read in after-life.'

I "My object throughout the class-room study of English literature would be tc cultivate an intelligent appreciation, a positive love, for those treasures of genius, those masterpieces of literary art, which are embodied in our mother tongue; such a love as would be a delight, a sustaining, comforting, restraining influence, through out life." -J. H. GILMORE.

4. The Plan of This Book. - The defective method of instruction, to which we have alluded, has been superseded of late years, at least in most of our best schools, by the more sensible, and, in fact, the only true method; viz., a methodical and thorough study of the text of a few great classic authors, supplemented by the necessary amount of oral instruction and collateral study.

Many able scholars and teachers have done much of late years, by their writings, to advance the study of English literature to its proper place in the school curriculum. Well-edited and inexpensive editions of our best authors, well-arranged for school use, are now easily obtained.

By this method it is obvious that pupils, and many teachers too, need, and should have, a goodly amount of help to enable them to study to the best advantage the texts of our standard authors: as in any other branch of school-work, explicit directions and practical suggestions are needed to help the student to a proper understanding of the subject.

Hence it has been our plan to prepare a useful and practical hand-book, which will furnish the young student with such general and particular directions, homely details and helps, as will serve as an introduction to a systematic course of study in English literature. In a general way, our plan is to study methodically the texts of a few representative authors, and not merely to read about many authors. It is to study what great authors have written, and not what some one has written about them. Every thing is made subordinate to this great aim.

The order in which the plan of work is arranged is simply for convenience. Experience shows, that, as in any other line of school-work, the less difficult should

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