 |
17. JOHN RUSKIN, the greatest living master of English prose, an art-critic and thinker, was born in London in the year 1819. In his father's house he was accustomed "to no other prospect than that of the brick walls over the way; he had no brothers, nor sisters, nor companions." To his London birth he ascribes the great charm that the beauties of nature had for him from his boyhood: he felt the contrast between town and country, and saw what no country-bred child could have seen in sights that were usual to him from his infancy. He was educated at Christ Church, Oxford, and gained the Newdigate prize for poetry in 1839. He at first devoted himself to painting; but his true and strongest genius lay in the direction of literature. In 1843 appeared the first volume of his Modern Painters, which is perhaps his greatest work; and the four other volumes were published between that date and the year 1860. In this work he discusses the qualities and the merits of the greatest painters of the English, the Italian, and other schools. In 1851 he produced a charming fairy tale, 'The King of the Golden River, or the Black Brothers.' He has written on architecture also, on political economy, and on many other social subjects. He is the founder of a society called "The St George's Guild," the purpose of which is to spread abroad sound notions of what true life and true art are, and especially to make the life of the poor more endurable and better worth living.
18. Ruskin's Style.— A glowing eloquence, a splendid and full-flowing music, wealth of phrase, aptness of epithet, opulence of ideas— all these qualities characterise the prose style of Mr Ruskin. His similes are daring, but always true. Speaking of the countless statues that fill the innumerable niches of the cathedral of Milan, he says that "it is as though a flight of angels had alighted there and been struck to marble." His writings are full of the wisest sayings put into the most musical and beautiful language. Here are a few:—
"Every act, every impulse, of virtue and vice, affects in any creature, face, voice, nervous power, and vigour and harmony of invention, at once. Perseverance in rightness of human conduct renders, after a certain number of generations, human art possible; every sin clouds it, be it ever so little a one; and persistent vicious living and following of pleasure render, after a certain number of generations, all art impossible."
"In mortals, there is a care for trifles, which proceeds from love and conscience, and is most holy; and a care for trifles, which comes of idleness and frivolity, and is most base. And so, also, there is a gravity proceeding from dulness and mere incapability of enjoyment, which is most base."
His power of painting in words is incomparably greater than that of any other English author: he almost infuses colour into his words and phrases, so full are they of pictorial power. It would be impossible to give any adequate idea of this power here; but a few lines may suffice for the present:—
"The noonday sun came slanting down the rocky slopes of La Riccia, and its masses of enlarged and tall foliage, whose autumnal tints were mixed with the wet verdure of a thousand evergreens, were penetrated with it as with rain. I cannot call it colour; it was conflagration. Purple, and crimson, and scarlet, like the curtains of God's tabernacle, the rejoicing trees sank into the valley in showers of light, every separate leaf quivered with buoyant and burning life; each, as it turned to reflect or to transmit the sunbeam, first a torch and then an emerald."
19. GEORGE ELIOT (the literary name for Marian Evans, 1819-1880), one of our greatest writers, was born in Warwickshire in the year 1819. She was well and carefully educated; and her own serious and studious character made her a careful thinker and a most diligent reader. For some time the famous Herbert Spencer was her tutor; and under his care her mind developed with surprising rapidity. She taught herself German, French, Italian— studied the best works in the literature of these languages; and she was also fairly mistress of Greek and Latin. Besides all these, she was an accomplished musician. —She was for some time assistant-editor of the 'Westminster Review.' The first of her works which called the attention of the public to her astonishing skill and power as a novelist was her Scenes of Clerical Life. Her most popular novel, Adam Bede, appeared in 1859; Romola in 1863; and Middlemarch in 1872. She has also written a good deal of poetry, among other volumes that entitled The Legend of Jubal, and other Poems. One of her best poems is The Spanish Gypsy. She died in the year 1880.
20. George Eliot's Style.— Her style is everywhere pure and strong, of the best and most vigorous English, not only broad in its power, but often intense in its description of character and situation, and always singularly adequate to the thought. Probably no novelist knew the English character— especially in the Midlands— so well as she, or could analyse it with so much subtlety and truth. She is entirely mistress of the country dialects. In humour, pathos, knowledge of character, power of putting a portrait firmly upon the canvas, no writer surpasses her, and few come near her. Her power is sometimes almost Shakespearian. Like Shakespeare, she gives us a large number of wise sayings, expressed in the pithiest language. The following are a few:—
"It is never too late to be what you might have been."
"It is easy finding reasons why other people should be patient."
"Genius, at first, is little more than a great capacity for receiving discipline."
"Things are not so ill with you and me as they might have been, half owing to the number who lived faithfully a hidden life, and rest in unvisited tombs."
"Nature never makes men who are at once energetically sympathetic and minutely calculating."
"To the far woods he wandered, listening, And heard the birds their little stories sing In notes whose rise and fall seem melted speech— Melted with tears, smiles, glances— that can reach More quickly through our frame's deep-winding night, And without thought raise thought's best fruit, delight."
TABLES OF ENGLISH LITERATURE.
[Transcriber's Note:
In the original book, the following table— spanning 14 pages— was laid out in four columns: Writers; Works; Contemporary Events; Centuries (through 1500) or Decades (beginning 1550).
Missing punctuation has been silently supplied.]
Centuries/Decades WRITERS Works Contemporary Events
500
(Author unknown.) Beowulf (brought over by Saxons and Angles from the Continent).
600
CAEDMON. A secular monk of Whitby. Died about 680. Poems on the Creation and other subjects taken from the Old and the New Testament.
Edwin (of Deira), King of the Angles, baptised 627.
700
BAEDA. 672-735. "The Venerable Bede," a monk of Jarrow-on-Tyne. An Ecclesiastical History in Latin. A translation of St John's Gospel into English (lost).
First landing of the Danes, 787.
800
ALFRED THE GREAT. 849-901. King; translator; prose-writer. Translated into the English of Wessex, Bede's Ecclesiastical History and other Latin works. Is said to have begun the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle.
The University of Oxford is said to have been founded in this reign.
Compiled by monks in various monasteries. Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, 875-1154.
900
ASSER. Bishop of Sherborne. Died 910. Life of King Alfred.
1000
(Author unknown.) A poem entitled The Grave.
1100
LAYAMON. 1150-1210. A priest of Ernley-on-Severn. The Brut (1205), a poem on Brutus, the supposed first settler in Britain.
John ascended the throne in 1199.
ORM or ORMIN. 1187-1237. A canon of the Order of St Augustine. The Ormulum (1215), a set of religious services in metre.
1200
ROBERT OF GLOUCESTER. 1255-1307. Chronicle of England in rhyme (1297).
Magna Charta, 1215. Henry III. ascends the throne, 1216.
ROBERT OF BRUNNE. (Robert Manning of Brun.) 1272-1340. Chronicle of England in rhyme; Handlyng Sinne (1303).
University of Cambridge founded, 1231. Edward I. ascends the throne, 1272. Conquest of Wales, 1284.
1300
SIR JOHN MANDEVILLE. 1300-1372. Physician; traveller; prose-writer. The Voyaige and Travaile. Travels to Jerusalem, India, and other countries, written in Latin French and English (1356). The first writer "in formed English."
Edward II ascends the throne, 1307. Battle of Bannockburn, 1314.
JOHN BARBOUR. Archdeacon of Aberdeen. 1316-1396. The Bruce (1377), a poem written in the Northern English or "Scottish" dialect.
Edward III. ascends the throne, 1327.
1350
JOHN WYCLIF. 1324-1384. Vicar of Lutterworth, in Leicestershire. Translation of the Bible from the Latin version; and many tracts and pamphlets on Church reform.
Hundred Years' War begins, 1338. Battle of Crecy, 1346.
JOHN GOWER. 1325-1408. A country gentleman of Kent; probably also a lawyer. Vox Clamantis, Confessio Amantis, Speculum Meditantis (1393); and poems in French and Latin.
The Black Death, 1349, 1361, 1369.
WILLIAM LANGLANDE. 1332-1400. Born in Shropshire. Vision concerning Piers the Plowman— three editions (1362-78).
Battle of Poitiers, 1356. First law-pleadings in English, 1362.
GEOFFREY CHAUCER 1340-1400. Poet; courtier; soldier; diplomatist; Comptroller of the Customs: Clerk of the King's Works; M.P. The Canterbury Tales (1384-98), of which the best is the Knightes Tale. Dryden called him "a perpetual fountain of good sense."
Richard II. ascends the throne, 1377. Wat Tyler's insurrection, 1381.
JAMES I. OF SCOTLAND. 1394-1437. Prisoner in England, and educated there, in 1405. The King's Quair (= Book), a poem in the style of Chaucer.
Henry IV. ascends the throne, 1399.
1400
WILLIAM CAXTON. 1422-1492. Mercer; printer; translator; prose-writer. The Game and Playe of the Chesse (1474)— the first book printed in England; Lives of the Fathers, "finished on the last day of his life;" and many other works.
Henry V. ascends the throne, 1415. Battle of Agincourt, 1415. Henry VI. ascends the throne, 1422. Invention of Printing, 1438-45.
1450
WILLIAM DUNBAR. 1450-1530. Franciscan or Grey Friar; Secretary to a Scotch embassy to France. The Golden Terge (1501); the Dance of the Seven Deadly Sins (1507); and other poems. He has been called "the Chaucer of Scotland."
Jack Cade's insurrection, 1450. End of the Hundred Years' War, 1453.
GAWAIN DOUGLAS. 1474-1522. Bishop of Dunkeld, in Perthshire. Palace of Honour (1501); translation of Virgil's neid (1513)— the first translation of any Latin author into verse. Douglas wrote in Northern English.
Wars of the Roses, 1455-86. Edward IV. ascends the throne, 1461.
WILLIAM TYNDALE. 1477-1536. Student of theology; translator. Burnt at Antwerp for heresy. New Testament translated (1525-34); the Five Books of Moses translated (1530). This translation is the basis of the Authorised Version.
Edward V. king, 1483.
SIR THOMAS MORE. 1480-1535. Lord High Chancellor; writer on social topics; historian. History of King Edward V., and of his brother, and of Richard III. (1513); Utopia (= "The Land of Nowhere"), written in Latin; and other prose works.
Richard III. ascends the throne, 1483. Battle of Bosworth, 1485.
SIR DAVID LYNDESAY. 1490-1556. Tutor of Prince James of Scotland (James V.); "Lord Lyon King-at-Arms;" poet. Lyndesay's Dream (1528); The Complaint (1529); A Satire of the Three Estates (1535)— a "morality-play."
Henry VII. ascends the throne, 1485. Greek began to be taught in England about 1497.
1500
ROGER ASCHAM. 1515-1568. Lecturer on Greek at Cambridge; tutor to Edward VI., Queen Elizabeth, and Lady Jane Grey. Toxophilus (1544), a treatise on shooting with the bow; The Scholemastre (1570). "Ascham is plain and strong in his style, but without grace or warmth."
Henry VIII. ascends the throne, 1509. Battle of Flodden, 1513. Wolsey Cardinal and Lord High Chancellor, 1515.
JOHN FOXE. 1517-1587. An English clergyman. Corrector for the press at Basle; Prebendary of Salisbury Cathedral; prose-writer. The Book of Martyrs (1563), an account of the chief Protestant martyrs.
Sir Thomas More first layman who was Lord High Chancellor, 1529. Reformation in England begins about 1534.
EDMUND SPENSER. 1552-1599. Secretary to Viceroy of Ireland; political writer; poet. Shepheard's Calendar (1579): Faerie Queene, in six books (1590-96).
Edward VI. ascends the throne, 1547. Mary Tudor ascends the throne, 1553.
1550
SIR WALTER RALEIGH. 1552-1618. Courtier; statesman; sailor; coloniser; historian. History of the World (1614), written during the author's imprisonment in the Tower of London.
Cranmer burnt 1556.
RICHARD HOOKER. 1553-1600. English clergyman; Master of the Temple; Rector of Boscombe, in the diocese of Salisbury. Laws of Ecclesiastical Polity (1594). This book is an eloquent defence of the Church of England. The writer, from his excellent judgment, is generally called "the judicious Hooker."
Elizabeth ascends the throne, 1558.
SIR PHILIP SIDNEY. 1554-1586. Courtier; general; romance-writer. Arcadia, a romance (1580). Defence of Poesie, published after his death (in 1595). Sonnets.
1560
FRANCIS BACON. 1561-1626. Viscount St Albans; Lord High Chancellor of England; lawyer; philosopher; essayist. Essays (1597); Advancement of Learning (1605); Novum Organum (1620); and other works on methods of inquiry into nature.
Hawkins begins slave trade in 1562. Rizzio murdered, 1566.
WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE. 1564-1616. Actor; owner of theatre; play-writer; poet. Born and died at Stratford-on-Avon. Thirty-seven plays. His greatest tragedies are Hamlet, Lear, and Othello. His best comedies are Midsummer Night's Dream, The Merchant of Venice, and As You Like It. His best historical plays are Julius Csar and Richard III. Many minor poems— chiefly sonnets. He wrote no prose.
Marlowe, Dekker, Chapman, Beaumont and Fletcher, Ford, Webster, Ben Johnson, and other dramatists, were contemporaries of Shakspeare.
1570
BEN JONSON. 1574-1637. Dramatist; poet; prose-writer. Tragedies and comedies. Best plays: Volpone or the Fox; Every Man in his Humour.
Drake sails round the world, 1577. Execution of Mary Queen of Scots, 1578.
1580
WILLIAM DRUMMOND ("of Hawthornden"). 1585-1649. Scottish poet; friend of Ben Jonson. Sonnets and poems.
Raleigh in Virginia, 1584. Babington's Plot, 1586. Spanish Armada, 1588.
1590
THOMAS HOBBES. 1588-1679. Philosopher; prose-writer; translator of Homer. The Leviathan (1651), a work on politics and moral philosophy.
Battle of Ivry, 1590.
1600
SIR THOMAS BROWNE. 1605-1682. Physician at Norwich. Religio Medici (= "The Religion of a Physician"); Urn-Burial; and other prose works.
Australia discovered, 1601. James I. ascends the throne in 1603.
JOHN MILTON. 1608-1674. Student; political writer; poet; Foreign (or "Latin") Secretary to Cromwell. Became blind from over-work in 1654. Minor Poems; Paradise Lost; Paradise Regained; Samson Agonistes. Many prose works, the best being Areopagitica, a speech for the Liberty of Unlicensed Printing.
Hampton Court Conference for translation of Bible, 1604-11. Gunpowder Plot, 1605.
1610
SAMUEL BUTLER. 1612-1680. Literary man; secretary to the Earl of Carbery. Hudibras, a mock-heroic poem, written to ridicule the Puritan and Parliamentarian party.
Execution of Raleigh, 1618.
JEREMY TAYLOR. 1613-1667. English clergyman; Bishop of Down and Connor in Ireland. Holy Living and Holy Dying (1649); and a number of other religious books.
1620
JOHN BUNYAN. 1628-1688. Tinker and traveling preacher. The Pilgrim's Progress (1678); the Holy War; and other religious works.
Charles I. ascends the throne in 1625. Petition of Right, 1628.
1630
JOHN DRYDEN. 1631-1700. Poet-Laureate and Historiographer-Royal; playwright; poet; prose-writer. Annus Mirabilis (= "The Wonderful Year," 1665-66, on the Plague and the Fire of London); Absalom and Achitophel (1681), a poem on political parties; Hind and Panther (1687), a religious poem. He also wrote many plays, some odes and a translation of Virgil's neid. His prose consists chiefly of prefaces and introductions to his poems.
No Parliament from 1629-40. Scottish National Covenant, 1638.
1640
Long Parliament, 1640-53. Marston Moor, 1644. Execution of Charles I., 1649.
1650
JOHN LOCKE. 1632-1704. Diplomatist; Secretary to the Board of Trade; philosopher; prose-writer. Essay concerning the Human Understanding (1690); Thoughts on Education; and other prose works.
The Commonwealth, 1649-60. Cromwell Lord Protector, 1653-58.
1660
DANIEL DEFOE. 1661-1731. Literary man; pamphleteer; journalist; member of Commission on Union with Scotland. The True-born Englishman (1701); Robinson Crusoe (1719); Journal of the Plague (1722); and more than a hundred books in all.
Restoration, 1660. First standing army, 1661. First newspaper in England, 1663.
JONATHAN SWIFT. 1667-1745. English clergyman; literary man; satirist; prose-writer; poet; Dean of St Patrick's, in Dublin. Battle of the Books; Tale of a Tub (1704), an allegory on the Churches of Rome, England, and Scotland; Gulliver's Travels (1726); a few poems; and a number of very vigorous political pamphlets.
Plague of London, 1665. Fire of London, 1666.
1670
SIR RICHARD STEELE. 1671-1729. Soldier; literary man; courtier; journalist; M.P. Steele founded the 'Tatler,' 'Spectator,' 'Guardian,' and other small journals. He also wrote some plays.
Charles II. pensioned by Louis XIV. of France, 1674.
JOSEPH ADDISON. 1672-1719. Essayist; poet; Secretary of State for the Home Department. Essays in the 'Tatler,' 'Spectator,' and 'Guardian.' Cato, a Tragedy (1713). Several Poems and Hymns.
The Habeas Corpus Act, 1679.
1680
ALEXANDER POPE. 1688-1744. Poet. Essay on Criticism (1711); Rape of the Lock (1714); Translation of Homer's Iliad and Odyssey, finished in 1726; Dunciad (1729); Essay on Man (1739). A few prose Essays, and a volume of Letters.
James II. ascends the throne in 1685. Revolution of 1688. William III. and Mary II. ascend the throne, 1689.
1690
Battle of the Boyne, 1690.
JAMES THOMSON. 1700-1748. Poet. The Seasons; a poem in blank verse (1730); The Castle of Indolence; a mock-heroic poem in the Spenserian stanza (1748).
Censorship of the Press abolished, 1695. Queen Anne ascends the throne in 1702.
1700
HENRY FIELDING. 1707-1754. Police-magistrate, journalist; novelist. Joseph Andrews (1742); Amelia (1751). He was "the first great English novelist."
Battle of Blenheim, 1704. Gibraltar taken, 1704.
DR SAMUEL JOHNSON. 1709-1784. Schoolmaster; literary man; essayist; poet; dictionary-maker. London (1738); The Vanity of Human Wishes (1749); Dictionary of the English Language (1755); Rasselas (1759); Lives of the Poets (1781). He also wrote The Idler, The Rambler, and a play called Irene.
Union of England and Scotland, 1707.
1710
DAVID HUME. 1711-1776. Librarian; Secretary to the French Embassy; philosopher; literary man. History of England (1754-1762); and a number of philosophical Essays. His prose is singularly clear, easy, and pleasant.
George I. ascends the throne in 1714.
THOMAS GRAY. 1716-1771. Student; poet; letter-writer; Professor of Modern History in the University of Cambridge. Odes; Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard (1750)— one of the most perfect poems in our language. He was a great stylist, and an extremely careful workman.
Rebellion in Scotland in 1715.
1720
TOBIAS GEORGE SMOLLETT. 1721-1771. Doctor; pamphleteer; literary hack; novelist. Roderick Random (1748); Humphrey Clinker (1771). He also continued Hume's History of England. He published also some Plays and Poems.
South-Sea Bubble bursts, 1720.
OLIVER GOLDSMITH. 1728-1774. Literary man; play-writer; poet. The Traveller (1764); The Vicar of Wakefield (1766); The Deserted Village (1770); She Stoops to Conquer—a Play (1773); and a large number of books, pamphlets, and compilations.
George II. ascends the throne, 1727.
ADAM SMITH. 1723-1790. Professor in the University of Glasgow. Theory of Moral Sentiments (1759); Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations (1776). He was the founder of the science of political economy.
1730
EDMUND BURKE. 1730-1797. M.P.; statesman; "the first man in the House of Commons;" orator; writer on political philosophy. Essay on the Sublime and Beautiful (1757); Reflections on the Revolution of France (1790); Letters on a Regicide Peace (1797); and many other works. "The greatest philosopher in practice the world ever saw."
WILLIAM COWPER. 1731-1800. Commissioner in Bankruptcy; Clerk of the Journals of the House of Lords; poet. Table Talk (1782); John Gilpin (1785); A Translation of Homer (1791); and many other Poems. His Letters, like Gray's, are among the best in the language.
1740
EDWARD GIBBON. 1737-1794. Historian; M.P. Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (1776-87). "Heavily laden style and monotonous balance of every sentence."
Rebellion in Scotland, 1745, commonly called "The 'Forty-five."
1750
ROBERT BURNS. 1759-1796. Farm-labourer; ploughman; farmer; excise-officer; lyrical poet. Poems and Songs (1786-96). His prose consists chiefly of Letters. "His pictures of social life, of quaint humour, come up to nature; and they cannot go beyond it."
Clive in India, 1750-60. Earthquake at Lisbon, 1755. Black Hole of Calcutta, 1756.
1760
WILLIAM WORDSWORTH. 1770-1850. Distributor of Stamps for the county of Westmoreland; poet; poet-laureate. Lyrical Ballads (with Coleridge, 1798); The Excursion (1814); Yarrow Revisited (1835), and many poems. The Prelude was published after his death. His prose, which is very good, consists chiefly of Prefaces and Introductions.
George III. ascends the throne in 1760. Napoleon and Wellington born, 1769.
1770
SIR WALTER SCOTT. 1771-1832. Clerk to the Court of Session in Edinburgh; Scottish barrister; poet; novelist. Lay of the Last Minstrel (1805); Marmion (1808); Lady of the Lake (1810); Waverley— the first of the "Waverley Novels"— was published in 1814. The "Homer of Scotland." His prose is bright and fluent, but very inaccurate.
Warren Hastings in India, 1772-85.
SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE. 1772-1834. Private soldier; journalist; literary man; philosopher; poet. The Ancient Mariner (1798); Christabel (1816); The Friend— a Collection of Essays (1812); Aids to Reflection (1825). His prose is very full both of thought and emotion.
ROBERT SOUTHEY. 1774-1843. Literary man; Quarterly Reviewer; historian; poet-laureate. Joan of Arc (1796); Thalaba the Destroyer (1801); The Curse of Kehama (1810); A History of Brazil; The Doctor— a Collection of Essays; Life of Nelson. He wrote more than a hundred volumes. He was "the most ambitious and and most voluminous author of his age."
American Declaration of Independence, 1776.
CHARLES LAMB. 1775-1834. Clerk in the East India House; poet; prose-writer. Poems (1797); Tales from Shakespeare (1806); The Essays of Elia (1823-1833). One of the finest writers of writers of prose in the English language.
WALTER SAVAGE LANDOR. 1775-1864. Poet; prose-writer. Gebir (1798); Count Julian (1812); Imaginary Conversations (1824-1846); Dry Sticks Faggoted (1858). He wrote books for more than sixty years. His style is full of vigour and sustained eloquence.
Alliance of France and America, 1778.
THOMAS CAMPBELL. 1777-1844. Poet; literary man; editor. The Pleasures of Hope (1799); Poems (1803); Gertrude of Wyoming, Battle of the Baltic, Hohenlinden, etc. (1809). He also wrote some Historical Works.
Encyclopdia Britannica founded in 1778.
HENRY HALLAM. 1778-1859. Historian. View of Europe during the Middle Ages (1818); Constitutional History of England (1827); Introduction to the Literature of Europe (1839).
THOMAS MOORE. 1779-1852. Poet; prose-writer. Odes and Epistles (1806); Lalla Rookh (1817); History of Ireland (1827); Life of Byron (1830); Irish Melodies (1834); and many prose works.
1780
THOMAS DE QUINCEY. 1785-1859. Essayist. Confessions of an English Opium-Eater (1821). He wrote also on many subjects— philosophy, poetry, classics, history, politics. His writings fill twenty volumes. He was one of the finest prose-writers of this century.
French Revolution begun in 1789.
LORD BYRON (George Gordon). 1788-1824. Peer; poet; volunteer to Greece. Hours of Idleness (1807); English Bards and Scotch Reviewers (1809); Childe Harold's Pilgrimage (1812-1818); Hebrew Melodies (1815); and many Plays. His prose, which is full of vigour and animal spirits, is to be found chiefly in his Letters.
Bastille overthrown, 1789.
1790
PERCY BYSSHE SHELLEY. 1792-1822. Poet. Queen Mab (1810); Prometheus Unbound—a Tragedy (1819); Ode to the Skylark, The Cloud (1820); Adonas (1821), and many other poems; and several prose works.
Cape of Good Hope Hope taken, 1795. Bonaparte in Italy, 1796. Battle of the Nile, 1798.
1800
JOHN KEATS. 1795-1821. Poet. Poems (1817); Endymion (1818); Hyperion (1820). "Had Keats lived to the ordinary age of man, he would have been one of the greatest of all poets."
Union of Great Britain and Ireland, 1801. Trafalgar and Nelson, 1805.
1810
Peninsular War, 1808-14. Napoleon's Invasion of Russia; Moscow burnt, 1812.
1820
THOMAS CARLYLE. 1795-1881. Literary man; poet; translator; essayist; reviewer; political writer; historian. German Romances— a set of Translations (1827); Sartor Resartus— "The Tailor Repatched" (1834); The French Revolution (1837); Heroes and Hero-Worship (1840); Past and Present (1843); Cromwell's Letters and Speeches (1845); Life of Frederick the Great (1858-65). "With the gift of song, Carlyle would have been the greatest of epic poets since Homer."
War with United States, 1812-14. Battle of Waterloo,1815.
1830
George IV. ascends the throne, 1820. Greek War of Freedom, 1822-29. Byron in Greece, 1823-24. Catholic Emancipation, 1829.
LORD MACAULAY (Thomas Babington). 1800-1859. Barrister; Edinburgh Reviewer; M.P.; Member of the Supreme Council of India; Cabinet Minister; poet; essayist; historian; peer. Milton (in the 'Edinburgh Review,' 1825); Lays of Ancient Rome (1842); History of England— unfinished (1849-59). "His pictorial faculty is amazing."
William IV. ascends the throne, 1830. The Reform Bill, 1832. Total Abolition of Slavery, 1834.
LORD LYTTON (Edward Bulwer). 1805-1873. Novelist; poet; dramatist; M.P.; Cabinet Minister; peer. Ismael and Other Poems (1825); Eugene Aram (1831); Last Days of Pompeii (1834); The Caxtons (1849); My Novel (1853); Poems (1865).
Queen Victoria ascends the throne, 1837.
1840
Irish Famine, 1845.
JOHN STUART MILL. 1806-1873. Clerk in the East India House; philospher; political writer; M.P.; Lord Rector of the University of St Andrews. System of Logic (1843); Principles of Political Economy (1848); Essay on Liberty (1858); Autobiography (1873); "For judicial calmness, elevation of tone, and freedom from personality, Mill is unrivalled among the writers of his time."
Repeal of the Corn Laws, 1846.
1850
Revolution in Paris, 1851. Death of Wellington, 1852.
HENRY W. LONGFELLOW. 1807-1882. Professor of Modern Languages and Literature in Harvard University, U.S.; poet; prose-writer. Outre-Mer—a Story (1835); Hyperion—a Story (1839); Voices of the Night (1841); Evangeline (1848) Hiawatha (1855); Aftermath (1873). "His tact in the use of language is probably the chief cause of his success."
Napoleon III. Emperor of the French, 1852. Russian War, 1854-56.
LORD TENNYSON (Alfred Tennyson). 1809——. Poet; poet-laureate; peer. Poems (1830) In Memoriam (1850); Maud (1855); Idylls of the King (1859-73); Queen Mary—a Drama (1875); Becket—a Drama (1884). He is at present our greatest living poet.
Franco-Austrian War, 1859.
1860
Emancipation of Russian serfs, 1861.
ELIZABETH B. BARRETT (afterwards Mrs Browning). 1809-1861. Poet; prose-writer; translator. Prometheus Bound— translated from the Greek of schylus (1833); Poems (1844); Aurora Leigh (1856); and Essays contributed to various magazines.
Austro-Prussian "Seven Weeks' War", 1866. Suez canal finished, 1869.
1870
WILLIAM MAKEPEACE THACKERAY. 1811-1863. Novelist; writer in 'Punch'; artist. The Paris Sketch-Book (1840); Vanity Fair (1847); Esmond (1852); The Newcomes(1855); The Virginians (1857). The greatest novelist and one of the most perfect stylists of this century. "The classical English humorist and satirist of the reign of Queen Victoria."
Franco-Prussian War 1870-71. Third French Republic, 1870. William I. of Prussia made Emperor of the Germans at Versailles, 1871.
CHARLES DICKENS. 1812-1870. Novelist. Sketches by Boz (1836); The Pickwick Papers (1837); Oliver Twist (1838); Nicholas Nickleby (1838); and many other novels and works; Great Expectations (1868). The most popular writer that ever lived.
Rome the new capital of Italy, 1871. Russo-Turkish War 1877-78. Berlin Congress and Treaty, 1878.
ROBERT BROWNING. 1812——. Poet. Pauline (1833); Paracelsus (1836); Poems (1865); The Ring and the Book (1869); and many other volumes of poetry.
Leo XIII. made Pope in 1878.
1880
JOHN RUSKIN. 1819——. Art-critic; essayist; teacher; literary man. Modern Painters (1843-60); The Stones of Venice (1851-53); The Queen of the Air (1869); An Autobiography (1885); and very many other works. "He has a deep, serious, and almost fanatical reverence for art."
Assassination of Alexander II., 1881. Arabi Pasha's Rebellion 1882-83. War in the Soudan, 1884.
GEORGE ELIOT. 1819-1880. Novelist; poet; essayist. Scenes of Clerical Life (1858); Adam Bede (1859); and many other novels down to Daniel Deronda (1876); Spanish Gypsy (1868); Legend of Jubal (1874).
Murder of Gordon, 1884. New Reform Bill, 1885.
INDEX.
[Spellings in the Index are sometimes different from those used in the main text, as with the names "Shakespeare" and "Wycliffe", or the use of ligatures in names such as "Bda" and "Cdmon". Paragraph references given in {braces} were added by the transcriber. Parts III and IV are separately indexed.]
PART III.
African words in English, 263. American words in English, 263. Analytic English (= modern), 239 {III.2}. Ancient English, 199 {I.4}. synthetic, 239 {III.1}. Anglo-Saxon, specimen from, 250 {IV.2}. contrasted with English of Wyclif and Tyndale, 251 {IV.3}. Arabic words in English, 263. Aryan family of languages, 195 {intro.7}.
Bible, English of the, 256 {IV.11}. Bilingualism, 222 {II.33}.
Changes of language, never sudden, 198 {I.2}. Chinese words in English, 264.
Dead and living languages, 198 {I.1}. Dialects of English, 238 {II.52}. Doublets, English and other, 236-238 {II.47-II.51}. Greek, 233 {II.45}. Latin, 230-233 {II.41-II.43}. Dutch and Welsh contrasted, 197 {intro.10}. words in English, 260 {V.5}.
English, 194 {intro.4}. a Low-German tongue, 196 {intro.9}. diagram of, 203. dialects of, 238 {II.52}. early and oldest, compared, 252 {IV.5}. elements of, characteristics of the two, 234-236 {II.46-II.47}. English element in, 202 {II.2}. foreign elements in, 204 {II.5}. grammar of, its history, 239-249 {III.1-III.16}. its spread over Britain, 197 {intro.11}. modern, 258-265 {V.1-V.10}. nation, 202 {II.1}. of the Bible, 256 {IV.11}. of the thirteenth century, 254 {IV.8}. of the fourteenth century, 255 {IV.9}. of the sixteenth century, 256 {IV.10}. on the Continent, 194 {intro.5}. periods of, 198-201 {I.3-I.8}. marks which distinguish, 254. syntax of, changed, 245 {III.11}. the family to which it belongs, 195 {intro.7}. the group to which it belongs, 195 {intro.8}, 196. vocabulary of, 202-238 {II.1-II.52}.
Foreign elements in English, 204 {II.5}. French (new) words in English, 261 {V.6}. (Norman), see Norman-French.
German words in English, 262 {V.7}. Grammar of English, 239-249 {III.1-III.16}. comparatively fixed (since 1485), 258 {V.1}. First Period, 240 {III.5}. general view of its history, 243 {III.9}. Second Period, 241 {III.6}. short view of its history, 239-243 {III.3-III.8}. Third Period, 242 {III.7}. Fourth Period, 242 {III.8}. Greek doublets, 233 {II.45}. Gutturals, expulsion of, 246-248 {III.12-III.14}.
Hebrew words in English, 262 {V.8}. Hindu words in English, 264. History of English, landmarks in, 266. Hungarian words in English, 264.
Indo-European family, 195 {intro.7}. Inflexions in different periods, compared, 253 {IV.6}. loss of, 239 {III.3}, 240 {III.4}. grammatical result of loss, 248 {III.16}. Italian words in English, 259 {V.4}.
Keltic element in English, 204-206 {II.6-II.9}.
Landmarks in the history of English, 266. Language, 193 {intro.1}. changes of, 198 {I.2}. growth of, 193 {intro.3}. living and dead, 198 {I.1}. spoken and written, 203 {II.3}. written, 193 {intro.2}. Latin contributions and their dates, 209 {II.16}. doublets, 230-233 {II.41-II.43}. element in English, 208-233 {II.15-II.44}. of the eye and ear, 230 {II.41}. of the First Period, 210 {II.17}. Second Period, 211 {II.19}, 212 {II.21}. Third Period, 212-227 {II.22-II.36}. Fourth Period, 227-230 {II.37-II.39}. triplets, 233 {II.44}. Lord's Prayer, in four versions, 251 {IV.4}, 252.
Malay words in English, 264. Middle English, 200 {I.6}. Modern English, 201 {I.8}, 258-265 {V.1-V.10}. analytic, 239 {III.2}. Monosyllables, 244 {III.10}.
New words in English, 258-265 {V.2-V.10}. Norman-French, 212 {II.22}. bilingualism caused by, 222 {II.33}. contributions, general character of, 220 {II.30}. dates of, 213-215 {II.23-II.24}. element in English, 212-227 {II.22-II.36}. gains to English from, 221-224 {II.31-II.33}. losses to English from, 225-227 {II.34-II.36}. synonyms, 222 {II.32}. words, 216-220 {II.24-II.29}.
Oldest and early English compared, 252 {IV.5}. Order of words in English, changed, 245 {III.11}.
Periods of English, 198-201 {I.3-I.8}. Ancient, 199 {I.4}. Early, 199 {I.5}. Middle, 200 {I.6}. Tudor, 201 {I.7}. Modern, 201 {I.8}. grammar of the different, 239-249 {III.1-III.16}. marks indicating different, 254. specimens of different, 250-257 {IV.1-IV.12}. Persian words in English, 264. Polynesian words in English, 264. Portuguese words in English, 264.
Renascence (Revival of Learning), 227 {II.37}. Russian words in English, 264.
Scandinavian element in English, 206-208 {II.10-II.14}. Scientific terms in English, 265 {V.10}. Spanish words in English, 259 {V.3}. Specimens of English of different periods, 250-257 {IV.1-IV.12}. Spoken and written language, 203 {II.3}. Syntax of English, change in, 245 {III.11}. Synthetic English (= ancient), 239 {III.1}.
+Tartar +words in English, 264. Teutonic group, 195 {intro.8}. Tudor English, 201 {I.7}. Turkish words in English, 264. Tyndale's English, compared with Anglo-Saxon and Wyclif, 251 {IV.3}.
Vocabulary of the English language, 202-238 {II.1-II.52}.
Welsh and Dutch contrasted, 197 {intro.10}. Words and inflexions in different periods, compared, 253 {IV.6}. new, in English, 258-265 {V.2-V.10}. Written language, 193 {intro.2}. and spoken, 203 {II.3}. Wyclif's English, compared with Tyndale's and Anglo-Saxon, 251 {IV.3}.
PART IV.
Addison, Joseph, 315 {VI.7}. Alfred, 276 {I.9}. Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, 276 {I.10}. Arnold, Matthew, 359 {IX.10}. Austen, Jane, 348 {VIII.25}.
Bacon, Francis, 299 {V.3}. Bda (Venerable Bede), 275 {I.8}. Barbour, John, 285 {II.10}. Beowulf, 273 {I.5}. Blake, William, 334 {VII.20}. Browning, Robert, 358 {IX.8}. Browning, Mrs., 357 {IX.7}. Brunanburg, Song of, 275 {I.7}. Brunne, Robert of, 279 {I.12}. Brut, 277 {I.11}. Bunyan, John, 309 {V.17}. Burke, Edmund, 326 {VII.6}. Burns, Robert, 332 {VII.16}. Butler, Samuel, 304 {V.10}. Byron, George Gordon, Lord, 343 {VIII.16}.
Cdmon, 274 {I.6}. Campbell, Thomas, 342 {VIII.14}. Carlyle, Thomas, 349 {VIII.27}. Caxton, William, 288 {III.3}. Chatterton, Thomas, 333 {VII.18}. Chaucer, Geoffrey, 283 {II.7}. followers of, 287 {III.1}. Coleridge, Samuel Taylor, 340 {VIII.10}. Collins, William, 321 {VI.19}. Cowper, William, 329 {VII.11}. Crabbe, George, 331 {VII.13}.
Defoe, Daniel, 312 {VI.3}. De Quincey, Thomas, 348 {VIII.26}. Dickens, Charles, 361 {IX.15}. Dryden, John, 305 {V.12}.
Eliot, George, 364 {IX.19}.
Gibbon, Edward, 327 {VII.8}. Gloucester, Robert of, 279 {I.12}. Goldsmith, Oliver, 325 {VII.4}. Gower, John, 282 {II.5}. Gray, Thomas, 320 {VI.17}.
Hobbes, Thomas, 308 {V.16}. Hooker, Richard, 296 {IV.16}.
James I. (of Scotland), 287 {III.2}. Johnson, Samuel, 323 {VII.2}. Jonson, Ben, 295 {IV.15}.
Keats, John, 345 {VIII.20}.
Lamb, Charles, 346 {VIII.23}. Landor, Walter Savage, 347 {VIII.24}. Langlande, William, 282 {II.6}. Layamon, 277 {I.11}. Locke, John, 309 {V.18}. Longfellow, Henry Wadsworth, 354 {IX.3}.
Macaulay, Thomas Babington, 351 {VIII.29}. Maldon, Song of the Fight at, 275 {I.7}. Mandeville, Sir John, 281 {II.3}. Marlowe, Christopher, 295 {IV.14}. Milton, John, 303 {V.8}. Moore, Thomas, 342 {VIII.15}. More, Sir Thomas, 290 {IV.3}. Morris, William, 360 {IX.12}.
Orm's Ormulum, 278 {I.12}.
Pope, Alexander, 317 {VI.11}, 319 {VI.14}.
Raleigh, Sir Walter, 298 {V.2}. Ruskin, John, 363 {IX.17}.
Scott, Sir Walter, 339 {VIII.5}. Shakespeare, William, 292 {IV.9}, 301 {V.5}. contemporaries of, 294 {IV.13}. Shelley, Percy Bysshe, 344 {VIII.18}. Sidney, Sir Philip, 297 {IV.18}. Southey, Robert, 341 {VIII.12}. Spenser, Edmund, 291 {IV.6}. Steele, Richard, 316 {VI.10}. Surrey, Earl of, 289 {IV.2}. Swift, Jonathan, 313 {VI.5}.
Taylor, Jeremy, 307 {V.14}. Tennyson, Alfred, 355 {IX.5}. Thackeray, William Makepeace, 361 {IX.14}. Thomson, James, 319 {VI.15}, 320 {VI.16}. Tyndale, William, 290 {IV.4}.
Wordsworth, William, 337 {VIII.3}. Wyatt, Sir Thomas, 289 {IV.2}. Wyclif, John, 282 {II.4}.
* * * * * * * * *
ENGLISH LITERATURE.
"The chief glory of every people arises from its authors."
An Introduction to the Study of Robert Browning's Poetry.
By HIRAM CORSON, LL.D., Professor of Rhetoric and English Literature in the Cornell University. 5 by 7 inches. + 338 pages. Cloth. Price by mail, $1.50; Introduction price, $1.40.
The purpose of this volume is to afford some aid and guidance to the study of Robert Browning's Poetry, which being the most complexly subjective of all English poetry, is, for that reason alone, the most difficult. And then the poet's favorite art form, the dramatic, or rather psychologic, monologue, which is quite original with himself, and peculiarly adapted to the constitution of his genius, and to the revelation of themselves by the several "dramatis person," presents certain structural difficulties, but difficulties which, with an increased familiarity, grew less and less. The exposition presented in the Introduction, of its constitution and skilful management, and the Arguments given to the several poems included in the volume, will, it is hoped, reduce, if not altogether remove, the difficulties of this kind. In the same section of the Introduction certain peculiarities of the poet's diction, which sometimes give a check to the reader's understanding of a passage, are presented and illustrated.
It is believed that the notes to the poems will be found to cover all points and features of the texts which require explanation and elucidation. At any rate, no real difficulties have been wittingly passed by.
The following Table of Contents will give a good idea of the plan and scope of the work:—
I. The Spiritual Ebb and Flow exhibited in English Poetry from Chaucer to Tennyson and Browning.
II. The Idea of Personality and of Art as an intermediate agency of Personality, as embodied in Browning's Poetry. (Read before the Browning Society of London in 1882.)
III. Browning's Obscurity.
IV. Browning's Verse.
V. Arguments of the Poems.
VI. Poems. (Under this head are thirty-three representative poems, the Arguments of which are given in the preceding section.)
VII. List of criticisms of Browning's works, selected from Dr. Furnivall's "Bibliography of Robert Browning" contained in the Browning Society's Papers.
From Albert S. Cook, Professor of English Literature in the University of California:—
Among American expositors of Browning, Professor Corson is easily first. He has not only satisfied the English organization which devotes itself to the study of the poet, but, what is perhaps a severer test, he attracts the reader to whom Browning is only a name, and, in the compass of one small volume, educates him into the love and appreciation of the poet. If Browning is to be read in only a single volume, this, in my opinion, is the best; if he is to be studied zealously and exhaustively, Professor Corson's book is an excellent introduction to the complete series of his works.
_From The Critic:—
Ruskin, Browning, and Carlyle all have something in common: a vast message to deliver, a striking way of delivering it, and an over-mastering spirituality. In none of them is there mere smooth, smuck surface: all are filled with the fine wrinkles of thought wreaking itself on expression with many a Delphic writhing. A priest with a message cares little for the vocal vehicle; and yet the utterances of all three men are beautifully melodious. Chiefest of them all in his special poetic sphere appears to be Browning, and to him Professor Corson thinks our special studies should be directed. This book is a valuable contribution to Browning lore, and will doubtless be welcomed by the Browning clubs of this country and England. It is easy to see that Professor Corson is more than an annotator: he is a poet himself, and on this account he is able to interpret Browning so sympathetically.
From The Unitarian Review, Boston, March, 1887:—
More than almost any other poet, Browning— at least, his reader— needs the help of a believing, cheery, and enthusiastic guide, to beguile the weary pilgrimage.
There is, as we have intimated, a fast-growing esoteric literature of exposition and comment,— part of it simply the expression of the disciple's loyal homage, part of it designed to win and educate the reluctant Philistine intellect to the comforts of a true faith. In the latter class we reckon the excellent work of Professor Corson, of Cornell University. More than half of it is, as it should be, made up of a selection from the shorter poems, giving each complete; while these include what is perhaps the most readable and one of the most characteristic of the narrative pieces, "The Flight of the Duchess," with which a beginner may well make his first attempt.
From The Christian Union, New York:—
Browning, like every other great original artist, has been compelled to wait upon the slow processes by which his own public has been educated.
It is doubtful if any other single work on Browning deserves to rank with this, with the exception of Professor Dowden's striking comparative study of Browning and Tennyson. Professor Corson's elucidation of the idea of personality in art as embodied in Mr. Browning's poetry is the most luminous, the most adequate, and the most thoroughly helpful article that has ever been written on Browning's poetry. Those who study it carefully will discern in it a rare insight into the workings of one of the most subtle of modern minds, and a singularly clear and complete statement of the philosophy of life at which that mind has arrived. The chapters on Browning's obscurity and on his use of the dramatic monologue are also extremely suggestive and helpful; the selections from Browning's poems are admirably chosen, and, with the notes, make the best of all possible introductions to the study of Browning.
From Rev. Francis Tiffany, in "The Boston Herald," Nov. 30, 1886:—
The volume is well worthy the serious study of thinking men and women, for it embodies the results of years, not only of thorough investigation, but of the finest poetical appreciation. From beginning to end, it is pervaded with a fervid feeling that not to know Robert Browning is to lose something.
Professor Corson, in his chapter on "Browning's Obscurity," has done his best to smooth the path of the reader by explaining, and so removing from his way, those grammatical obstructions, habits of word inversion and baffling ellipses that stand as a lion in the path to so many of the poet's untried readers. This chapter is exceedingly well wrought out, and, once carefully studied, with the illustrations given, can hardly fail to banish many a perplexity.
From The American, Philadelphia:—
Can Browning be made intelligible to the common mind? Ten years ago it was assumed that he could not. But of late years a different view has begun to prevail. And as all those who have addressed themselves seriously to the study of Browning report themselves as having found him repay the trouble he gave them, there has arisen very naturally an ambition to share in their fruitful experience. Hence the rise of Browning Societies on both sides of the Atlantic, and in the publication of analyses and discussions of his poems, and the preparation of such manuals as this of Professor Hiram Corson's.
Professor Corson is a Browningite of the first era. He owes nothing but encouragement to the new enthusiasm which has gathered around the writings of the Master, whom he recognized as such long before he had begun to attain any general recognition of his masterfulness. Browning has helped him to a deeper sense of the spiritual life present in the older current of English poetry. He finds in him the "subtlest assertor of the soul in song," and the noblest example of the spiritual element in our modern verse. He thinks that no greater mistake has been made with regard to him, than to treat him merely as the most intellectual of our poets. He is that, but far more; he is the most spiritual of our poets also.
All or nearly all his poems are character-studies of the deeper sort, and hence the naturalness with which they fall into the form of dramatic monologues. It is true, as Mr. Corson says, that the liberties our poet takes in the collocation of words, the complexity of constructions, and some of his verbal liberties, are of a nature to increase the difficulty the careless reader finds. But there are poems and passages of his which present none of these minor stumbling-blocks, but of which no reader will make anything until he has acquired the poet's interest in personality, its God-given mission as a force for the world's regeneration, and its innate intimacy with divine forces. But we believe that with Mr. Corson's aids— notes as well as preliminary analyses— they can be mastered by any earnest student; and certainly few things in literature so well repay the trouble.
F. A. March, Prof. in Lafayette Coll.: Let me congratulate you on having brought out so eloquent a book, and acute, as Professor Corson's Browning. I hope it pays as well in money as it must in good name.
Rev. Joseph Cook, Boston: Professor Corson's Introduction to Robert Browning's Poetry appears to me to be admirably adapted to its purposes. It forms an attractive porch to a great and intricate cathedral. (Feb. 21, 1887.)
Louise M. Hodgkins, Prof. of English Literature, Wellesley Coll.: I consider it the most illuminating textbook which has yet been published on Browning's poems. (March 12, 1887.)
F. H. Giddings, in "The Paper World," Springfield, Mass.: It is a stimulating, wisely helpful book. The arguments of the poems are explained in luminous prose paragraphs that take the reader directly into the heart of the poet's meaning. Chapters on Browning's obscurity and Browning's verse clear away, or rather show the reader how to overcome by his own efforts, the admitted difficulties presented by Browning's style. These chapters bear the true test; they enable the attentive reader to see, as Professor Corson sees, that such features of Browning's diction are seldom to be condemned, but often impart a peculiar crispness to the expressions in which they occur.
The opening chapter of the book is the finest, truest introduction to the study of English literature, as a whole, that any American writer has yet produced.
This chapter leads naturally to a profound and noble essay, of which it would be impossible to convey any adequate conception in a paragraph. It prepares the reader for an appreciation of Browning's loftiest work. (March, 1887.)
Melville B. Anderson, Prof. of English Literature, Purdue Univ., in "The Dial," Chicago: The arguments to the poems are made with rare judgment. Many mature readers have hitherto been repelled from Browning by real difficulties such as obstruct the way to the inner sanctuary of every great poet's thought. Such readers may well be glad of some sort of a path up the rude steeps the poet has climbed and whither he beckons all who can to follow him. (January, 1887.)
Queries, Buffalo, N.Y.: It is the most noteworthy treatise on the poetry of Browning yet published. Professor Corson is well informed upon the poetic literature of the age, is an admirably clear writer, and brings to the subject he has in hand ample knowledge and due— we had almost said undue— reverence. It has been a labor of love, and he has performed it well. The book will be a popular one, as readers who are not familiar with or do not understand Browning's poetry either from incompetency, indolence, or lack of time, can here gain a fair idea of Browning's poetical aims, influence, and works without much effort, or the expense of intellectual effort. Persons who have made a study of Browning's poetry will welcome it as a matter of course. (December, 1886.)
Education, Boston: Any effort to aid and guide the young in the study of Robert Browning's poetry is to be commended. But when the editor is able to grasp the hidden meaning and make conspicuous the poetic beauties of so famous an author, and, withal, give such clever hints, directions, and guidance to the understanding and the enjoyment of the poems, he lays us all under unusual obligations. It is to be hoped that this book will come into general use in the high schools, academies, and colleges of America. It is beautifully printed, in clear type, on good paper, and is well bound. (February, 1887.)
THE STUDY OF ENGLISH.
Practical Lessons in the Use of English.
For Primary and Grammar Schools. By MARY F. HYDE, Teacher of Composition in the State Normal School, Albany, N.Y.
This work consists of a series of Practical Lessons, designed to aid the pupil in his own use of English, and to assist him in understanding its use by others. No topic is introduced for study that does not have some practical bearing upon one or the other of these two points.
The pupil is first led to observe certain facts about the language, and then he is required to apply those facts in various exercises. At every step in his work he is compelled to think.
The Written Exercises are a distinctive feature of this work. These exercises not only give the pupil daily practice in using the knowledge acquired, but lead him to form the habit of independent work.
Simple exercises in composition are given from the first. In these exercises the aim is not to train the pupil to use any set form of words, but so to interest him in his subject, that, when writing, he will think simply of what he is trying to say.
Special prominence is given to letter-writing and to written forms relating to the ordinary business of life.
The work will aid teachers as well as pupils. It is so arranged that even the inexperienced teacher will have no difficulty in awakening an interest in the subjects presented.
This series consists of three parts (in two volumes), the lessons being carefully graded throughout:—
Part First. For Primary Schools.—Third Grade. [Ready. Part Second. For Primary Schools.—Fourth Grade. (Part Second will be bound with Part First.) [Ready soon. Part Third. For Grammar Schools. [Ready in September.
The English Language; Its Grammar, History, and Literature.
By Prof. J. M. D. MEIKLEJOHN, of the University of St. Andrews, Scotland. One volume. viii + 388 pages. Introduction price, $1.30. Price by mail, $1.40. Also bound in two parts.
Readable in style. Omits insignificant details. Treats all salient features with a master's skill, and with the utmost clearness and simplicity. Contains:—
I. A concise and accurate resum of the principles and rules of English Grammar, with some interesting chapters on Word-Building and Derivation, including an historical dictionary of Roots and Branches, of Words Derived from Names of Persons or of Places, and of Words Disguised in Form, and Words Greatly Changed in Meaning.
II. Thirty pages of practical instruction in Composition, Paraphrasing, Versification, and Punctuation.
III. A History of the English Language, giving the sources of its vocabulary and the story of its grammatical changes, with a table of the Landmarks in the history, from the Beowulf to Tennyson.
IV. An Outline of the History of English Literature, embracing Tabular Views which give in parallel columns, (a) the name of an author; (b) his chief works; (c) notable contemporary events; (d) the century, or decade.
The Index is complete, and is in the most helpful form for the student or the general reader.
The book will prove invaluable to the teacher as a basis for his course of lectures, and to the student as a compact and reliable statement of all the essentials of the subject. [Ready August 15th.
Wordsworth's Prelude; an Autobiographical Poem.
Annotated by A. J. GEORGE, Acting Professor of English Literature in Boston University, and Teacher of English Literature, Newton (Mass.) High School. [Text ready in September. Notes later.
This work is prepared as an introduction to the life and poetry of Wordsworth, and although never before published apart from the author's complete works, has long been considered as containing the key to that poetic philosophy which was the characteristic of the "New Brotherhood."
The Disciplinary Value of the Study of English.
By F. C. WOODWARD, Professor of English and Latin, Wofford College, Spartanburg, S.C.
The author restricts himself to the examination of the arguments for the study of English as a means of discipline, and shows that such study, both in schools and in colleges, can be made the medium of as sound training as the ancient languages or the other modern languages would give; and that the study of English forms, idioms, historical grammar, etc., is the only linguistic discipline possible to the great masses of our pupils, and that it is entirely adequate to the results required of it as such. He dwells especially on the disciplinary value of the analytical method as applied to the elucidation of English syntax, and the striking adaptation of English constructions to the exact methods of logical analysis. This Monograph discusses English teaching in the entire range of its disciplinary uses from primary school to high collegiate work. [Ready in August.
English in the Preparatory Schools.
By ERNEST W. HUFFCUT, Instructor in Rhetoric in the Cornell University.
The aim of this Monograph is to present as simply and practically as possible some of the advanced methods of teaching English grammar and English composition in the secondary schools. The author has kept constantly in mind the needs of those teachers who, while not giving undivided attention to the teaching of English, are required to take charge of that subject in the common schools. The defects in existing methods and the advantages of fresher methods are pointed out, and the plainest directions given for arousing and maintaining an interest in the work and raising it to its true place in the school curriculum. [Ready in August.
The Study of Rhetoric in the College Course.
By J. F. GENUNG, Professor of Rhetoric in Amherst College.
This book is the outcome of the author's close and continued inquiry into the scope and limits of rhetorical study as pursued by undergraduates, and of his application of his ideas to the organization of a progressive rhetorical course. The first part defines the place of rhetoric among the college studies, and the more liberal estimate of its scope required by the present state of learning and literature. This is followed by a discussion of what may and should be done, as the most effective practical discipline of students toward the making of literature. Finally, a systematized and progressive course in rhetoric is sketched, being mainly the course already tried and approved in the author's own classes. [Ready.
Methods of Teaching and Studying History.
Edited by G. STANLEY HALL, Professor of Psychology and Pedagogy in Johns Hopkins University. 12mo. 400 pages. Mailing price, $1.40; Introduction price, $1.30.
This book gathers together, in the form most likely to be of direct practical utility to teachers, and especially students and readers of history, generally, the opinions and modes of instruction, actual or ideal, of eminent and representative specialists in each department. The following Table of Contents will give a good idea of the plan and scope of this valuable book:—
Introduction. By the Editor.
Methods of Teaching American History. By Dr. A. B. Hart, Harvard University.
The Practical Method in Higher Historical Instruction. By Professor Ephraim Emerton, of Harvard University.
On Methods of Teaching Political Economy. By Dr. Richard T. Ely, Johns Hopkins University.
Historical Instruction in the Course of History and Political Science at Cornell University. By President Andrew D. White, Cornell University.
Advice to an Inexperienced Teacher of History. By W. C. Collar, A.M., Head Master of Roxbury Latin School.
A Plea for Archological Instruction. By Joseph Thacher Clarke, Director of the Assos Expedition.
The Use of a Public Library in the Study of History. By William E. Foster, Librarian of the Providence Public Library.
Special Methods of Historical Study. By Professor Herbert B. Adams, Johns Hopkins University.
The Philosophy of the State and of History. By Professor George S. Morris, Michigan and Johns Hopkins Universities.
The Courses of Study in History, Roman Law, and Political Economy at Harvard University. By Dr. Henry E. Scott, Harvard University.
The Teaching of History. By Professor J. R. Seeley, Cambridge University, England.
On Methods of Teaching History. By Professor C. K. Adams, Michigan University.
On Methods of Historical Study and Research in Columbia University. By Professor John W. Burgess, Columbia University.
Physical Geography and History.
Why do Children Dislike History? By Thomas Wentworth Higginson.
Gradation and the Topical Method of Historical Study; Historical Literature and Authorities; Books for Collateral Reading. By Professor W. F. Allen, Wisconsin University.
Bibliography of Church History. By Rev. John Alonzo Fisher, Johns Hopkins University.
D. C. HEATH & CO., Publishers,
Boston, New York, and Chicago.
THE STUDENT'S OUTLINE HISTORICAL MAP OF ENGLAND.
By T. C. RONEY, Instructor in History, Denison University, Granville, Ohio.
INTRODUCTION PRICE, 25 CENTS.
The attention of teachers is invited to the following features of this Map:
1. It emphasizes the vital connection (too often neglected) between History and Geography.
2. It leads the student through "the eye gate" into the fair fields of English History.
3. It gives a local habitation to his often vague ideas of time and place.
4. It serves as an historical laboratory, in which he makes practical application of acquired facts, in accordance with the most approved method of teaching History.
5. It presents a few prominent facts, to which he is to add others singly and consecutively.
In particular:
1. The exhibition, side by side, of different periods illustrates by the approximate identity of boundaries a real historical unity of development.
2. The student's attention is called to the culmination of Saxon England, and the overweening power and disintegrating tendencies of the great earldoms just before the Norman conquest, as marking the turning-point of English History.
3. The water-shed has been sufficiently indicated by the insertion of a few rivers.
4. As an aid to the memory, the modern counties are grouped under the divisions of Saxon England.
5. Special attention is called to the insertion of Cathedral towns, as touching upon the ecclesiastical history of England.
6. This Map can be used effectively with a class in English Literature, to record an author's birthplace, the scene of a story, poem, or drama, etc.
D. C. HEATH & CO., Publishers,
Boston, New York, and Chicago.
SCIENCE.
Organic Chemistry:
An Introduction to the Study of the Compounds of Carbon. By IRA REMSEN, Professor of Chemistry, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore. x + 364 pages. Cloth. Price by mail, $1.30; Introduction price, $1.20.
The Elements of Inorganic Chemistry:
Descriptive and Qualitative. By JAMES H. SHEPARD, Instructor in Chemistry in the Ypsilanti High School, Michigan. xxii + 377 pages. Cloth. Price by mail, $1.25; Introduction price, $1.12.
The Elements of Chemical Arithmetic:
With a Short System of Elementary Qualitative Analysis. By J. MILNOR COIT, M.A., Ph.D., Instructor in Chemistry, St. Paul's School, Concord, N.H. iv + 89 pages. Cloth. Price by mail, 55 cts.; Introduction price, 50 cts.
The Laboratory Note-Book.
For Students using any Chemistry. Giving printed forms for "taking notes" and working out formul. Board covers. Cloth back. 192 pages. Price by mail, 40 cts.; Introduction price, 35 cts.
Elementary Course in Practical Zology.
By B. P. COLTON, A.M., Instructor in Biology, Ottawa High School.
First Book of Geology.
By N. S. SHALER, Professor of Palontology, Harvard University. 272 pages, with 130 figures in the text. 74 pages additional in Teachers' Edition. Price by mail, $1.10; Introduction price, $1.00.
Guides for Science-Teaching.
Published under the auspices of the Boston Society of Natural History. For teachers who desire to practically instruct classes in Natural History, and designed to supply such information as they are not likely to get from any other source. 26 to 200 pages each. Paper.
I. HYATT'S ABOUT PEBBLES, 10 cts. II. GOODALE'S FEW COMMON PLANTS, 15 cts. III. HYATT'S COMMERCIAL AND OTHER SPONGES, 20 cts. IV. AGASSIZ'S FIRST LESSON IN NATURAL HISTORY, 20 cts. V. HYATT'S CORALS AND ECHINODERMS, 20 cts. VI. HYATT'S MOLLUSCA, 25 cts. VII. HYATT'S WORMS AND CRUSTACEA, 25 cts. XII. CROSBY'S COMMON MINERALS AND ROCKS, 40 cts. Cloth, 60 cts. XIII. RICHARDS' FIRST LESSONS IN MINERALS, 10 cts.
The Astronomical Lantern.
By REV. JAMES FREEMAN CLARKE. Intended to familiarize students with the constellations by comparing them with fac-similes on the lantern face. Price of the Lantern, in improved form, with seventeen slides and a copy of "HOW TO FIND THE STARS," $4.50.
How to Find the Stars.
By REV. JAMES FREEMAN CLARKE. Designed to aid the beginner in becoming better acquainted, in the easiest way, with the visible starry heavens.
D. C. HEATH & CO., Publishers,
3 Tremont Place, Boston.
MODERN LANGUAGES.
Sheldon's Short German Grammar.
Irving J. Manatt, Prof. of Modern Languages, Marietta College, Ohio: I can say, after going over every page of it carefully in the class-room, that it is admirably adapted to its purpose.
Oscar Howes, Prof. of German, Chicago University: For beginners, it is superior to any grammar with which I am acquainted.
Joseph Milliken, formerly Prof. of Modern Languages, Ohio State University: There is nothing in English equal to it.
Deutsch's Select German Reader.
Frederick Lutz, recent Prof. of German, Harvard University: After having used it for nearly one year, I can conscientiously say that it is an excellent book, and well adapted to beginners.
H. C. G. Brandt, Prof. of German, Hamilton College: I think it an excellent book. I shall use it for a beginner's reader.
Henry Johnson, Prof. of Modern Languages, Bowdoin College, Brunswick, Me.: Use in the class-room has proved to me the excellence of the book.
Sylvester Primer, Prof. of Modern Languages, College of Charleston, S.C.: I beg leave to say that I consider it an excellent little book for beginners.
Boisen's Preparatory German Prose.
Hermann Huss, Prof. of German, Princeton College: I have been using it, and it gives me a great deal of satisfaction.
A. H. Mixer, Prof. of Modern Languages, University of Rochester, N.Y.: It answers to my idea of an elementary reader better than any I have yet seen.
C. Woodward Hutson, Prof. of Modern Languages, University of Mississippi: I have been using it. I have never met with so good a first reading-book in any language.
Oscar Faulhaber, Prof. of Modern Languages, Phillips Exeter Academy, N.H.: A professional teacher and an intelligent mind will regard the Reader as unexcelled.
Grimm's Mrchen.
Henry Johnson, Prof. of Mod. Lang., Bowdoin Coll.: It has excellent work in it.
Boston Advertiser: Teachers and students of German owe a debt of thanks to the editor.
The Beacon, Boston: A capital book for beginners. The editor has done his work remarkably well.
Hauff's Mrchen: Das Kalte Herz.
G. H. Horswell, Prof. of Modern Languages, Northwestern Univ. Prep. School, Evanston, Ill.: It is prepared with critical scholarship and judicious annotation. I shall use it in my classes next term.
The Academy, Syracuse, N.Y.: The notes seem unusually well prepared.
Unity, Chicago: It is decidedly better than anything we have previously seen. Any book so well made must soon have many friends among teachers and students.
Hodge's Course in Scientific German.
Albert C. Hale, recent President of School of Mines, Golden, Col.: We have never been better pleased with any book we have used.
Ybarra's Practical Spanish Method.
B. H. Nash, Prof. of the Spanish and Italian Languages, Harvard Univ.: The work has some very marked merits. The author evidently had a well-defined plan, which he carries out with admirable consistency.
Alf. Hennequin, Dept. of Mod. Langs., University of Michigan: The method is thoroughly practical, and quite original. The book will be used by me in the University.
For Terms for Introduction apply to
D. C. HEATH & CO., Publishers,
Boston, New York, and Chicago.
HISTORY.
Students and Teachers of History will find the following to be invaluable aids:—
Studies in General History.
(1000 B.C. to 1880 A.D.) An Application of the Scientific Method to the Teaching of History. BY MARY D. SHELDON, formerly Professor of History in Wellesley College. This book has been prepared in order that the general student may share in the advantages of the Seminary Method of Instruction. It is a collection of historic material, interspersed with problems whose answers the student must work out for himself from original historical data. In this way he is trained to deal with the original historical data of his own time. In short, it may be termed an exercise book in history and politics. Price by mail, $1.75.
THE TEACHER'S MANUAL contains the continuous statement of the results which should be gained from the History, and embodies the teacher's part of the work, being made up of summaries, explanations, and suggestions for essays and examinations. Price by mail, 85 cents.
Sheldon's Studies in Greek and Roman History.
Meets the needs of students preparing for college, of schools in which Ancient History takes the place of General History, and of students who have used an ordinary manual, and wish to make a spirited and helpful review. Price by mail, $1.10.
Methods of Teaching and Studying History.
Edited by G. STANLEY HALL, Professor of Psychology and Pedagogy in Johns Hopkins University. Contains, in the form most likely to be of direct practical utility to teachers, as well as to students and readers of history, the opinions and modes of instruction, actual or ideal, of eminent and representative specialists in leading American and English universities. Price by mail, $1.40.
Select Bibliography of Church History.
By J. A. FISHER, Johns Hopkins University. Price by mail, 20 cents.
History Topics for High Schools and Colleges.
With an Introduction upon the Topical Method of Instruction in History. By WILLIAM FRANCIS ALLEN, Professor in the University of Wisconsin. Price by mail, 30 cents.
Large Outline Map of the United States.
Edited by EDWARD CHANNING, PH.D., and ALBERT B. HART, PH.D., Instructors in History in Harvard University. For the use of Classes in History, in Geography, and in Geology. Price by mail, 60 cents.
Small Outline Map of the United States.
For the Desk of the Pupil. Prepared by EDWARD CHANNING, PH.D., and ALBERT B. HART, PH.D., Instructors in Harvard University. Price, 2 cents each, or $1.50 per hundred.
We publish also small Outline Maps of North America, South America, Europe, Central and Western Europe, Asia, Africa, Great Britain, and the World on Mercator's Projection. These maps will be found invaluable to classes in history, for use in locating prominent historical points, and for indicating physical features, political boundaries, and the progress of historical growth. Price, 2 cents each, or $1.50 per hundred.
Political and Physical Wall Maps.
We handle both the JOHNSTON and STANFORD series, and can always supply teachers and schools at the lowest rates. Correspondence solicited.
D. C. HEATH & CO., Publishers,
Boston, New York, and Chicago.
NEW BOOKS ON EDUCATION.
I do not think that you have ever printed a book on education that is not worthy to go on any "Teacher's Reading List," and the best list. —DR. WILLIAM T. HARRIS.
Compayr's History of Pedagogy.
Translated by Professor W. H. PAYNE, University of Michigan. Price by mail, $1.75. The best and most comprehensive history of education in English. —Dr. G. S. HALL.
Gill's Systems of Education.
An account of the systems advocated by eminent educationists. Price by mail, $1.10.
I can say truly that I think it eminently worthy of a place on the Chautauqua Reading List, because it treats ably of the Lancaster and Bell movement in Education,— a very important phase. —Dr. WILLIAM T. HARRIS.
Radestock's Habit in Education.
With an Introduction by Dr. G. STANLEY HALL. Price by mail, 65 cents.
It will prove a rare "find" to teachers who are seeking to ground themselves in philosophy of their art. —E. H. RUSSELL, Prin. of Normal School, Worcester, Mass.
Rousseau's mile.
Price by mail, 85 cents.
There are fifty pages of mile that should be bound in velvet and gold. —VOLTAIRE.
Perhaps the most influential book ever written on the subject of education. —R. H. QUICK.
Pestalozzi's Leonard and Gertrude.
With an Introduction by Dr. G. STANLEY HALL. Price by mail, 85 cents.
If we except Rousseau's "mile" only, no more important educational book has appeared for a century and a half than Pestalozzi's "Leonard and Gertrude." —The Nation.
Richter's Levana; The Doctrine of Education.
A book that will tend to build up that department of education which is most neglected, and yet needs most care— home training. Price by mail, $1.35.
A spirited and scholarly book. —Prof. W. H. PAYNE, University of Michigan.
Rosmini's Method in Education.
Price by mail, $1.75.
The best of the Italian books on education. —Editor London Journal of Education.
Hall's Methods of Teaching History.
A symposium of eminent teachers of history. Price by mail, $1.40.
Its excellence and helpfulness ought to secure it many readers. —The Nation.
Bibliography of Pedagogical Literature.
Carefully selected and annotated by Dr. G. STANLEY HALL. Price by mail, $1.75.
Lectures to Kindergartners.
By ELIZABETH P. PEABODY. Price by mail, $1.10.
Monographs on Education. (25 cents each.)
D. C. HEATH & CO., Publishers,
Boston, New York, and Chicago.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * *
ERRATA
Myhneer Calf spelling unchanged: probably error for "Mynheer"
Plurals in es (separate syllable). printed in Verbs column
died of fever in London, in the year 1688. text reads "1698"
the most polished verse-writer text reads "mose polished"
he entered himself of the Inner Temple text unchanged
Punctuation and Presentation:
17. Latin of the First Period (i).— originally formatted as: 17. Latin of the First Period.—(i)
(The word al means the. Thus alcohol = the spirit.) close parenthesis missing
homely, plain, and pedestrian. period (full stop) invisible
"Errors, like straws, upon the surface flow; open quote missing
and his meat nothing but sauce." close quote missing
"A good man is as much in awe of himself as of a whole assembly." close quote missing
designated by a hand ([->]) at the foot of each printed text has drawing of hand with pointing finger
Wordsworth and Coleridge spoke with awe of his genius; semicolon invisible
"'Farewell!' said he, 'Minnehaha, text has double quote for single before "Minnehaha"
All my thoughts go onward with you! all marks are as in original text
Index
Grammar of English... general view of its history, 243. short view of its history, 239-243. each line indented as if a subentry to preceding line
language, living and dead 198 text reads "168"
Chaucer, Geoffrey. 283 text reads "383"
Spenser, Edmund. 291 text reads "261"
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