nothing, tend to give the student a certain dazzling affectation of literary
culture at the expense of an amount of brain-work, that, properly util-
ized, would put him in possession of well-defined ideas of excellence
of style, and enable him to form an intelligent and just estimate of an
author's merit for himself,-
-a substantial attainment as valuable as it is
rare. In the other great departments of learning, the student is not re-
quired at first to learn the history of them, or of their patrons and suc-
cessful promoters: on the contrary, his intellectual forces are at once
employed in learning the general results already obtained in them, and
the best methods of modern analysis and investigation. In chemistry, we
do not begin with alchemy and the alchemists; in astronomy, we do not
begin with astrology and the absurd pretensions and aims of astrologers;
neither do we stop at every short poem in mathematics, or grand epic
in celestial mechanics, to learn the biography of the author, his relations
to society and to science. In a similar manner, and mindful of the great
influence of American thought and institutions upon the language, we
believe it advisable to introduce the pupil to our most distinguished mod-
ern authors first, and, while putting him in possession of the power and
spirit of the literature of to-day, lead him back to the classical period,
exciting his curiosity by the way to pursue its earlier history at his
leisure. A few authors carefully studied would undoubtedly produce the
most valuable results; but, since tastes differ as to which ones should be so
studied, it is thought a greater number, of unquestioned merit, ought to
find a place in a text-book designed for drill in acquiring the best style
of which the student is capable. The access of the plan, the selections
and arrangement, is left to the judgment of my fellow-teachers, whose
suggestions as to modifications in either will be gratefully acknowledged
in any future edition. The want of a proper text-book to carry out the
plan above indicated of teaching English literature is the only excuse for
making this. Notes and criticisms are in the main omitted, since these
selections are to be studied critically, the pupil using the dictionary and
encyclopædias with an industry equal to that given to the study of Greek
and Latin. Our thanks are due to Messrs. Fields, Osgood, & Co., for
special permission to select from their copyright editions of the works of
Longfellow, Whittier, Lowell, Holmes, Emerson, Hawthorne, and Bry-
ant's translation of Homer's Iliad; also to Messrs. Harper & Bros.,
D. Appleton & Co., George P. Putnam & Son, for extracts from Motley,
Bryant, and Irving, whose works they publish.