ARY COMMON-SCHOOL LITERATURE ENGLISH AND AMERICAN WITH SEVERAL HUNDRED EXTRACTS TO BE MEMORIZED NEW EDITION, REVISED AND Enlarged. BY J. WILLIS WESTLAKE, A. M., LATE PROFESSOR OF ENGLISH LITERATURE IN THE STATE NORMAL TO WRITE LETTERS," etc. "Literature is the immortality of speech." PHILADELPHIA · CHRISTOPHER SOWER COMPANY, No. 614 ARCH STREET. PREFACE. Ο NE of the demands of the present day in educational work is small text-books, in which are given a few fundamental facts and principles as a basis for future attainments. The present work is intended to conform to this requirement. It aims to give just such and so much literary information as is indispensable to the learner; to show the growth of our literature through its various eras; to present a concise view of the lives and characters of its great representative authors; and to bring forth from the thought-treasures of our language a variety of literary gems for the enrichment of the mind of the student. It is calculated to impart both knowledge and cultureknowledge by its historic facts, culture by its philosophical development and its illustrative and thoughtawakening extracts. The memorizing of extracts has long been recognized by educators as one of the most efficient means of culture. Every beautiful sentiment implanted in the fertile mind of youth is a seed-truth that will yield a perennial harvest of good thoughts developed into worthy acts. Hoping that this little work may be the means of giving a new interest to the study of pure literature, and sowing in many a heart the fructifying seeds of truth, the author herewith submits it to an indulgent public. MILLERSVILLE, PA. 42019 iii IN the edition herewith presented a few errors in dates, etc., have been corrected, and such changes and additions made as the progress of literature required and experience suggested. In particular the view has been extended so as to embrace the later Victorian and American authors, or what may be called living literature. The plan of the work, which experience has shown to be practical and effective, not only in storing the mind with useful facts, but also in cultivating a taste for good authors and a love for literary study, remains unchanged; and it is hoped that the book in its new form will, even more than in the past, commend itself to teachers and students. January 1, 1898. W. SUGGESTIONS TO TEACHERS. It is not intended that all the extracts shall be committed to memory. Let the teacher select those that are best suited to the mind of the pupil. Nor is it necessary that all the authors should be studied. If a very brief course be desirable, attention may be given to the following authors only; * English: Shakspeare, Milton, Dryden, Pope, Addison, Goldsmith, Burns, Johnson, Byron, Wordsworth, Scott, Tennyson, Macaulay, and Dickens. American: Franklin, Bryant, Longfellow, Whittier, Lowell, Holmes, Irving, Prescott, Bancroft, Hawthorne, Everett, and Emerson. If the lessons are dictated to pupils, they should afterwards be written out And handed in as an exercise. Such exercises are excellent language lessons. It is also recommended that pupils be required to express in prose the meaning of the poetical extracts they learn. And if the teacher will supplement the extracts by reading aloud some choice selection from the same author he will add greatly to the value of the lessons. An intelligent teacher may in many ways make the work tributary to literary culture. In regard to the extracts it is proper to say that they were sometimes chosen account of some peculiar beauty of thought or language, and sometimes to llustrate the author's peculiarities of style. Of course no short extract can rive an adequate idea of the character of a work as a whole. The brief notices in fine print (pp. 11, 16. etc.) are not to be recited. They are ntended to give a general view of the field of literature, and to guide the student in his future reading. Writers on theology, medicine, law, etc., are not mantioned, unless they are also distinguished in general literature. iv CONTENTS. AUTHORS: Caxton, Skelton, Wyatt, Howard, More, PERIOD V.—AGE OF THE RESTORATION REPRESENTATIVE AUTHOR: Dryden. Prose Writers: Scott, Southey, Coleridge, De |