A HAND-BOOK OF ENGLISH AND AMERICAN LITERATURE. HISTORICAL AND CRITICAL, WITH ILLUSTRATIONS OF THE WRITINGS OF EACH SUCCESSIVE PERIOD. For the Use of Schools and Academies. BY ESTHER J. TRIMBLE, LATE PROF. OF LITERATURE IN THE STATE NORMAL SCHOOL, WEST CHESTER, PA., AUTHOR OF A CHART OF GENERAL LITERATURE," ETC. DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION. LELAND STANFORD JUNIOR UNIVERSITY RO PHILADELPHIA: ELDREDGE & BROTHER, No. 17 North Seventh Street. 635286 Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1882, by In the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington. J. FAGAN & SON, FERGUSON BROS. & CO., THE study of literature is the study of the works of an author, not the study of the criticisms of his works, nor details of his personal history. Some knowledge of the latter, however, is humanizing in its influence, and adds greatly to the pleasure derived from the study. It is impossible to appreciate the literature of any period without some knowledge of the every-day life of the people. In the present work, in order to bring the student into sympathy with the writers of the past, brief glimpses of the manners and customs of each successive period have been given, letting the writers themselves, wherever it was possible, present "the age and body of the time." The pupil cannot be too strongly recommended to study well the great founders of our literature. A love for the simple Saxon tongue may readily be acquired, and, for one who intends to make literature a study, the old writers should be considered first. If the teacher has to create a taste for literature, it would not be amiss to begin with some writers of the present day, and so lead the pupil back to the "well of English undefyled." One of the most important lessons that the genuine student learns is that of sifting. It is impossible to remember everything, but it is of the utmost importance to learn to generalize, to take in as nearly as possible the general and prominent features of a subject, and leaving details for a more thorough and minute examination of some portion or portions of the subject. I have doubted, sometimes, the wisdom of assigning short lessons, unless the lesson cover some one subject. A mere paragraph in a text |