Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1871, BY LEE AND SHEPARD, In the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington. UNIVERSITY PRESS: WELCH, BIGELOW, & Co., CAMBRIDGE. Electrotyped at the Boston Stereotype Foundry, PREFACE. THE author of this work, having been appointed to prepare a course of reading in English Literature for the Latin School in Boston, was induced, after the adoption of the plan, to enlarge and perfect it, in order to supply an acknowledged want in popular education. It is not expected that this, or any compilation, no matter how full and exhaustive, will be sufficient for the thorough student. It is undoubtedly wise, as a rule, to insist upon. studying authors in their complete works; beyond question this is the only way to gain an adequate notion of an author's power and of his command of English; and no one knows so well as the perplexed compiler how hard it is, if he would keep within the proper limits, to do any justice to the authors whose essays and poems he must mutilate, as mineralogists crack fossils or geodes, for specimens. The writer well remembers the few and meagre collections of books in his native town. Excepting Scripture commentaries, hymn books, and a few religious biographies, not always inviting to children of ardent temperament, the most fascinating volumes accessible were "Rollin's Ancient History" and "Riley's Narrative." It must be admitted, however, that "Thaddeus of Warsaw," and a few other contraband romances, stowed away in the haymow for furtive reading at odd intervals on rainy days, furnished ideal pictures for the boyish imagination to dwell upon. It is with something like a pang that he reflects now, what a priceless treasure in those his best days even so imperfect a collection as this Hand-Book would have been. When the imperative wants of schools and the vast numbers of youth without the means of literary culture, even of the most elementary sort, are considered, it must be allowed that a judicious compilation, with the necessary adjuncts, will be a public benefit. At all events it will be doing much, if by means of the Hand-Book the student is directed to the ampler sources from which he can derive amusement for his leisure hours, and acquires a habit that will illuminate and ennoble his whole life. The numerous reading books in use, though containing many of the best passages from the best authors, have been designed mainly to serve as exercises in elocution, and, when considered as aids to literary culture, are fragmentary and inadequate. But the Hand-Book does not aim at the completeness of an encyclopædia; the selections have been made for the most part from authors in whom scholars, through all the changes of literary fashion, have preserved a living interest. The author has not sought, like another Old Mortality, to deepen and make legible anew the inscriptions which Time has surely begun to obliterate. In looking through the long list of authors once famous, the eye falls upon many that are now mere names; and to continue making selections from the works of such is like lumbering a house with decrepit and useless furniture, to the exclusion of that which is tasteful and adapted to modern wants. Still it is believed that nothing of real worth to the reader of to-day has been rejected on account of its antique garb; the error is more likely to be in the other direction; for, by the power of association, age gives all the racier flavor and the more enduring charm to any work of genius. An examination of the index will show, after due allowance is made for differences of taste, that few, if any, authors have been omitted |
