This volume is the second in a series of four books that present a course in literature for secondary schools, marked by effectiveness, originality, and vitality of organization. The basis of the course is the body of material tested for many years by teachers in every part of the country. These books contain, in complete form and with adequate editorial apparatus, more material than the list of the National Conference on English requires for admission to college. They also comply fully with the requirements of the comprehensive list of that Conference and with the recommendations of the North Central Association of Colleges and Secondary Schools. Teachers who desire to supply classes with abundance of contemporary literature will find that these books answer their needs. For the study of literary types, for the study of the history of American and English literature, and for elementary literary criticism, this series also provides adequate equipment.

Nevertheless, the books are not merely anthologies made up of masterpieces chosen from the various published lists, such as those of the Report on Reorganization of English. In continuity, emphasis, and progressive plan, the series constitutes an initiation into literature. This means that the problem of the teaching of literature in the high school is here. regarded as a unity, like the problem of teaching composition. For the vague effort to arouse interest in good reading, definiteness of purpose and of means is substituted.

Many good courses in literature

have been organized by teachers, and their their component parts have been published in syllabi or lists of readings. Such guides are useful to the teacher, who through experience and skill may be reasonably clear as to what he wishes to accomplish. But one should remember that to the pupil the course of study, if printed, is just a list of "classics," and that his study through the years seems to be just one masterpiece or book of selections after another; he can have little clear idea of the connection between them, or of the meaning of the course as a whole.

But the course outlined and printed in full in the four volumes of Literature and Life, is organized for the pupil. The connections between the units to be read are explained for him in the editorial apparatus. The result is a growing consciousness of power and interest impossible when one small separately edited classic succeeds another, in an endless succession. The masterpieces of literature, old and new, short and long, are here used as chapters or paragraphs or songs in the great Book of Literature, which is the true subject of study.

The present volume is planned for the second year of the high school course. It features literature as story: Stories in Verse, Stories in Prose, Dramatic Story, and the Story of American Literature. To secure appreciation, the general Introduction to the book is devoted to the subject, "How to Read." From the very beginning, therefore, the pupil is taught to see more in his reading than merely the story. The Introduction points.

out, through concrete examples, what is involved in creative reading. It shows that learning to read is a neverending process, intimately related to pleasure and to wisdom. The fundamental reason for the failure of many college freshmen to keep up with their work is that they do not know how to read. They do not know, because they have not been taught. The Introductions to the four books in the series are therefore fundamental to the plan. They constitute a progressive course in the method of creative reading, made concrete in scores of ways as the pupil advances in his study.

In Book Two, as in Book One, abstract and ethical ideas are kept subordinate to the necessity for gaining interest through objective and concrete story material. But this material differs from that of the earlier book in the fact that it represents somewhat more complex ideas of literary art. Thus verse story, represented in Book One by epic, ballad, and the long metrical romances of Scott, here passes into modern narrative poetry, picturesque in style, poetic in diction, and making great demands upon the imaginative power of the reader.

Furthermore, the Introductions in Book One to the types of literature (ballad, epic, etc.) are here carried farther. Metrical romance goes back into medieval times; a little chapter of literary history is once more inserted, corresponding to similar chapters in Book One, to become a part of that comprehensive study continued during the four years' work. Another case in point is the Introduction to As You Like It, the Shakespearean play chosen for study in the second year. Here the stress is on comedy, especially on Shakespearean comedy, and on the Eliza

bethan stage. It should be noted, in passing, that a great advantage of the course in Shakespeare given in these four books is that in each year a different point of approach is chosen. Opportunity is thus given for building up, step by step, a knowledge of Shakespeare and of his art that will become a vital and permanent element in the equipment of the pupil.

Still another illustration of the way in which the study of types of literature is carried on in Literature and Life, Book Two, will be found in the case of Silas Marner, the chief unit in the prose story group, corresponding to Treasure Island in Book One. Here, as elsewhere, the presentation has not been restricted to the bare text, and none of the advantages of the separate "classics" have been sacrificed. Study questions of stimulating character are supplied, along with the Introduction, Notes, and Glossary that are to be expected. pected. But this is not all. Silas Marner is here given its definite place in relation to other types of fiction, such as the earlier prose romance of Scott, and the short story. In this way the pupil is led to see the difference between realism and romance, to distinguish the novel, the romantic tale, the short story. Opinions of critics are not dictated to him, to be memorized temporarily and then forgotten. The method of study here developed has an intimate relation to the reading he will do when he leaves school. It is especially desirable on account of the vogue of realism represented in the enormous popularity of Main Street and other books of its type. Silas Marner may thus be made a great aid to the pupil's understanding of life through literature by means of the definite scheme of study supplied with it. Here, as throughout the series, the pupil is enabled to

prepare his assignment intelligently. He sees the problems that are to be solved; he is not left to stumble in the dark.

In all this material: verse narrative, prose romance, short story, novel, and drama, the beginnings of the study of character are made. The romantic lovers of St. Agnes' Eve, the political prisoner of Chillon, such varied types of character as Ulysses, Enoch Arden, Sohrab, Tam O'Shanter-all these stories present character as well as incident. In Hawthorne's stories of the wood-carver and of the doctor who dabbles in scientific research, something of psychological analysis is presented under large, symbolic forms, giving way in Silas Marner to more subtle analysis, and in the Shakespearean comedy to that marvelous combination of romance and realism that forms a fitting climax to a series of interesting studies. Pupils like discussions of motive and character, and the study topics give abundant suggestions for class debate, project work, and other means for relating their reading to that social activity that is characteristic of the modern classroom. Class discussions will be lively where these books are used.

The last section of the book is devoted to a story of American literature, written especially for students of this grade. In the earlier years they have read many selections from American authors. At this point the whole story of the development of American literature, so far as that story is applicable to high school needs, is told in an orderly way, with an abundance of new selections and with cross-references to work previously done. This part of the book supplies the study of American ideals that is a feature of each book in the series. The approach, as in Book One, is not chiefly political, although the story is so organized as

to constitute a powerful stimulus to the historical imagination of the pupil. The method of treatment is fresh and unhackneyed. Traditional headings for the chapters have been avoided. Care has been taken, also, to avoid the danger of making the history of literature merely a collection of facts and critical opinions to be memorized. The pupil is not told what to think about an author; he is supplied with the information that is needed for intelligent reading of the works of the author. Moreover, the selections illustrate not only the phases of the author's work; they illustrate also the successive interpretations of American thought and ideals that make the story of American literature a powerful adjunct to training for citizenship. In this section, also, will be found a carefully prepared Introduction to the literature of today, a matter of importance in view of the great awakening of interest that is characteristic of the present time.

Here, as throughout the series, the editorial matter shows the relationship of literature to the life and interests of the pupil and to his preparation for his career as a citizen. This element is not overdone. It is not introduced in a "preachy" or didactic manner. The effort is made to avoid dictating what the pupil should think. His intelligence is left free. But he cannot very well escape thinking.

Other characteristics of this book will be apparent upon examination of the Table of Contents. As in Book One, proper attention has been given to the presentation of the classics named in the various conference reports as essential. In Books One and Two, for example, eight complete units from the "A" list of the National Conference are given in full; only ten from this list are required for the entire four years. In addition, it should be