'AUTHORS OF CONSEQUENCE.' 161 Essays-Johnson's 'Rasselas' Edmund Burke Matthew Arnold's Opinion of Burke-Walpole's 'Correspondence'-Cowper's LettersLord Jeffrey's 'Essays'. Charles Lamb. Coleridge Thackeray's 'Roundabout Papers' - Sir Arthur Helps - Hallam - Mrs. Craik Carlyle's 'Sartor Resartus'-Walter Savage Landor-R. W. Emerson -Ruskin-Matthew Arnold-Dr. Smiles-W. E. Gladstone-John Foster. SCIENTIFIC Field READING Scanty Scientific Knowledge acquired by Girls at School-Scientific Women-What Women can do-Value of Mathematics-Professor Bain quoted-Division of Sciences-A Wide Mrs. Somerville's Physical Geography'- Dr. Corfield's 'Health --Sir John Herschel's Outlines of Astronomy'-Tyndall's Glaciers of the Alps' and 'Forms of Water'-Charles Kingsley's "Glaucus Huxley's Elementary Biology-Sir Charles Lyell's Principles of Zoology-Darwin's Origin of Species-Mivart's 'Lessons from Nature'-Principal Shairp's 'Religion and Culture.' HE following lists do not, of course, pretend to be exhaustive; but, perhaps, they fairly represent such a course of English literature as may be accessible to most English maidens. I do not say that every book they contain will or can be read by 'our Girls'; there are among them, perhaps, some masterpieces which few could thoroughly understand; but, as a whole, they should come within their reach. Says Thomas Fuller: "Some books are only cursorily to be tasted of; namely, first, voluminous books, the task of a man's life to read them over; secondly, auxiliary books, only to be repaired to on occasions; thirdly, such as are mere pieces of formality, so that if you look on them you look through them, and he that peeps through the casement of the index, sees as much as if he were in the house. But the laziness of those cannot be excused who perfunctorily pass over authors of consequence, and only trade in their tables and contents.' I think that the authors here enumerated are all 'authors of consequence.' Not to know them is not to know of what high efforts and noble achievements the human mind is capable. Not to know them is not to know some of the finest music which has been poured forth by our great singers. Not to know them is voluntarily to exclude one's self from what is at once a treasury of fancy and a mine of thought, a fairyland of brilliant conceptions, a Dorado of imagination and passion. I cannot conceive of a refined and cultivated English maiden as absolutely unacquainted with the works which I here set before my readers; works which have ever an enduring place in our literature, and are part and parcel of the glorious heritage handed down by generation after generation of Englishmen and Englishwomen. ENGLISH POETRY: WHAT TO READ. William Langland (born 1332): 'Vision of Piers the Plowman.' Geoffrey Chaucer (1328-1400): The Knight's Tale;' 'The Clerk's Tale;' 'The Nun and Priest's Tale' (in 'The Canterbury Tales'). The young reader will find all she wants in Chaucer Modernised.' Edmund Spenser: The Faery Queen,' or parts of it. An edition of Spenser for the use of the young has been prepared by M. H. Towry. William Browne (1590-1645): 'Britannia's Pastorals.' Some of the descriptive portions are very fine and true. Robert Herrick (1591-1674): Selections from 'The Hesperides.' Herrick, as a lyrist, is not inferior in grace to Shelley. George Herbert (1593-1633): 'The Temple.' Herbert is the poet-laureate, the sweet singer, of the English Church. Richard Crashaw (1615-1650): 'Music's Duel,' and some of the minor poems. Sir John Denham (1615-1668): Cooper's Hill,' our first purely descriptive poem. Denham, like his own Thames,' is 'Though deep, yet clear; though gentle, yet not dull; John Milton (1608-1674): Paradise Lost,' and 'Paradise Regained; Comus; Lycidas;''Sonnets;' 'Samson Agonistes; L'Allegro;' Il Penseroso.' Samuel Butler (1612-1680): First canto of 'Hudibras.' John Dryden (1631-1700): Alexander's Feast;' Elegy on Mrs. Killigrew;' 'Annus Mirabilis, and read portions of 'The Hind and the Panther,' in order to understand the vigour and energy of the poet's style. William Shenstone (1714-1763): 'The Schoolmistress.' POETS TO BE READ. 163 Alexander Pope (1668-1744): The Rape of the Lock;' 'Windsor Forest; Essay on Criticism;'Moral Essays,' part of. Edward Young (1684-1765): Portions of the 'Night Thoughts.' James Thomson (1700-1748): The Seasons;' 'Castle of Indolence.' Samuel Johnson (1709-1784): 'Vanity of Human Wishes.' Thomas Gray (1716-1771): Elegy written in a Country Churchyard; Odes;' 'The Long Story.' William Collins (1721-1759): Persian Eclogues;' 'Odes.' Oliver Goldsmith (1728-1774): 'The Traveller,' and 'The Deserted Village.' William Cowper (1731-1800): The Task;' 'Table-Talk ;' 'Expostulation; Conversation;' 'Tirocinium;' Gilpin;' the minor poems and hymns. 6 'John George Crabbe (1754-1832): Tales of the Hall; Tales in Verse;' 'The Borough;' 'The Parish Register;' 'The Village.' William Blake (1757-1827): Songs of Innocence.' Samuel Rogers (1763-1805): 'Pleasures of Memory;' 'Italy;' 'Human Life.' Thomas Campbell (1771-1844): 'Pleasures of Hope;' 'Gertrude of Wyoming;' and his famous lyrics. William Wordsworth (1770-1850): Tintern Abbey ;' 'Laodamia;' 'White Doe of Rylstone Hall; To a Highland Girl;' 'Ode on Intimations of Immortality'-see the volume of 'Selections' edited by Matthew Arnold. It contains the very best of Wordsworth's poetry, and as much as a young reader needs to know. Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772-1834): 'Hymn to Mont Blanc; Christabel;' Genevieve; Youth and Age;' 'Ode to the Departing Year:' 'Love, Hope, and Patience in Education.' Thomas Moore (1779-1852): 'Paradise and the Peri,' and some of his 'Irish Melodies.' Sir Walter Scott (1771-1832): Marmion;' 'Lay of the Last Minstrel;' 'Lady of the Lake; 'Lord of the Isles;' 'Rokeby.' Lord Byron (1788-1824): 'Childe Harold.' Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792-1822): Alastor;' 'The Sensitive Plant The Cloud;' To a Skylark,' |