sons do not love literature, because they do not understand it—do not begin at the beginning. In our common schools we make our children read disputes upon the comparative excellence of Reason and Revelation,* and require them to recite Pope's Messiah, the Dialogue between Brutus and Cassius, and a multitude more of difficult passages from the poets. I never knew a boy who could explain the first lines of the Messiah, or who could tell the matter of dispute between the complotters of Cæsar's death-and only because boys are not instructed in elementary facts in relation to those pieces, or any others of this character. How repugnant this mode of cultivating literary taste is to some highly endowed minds, is happily expressed by one whose memory, and whose genius, in its creations, will endure for ever. * "I abhorr'd * * ** Too much, to conquer for the poet's sake, The drill'd dull lesson, forced down word by word Aught that recals the daily drug which turn'd * See English Reader, Dialogue between Locke and Bayle. By the impatience of my early thought That, with the freshness wearing out before My mind could relish what it might have sought Its health; but what it then detested, still abhor." In a note upon these lines this high authority expresses all that I would say upon this subject. "I wish," says Lord Byron, "to express that we become tired of the task before we can comprehend the beauty; that we learn by rote before we can get by heart; that the freshness is worn away, and the future pleasure and advantage deadened and destroyed, by the didactic anticipation, at an age when we can neither feel nor understand the compositions which it requires an acquaintance with life, as well as Latin and Greek, to relish, or to reason upon. For the same reason we never can be aware of the fulness of some of the finest passages of Shakspeare, (To be or not to be,' for instance,) from the habit of having them hammered into us at eight years old, as an exercise, not of mind but memory so that when we are old enough to enjoy them, the taste is gone, and the appetite palled. In some parts of the Continent, young persons are taught from more common authors, and do not read the best classics till their maturity." In conformity to these views, and my own experience in relation to education, I have endeavoured to prepare a school-book after this suggestion; and in order to compose it, I resorted to the purest fountains of English verse, and took what I found suitable to my humble purpose. I left the more elevated and sublime portions of the poets who supplied me, and appropriated to my selection such passages only as I believed would, with a little exposition, be useful and agreeable to young readers. As a bird does not lead her new-fledged offspring to the skies in her first flight with them, so I would dictate short excursions to the unformed faculties of the human mind, that young readers, feeling their own power and felicity as they proceed, may at length be able and willing, without assistance, to ascend "the brightest heaven of invention." In the modes of education in present fashion, civil and political history is presented to young minds at an early period of study, but literary history-the peaceful influenee of mind upon mind -is wholly neglected; and those who are initiated in the most remarkable passages of Shakspeare, ilton, and other great authors, are taught nothing at school of these memorable men and their contemporaries. It is a debt that posterity owes to genius, to attach the memory of the man to his works, and to keep him and his contemporaries in the view of succeeding ages. I had only sufficicnt space simply to introduce authors and their relations to contemporary society, but I intended to suggest this relation, to awaken inquiry, to give my readers some acquaintance with the history of English poets and poetry, and also to show them the relations of English poetry to the rest of their intellectual pursuits. I hope my purpose will be effected, and that Poetry for Schools will be acceptable to teachers and pupils. New-York, Jan. 1828. POETRY FOR SCHOOLS. NATURE OF POETRY. WHATEVER exists, is divided into mind and matter. Philosophers do not accurately define the difference of mind and matter, but the body of animals, or living beings, which appears to die, and the "insensible clod" which we tread upon, are composed of matter. Every creature endowed with animal life, is, in some degree, “instinct with spirit"-endowed with some consciousness of wants, and some sense of supply and of enjoyment-this is intelligence. Intelligence, in man, is called Mind. The minds of men are very different-some are wise, and others are foolish-some minds acquire very great knowledge, and others only understand a few facts. Boys at school call others who are easily puzzled in arithmetic, or who are incapable of learning long lessons, dunces. Those who are capable of thinking with attention, who acquire knowledge readily, and who accurately remember what they have learned, are said to possess abilities; and one, who, besides learning his tasks with facility, can compose verses, or write a story of his own invention, possesses genius. Some men excel others, as the boy of genius excels the dunce. The genius and the dunce grow to be men, but they always remain the ge nius and the dunce. Genius is, properly, the talent of discovery-the talent in one mind of conceiving, and of displaying to others, something previously unthought of. Genius is acapability to produce much advantage and pleasure to mankind. Genius may be very differently employed by different individuals. Columbus was a man of genius. He mani |