Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1855, by

WILLIAM B. REED,

in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.

STEREOTYPED BY L. JOHNSON & CO.
PHILADELPHIA.

PRINTED BY T. K. & P. G. COLLINS.

ΤΟ

My Widowed Sister,

WHO, FOR THE SAKE OF THE LIVING, HAS NOBLY BORNE HER SORROW
FOR THE DEAD.

CONTENTS.

INTRODUCTORY NOTICE........

LECTURE I.-INTRODUCTORY.

PRINCIPLES OF LITERATURE.

......Page xv

Object, to assist and guide students-Necessity of systematic study

-Judicious criticism-True aims and principles of literature-

Choice of books-Its difficulties-Aim of this course of lectures

to remove them-All books not literature-Accurate definition

of literature-Its universality-Izaak Walton-Addison

Charles Lamb-Lord Bacon-Clarendon-Arnold-Spenser and

Shakspeare-Southey and Wordsworth-Belles-lettres not li-

terature-Literature not an easy, patrician pleasure-Its danger

as to practical life-Its influence on character-De Quincey's.

definition-Knowledge and power-Influence on female charac-

ter-True position of woman—
-Tennyson's Princess-Novel-

reading-Taste, an incorrect term-Henry Taylor-Cowper-

Miss Wordsworth-Coleridge's philosophy.......

LECTURE II.

APPLICATION OF LITERARY PRINCIPLES.

Narrow and exclusive lines of reading to be avoided-Catholicity

of taste-Charles Lamb's idea of books-Ruskin-Habits of

reading comprehensive-Ancient Literature-Foreign Lan-

guages-Different eras of letters-English essay-writing-

Macaulay-Southey--Scott and Washington Irving-Archdea-

con Hare-Lord Bacon's Essays-Poetic taste-Influence of

25

individual pursuits-Friends in Council-Serious and gay books

-English humour-Southey's ballad-Necessity of intellectual

discipline-Disadvantage of courses of reading-Books not

insulated things-Authors who guide-Southey's Doctor-Elia

-Coleridge-Divisions of Prose and Poetry-Henry Taylor's

Notes from Books-Poetry not a mere luxury of the mind—

Arnold's habits of study and taste-The practical and poetical

element of Anglo-Saxon character-The Bible-Mosaic Poetry

-Inadequacy of language-Lockhart's character of Scott-Ar-

nold's character of Scipio-Tragic poetry-Poetry for children

-Robinson Crusoe and the Arabian Nights-Wordsworth's Ode

to Duty-Character of Washington.........

LECTURE III.

THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE.

.Page 54

Medium of ideas often forgotten-Witchery of English words-

Analysis of good style difficult-The power of words-Our duty

to the English language-Lord Bacon's idea of Latin-Milton-

Hume's expostulation with Gibbon-Daniel's Lament-Exten-

sion of English language-French dominion in America-Lan-

dor's Penn and Peterborough-Duty of protecting and guarding

language-Degeneracy of language and morals-Age of Charles

II.-Language part of character-Arnold's Lectures on Modern

History-Use of disproportionate words-Origin of the English

language in the North-Classical and romantic languages—

Saxon element of our language-Its superiority-The Bible

idiom-Structure of sentences-Prepositions at the end of most

vigorous sentences-Composite sentences, and the Latin element

-Alliteration-Grandeur of sentences in old writers-Modern

short sentences-Junius-Macaulay-No peculiar poetic diction

-Doctor Franklin's rules-Shakspeare's matchless words-

Wordsworth's sonnet-Byron-Landor-Coleridge's Christabel

"The Song in the Mind"-Hood-The Bridge of Sighs....... 85

LECTURE IV.

EARLY ENGLISH LITERATURE.

Early English prose and poetry-Sir John Mandeville-Sir Tho-

mas More's Life of Edward the Fifth-Chaucer's Tales-At-