living charm and attractiveness to many a ruined castle and abbey, which would prove uninviting to the tourist standing in its naked deformity, so a reasonable amplitude of treatment often throws a wonderful fascination over old names and dates, otherwise uninteresting.' It would seem obvious that a history of English Literature should note in a catholic and liberal spirit the practical lessons suggested by its theme. If it warms not the feelings into noble earnestness, elevates not the mind's ideals, nor supplies healthful truths by which to live and to die, it is lamentably defective; and the fault is not in the subject, but in the historian. When Dr. Arnold was planning his history, he said: "My highest ambition . . . is to make my history the very reverse of Gibbon in this respect, that whereas the whole spirit of his work, from its low morality, is hostile to religion without speaking directly against it, so my greatest desire would be, in my history, by its high morals and its general tone, to be of use to the cause, without actually bringing it forward. Without twisting a story into a sermon, I have humbly endeavored to present it as the artist describes nature, with a light falling upon it from the region of the highest and truest. As to the benefits of this study per se, they cannot be overestimated. He can hardly hope for eminence as a writer, who has not enriched his mind and perfected his style by familiarity with the literary masters and masterpieces; while to have fed on high thoughts and to have companioned with those "Whose soul the holy forms Of young imagination hath kept pure,' are, beyond all teaching, the virtue-making powers. Every thinker, the most original, owes his originality to the originality of all. Very little of me,' said Goethe, 'would be left, if I could but say what I owe to my predecessors and contemporaries.' Omnipotence creates, man combines. He can be originative, strictly, only in development, in the form of his funded thought, in the fusion of his collected materials, as the sculptor in the conception of his statue, or the architect in the design of his edifice. My scope and purposes being such as indicated, I have drawn freely from all the fountains around me, have wished to absorb all the light anywhere radiating. To the many who have helped me, it is a pleasure to record my obligations in the manner which seems most accordant with the objects and uses to be subserved, either explicitly in the text, or collectively in the List of Authorities. To some sources, however, I am preeminently indebted, to the literary histories of Anderson, Bascom, and Taine; to the critical essays of Macaulay, Hazlitt, and Whipple; to the philosophical treatises of Lecky, Buckle, Lewes, and Uberweg. I wish, also, to render acknowledgments to personal friends,-to Rev. J. L. Grover for free access to the Columbus Library; to General Joseph Geiger, and his accomplished assistant, Miss Mary Harbaugh, for the liberal privileges of the Ohio State Library; to Professor Alston Ellis, Ph.D., for valuable suggestions; to Rev. Daniel F. Smith, and Mr. James Bishop Bell, of Chicago, the scholarly readers, for their critical and unstinted revision of the proof-sheets; to Rev. F. W. Gunsaulus, and A. E. Clevenger, A.M., for large and important aid in the preparation of a copious index. In conclusion, my supreme anxiety has been to produce not a brilliant but a useful book, and the results are therefore hopefully commended to a conscientious and catholic criticism, a criticism that shall take high ground,-that shall aim to promote the common weal,-that shall not look through a microscope when it should look through a telescope,- that shall illuminate excellences as well as indicate errors,- that shall contemplate the whole before it adjudicates on the parts,that shall be perceptive, sympathetic, and suggestive. Columbus, Ohio, July 4, 1882. THE AUTHOR. Froude, J. A. Giles, J. A. Gilfillan, G. Gladstone, W. E. Goodman, W. Gould, E. S.. Guizot, F. P. G..... Guizot, F. P. G.... Hallam, H. Hallam, H. Haven, J. Hazlitt, W.. Hazlitt, W. C. Hudson, F. Hume, D. Hunt, L. Hurst, J. F. Hutton, R. H. Irving, W. Labarte, J. Lange, F. A. Lanier, S. Latham, R. G. Lecky, W. E. H. Leland, J... Lodge, E. Longfellow, H. W. Lubbock, Sir J. Marsh, G. P. Martineau, H.. Martineau, J. Mathews, W.. M'Cosh, J. M'Cosh, J. Mills, C. Short Studies on Great Subjects. .. The English Reformation. Ancient Britons. Modern Literature and Literary Men. ....Dramatic Mirror. .. Gleanings of Past Years. Juventus Mundi. Out of the Past. Social History of Great Britain. A Short History of the English People. . Discussions on Philosophy and Literature. Europe during the Middle Ages. Literature of Europe. History of Ancient and Modern Philosophy. Dramatic Literature of the Age of Elizabeth. Early Literature of Great Britain. History of Journalism in the United States. History of England. Selections from English Poets. History of Rationalism. Essays, Theological and Literary. Oliver Goldsmith. Legends of the Monastic Orders. Introduction to Ethics. Popular History of England. Arts of the Middle Ages and Renaissance. Science of English Verse. English Language. England in the Eighteenth Century. .History of European Morals. Rationalism in Europe. View of Deistical Writers. Biographical History of Philosophy. History of English Translations of the Bible. Illustrations of British History. Poets and Poetry of Europe. Among My Books. My Study Windows. History of England. .Progress of Ethical Philosophy. .Origin and History of the English Language .History of England. .Essays, Philosophical and Theological. . Literary Style. Christianity and Positivism. Intuitions of the Mind. System of Logic. .History of Chivalry. Morell, J. D. Mosheim, J. L.. Müller, F. M. Müller, F. M. Neal, D. Necle, H. Niebuhr, B. G.. Oliphant, T. L. K.. Palgrave, Sir F. Palgrave, Sir F..... Parker, T. Percy, T... Phelps, Austin Philp, R. K.. Porter, N... Prescott, W. H. Ranke, L. Reed, H. Ruskin, J. Russell. A. P. Schaff, P. Schuyler, A. Shairp, J. C. Shairp, J. C. Sismondi, J. C. L. S. de.. Shepherd, Henry E.. Spencer, H. Staël, Madame de. Stanhope, P. H. Stedman, E. C. Stephen, L. Stubbs, W. Symonds, J. A.. Symonds, J. A. Taine, H. A. Taine, H. A. Thoms, W. J. Tooke, J. H. Trench, R. C. Turner, S. Turner, T. H. Tylor, E. B. Uberweg, F. Vaughan, R. Warton, T.. Whewell, W. Whewell, W. . Speculative Philosophy of Europe. Chips from a German Workshop. History of the Puritans. Lectures on English Poetry. .History of Rome. Old and Middle English. History of the Anglo-Saxons. Rise of the English Commonwealth. ..Complete Works. .. Reliques of Ancient English Poetry. Men and Books. Progress in Great Britain. . Books and Reading. The Human Intellect. Biographical and Critical Miscellanies. History of the Popes. Lectures on English History. Lectures on English Literature. Modern Painters. Library Notes. English Thought in the Eighteenth Century. Constitutional History of England. .Sketches and Studies in Southern Europe. The Renaissance in Italy. History of English Literature. Educational Essays. Northern Mythology. .Democracy in America. Diversions of Purley. .History of the Anglo-Saxons. Domestic Architecture in England. History of Philosophy. Revolutions in English History. History of English Poetry. History of the Inductive Sciences. . Philosophy of the Inductive Sciences. |