of Authors, by my friend S. Austin Allibone, LL.D., in which bibliography is a strong feature. I am not called upon to eulogize that noble work, but I cannot help saying that I have found it invaluable, and that whether mentioned or not, no writer can treat of English authors without constant recurrence to its accurate columns it is a literary marvel of our age. It will be observed that the remoter periods of the literature are those in which the historic teachings are the most distinctly visible; we see them from a vantage ground, in their full scope, and in the interrelations of their parts. Although in the more modern periods the number of writers is greatly increased, we are too near to discern the entire period, and are in danger of becoming partisans, by reason of our limited view. Especially is this true of the age in which we live. Contemporary history is but party-chronicle: the true philosophic history can only be written when distance and elevation give due scope to our vision. The principle I have laid down is best illustrated by the great literary masters. Those of less degree have been treated at less length, and many of them will be found in the smaller print, to save space. Those who study the book should study the small print as carefully as the other. After a somewhat elaborate exposition of English literature, I could not induce myself to tack on an inadequate chapter on American literature; and, besides, I think that to treat the two subjects in one volume would be as incongruous as to write a joint biography of Marlborough and Washington. American literature is too great and noble, and has had too marvelous a development to be made an appendix to English literature. If time shall serve, I hope to prepare a separate volume, exhibiting the stages of our literature in the Colonial period, the Revolutionary epoch, the time of Constitutional establishment, and the present period. It will be found to illustrate these historical divisions in a remarkable manner. THE LEHIGH UNIVERSITY, October, 1872. H. C. Literature and Science - English Literature - General Principle — Celts and Cymry - Roman Conquest - Coming of the Saxons- PAGE The Lineage of the Anglo-Saxon - Earliest Saxon Poem- - Metrical 30 Biography Ecclesiastical History The Recorded Miracles - Bede's Latin - Other Writers The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle: its Value Alfred the Great Effect of the Danish Invasions . 37 Secular The Friar and the Sompnour The Poure Persone -- John Wiclif - The The Faerie Queene The Plan Proposed — Illustrations of the History The Knight and the Lady - The Wood of Error and the Hermitage — The Crusades — Britomartis and Sir Artegal - Origin of the Drama - Miracle Plays― Moralities - - First Comedy The Power of Shakspeare Meagre Early History - Doubts of his Identity-What is known - Marries and goes to London — "Venus" and "Lucrece". Retirement and Death-Literary Habitudes — Variety of the Plays — Table of Dates and Sources and Fancy Power of Expression - His Faults - Influence of Early Versions-The Septuagint - The Vulgate - Wiclif; Tyn- Historical Facts- Charles I. Religious Extremes - Cromwell The Blind Poet Paradise Lost Milton and Dante His |