MACAULAY'S ESSAYS ON MILTON AND ADDISON EDITED WITH NOTES AND AN INTRODUCTION BY JAMES GREENLEAF CROSWELL, A.B. HEAD-MASTER OF THE BREARLEY SCHOOL; FORMERLY ASSISTANT PROFESSOR OF LONGMANS, GREEN, AND CO. LONDON AND BOMBAY .1902 PREFACE It is hard for an editor of a book designed for formal study to determine precisely what parts of the learning that has gathered about his subject should be offered directly, by way of annotation, to young students. Two methods of treatment at once suggest themselves. He may annotate the text very sparingly, on the assumption that an intelligent boy knows enough to read ordinary English prose literature understandingly, and should be forced to find out for himself the meaning of words or allusions that he does not comprehend. Or he may annotate profusely, on the much sounder assumption that boys and girls are not living dictionaries and encyclopædias, and scarcely ought to be expected to interrupt reading which they are encouraged to enjoy in order to search various volumes for information that might just as well be put at once before them. Both extremes the editor of the present volume has tried to avoid. He has endeavored to give the pupil such facts as will enable him to read rapidly and understandingly; he has endeavored also to stimulate in the pupil an intelligent curiosity with regard to matters worth further investigation and further knowledge. It is his belief, however, that in the editing of text-books, as in all other parts of the teacher's delicate task, unchecked devotion to any theory of work, sound though it be, may very well lead to disaster to some pupils. He hopes, therefore, that those of his colleagues who use this book will understand that he has tried to prepare it for various uses, thinking of different classes of pupils, at different periods of ripeness. If the annotation is for any purpose too full, it is far easier to neglect any excess than to supply a real and painful deficiency that might arise in reading Macaulay under the ordinary conditions of the classroom. This edition of Macaulay's essays follows the authoritative text, of which Longmans, Green, and Co. are the publishers. J. G. C. |