may well heed the warning, Beware of the man of one book; not, however, because of this home-bred wit's superior knowledge, but rather because of his intolerable bigotry and onesidedness.

There are those, too, who in this study disallow all such methods as the one we have been unfolding, who even discourage the reading of extracts by the pupils, except under the teacher's supervision and with his explanation in the classroom, where he and they are jointly to commune with the author. Communion with the author is, of course, the one thing desired. Everything in the study should lead up to it as the goal. But how is this goal of communion, joint communion if you please, to be reached except by a start at some definite point, and by an orderly progress from it. The writer's thought is in his expression, the one can be got at only by and through the other. He is in both, both are his -may we not say both are he. Shakespeare's thought, saturated with feeling,-could it be divorced, as it cannot, from Shakespeare's diction and style, would lose its charm and its power; could it be reached by the pupil, as it cannot, without approaching it through his diction and style, the whole of the dramatist would not be seen-the pupil would not then stand in the presence of Shakespeare himself.

But we unite with all who disparage methods that divert. the pupil's attention from what we have seen is its proper object, and concentrate it upon a prolonged examination of the author's words in their etymology and history, making this a study of linguistics and not of literature.

Differ, however, as we may in other respects, in this one thing all will agree-that by the study of English literature the pupil is to be put in the way of deriving intellectual culture and intense enjoyment from books; that any method of study by which he secures these is good; and that that method is the best by which he secures them in the largest measure.

PERIOD I.

BEFORE THE NORMAN CONQUEST,

670-1066.

LESSON 2.

Brief Historical Sketch.-Britain, at the beginning of the historic period, was inhabited by Celts. This race occupied Gaul, a part of Spain, the north of Italy, and some provinces of Central Europe, also. They belong to the great Indo-European family, the other members of which are the peoples using or having used (1) the Indian languages, notably the Sanskrit, of Northern Hindostan, (2) the Iranian of ancient and modern Persia, (3) the Hellenic of ancient Greece and the modern Greek, (4) the Slavonic, of which the Russian is chief, (5) the Italic, of which the Latin is the great representative, and (6) the Teutonic, subdivisible into the Gothic, the Scandinavian, the High Germanic, and the Low Germanic. The Celts of Britain were independent tribes, rarely uniting against a common foe. They lived in huts hollowed out of hills, sides vaulted and roofs thatched, or in circular houses with low stone walls and conical roofs-ten or twelve families under one roof. Practiced polyandry. Lived on the products of the chase, on fruits, milk, and flesh, and in the South on grain bruised and baked. Wore tunics and short trowsers and cloaks; wove, made earthenware and the implements of war, and tattooed their bodies. Religion Druidism; the priests, called Druids, were somewhat educated, decided all disputes public and private, were exempt from taxes and all public duties, and offered sacrifices, even human. The Celts held the soul to be immortal, believed in transmigration, and burned their dead, or buried them doubled up in cists or lying straight in canoe-shaped coffins. Irish teachers visit Britain and make converts to Christianity before 400 A.D. Cæsar disclosed Britain to the Romans, 55 and 54 B.C. Agricola pushed its conquest to the Friths of Forth and of Clyde, 78–84 A.D. The Romans held Britain by fortified posts-Eboricum (York) the central one-connected by broad military roads passing straight over hills, and crossing morasses on piles. Romans exacted tribute, and afterward taxes on arable and on pasture land, and customs at the ports, proscribed Druidism, abolished tattooing, made cremation general, quickened agriculture, and exported

corn. By 420 A.D., the Roman legions are recalled to defend Rome against the northern hordes. Angles, Saxons, and Jutes of the Teutonic race, dwelling about the mouths of the Elbe, begin the conquest of Britain by 450, complete it by 607. Celts exterminated or driven to the moun tains. Few Celtic words, dating from this period, in our language. Their names given to the rivers survive. Sovereignty of the AngloSaxons at first in the hands of the people. War gives birth to monarchy, the king chosen from the leaders in battle. Houses of stone or timber, sometimes with an upper story, mead hall the principal room, no chimneys. Had chairs, stools, and benches, used carpets and cushions, glass drinking cups, few plates and knives, no forks, and a board on trestles for a table. Ate animal food, fish, and grain ground by hand or in water mills and baked in ovens. Weapons were the sword, battle axe, bow and arrow, dagger, spear, wooden shield with iron boss, and mail of leather. Prisoners taken in battle, debtors surrendering themselves, and criminals were made slaves. Land was divided into marks, each occupied by a community of related families. In time, marks unite to form shires (32 in Ælfred's reign, 871-901), each with its own organization legal, political, and religious. Shires (now counties) unite to form a kingdom. Wives practically bought at first, polygamy forbidden, voluntary separation allowed, and children could be sold or possibly put to death by the parent. Religion Scandinavian, names of the gods seen in the names of some of our days of the week. Names of demons and water sprites survive in Old Scratch, Old Nick, and Deuce. This religion drove Christianity out of Britain. Right of private revenge claimed at first, afterward crimes and injuries could be expiated with money. In Elfred's time, death was the punishment for murder and for some other crimes. Christianity introduced from Rome, 597 A.D., by Augustine, who became first Archbishop of Canterbury. From 607 onward, the Anglo-Saxons were fighting each other, until in 827 the seven or eight kingdoms were united under Egbert, king of Wessex, who now styled himself "King of the English." The glorious period of A. S. history is the reign of Elfred the Great. Frequent Danish invasions from 832-1011. Danish kings on the throne, 1013-1042. Did not materially change the institutions or the language, which was the Anglo-Saxon, the mother-tongue of the English of to-day. AngloSaxon dynasty restored by Edward the Confessor, 1042. Conquest of the country by William the Conqueror, Duke of Normandy, 1066.

TO THE TEACHER.-Make as much as the hour will allow of each historical Lesson. Develop points that are only suggested. Emphasize especially those events that account for any feature or phase of the literature.

LESSON 3.

"This is the story

THE HISTORY OF ENGLISH LITERATURE.of what great English men and women thought and felt, and then wrote down in good prose or beautiful poetry in the English language. The story is a long one. It begins about the year 670, and it is still going on in the year 1882. Into this book, then, is to be put the story of 1,200 years. English men and women have good reason to be proud of the work done by their forefathers in prose and poetry. Every one who can write a good book or a good song may say to himself, I belong to a great company which has been teaching and delighting the world for more than 1,000 years.' And that is a fact in which those who write and those who read ought to feel a noble pride.

THE ENGLISH AND THE WELSH.-This literature is written in English, the tongue of our fathers. They lived, while England was still called Britain, in Sleswick, Jutland, and Holstein; but, either because they were pressed from the inland or for pure love of adventure, they took to the sea, and, landing at various parts of Britain at various times, drove back, after 150 years of hard fighting, the Britons, whom they called Welsh, to the land now called Wales, and to Cornwall. It is well for those who study English literature to remember that in these two places the Britons remained as a distinct race with a distinct literature of their own, because the stories and the poetry of the Britons crept afterwards into English literature and had a great influence upon it. The whole tale of King Arthur, of which English poetry and even English prose is so full, was a British tale.

THE ENGLISH* TONGUE. Of the language in which our

"There is no good reason for rejecting the term Anglo-Saxon, and, as has been proposed, employing English as the name of the language from the earliest date to the present day. A change of nomenclature like this would expose us to the inconvenience not merely of embracing within one designation objects which have been

literature is written we can say little here. Of course it has changed its look very much since it began to be written. The earliest form of our English tongue is very different from modern English in form, pronunciation, and appearance, and one must learn it almost as if it were a foreign tongue; but still the language written in the year 700 is the same as that in which the prose of the Bible is written, just as much as the tree planted a hundred years ago is the same tree to-day. It is this sameness of language, as well as the sameness of national spirit, which makes the literature one literature for 1200 years.

THE FIRST ENGLISH POETRY.-When the English came to Britain, they were great warriors and great sea pirates-sea wolves' as a Roman poet calls them; and all English poetry down to the present day is full of war, and still more of the sea. No other nation has ever written so much sea-poetry. It was in the blood of these men, who chanted their sea war-songs as they sailed. But they were more than mere warriors. They were a home-loving people when settled either in Sleswick or in England, and all English literature from the first writings to the last is full of domestic love, the dearness of home, and the ties of kinsfolk. They were a religious people, even as heathen,

conventionally separated but of confounding things logically distinct; for, though our modern English is built upon, and mainly derived from, the Anglo-Saxon, the two dialects are now so discrepant that the fullest knowledge of one would not alone suffice to render the other intelligible to either the eye or the ear. They are too unlike in vocabulary and in inflectional character to be still considered as one speech."-George P. Marsh.

These reasons are equally conclusive against calling our earliest literature English. Wherever, then, in this Lesson and in the three or four following, Mr. Brooke uses English to designate either the language or the literature before 1066 or even 1150, we suggest that Anglo-Saxon be substituted for it by the teacher and the pupil. This distribution of our language and our literature, adopted by some of our latest and best authorities, seems to us excellent: