About this book
CONTENTS.
PAGE.
ON THE STUDY OF LITERATURE AND ON VOCAL CULTURE.
What is Literature?.......
........
Hiram Corson. 15
....Thomas De Quincey. 49
On the refining and elevating influence of Poetry..........
William Ellery Channing. 57
....Matthew Arnold. 61
The Church of Brou........
Description of a Country Gentleman of the Seventeenth
Century........
...Thomas Babington Macaulay. 69
A Rill from the Town Pump...........Nathaniel Hawthorne. 73
The Wreck of the Hesperus....Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. 78
Squire Bull and his son Jonathan.....James Kirke Paulding. 82
The Alpine Sheep.........
Spring.......
Best method of Reading.
A literary Criticism........
.Mrs. Maria White Lowell. 86
..N. P. Willis. 88
..Henry Reed. 89
....Joseph Dennie. 91
The height of the Ridiculous.........Oliver Wendell Holmes. 100
Gibbon's Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire....................
Gibbon's First Love.......
Edward Gibbon. 101
Edward Gibbon. 104
William Wirt. 107
The Blind Preacher....
The Sea and the Mountains............Oliver Wendell Holmes. 112
My Kate......
·Elizabeth Barrett Browning. 114
Literature and Learning in the reign of Charles II. .............................
The Human Voice.......
Thomas Babington Macaulay. 116
Oliver Wendell Holmes. 126
Extracts from "Aurora Leigh"...Elizabeth B. Browning. 131–134
The Song of Deborah and Barak.................Book of Judges. 137
Incident at Bruges.......................... ......... William Wordsworth. 140
Monk Felix..........................................................Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. 142
The tendency of nations to over-estimate the Past, and de-
preciate the Present.........Thomas Babington Macaulay. 147
Scorn not the Sonnet...........................
William Wordsworth. 149
......
The World is too much with us......... William Wordsworth. 150
Milton.........
Silence.......
William Wordsworth. 151
.Thomas Hood. 151
Fancy in Nubibus; or, the Poet in the Clouds............................
God's
power and providence illustrated in the Animal King-
dom..........
Belshazzar's Feast..........
Samuel Taylor Coleridge. 152
Book of Job. 153
..Book of Daniel. 155
Rural Life in Sweden..........Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. 159
Passages from the Marble Faun....Nathaniel Hawthorne. 168–179
Songs and Lyrics from "The Princess"..Alfred Tennyson. 181-185
Reconciliation over a Child's Grave........................... 181
Cradle Song....................
182
The Saxon and Latin elements of the English language;.
the peculiar province of each in poetic diction..........
Thomas De Quincey. 186
Visit of the Wise Men to the infant Saviour, and the Flight
into Egypt............
Parable of the Prodigal Son...........
Gospel of St. Matthew. 189
.Gospel of St. Luke. 192
Christ and the Woman of Samaria........ Gospel of St. John. 194
Lady Clara Vere de Vere.......................
The Lord of Burleigh
.Alfred Tennyson. 197
..Alfred Tennyson. 200
Parallel between the Portraits of Byron and Shelley........
George Gilfillan. 204
Intellectual qualities of Milton.... William Ellery Channing. 205
The Skeleton in Armour........Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. 208
Don Quixote.....................
Godiva.............
Godiva............
Youth and Age.............
The Palimpsest........
Love; or, Genevieve................
Ode to a Nightingale............................
To a Lady with a Guitar
Henry Giles. 215
....Leigh Hunt. 217
...Alfred Tennyson. 223
Samuel Taylor Coleridge. 226
..Samuel Taylor Coleridge. 228
.............Thomas De Quincey. 232
..John Keats. 240
.........Percy Bysshe Shelley. 243
"He giveth his beloved Sleep"...Elizabeth Barrett Browning. 247
.....
Thomas Hood. 253
The Portraits of Shakspeare and Goethe.......David Masson. 262
The Humble Bee.............................................................................Ralph Waldo Emerson. 268
The Execution. A sporting anecdote ...........R. Harris Burham. 271
A Dead Rose........................................................... Elizabeth Barrett Browning. 278
Ulalume
...............Edgar Allan Poe. 317
To a Mountain Daisy, on turning one down with the Plough
in April, 1786.....
.Robert Burns. 321
Sublimity of the Prophet Isaiah.........Bishop Robert Lowth. 323
The Three Ladies of Sorrow.........
Sir Galahad......
.Thomas De Quincey. 327
...Alfred Tennyson. 332
William Wordsworth. 335
Intimations of Immortality from recollections of early child-
hood........
Boswell's Life of Johnson ;-how "Histories" are written.... '.
Morte D'Arthur ..........
Ode to the West Wind..........................
Thomas Carlyle. 343
.....Alfred Tennyson. 351
Percy Bysshe Shelley. 368
The Beauty of the Outer World a reflex of a pure and joyous
soul..........
Samuel Taylor Coleridge. 372
Extract from "Christabel "...........Samuel Taylor Coleridge. 373
Passages from "The Paradise Lost".........John Milton. 381-394
Satan recovers from his downfall and arouses his le-
gions who lie entranced on the burning lake............ 381
Description of Satan..........................
383
Pandemonium and its architect..........
Satan on the wing for Earth, and his meeting with
Sin and Death at Hell gates...........
386
The expulsion of the rebel angels from Heaven............ 389