HISTORICAL SKETCH OF

ENGLISH PROSE LITERATURE.

FOR OUT OF THE OLDE FELDES, AS MEN SAIETH,

COMETH ALL THIS NEWE CORNE FRO YERE TO YERE;
AND OUT OF OLDE BOKES, IN GODE FAIETH,
COMETH ALL THIS NEWE SCIENCE THAT MEN LERE.

D. A. TALBOYS, PRINTER, OXFORD.

HISTORICAL

SKETCH OF THE ORIGIN

OF ENGLISH PROSE LITERATURE,

AND OF ITS PROGRESS TILL THE REIGN OF
JAMES THE FIRST.

IT is by far the most pleasing, if it be not the most exciting province of history, to trace the ameliorating progress of learning and the arts; and whilst we look back from the lofty vantage-ground of knowledge and refinement, on the undefined and clouded obscurity of barbarism and ignorance, to mark, with a philosophic eye, the certain yet often whimsical and capricious causes which contributed to the gradual developement of intellect, and the improvement of manners.

The learning of Britain was indebted for its origin to the speculative priests of a heathenish mythology. Without examining into the precise attainments of the druids and the bards, or investigating the obscure sources from which they are conjectured to have derived the curious and methodical system of

B