beyond the limits here prescribed, he will have laid the foundation of accurate habits of thought and judgment, which cannot fail of being serviceable to him hereafter.

The authors and works selected are such as will best serve to illustrate English Literature in its historical aspect. As 'the eye of history,' without which history cannot be understood, the literature of a nation is the clearest and most intelligible record of its life. Its thoughts and its emotions, its graver and its less serious modes, its progress, or its degeneracy, are told by its best authors in their best words. This view of the subject will suggest the safest rules for the study of it.

With one exception all writers before the Reformation are excluded from the Series. However great may be the value of literature before that epoch, it is not completely national. For it had no common organ of language; it addressed itself to special classes; it dealt mainly with special subjects. Again; of writers who flourished after the Reformation, who were popular in their day, and reflected the manners and sentiments of their age, the larger part by far must be excluded from our list. Common sense tells us that if young persons, who have but a limited time at their disposal, read Marlowe or Greene, Burton, Hakewill or Du Bartas, Shakespeare, Bacon, and Milton will be comparatively neglected.

Keeping, then, to the best authors in each epoch-and here popular estimation is a safe guide—the student will find the following list of writers amply sufficient for his purpose: Chaucer, Spenser, Hooker, Shakespeare, Bacon, Milton, Dryden, Bunyan, Pope, Johnson, Burke, and Cowper. In other words, Chaucer is the exponent of the Middle Ages in England; Spenser of the Reformation and the Tudors; Hooker of the latter years of Elizabeth; Shakespeare and Bacon of the transition from Tudor to Stuart; Milton of Charles I and the Commonwealth; Dryden and Bunyan of the Restoration; Pope of Anne and the House

of Hanover; Johnson, Burke, and Cowper of the reign of George III to the close of the last century.

The list could be easily enlarged; the names of Jeremy Taylor, Clarendon, Hobbes, Locke, Swift, Addison, Goldsmith, and others are omitted. But in so wide a field, the difficulty is to keep the series from becoming unwieldy, without diminishing its comprehensiveness. Hereafter, should the plan prove to be useful, some of the masterpieces of the authors just mentioned may be added to the list.

The task of selection is not yet finished. For purposes of education, it would neither be possible, nor, if possible, desirable, to place in the hands of students the whole of the works of the authors we have chosen. We must set before them only the masterpieces of literature, and their studies must be directed, not only to the greatest minds, but to their choicest productions. These are to be read again and again, separately and in combination. Their purport, form, language, bearing on the times, must be minutely studied, till the student begins to recognise the full value of each work both in itself and in its relations to those that go before and those that follow it.

It is especially hoped that this Series may prove useful to Ladies' Schools and Middle Class Schools; in which English Literature must always be a leading subject of instruction.

A General Introduction to the Series. By Professor Brewer, M.A.

1. Chaucer. The Prologue to the Knightes Tale; The Nonne Prestes Tale. the Early English Text Society, &c., &c. cloth, 2s. 6d.

2. Spenser's Faery Queene.

Canterbury Tales; The Edited by R. Morris Editor for Third Edition. Extra fcap. 8vo.

Books I and II.

Designed

chiefly for the use of Schools. With Introduction, Notes, and Glossary. By
G. W. Kitchin, M.A., formerly Censor of Christ Church.
Book I. Fifth Edition. Extra fcap. 8vo. cloth, 2s. 6d.
Book II. Second Edition. Extra fcap. 8vo. cloth, 2s. 6d.

3. Hooker. Ecclesiastical Polity, Book I. Edited by R. W. Church, M.A., formerly Fellow of Oriel College, Oxford. Extra fcap. 8vo. cloth, 25.

4. Shakespeare. Select Plays. Edited by W. G. Clark,

M.A., Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge; and W. Aldis Wright, M.A., Trinity College, Cambridge.

I. The Merchant of Venice. Extra fcap. 8vo. stiff covers, Is.

II. Richard the Second. Extra fcap. 8vo. stiff covers, 1s. 6d.

III. Macbeth. Extra fcap. 8vo. stiff covers, 1s. 6d.

IV. Hamlet. Extra fcap. 8vo, stiff covers, 25.

5. Bacon. Advancement of Learning. Edited by W. Aldis Wright, M.A. Extra fcap. 8vo. cloth, 4s. 6d.

6. Milton. Poems. Edited by R. C. Browne, M.A., and Associate of King's College, London. 2 vols. Second Edition. Ext. fcap. 8vo. cloth, 6s. 6d. Sold separately, Vol. I. 4s., Vol. II. 35.

7. Dryden. Stanzas on the Death of Oliver Cromwell; Astraea Redux; Annus Mirabilis; Absalom and Achitophel; Religio Laici; The Hind and the Panther. Edited by W. D. Christie, M. A., Trinity College, Cambridge. Extra fcap. 8vo. cloth, 35. 6d.

8. Bunyan.

Grace Abounding; The Pilgrim's Progress.

Edited by E. Venables, M. A., Canon of Lincoln.

9. Pope. With Introduction and Notes. By Mark Pattison, B.D., Rector of Lincoln College, Oxford.

I. Essay on Man. Second Edition. Extra fcap. 8vo. stiff covers, 1s. 6d.
II. Satires and Epistles. Extra fcap. 8vo. stiff covers, 25.

10. Johnson. Rasselas; Lives of Pope and Dryden. Edited
by C. H. O. Daniel, M. A., Fellow and Tutor of Worcester College, Oxford.
II. Burke. Thoughts on the Present Discontents; the Two
Speeches on America; Reflections on the French Revolution. By E. J. Payne,
B A., Fellow of University College, Oxford. In the Press.

12. Cowper.

The Task, and some of his minor Poems. Edited by H. T. Griffith, M. A., Pembroke College, Oxford. In the Press.

Published for the University by

MACMILLAN AND CO., LONDON.

The DELEGATES OF THE PRESS invite suggestions and advice from all persons interested in education; and will be thankful for bints, &c., addressed to either the Rev. G. W. KITCHIN, St. Giles's Road East, Oxford, or the SECRETARY TO THE DELEGATES, Clarendon Press, Oxford.