2 MARS5
OXFORD

BY

WALTER M'LEOD, F.R.G.S., M.CP

HEAD MASTER OF THE MODEL SCHOOL, AND MASTER OF METHOD IN THE
ROYAL MILITARY ASYLUM, CHELSEA:

Author of 'An Explanatory English Grammar,' 'The Six Standards of Arithmetic,'
'Solutions of Questions in Arithmetic by First Principles,'
'Wall-Maps of England,' &c.

2799. f. 27.

LONDON:

LONGMAN, GREEN, LONGMAN, ROBERTS, & GREEN.

LONDON

PRINTED BY SPOTTISWOODE AND CO.

NEW-STREET SQUARE

INTRODUCTION.

THE present edition of Thomson's "Spring" is specially intended for pupils qualifying for the Oxford Local Examinations, in June. The Regulations issued by the University state that Junior Candidates will be required to satisfy the Examiners in "The Analysis and Parsing of a passage taken from 'Spring,' in Thomson's Seasons;" and that a few questions suggested by this portion of the poem will be added. This text-book has therefore been published, in order to provide candidates with a manual of the information required on the several points specified in the Regulations.

The work is arranged under the following heads :--1. A Life of Thomson, with Critical Remarks on his Works; 2. The Analysis of Sentences, with numerous illustrative Examples; 3. The Poem, with Notes-Critical, Explanatory, and Grammatical. The

Notes, which are numerous, contain short historical accounts of the persons and places named in the poem, brief descriptions of all the birds and plants, and such notices of the phenomena of nature as were considered necessary to a clear comprehension of the text. Difficulties in grammar and the analysis of sentences have been explained; and the etymologies of peculiar or uncommon words have been given. The introduction of exercises in derivation tends not only to elucidate the word under consideration, but also to impress its meaning more firmly on the mind of the pupil.

The work is similar, in arrangement and treatment, to the edition of Goldsmith's "Deserted Village," which has been so favourably received by teachers; and is printed, as regards the punctuation and the text, from an edition of the "Seasons" by Bolton Corney, Esq.-a volume which is regarded as the most accurate of all the published editions of Thomson's works.

Although this text-book has been specially prepared for middle-class schools, it is believed that the work may be used with advantage wherever the reading of poetry forms a subject of school instruction.

The Editor has to express his obligations to the following works, which he has consulted in the

preparation of the notes appended to the poem: "Thomson's Seasons," by Dr. Andrew Todd Thomson; Howitt's "Homes and Haunts of the English Poets;" Maunder's "Natural History ;" and Knight's English Cyclopædia."

66

ROYAL MILITARY ASYLUM:

March 1863.

WALTER M.LEOD.