B

FROM

ENGLISH HISTORY

SELECTED AND EDITED

BY

JOHN RICHARD GREEN, M.A., LL.D.

HONORARY FELLOW OF JESUS COLLEGE, OXFORD

THREE PARTS IN ONE VOLUME

· ΕΧΟΝΤΕΣ ΔΙΔΑ

NEW YORK

HARPER & BROTHERS, PUBLISHERS

FRANKLIN SQUARE

F

88,79,435

HARVARD COLLEGE LIBRARY

GIFT OF

ELIZABETH G. NORTON

&ft 12, 1994

Permission has kindly been given to insert the following selections

from works by American authors:

PREFACE.

My aim in compiling these books of historical extracts is a very simple and practical one.

The teaching of English History is spreading fast through our schools; but it can hardly be said as yet to have become a popular subject of study among their scholars. In fact, if I may trust my own experience, a large proportion of boys and girls turn from it as "hard," "dry," and " "dry," and "uninteresting." I cannot say that the complaint is a groundless one. In their zeal to cram as many facts as possible into^ their pages, the writers of most historical text-books have been driven to shut out from their narratives all that gives life and colour to the story of men. History, as we give it to our children, is literally

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an old almanack;" and is as serviceable as an old almanack in quickening their wits or in rousing their interest. No doubt wiser books will come in time; but meanwhile those teachers who care to appeal to more valuable faculties than that of mere memory are hard put to it to find a remedy for the "dryness" of history.

One of the most eminent of our English schoolmistresses has been in the habit of breaking from time to time the history lessons of her various classes