times. Who was Fanny Burney? Maria Edgeworth? Mary Somerville? Who wrote Jane Eyre? Mary Russell Mitford. The famous female novelists of to-day, English and American. Mrs. Jameson. Who was Mrs. Browning? Who is George Eliot'? Mrs. Mulock Craik? Jean Ingelow? Mrs. H. B. Stowe? The leading female writers of America.

VII.-SPECIAL TOPICS FOR ESSAYS.

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7. In most of our schools, pupils are required to prepare and read before the class or school, at stated times, an essay on some given subject. To the members of the class in English literature may be assigned at this time topics of a literary character which have a direct bearing upon the study. We give below a few subjects for illustration; others will readily suggest themselves to the teacher:

EXAMPLES.

1. Something about Wycliffe and his Bible.

2. Peculiarities of Chaucer's English.

3. Imaginary interview between Sidney and Raleigh. 4. Shakespeare reads a play before Queen Elizabeth. 5. Milton's visit to Galileo.

6. The old miracle plays and moralities.

7. Historical value of Ivanhoe, Kenilworth, etc.

8. Dr. Johnson at Mrs. Thrale's tea-table.

9. An evening with Goldsmith in his attic. 10. Goldsmith and his friends at the Club. 11. With Bunyan in prison at Bedford.

12. Charles Lamb and his friends.

13. The best works of fiction I have ever read.

14. Shall I read novels?

15. What do you know of Dickens as a writer?

16. Some of my favorite books.

17. How I spent a day at Abbotsford with Sir Walter Scott, -at Farringford with Tennyson,-at Sunnyside with Irving. 18. A stroll through London streets with Dickens, during which he points out some of his original characters.

19. What the "Jessamy Bride" told me about Goldsmith.

20. Famous books written in prison.

Note.-For a list of topics see Chapter XXII.

VIII.-SYLLABUS OF A COURSE IN ENGLISH LITERATURE.

8. We have arranged the following course of study, which is intended to aid the teacher and private student in mapping out his future work in English literature. It can be easily abridged or extended, to meet the requirements of any particular class. For instance, if only one term is given to the subject, it would be use. less to attempt to study the text of Shakespeare, Chaucer, or Spenser. Under these circumstances, it would be advisable to select only five or six representative authors, and study thoroughly one or more of their productions, devoting one recitation every week to reading about the other authors, writing essays, etc. If two terms are allowed for English Literature, select ten authors and arrange the rest of the work as before. all events, the course of study must be rigidly mapped out beforehand by the teacher, whose judgment and experience must keep in mind two important facts: First, the time in hours, and recitations allowed, for the subject; and secondly, the age and capabilities of the class.

At

SYLLABUS.

1. LONGFELLOW. 1807

I.-Selections to Study:

Wreck of the Hesperus; Village Blacksmith; Norman Baron; Building of the Ship; Sir Humphrey Gilbert; The Lighthouse; Fire of Drift-wood; Phantom Ship; Paul Revere's Ride; "Monk's Vision," from the Golden Legend; "Legend Beautiful," from Tales of a Wayside Inn.

II.-Collateral Study:

Selections from DICKENS - From David Copperfield: Ark at Yarmouth, chapter III.; Little Em'ly, last third of chapter XXI.; The Tempest, chapter LV. From Old Curiosity Shop: Death of the Little Scholar, chapter XXV.; The Old Sexton, chapters LIII. and LIV.; Death and Burial of Little Nell, chapters LXXI. and LXXII. Selections from the Christmas Carol.

III.-Manual Study:

Edgar A. Poe; James Russell Lowell; Bayard Taylor; Mrs. H. B. Stowe.

2. WHITTIER. 1808

I. Snow Bound; Nauhaught the Deacon; Eternal Goodness; Female Martyr; Barefoot Boy.

II. Selections from CHARLES LAMB'S ESSAYS: New Year's Eve; Dream-Children; Dissertation upon Roast Pig; Barbara S.; Child-Angel.

III. AMERICAN HISTORIANS: Prescott, Motley, Bancroft. Charles Lamb.

3. GRAY. 1716-1771.

I. Elegy in a Country Churchyard.

II. Selections from Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress.
III. Bunyan; Akenside; Beattie; Young.

4. IRVING. 1783-1859.

I. Selections from the Sketch Book.

II. Selections from HAWTHORNE-From Twice-Told Tales: Legends of the Province House; A Rill from the Town Pump; Select Party.

III. Hawthorne; Cooper; Halleck; Willis.

I. Thanatopsis; Green River; Evening Wind; Death of the Flowers.

II. Selections from O. W. HOLMES: Chambered Nautilus; Bill and Joe.

III. Holmes; Saxe; Mrs. Sigourney; Thoreau.

6. GOLDSMITH. 1728-1774.

I. Deserted Village; Traveller.

II. Collins' Ode to Evening.

III. Collins; Burke; Garrick; Dr. Johnson; Sir Joshua Reynolds. FIRST GREAT WRITERS OF FICTION: De Foe, Richardson, Swift, Fielding, Sterne, Smollett.

I. Cotter's Saturday Night; To a Mouse; To a Mountain Daisy; To Mary in Heaven; Highland Mary; Banks of Doon.

II. Cowper's On the Receipt of my Mother's Picture.

III. Cowper; Thompson; Crabbe.

8. ADDISON. 1672-1719.

I. Selections from the Spectator: Sir Roger de Coverley (106); Death of Sir Roger (517); At Westminster Abbey (359) : On Immortality (111); Time and Eternity (575).

II. Selections from Pope's Essay on Man.

III. Steele; Lady Montagu; Pope.

9. BYRON. 1788-1824.

I. Prisoner of Chillon. Selections from Childe Harold.
II. Keats's Eve of Saint Agnes.

III. Keats; Montgomery; Moore; Shelley; Coleridge.

10. SCOTT. 1771-1832.

I. Selections from Lady of the Lake; Ivanhoe; Kenilworth.

II. Selections from Percy's Reliques.

III. Mrs. Hemans; Hannah More; Campbell.

11. MILTON. 1608-1674,

I. Book I. Paradise Lost; Comus; Lycidas.

II. Dryden's Alexander's Feast.

III. Dryden. GREAT THEOLOGIANS: Jeremy Taylor, Barrow, Tillotson, Fuller, South. Butler, Cowley, Marvell.

12. SHAKESPEARE. 1564-1616.

I. Merchant of Venice; Julius Cæsar.

II. Selections from Marlowe's Dr. Faustus, and Ben Jonson's Every Man in his Humor.

III. Ben Jonson; Marlowe. MINOR DRAMATISTS: Beaumont and Fletcher; Massinger and Ford; Wycherly, Congreve, Webster.

13. TENNYSON. 1810

I. Enoch Arden; Dora; Locksley Hall.

II. Mrs. Browning's Sonnets from the Portuguese.

III. Thomas Hood; Carlyle; Mrs. Browning. RECENT NOVELISTS: Bulwer, Thackeray, Dickens, George Eliot.

14. SPENSER. 1553-1599.

I. Prothalamion. Selections from Canto I. of Faery Queene. II. Wordsworth's Intimations of Immortality.

III. Wordsworth; Southey; Sir Philip Sidney.

I. ESSAYS: Studies; Death; Goodness; Cunning.
II. Selections from Hooker's Ecclesiastical Polity.
III. Herrick; Sir Walter Raleigh.

16. CHAUCER, 1328 (?) — 1400.

I. Prologue to Canterbury Tales; Clerk of Oxford's Tale (Patient Griselda).

II. Selections from Wycliffe's Bible, and from Tyndale's New Testament.

III. Sir John De Mandeville; John Wycliffe; John Gower; Sir Thomas More. Langland's Vision of Piers Plowman. Gower's Confessio Amantis.