ration of Motley,--is not the leaven of
inspiration made of knowledge such as this?

I have an unshaken conviction that the highest art of the teacher is
manifested in the awakening of such an interest that the pupil shall
forever after be an eager learner. Am I wrong in hoping that no one,
though with but a meager knowledge of literature, can read these
sketches without a desire to know more of the men and women who are
the glory of England and America? Here is but a taste of a more
sumptuous feast.

Dreams, books are each a world; and books, we know,
Are a substantial world, both pure and good:
Round these, with tendrils strong as flesh and blood,
Our pastime and our happiness will grow.

EDWIN WATTS CHUBB.

CONTENTS

ENGLISH WRITERS

CHAPTER PAGE

I. The Ancient Tabard Inn 1

II. Sir Philip Sidney at Zutphen 4

III. About Shakspere 9

IV. John Milton 17

V. Charles Lamb, the Clerk of the India House 24

VI. Dr. Johnson and Charles Lamb 28

VII. The Death of Dr. Johnson 33

VIII. Gray Writes the Elegy 37

IX. Cowper as a Letter Writer 42

X. Gibbon and His Visit to Rome 46

XI. Burns Falls in Love 50

XII. Burns' First Book of Poems 54

XIII. Samuel Taylor Coleridge in School and College 59

XIV. Byron as Swimmer and Feaster 64

XV. Shelley as a Freshman 71

XVI. The Death of Shelley 76

XVII. The School-days of John Keats 82

XVIII. The Heroism of Sir Walter Scott 88

XIX. Walter Savage Landor 93

XX. Leigh Hunt's Business Ability 100

XXI. De Quincey Runs Away 102

XXII. Macaulay's Childhood