anger of becoming partisans, by reason of our limited view.
Especially is this true of the age in which we live. Contemporary history
is but party-chronicle: the true philosophic history can only be written
when distance and elevation give due scope to our vision.

The principle I have laid down is best illustrated by the great literary
masters. Those of less degree have been treated at less length, and many
of them will be found in the smaller print, to save space. Those who study
the book should study the small print as carefully as the other.

After a somewhat elaborate exposition of English literature, I could not
induce myself to tack on an inadequate chapter on American literature;
and, besides, I think that to treat the two subjects in one volume would
be as incongruous as to write a joint biography of Marlborough and
Washington. American literature is too great and noble, and has had too
marvelous a development to be made an appendix to English literature.

If time shall serve, I hope to prepare a separate volume, exhibiting the
stages of our literature in the Colonial period, the Revolutionary epoch,
the time of Constitutional establishment, and the present period. It will
be found to illustrate these historical divisions in a remarkable manner.

H. C.

The Lehigh University, _October_, 1872.

CONTENTS

CHAPTER I.

THE HISTORICAL SCOPE OF THE SUBJECT.

Literature and Science--English Literature--General Principle--Celts
and Cymry--Roman Conquest--Coming of the Saxons--Danish Invasions--The
Norman Conquest--Changes in Language

CHAPTER II.

LITERATURE A TEACHER OF HISTORY. CELTIC REMAINS.

The Uses of Literature--Italy, France, England--Purpose of the
Work--Celtic Literary Remains--Druids and Druidism--Roman
Writers--Psalter of Cashel--Welsh Triads and Mabinogion--Gildas and St.
Colm

CHAPTER III.

ANGLO-SAXON LITERATURE AND HISTORY.

The Lineage of the Anglo-Saxon--Earliest Saxon Poem--Metrical
Arrangement--Periphrasis and Alliteration--Beowulf--Caedmon--Other
Saxon Fragments--The Appearance of Bede

CHAPTER IV.

THE VENERABLE BEDE AND THE SAXON CHRONICLE.

Biography--Ecclesiastical History--The Recorded Miracles--Bede's
Latin--Other Writers--The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle: its Value--Alfred the
Great--Effect of the Danish Invasions

CHAPTER V.

THE NORMAN CONQUEST AND ITS EARLIEST LITERATURE.

Norman Rule--Its Oppression--Its