Chapter I: Preface

The appreciative reading of a piece of good literature is an experience far reaching in its influence. There is a delight in following a great author as he reveals the treasure of his thought or presents to the imagination the beauty which he beholds and interprets.

The study of literature assists one to enjoy these experiences and profit by them.

Among the countless books which have been written are a few which have been chosen by all mankind. They stand the test of time and change; for they are the outcome of those giant souls, who were not limited by time nor space and who seemed to gaze with far-seeing eyes into eternity.

A large proportion of the pupils in our grammar schools would never read these classics, if their interest in them were not awakened in the schoolroom.

Many of these books are represented in this series, for this has been the end constantly in view. The names of the world’s greatest writers and their faces have become familiar to the child, so that he is now able to take down from the shelves the writings of many great men, and giving his imagination to the author’s leading, be transported into any region or age, and experience joys and sorrows outside of his own life.

I acknowledge my indebtedness to Dr. Edward Everett Hale and Little, Brown & Co., for extract from “The Man without a Country”; also to Messrs. Elliot & Frye, London, for use of a copyright photograph of Carlyle.

ELLEN M. CYR.

CONTENTS.

PAGE

A MYSTERIOUS VISITOR. _Thomas Carlyle_ 2

A SCENE FROM WILLIAM TELL. _Sheridan Knowles_ 8

ADDRESS TO THE SURVIVORS OF THE BATTLE OF BUNKER HILL. _Daniel Webster_ 17

THE AMERICAN UNION. _Daniel Webster_ 21

RECESSIONAL. _Rudyard Kipling_ 23

WILLIAM HICKLING PRESCOTT. 26

STORMING THE FORTRESS. _William Hickling Prescott_ 31

A COUNTRY SUNDAY. _Joseph Addison_ 38

THE KING OF GLORY 43

THE MAN WITHOUT A COUNTRY. _Edward Everett Hale_ 44

LOVE OF COUNTRY. _Sir Walter Scott_ 55

THE HEROINE OF NANCY 55

HUMANITY. _William Cowper_ 62

AN ICEBERG. _Richard Henry Dana, Jr._ 63

JOHN MILTON 66

DEATH OF SAMSON. _John Milton_ 71

SONG ON A MAY MORNING. _John Milton_ 73

ON HIS BLINDNESS. _John Milton_ 74

A CHEERFUL SPIRIT. _Sir John Lubbock_ 75

THE RELIEF OF LUCKNOW 76

THE BIVOUAC OF THE DEAD. _Theodore O’Hara_ 79

ELEGY WRITTEN IN A COUNTRY CHURCH-YARD. _Thomas Gray_ 82

BELSHAZZAR’S FEAST 89

THE BATTLE OF QUEBEC. _Francis Parkman_ 94

THE STARLING. _Laurence Sterne_ 100

THE BELFRY PIGEON. _Nathaniel Parker Willis_ 105

LADY UNA AND THE LION. _Edmund Spenser_ 107

PURITY OF CHARACTER 112

DELIGHTS OF READING. _Sir John Lubbock_ 113

BREAK, BREAK, BREAK. _Alfred Tennyson_ 116

WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE 117

THE THREE CASKETS. _William Shakespeare_ 123

QUOTATIONS FROM SHAKESPEARE 132

SHAKESPEARE’S POETRY. _Francis Jeffrey_ 133

HOME. _Henry W. Grady_ 135

A PALACE IN A VALLEY. _Dr. Samuel Johnson_ 139

TRUE HEROISM 146

THE PEN. _Edward Bulwer Lytton_ 147

CHARACTER OF WASHINGTON. _George Bancroft_ 148

NATIONAL HYMN. _Samuel Francis Smith_ 155

THE LARK IN THE GOLD-FIELDS. _Charles Reade_ 157

SWEET HOME. _John Howard Payne_ 165

ANTONY’S ADDRESS TO THE ROMANS. _Shakespeare_ 165

THE TWO ROADS. _Jean Paul Richter_ 170

NAPOLEON’S GREATNESS. _William Ellery Channing_ 173

THE BATTLE OF TRAFALGAR. _Robert Southey_ 177

THE CHAMBERED NAUTILUS. _Oliver Wendell Holmes_ 195

A PICNIC BY THE BALTIC 197

NATURE. _Emerson_ 205

HENRY ESMOND. _William M. Thackeray_ 212

A GOOD DAUGHTER. _John Gorham Palfrey_ 222

THE SPIRIT OF THE AIR. _John Ruskin_ 225

THANATOPSIS. _William Cullen Bryant_ 228

JOAN OF ARC. _Thomas De Quincey_ 231

* * * * *

GUIDE TO PRONUNCIATION 241

WORD LIST 242

THE CYR READERS